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.
À la Nouvelle scène: Théâtre action présente “Feuilles vives”, Lectures des auteurs de théâtre francophones

À la Nouvelle scène: Théâtre action présente “Feuilles vives”, Lectures des auteurs de théâtre francophones

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Animée par Hugues Beaudoin-Dumouchel, et dans le cadre de Théâtre Action, la rencontre a dévoilé  les titres et les résumés des pièces et des extraits qui seront mis en lecture par huit compagnies professionnelles de partout en province, du 21 au 23 septembre prochains, à La Nouvelle Scène Gilles Desjardins. La programmation se distingue par la richesse et la variété des textes proposées, qui s’adressent à un vaste auditoire, de l’enfance à l’âge adulte.

Les textes de la programmation dévoilée sont donc :

…

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The Capitalcriticscircle 2018-19 season begins

The Capitalcriticscircle 2018-19 season begins

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Photo Clay Stange. Coriolanus with  André Sills at Stratford:

The 2018-19 theatre season is now  beginning and the Capital Critics Circle hopes to bring you a wide variety of reviews  touching all the theatres in Ottawa (professional and community), as well as performances from elsewhere in Canada and around  the world.

We will also focus on the dance programme  at the National Arts Centre,  on French language theatre in Ottawa and the area, on  the student theatre at the University of Ottawa theatre programme, we hope to be reviewing work in Montreal, in Toronto, in Paris France and wherever else we might be. …

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The Last Spartan gets a two-week run at The Gladstone following Fringe Festival premiere

The Last Spartan gets a two-week run at The Gladstone following Fringe Festival premiere

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Pierre Brault’s newest work stands to rank among his best solo pieces.” –Patrick Langston, ARTSFILE

see Ryan Pepper’s review as well on the capitalcriticscircle.com http://capitalcriticscircle.com/last-sparatan-wonderful-performance-pierre-brault-one-man-romp-greek-history/

 
Pierre Brault.

September 18–29: How important is art to a society? Are artists better at interpreting and preserving history than historians? Multi award-winning actor and playwright Pierre Brault, creator of Blood on the Moon, Portrait of an Unidentified Man, and last year’s hit Will Somers, plays five characters in this homage to his two greatest loves: history and the theatre.

This new play, which premiered in front of a larage audience at the 2018 Ottawa Fringe Festival, takes place in Greece, 404 B.C., during the last days of the Peloponnesian War. On one side, Athens: resplendent in art, culture and democracy. On the other, Sparta: militaristic, austere and ruthless. In the middle of this we find Kapholos, a former Spartan soldier, now disgraced for cowardice. He hides a secret… Kapholos loves art, especially the theatre.

 

Décès d’Albert Millaire un grand artiste canadien/québécois de la scène

Décès d’Albert Millaire un grand artiste canadien/québécois de la scène

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Photo: Paul Chiasson.  Albert Millaire et Michael Jean.

Le 15 août 2018 – OTTAWA – Le Centre national des Arts (CNA) pleure la disparition du comédien et metteur en scène Albert Millaire. Il était âgé de 86 ans.  

M. Millaire a marqué profondément la vie culturelle canadienne, ayant reçu la plus haute distinction attribuée au pays dans le domaine des arts d’interprétation, soit le Prix de la réalisation artistique des Prix du Gouverneur général pour les arts du spectacle (en 2006).  

Le drapeau du CNA sera en berne cette semaine à la mémoire de M. Millaire.     …

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“I don’t see race and other white lies”. Robert Lepage and the cancellation of his two plays: Slav and Kanata

“I don’t see race and other white lies”. Robert Lepage and the cancellation of his two plays: Slav and Kanata

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Quebec theatre director Robert Lepage’s play SLĀV was cancelled in Montreal after accusations of racial insensitivity because it featured few Black actors. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

  1. Associate professor, University of Ottawa

No one white really wants to talk about being white.

