The Corrections

My reading on the subway for the last three weeks.

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

Sorry it's been so long between posts. I just finished the three week Theatre Rusticle Gym Summer Intensive. This meant many hours spent on the subway schlepping my sleepy self up to York. Luckily I had this book and Adele's 21 on my IPod to keep me occupied. We had Limon dance classes with Edie Shaw, scene study with Hume Baugh, modern dance with William Yong (Artistic Director of Zata Omm Dance Projects), Butoh with Viv Moore and devising with Allyson McMackon. Talk about a stacked roster.

Favourite passages:

"If you sat at the dinner table long enough, whether in punishment or in refusal or simply in boredom, you never stopped sitting there. Some part of you sat there all your life."

"The odd truth about Alfred was that love, for him, was a matter not of approaching but of keeping away"

"He was like a person of two dimensions seeking freedom in a third."

Mind. Blown.

Jackson Pollock 1A

Check out the AGO's Abstract Expressionist exhibit. Seriously. Even if you're not a fan of paint splatter on a canvas there's some really interesting creative philosophies to be explored. 

"Every good painter paints what he is." -Jackson Pollock

Mark Rothko No. 37 / No. 19 (Slate Blue and Brown on Plum

"I’m not an abstractionist. I’m not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on." - Mark Rothko

Word Mr.Rothko. Word. These artists make me want to create a three hour theatre piece about all my little feelings. Screw form. Screw space. I just wanna wank.

Dear Dora

I had the exciting experience of attending the Dora Awards after party! Woo! (Anyone can go...you just have to buy a ticket...but let's pretend it was super exclusive) It was a great time with boozing, schmoozing and musing. I also went to the press conference a few weeks earlier when the nominees were announced.

Amanda Cordner and I at the Dora afterparty

I am still awstruck by the ordinariness of the shows nominated. Now in all fairness I haven't seen all of them so I may not be the best judge, but plays that generally got panned by myself and my colleagues are getting Dora noms. What is that? When we left theatre school we were told that the future was going to be different. That remounts of the same old same old would not be rewarded and that we needed to be new, original and risk taking in order to create something worth a damn. In the recent weeks I have come to terms with the fact that I will probably never be nominated for a Dora. Maybe because I'm not as hot shit as I think I am, but also because the type of work I want to create is never going to be acknowledged on that stage. But, I think I'm okay with that. Who needs the ceremony? The after party is where its at anyway.

P.S. Mad props to Anusree Roy (who graduated from York) for winning Outstanding New Play for Brothel #9. There's an artist telling new stories, her stories.

If only...

Wine, the future, more wine

Little known fact: The future of Canadian theatre likes to get drunk in Ruby's apartment.

This is Alex. He has a play in the Toronto Fringe Festival this year called Bordeaux (check out the details here) The play features Michael Davidson, Alexis Eastman, Jamie Ebbs and Julia Pileggi (all fellow Yorkies). It opens July 7th at the Factory Studio Theatre. The showtimes are:

Thu, July 7 10:30 PM 1306

Fri, July 8 3:15 PM 1308

Mon, July 11 8:45 PM 1331

Tue, July 12 2:45 PM 1334

Wed, July 13 5:45 PM 1342

Fri, July 15 7:15 PM 1357

Sun, July 17 4:30 PM 1369

Whats it about you ask? Pascal escapes from war and revolution in Paris to the wine growing town of Bordeaux. The arrival of a young man from his past breaks the spell of his quiet existence and he must reconcile the pieces of his new life: the eccentric young woman he has fallen in love with, her deranged sister, the mysterious young man and the life he had abandoned in Paris.

Don't miss it!

Note to Self

Sage Wisdom from Gossip Girl

"People don't write sonnets about being compatible, or novels about shared life goals and stimulating conversation. The great loves are the crazy ones. L'amour fou." 

-Blair

I knew there was a reason I still watch this show.