Arts News Archives - Page 22 of 25 - Capital Critics' Circle / Le cercle des critiques de la capitale

First Friday Night Fight at the GCTC not much of a fight, but lots of fun! Opinion in the Hill Times

By Alvina Ruprecht | September 23, 2013

First Friday Night Fight at the GCTC was a bit of a fizzle (original title)

This is a piece I sent to the Hill Times after attending the first Fight Night Debate at the GCTC after Proud. It was published as an “opinion” on the Hill Times blog. Monday, September 23, 2013.

These new Friday Night Fight debates organized by GCTC Artistic director Eric Coates in the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre after each of this season’s plays, are an excellent idea. Inviting guests who are not necessarily involved with theatre but who have reputations in other fields, could be a good way to attract a non-theatre going public, and even incite the more passive of us to speak up.

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OTHELLO coming to Cineplex Theatres in Ottawa September 26!!

By Capital Critics Circle | September 13, 2013

Photo Courtesy of the National Theatre.

Reviewed by Henry Hitchings http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/theatre/othello-nationals-olivier–theatre-review-8585510.html

Adrian Lester is a charismatic, dignified Othello. When jealousy grips him he seethes with the sort of fury that causes him to flip a table with a single flick of his wrist. But he brings a delicate grace to the role, and the crispness of his verse-speaking is admirable – a reminder, as if we needed one, of his great quality as a Shakespearean actor.

Rory Kinnear is mesmerising as Iago, the "honest" officer who is in fact Othello’s nemesis. He is capable of deadpan bluntness yet also of extravagant, eloquent contempt. Kinnear makes deception seem creepily amusing. He confides in the audience, flaunting his malign intelligence.

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Peggy Laverty explains her choice of costumes after Alvina Ruprecht’s review of the Confessions of a Drag Queen.

By Capital Critics Circle | August 29, 2013

Hello
Regarding Toto Too’s recent Production , I would like to make a few comments.
It is always easy and satisfying to make a character look good. It is harder to allow oneself to make a character look relatively unattractive.

Barry’s clothing was not meant to be modern. The dresses, according to the script, had been in storage for 25 years while he was in jail. They are from the 80’s, and, as most were at that time, are somewhat frumpy and overdone. These are referred to by John as being “shit ugly frocks”.

Neither the Director or the Production people wanted blatantly flamboyant outfits for Miranda’s character. He was to be involved in a meeting with a serious straight man who would affect his life, not dressing for a night at a Drag Queen competition. I filled the two racks on stage with the more dramatic outfits which would have been used earlier in their stage shows. He is living in an altered reality, delusional and living in the past, and he thinks he looks wonderful in his old clothes and overdone makeup.

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The Ottawa Acting Company : New Theatre School in Ottawa

By Capital Critics Circle | August 2, 2013

THE ACTING COMPANY opens its doors

See their site : http://www.actingcompany.ca/

Call: 613.744-5353

Information on instructors: http://www.actingcompany.ca/instructors.html

THE AVALON STUDIO

Located in the heart of Ottawa’s Glebe, our studios are housed in what was once the historic Avalon Theatre (one of Ottawa’s first movie theatres), recently renovated to showcase two distinct studio spaces.

Our principal work space, the Avalon Studio , has dramatic 30ft. ceilings and a balcony which doubles as study space and Green Room. With its high ceilings, hard wood floors, lighting and sound capabilities, the Avalon makes for a perfect rental space for intimate events, workshops, and productions.

Master Clown Jesse Buck is back with BUBKUS at the Gladstone.July 12

By Capital Critics Circle | July 9, 2013

After nearly four years on tour with Cirque du Soleil, master clown Jesse Buck is bringing his innovative one-man hit show BUBKUS, back to his hometown, to celebrate the show’s ten-year anniversary. BUBKUS will be performed in Ottawa as part of the Gladstone Theatre’s One Night Only series, on July 12, 2013 (with Artbeat Theatre Group’s, Barely Even There).
The purpose of BUBKUS is to show the audience the beauty and possibility of a play without words. The word “bubkus” is Yiddish for “nothing”, and BUBKUS was in fact created out of nothing. Using only a blanket, a pillow and a toothbrush, Jesse’s clown takes the audience through an epic fairytale, featuring fearsome snakes, giants, and dark magic. It is a timeless story told only with play and imagination.

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Capital Critics Circle Fringe Festival Choices for 2013.

By Capital Critics Circle | July 1, 2013

This is the first time the Ottawa Fringe Festival has offered Critics’ choice prizes

and the CCC reviewers were asked to select the winners.

