Musings
Frustrated with Fringe
By Megan Mooney
By Megan Mooney
I know as well as anyone how hard it is to pull stuff together. And to pull something together on the scale of the Toronto Fringe Festival, well, I can’t even imagine the amount of work that would take.
I appreciate that, I do.
*UPDATE and clarification* Apparently what I was saying here was misinterpreted. My apologies for that. Fringe folks thought I was implying that they were working on things other than Fringe. I just want to clarify, that’s not the case at all. I know they’re all working their asses off, one individual doing the work 10 and so on. My issue was only with the wording on one page of the website. I just didn’t like feeling like I was being chastised for looking at their website.
Jian Gomeshi, Billy Bob Thornton, Albert Schultz and shifting perspectives
By Megan Mooney
By Megan Mooney
So, by now you’ve likely all heard about the SNAFU on Q yesterday with Billy Bob Thornton.
Albert Schultz had to follow Billy Bob, which was both good and bad. Good because he was the perfect person to provide a bit of comic relief afterwards, providing the knife needed to cut the tension. Bad because it was hard to focus on his interview because my mind was still reeling from the interview before. Since I happened to be with someone when I heard it, we kept randomly speaking over Mr. Schultz talking about just how terrible Billy Bob was.
So, before I go on about Billy Bob and Jian, let me point out to you that Albert Schultz is the Soulpepper production Glengarry Glen Ross that is running until May 9, 2009. If you go on a Tuesday maybe he’ll be at the talkback and you can ask him about the interview. Oh, and a quick note about the show – it starts at 7:30, so you’ll be disappointed if you show up to go in for 8.
Now, on to Billy Bob and Jian:
Reviewers and critics as practitioners…
By Megan Mooney
By Megan Mooney
J Kelly Nestruck has a piece up today about the question ”Should theatre critics moonlight in the theatre?”
It’s a curious question. I actually never really thought about it. I know that I recuse myself from reviewing a show if a friend is involved in it. I guess I kind of just assume that people govern themselves with these kind of things. But it’s a good question.
What should theatre blogs write about – discussions abound
By Megan Mooney
By Megan Mooney
So, apparently the hot topic of the day (um, in the theatre blogging community, which is, admittedly, a pretty small percentage of the population) seems to be musing about what topics should be covered by theatre blogs.
My foray into the discussion came from Theatre is Territory, with the piece Content conundrum. Basically it gives an overview of the discussions that have been happening and asks "Is there not enough content about the actual content of theatre online?"
Opening nights – the big fights
By Megan Mooney
J. Kelly Nestruck wrote today about conflicting opening nights, pointing out how common they are in Toronto, and how unnecessary they are.
The dangers of a liberal arts degree
By Megan Mooney
by Megan Mooney
Okay, so, this isn’t really about theatre, although, for me this comes about as a result of my university theatre education.
So, last week we had an ultra sound. As I was watching the screen I noticed a heading that said ‘gender’. What went through my head was:
“You can’t tell gender, you can only tell sex, gender is a societal construct”
By the way, you can all thank Ric Knowles for me having that thought. *grin*
The reality of arts funding
By Megan Mooney
by Megan Mooney
Sometime this week I read someone’s blog where they talked about what was involved in Arts funding and how complicated it was and so on. I thought it was a great post. I now can’t seem to find it.
So, could the blogger who wrote that please step forward so that I can repost their work? *grin
I figured it out. It’s on the blog that I have identified with the most while reading about arts funding cuts – One Big Umbrella. Specifically the posts from MK Piatkowski. She’s rocking my world these days. So…
It kind of feels like Harper hates the arts…
By Megan Mooney
by Megan Mooney
First – my bleedin’ sight has been down all day, wow, that’s annoying. grrr. And now:
J. Kelly Nestruck has quoted Harper in an entry today, and all I can say is “HERE HERE! J. Kelly, here here.”
Also…
Diversity in Theatre Part 2 – a related article by Richard Ouzounian from 2004
By Megan Mooney
In the world of, the more things change, the more they stay the same, check out this article by Richard Ouzounian that was published in the Toronto Star in 2004 (The Star doesn’t have articles older than 4 years old online, but this is reprinted with Richard’s permission) It’s a bit depressing how relevant this article is four and a half years later.
Diversity in theatre – It sure is white-bred around here
By Megan Mooney
By Megan Mooney
Today I learned something new that has got my mind kind of reeling. Richard Ouzounian had a write-up on Philip Akin in today’s Toronto Star. The write up had one part that left me agog. To my horror I read the following paragraph:
Akin is a considerable figure on the Canadian theatre scene, a respected actor and director, one of whose most impressive credits is actually a little embarrassing: in 2007, he was the first black Canadian to play the title role in Othello at the Stratford Festival, something that took 55 seasons to happen.
So, wait a minute…