Lately, the “colour-blind” approach to race has been a hot topic in Canada. Soon after his plays SLĀV and Kanata were cancelled because of racial insensitivity, Québec director Robert Lepage admitted he might have made an error in judgment but continues to defend his right to create. …

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Odyssey Theatre and the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival: New Summmer 416 PLay Pass

Odyssey Theatre and the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival: New Summmer 416 PLay Pass

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The Amorous Servant. Photo: Barbara Gray Performance by the Odyssey Theatre
Odyssey Theatre and the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival offer exciting new summer theatre pass.
Two of Eastern Ontario’s biggest outdoor theatre companies are teaming up this summer to offer  audiences a new type of ticket. They’re calling it the 416 Play Pass, and it gets its holder into a show at both Odyssey Theatre and the St. Lawrence Shakespeare at a savings of 33%.
Like the 416 Highway, the pass connects the Ottawa and Prescott theat res and gives audiences a great new option for not one, but two nights of entertaining outdoor theatre. Holders of the pass will enjoy Odyssey’s world premiere of Lysistrata and the Temple of Gaia and St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival’s  classic  As You Like It
or The Taming of the Shrew

…

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NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE ANNOUNCES FIRST PROJECTS TO RECEIVE NATIONAL CREATION FUND INVESTMENTS

NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE ANNOUNCES FIRST PROJECTS TO RECEIVE NATIONAL CREATION FUND INVESTMENTS

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June 14, 2018 – OTTAWA (Canada) – The National Arts Centre today announced the first nine projects that will be receiving investments totaling $1.4 million from the National Creation Fund, a new initiative that supports the development of bold and ambitious Canadian work in music, theatre, dance and inter-disciplinary performing arts.

The projects are:

  • Eve 2050 (Van Grimde Corps Secrets, Montreal)
  • The Full Light of Day (Electric Company Theatre, Vancouver)
  • The Hockey Sweater: A Musical (The Segal Centre for Performing Arts, Montreal)
  • Mînowin (Dancers of Damelahamid, Vancouver)
  • Le reste vous le connaissez par le cinéma (Carte Blanche, Québec)
  • The Storyville Mosquito (Kid Koala, Montreal)
  • Treemonisha (Volcano Theatre, Toronto)
  • Unikkaaqtuat (Les 7 doigts de la main, Montreal, Artcirq, Igloolik and Taqqut Productions, Iqaluit)
  • who we are in the dark (Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Toronto)

…

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Christopher Deacon appointed President and CEO of the National Arts Centre

Christopher Deacon appointed President and CEO of the National Arts Centre

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Photo Barb Gray.   Christopher Deacon and Algonquin Elder Annie St-Georges

On June 12, the Board of Trustees of the National Arts Centre (NAC) announced Christopher Deacon  as the new President and Chief Executive Officer of the arts organization. He succeeds Peter Herrndorf who stepped down from his position on June 2, 2018.                 Christopher Deacon is best known as the former Managing Director of the NAC Orchestra who lead some of the orchestra’s boldest initiatives such as  the China Tour in 2013, the project “Life Projected” , a work commissioned by four Canadian composers to createworks about four remarkable Canadian Women , performed during the Canada 150 Tour,  at theLiminato Festival in Toronto and it will be performed across Europe in  2019. …

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On the Block & Glammuh: one play and one visual artist’s impressions on the life of black youth in contemporary Barbados-Part I

On the Block & Glammuh: one play and one visual artist’s impressions on the life of black youth in contemporary Barbados-Part I

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Icil Philippe
Private archives

Guest reviewer: Icil Philippe

“Don’t afraid to be different. Conformity is practically a death sentence to an artist. In other words: if you’re doing what everyone else has done, you don’t give yourself the chance to do what nobody but you can do.” [Z.Z. Packer-African-American author, 2003.]
By a series of coincidences several of the young artists in both the theatre and the visual art arena are investigating the life of black youth caught in the culture of the block. Like their subjects they have defied the restrictions that conformity imposes and have struck out to explore what it feels to be the marginalized, and the misunderstood. Both end products present a curious tale, bitter in parts, sad in others but to a large degree true to the vision that they have of the block as a social space created by and for black males existing on the margins of Barbadian society.

…

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Up to Low has Universal appeal.!

Up to Low has Universal appeal.!

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Published on: May 6, 2018 | Last Updated: May 6, 2018 11:18 PM EDT
Up to Low by Ottawa author Brian Doyle is set in 1950 and takes the audience from Ottawa’s Lowertown to a family cabin in Low, Que.

By Brian Doyle, adapted and directed by Janet Irwin

NAC English Theatre production

To May 19, Babs Asper Theatre, National Arts Centre

For Ottawa-area audiences, part of the charm of the theatrical adaptation of Up to Low, by Ottawa author Brian Doyle, is that it’s based on a road trip in our own backyard. Set in 1950, the tale takes us from the city’s Lowertown neighbourhood to a family cabin in Low, a classic example of the time-honoured Canadian tradition of getting out of the city in the summer. …

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