Critics are:

Patick Langston, Iris Winston, Jamie Portman, Maja Stefanovska, Rajka Stefanovska

Alvina Ruprecht, Barbara Gray

Choices are:

La Voix Humaine
presented by Opera 5, from Toronto
Music by Francis Poulenc
Libretto by Jean Cocteau based on his play of the same name.
soprano : Rachel Krehm
pianist: Patrick Hansen

Two honourable mentions

6 Guitars                                                                          The Show Must Go On
Concieved by Chase Padgett and Jay Hopkins                A production of Random Samples
performed by Chase Padgett ,                                              Collective, Toronto
from Orlando, Florida                                                        written and performed by Jeff Leard

Lady Winderemere’s Fan at the Shaw festival: Hinton gives a stunninng production.

By Capital Critics Circle | June 20, 2013

It’s said that Oscar Wilde was the first person to become famous for being famous. The author/playwright whose own affair with Lord Alfred Douglas created a scandal that surpassed any he wrote about in his plays, was known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and sparkling conversation. Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day.

Photo: by Emily Cooper. L to R: Tara Rosling, Gray Powell, Marla McLean. Reviewed by Jeniva Berger, www.scenechanges.com

But it wasn’t until his first "society comedy’ in 1895 that his playwriting career got a kick start. Lady Winderemere’s Fan, subtitled A Play About a Good Woman, was the first of four significant plays of Wilde and marked the beginning of his real stature as a playwright of consequence. Its current production at the Shaw Festival directed by Peter Hinton, lights up the Festival Stage in delicious hues and dark edges.

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Nominations for the Dora Mavor Moore theatre awards. Independent Theatre Division

By Capital Critics Circle | June 11, 2013

Note that the War of 1812 has been nominated in SIX Categories ww.scenechanges.com/theatreworld.html

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION

BOBLO Co-Produced by Kitchenband and The Theatre Centre
The Lesson Modern Times Stage Company
Mr. Marmalade Outside the March
THE WAR OF 1812 The History of the Village of the Small Huts, 1812-15   VideoCabaret in association with the Young Centre for the Performing Arts
Laws of Motion Small Elephant Co-op, Dani Kind and Kate Zeigle
OUTSTANDING DIRECTION
Christopher Stanton   Laws of Motion Small Elephant Co-op, Dani Kind and Kate Zeigler
Mellee Hutton The Dumb Waiter Wordsmyth Theatre
Michael Hollingsworth THE WAR OF 1812 The History of the Village of the Small Huts, 1812-15   Presented by VideoCabaret in association with the Young Centre for the Performing Arts
Mitchell Cushman Mr. Marmalade Outside the March
Soheil Parsa   The Lesson Modern Times Stage Company

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The Theatrical Journey of Henry Shikongo

By Jane Baldwin | June 9, 2013

Photo by Andrew Alexander

By Jane Baldwin

On May 24, I attended the première of The Boston Abolitionists Project at the Loeb Theatre in Cambridge, MA. This performance is one of several combined theatrical and scholarly undertakings, commissioned by the Civil War Project to observe the 150^th anniversary of that singular event in U.S. history. It was also the final production of the graduating class of the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) Institute for Advanced Theatre Training. Among the many talented students was Ottawa’s Henry Shikongo, remembered for his roles in, among others, the musical Blood Brothers and the poetic Under Milk Wood, the latter an award-winning production shown at the Shenkman Centre in Orleans.

In The Boston Abolitionists, a devised piece, created by the graduating students and director Steven Bogart, Shikongo played two major roles: Jonathan, a fictional character and the historical Anthony Burns, a runaway slave, captured, tried, convicted, and returned to Virginia under the infamous Fugitive Slave Act. Both had distinct personalities and mannerisms. Anthony Burns, depressed, frightened, angry, and largely silent was particularly notable for Shikongo’s physicality, a distinguishing feature of his Ottawa stage appearances as well.

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The National Arts Centre mourns the passing of Maestro Mario Bernardi

By Capital Critics Circle | June 3, 2013

Photo. Malak Karsh

NAC Flag is lowered in tribute to the founding conductor of the NAC Orchestra

Ottawa (Canada)—The National Arts Centre (NAC) mourns the loss of Maestro Mario Bernardi, the founding conductor of the NAC Orchestra. Maestro Bernardi passed away peacefully in Toronto on Sunday morning.

The NAC lowered its flag in Ottawa to half-mast to pay tribute to the man who moved to the nation’s capital in 1968, to literally build the 45-member NAC Orchestra from the ground up.

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