Author: Capital Critics Circle

This section is reserved for Arts News that comes our way via press releases from theatres in the area, or newspaper articles about arts events that are not theatre reviews.
Stratford Festival 2012: The Matchmaker is a Delicious Lesson on Life, Love and the Pursuit of Money

Stratford Festival 2012: The Matchmaker is a Delicious Lesson on Life, Love and the Pursuit of Money

Photo: Stratford Festival. I’ve loved this play ever since I saw the incomparable Ruth Gordon enchant her audience and everyone on stage in it as Dolly Levi some 56 years ago. What I did not know was that Wilder completed it in Stratford, Ontario when

Tyrone Guthrie invited him to work there on revising his unsuccessful source-play, The Merchant of Yonkers. In fact, Guthrie, Stratford’s founding director, won a Tony Award for best direction on Broadway with The Matchmaker. It now plays less often than the musical adapted from it, Hello, Dolly! ; but much of Wilder’s beloved wit and even a lot of his madcap farcical comedy get lost in the musical.

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The Stratford Festival 2012: 42nd Street is Gaudy good fun

The Stratford Festival 2012: 42nd Street is Gaudy good fun

dale88fc48d94231b65549111ee2ebfe Photo: David Hou

Ok, it’s a corny show. But it’s gaudy good fun. This ultimate Broadway showbiz story, 42nd Street came back from a 1933 blockbuster film starring Ruby Keeler in Busby Berkeley’s elaborate dance routines and became a megahit musical, recreating its nostalgia and melodrama onstage. Still about becoming a star and creating a hit show, it also re-established tap dancing as a creative Broadway show element after tap had been dropped from new shows for decades.  42nd Street ran for nine years on Broadway and re-introduced that kitschy line, “You’re going out there a youngster. But you’ve got to come back a star!” It also became a tragic Broadway legend on opening night when producer David Merrick had to stop the raucous final applause to announce that its legendary director/choreographer Gower Champion had succumbed to cancer in his hotel room just a few hours before.

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Stratford Festival : You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown

Stratford Festival : You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown

Archness Alert: If you love the comic strip Peanuts and agree with this show’s program-book writers that it is art to be likened to Dickens, Balzac and Chaplin, this is the musical show for you.  If, however, you’re not a fan of cutesy, repetitive comic-pages cartoon stories – like Cathy, Beetle Bailey, or in this case, Peanuts, you may find this simple re-enactment of the strip the equivalent of a a ride on a small tricycle when you’ve paid for a limousine.  Stratford’s staging is impeccable and splendidly cast.  Director/choreographer Donna Feore makes it play like a dream-party with masterful entertainment. But I guess I’m too old and diabetic to be fed cotton candy.  Pogo, Doonesbury, si; but this is just the cartoon’s same old bland routines played out.

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The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder, The Musical.

The Matchmaker by Thornton Wilder, The Musical.

matchmaker1c95daf2-b615-4a46-9f52-c76bfa6e0424 I’ve loved this play ever since I saw the incomparable Ruth Gordon enchant her audience and everyone on stage in it as Dolly Levi some 56 years ago. What I did not know was that Wilder completed it in Stratford, Ontario when

Tyrone Guthrie invited him to work there on revising his unsuccessful source-play, The Merchant of Yonkers. In fact, Guthrie, Stratford’s founding director, won a Tony Award for best direction on Broadway with The Matchmaker. It now plays less often than the musical adapted from it, Hello, Dolly! ; but much of Wilder’s beloved wit and even a lot of his madcap farcical comedy get lost in the musical.

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Entretien avec Denis Marleau à Paris: Les Femmes Savantes au Chateau de Grignan

Entretien avec Denis Marleau à Paris: Les Femmes Savantes au Chateau de Grignan

Denis Marleau et Les Femmes Savantes.

Conférence de Presse à la Délégation du Québec à Paris

5 avril, 2012

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Fragments de la conférence de presse de Denis Marleau  et de Stéphanie Jasmin, à l’occasion de la présentation de son projet de création des Femmes savantes de Molière dans le cadre des Fêtes nocturnes au Château de Grignan du 28 juin au 18 août, 2012
Ce point de presse s’est déroulé  en présence du Délégué  général  du Québec à Paris :  Michel Robitaille; de la  Vice-Présidente du Conseil général  de la Drôme, chargée de la culture :   Anne-Marie Rème-Pic;  de la  Présidente des Châteaux de la  Drôme et la  Directrice des Châteaux de la Drôme.
Malheureusement mon appareil n’a capté ni les interventions de Stéphanie Jasmin, ni les questions posées  vers la fin.

Denis Marleau : Pour faire une histoire courte autour de cette proposition,  il y a d’abord eu cette découverte d’un lieu dont je n’avais jamais entendu parler, le château de Grignan qui surplombe un petit village de la Drôme.  (…) Un site extraordinaire aux portes de la Provence : une esplanade devant une façade style Renaissance, une véritable œuvre d’art  que nous avons  commencé à regarder et photographier en essayant d’imaginer une représentation théâtrale dans un tel espace.  Par la suite nous avons rencontré l’équipe qui nous a  expliqué l’historique de cet événement, les Fêtes nocturnes,  qui produit depuis vingt ans, chaque été, une création théâtrale de répertoire classique  dont la scénographie doit pouvoir instaurer un dialogue avec le lieu. (…) Ainsi, en apprenant que le château avait abrité Madame de Sévigné et sa fille surtout qui en était  devenue la châtelaine pendant plusieurs années, nous sommes arrivés naturellement à cette pièce de Molière, Les Femmes savantes, un texte qui nous mettait  en relation,  en correspondance avec une  véritable femme savante du 17e siècle (…)

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Capital critics circle awards for 2010-2011

Capital critics circle awards for 2010-2011

OTTAWA, November 28, 2011 – The Capital Critics Circle today announced the winners of the twelfth annual theatre awards for plays presented in English in the National Capital Region during the 2010-2011 season. The winners are:

Best professional production: The Third Wall Theatre production of Blackbird by David Harrower, directed by Mary Ellis.

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CCC Awards 2009-2010

CCC Awards 2009-2010

Capital Critics Circle Announces Eleventh Annual Theatre Awards
John Koensgen wins the Audrey Ashley award
for outstanding contribution to the theatre…

OTTAWA, November 15, 2010 – The Capital Critics Circle today announced the winners of the eleventh annual theatre awards for plays presented in English in the National Capital Region during the 2009-2010 season. The winners are:

Best professional production:

A Christmas Carol, directed and adapted by Peter Hinton from the book by Charles Dickens; a production of the National Arts Centre English Theatre.

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Robert Lepage : Conférence de presse Eonnagata (English et français) au CNA

Robert Lepage : Conférence de presse Eonnagata (English et français) au CNA

Eonnagata Robert Lepage : Conférence de presse  Eonnagata (English et français)

with  Sylvie Guillem, Robert Lepage et Russell Maliphant (au CNA )

Portions of the discussion are inaudible.   The conversation was in both languages, depending on the questions asked. There was no translation. Mon appareil n’a pas capté certaines portions de la conversation. La  rencontre  a eu lieu en deux langues et  je reproduis les réponses dans la langue parlée par l’intervenant, sans traduction.  (A.R)

Rosemary Thompson:   So tell me about this collaboration because this was quite unusual.

Sylvie Guillem : It was my fault. I always admired Robert’s work…. (The rest is barely audible)

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