toronto – Page 2 – a field of crowns

dossier: Eric Regimbald for BLACKBIRD

Eric and I met awhile ago now, about four years ago when we were working with a small Boal-inspired, forum-based theatre company. One of the best things to come from that experience, and probably what has become my favourite, was meeting Eric. The only way I know how to describe Eric is, “as a guy who likes to laugh.” Every time we’re together, this is the thing I remember most: laughing. I was happy to be able to write a character for Eric to act in the past that just allowed him to play, and now, I’m happy he’s stumbled, almost by accident, into the studio I work with in Toronto, hub14.

Hearing and reading about Blackbird makes me so curious, so excited for Eric because he’s not only cast in a challenging, somewhat uncharacteristic role, but is also one of the instigators making this production a reality. And I can’t wait to see what happens.

Blackbird opens this Friday, March 14th at hub14.

But before then, let’s learn a bit more about one of its key players with dossier #29:

Eric Regimbald

Who are we talking to?

Eric Regimbald

What gets you going in the morning?

Knowing I got a job in what I love to do (a touring kid’s show) and that I have a current project going on. i.e Blackbird. The kid’s show and commercials pay the bills, but theatre feeds the soul.

What is your earliest memory of realizing, yep, I need, or want, to do this with my life?

Well, early on I went to a pretty strict Catholic French school, St. Rene Goupil. This place had its own School board and you were only allowed to speak in French. I got in trouble a lot just by my nature and was constantly told to smarten up by the teachers. When the class was having a test it was quiet and, naturally, I would make some offhand remark aloud about one of the questions and the class’d laugh; it felt good to get those laughs even at the cost of being thrown out, detention or deducted marks. In Grade 6, they brought in Improv and I loved it! I found an avenue for my energy and natural ability to make people laugh; I found it to be the only thing I was good at. That, and presentations. I liked speaking out loud, having my voice heard. I think that was probably the beginning of it.

Have there been times you seriously question why you pursue this lifestyle/art form? If so, what was it that kept you in it, or brought you back?

I never question why I do it, I question what is the next thing that I have to do to further my career. As soon as I get a gig or am working on a project I put heart and soul in to it, I’m able to enjoy it and love working with new people. When its done I want to find that experience again. What keeps me in it is the hunger for new characters, telling stories and it’s always a new experience with each project. I’m very nomadic, especially with my job of touring Canada. Acting is a profession that works for nomads: where am I off to next? I go where the work is and I don’t like standing still.

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Why BLACKBIRD?

It’s an intense show. Very visceral. It’s written really well and the language kind of juxtaposes what’s happening with the characters. When I first read it it hit me in the gut; it moved me. And that’s the kind of theatre I wanna do: theatre that punches people, pushes buttons all the way to the back of the room. Unless I’m doing a comedy which should make them laugh all the way to the back. It has an intention: it tells a beautiful dark love story that’s relatable. It seemed very challenging. But possible. So we jumped in, feet first!

Isn’t there another play called Blackbird?

Yes there is. There’s Blackbird by David Harrower which is also a male female two-hander. Oddly enough more people seem to think of this show first before the Adam Rapp Blackbird. Which is nice ’cause I’m glad not everyone has heard of Rapp’s Blackbird. It seems to be the rarer of the two.

How did your collective of artists form? Who’s idea was it, to put this show together?

Blackbird came about in a few ways. One, my touring gig is fun but not character satisfying. I also don’t want it to become my life. I yearn for more so I was looking for a project to do. Enter Alona Metzer. We met through Ryerson simulations and she had asked me to write something for us, preferably a screenplay. I thought about it but was into writing other things. So I came back to her and said how ’bout a play? She was game. We read a couple of shows and Alona had brought Blackbird to the table and we decided on it. Then we just had to find a director we met with a few people that I thought would be interested. I approached TJ Cheslea. He was a guy who came from co-coaching an acting studio. I had worked with him in class a couple of times. We basically wanted a director that was going to push us and work intimately with two actors; [someone who] can be comfortable telling this story truthfully and not necessarily be focusing on what the show will look like. We needed a guy who’s gonna peer into the journey and hearts of these characters and TJ is that guy. The rest kinda fell into place.

What’s a favourite memory, or story, from performing on stage in the past?

One my favorite memories of performing on stage had to be when I was doing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein back when I did community theatre in Fergus; I was playing Victor Frankenstein. I was young and would do just about anything asked of me and I liked things to be as real as possible. The show was pretty ambitious with its big wooden carpenter built sets and period costumes. There’s a part in the play when Victor says “Bring down the chains!” Which is an integral part of the process in reviving the monster. Now all through rehearsals I had asked the director, “So, we’re gonna get chains right?” He assured me yes. “Like, real chains, right?” So we get to dress rehearsal in the space: still no chains. The director assures me that we will have chains for opening night. “Awesome!” I get there opening night. “Hey, where the chains at?” He tells me their up there and they will trickle down at the appropriate time. “Great!” I don’t even check them out or run that section to make sure it works; I was just excited to have chains. So sure enough, “Bring down the chains, Henry!” I’m super immersed in the role. I’m walking toward the table with the monster on it, now what i’m about to explain all happened in a split second: in mid-stride I hear from the air: zzzzzzzzzzip! What comes down from the sky is about 25pounds of bundled up rusty chains attached to a rope that a stage hand decided to drop at about 85 miles per hour! I put my arms out, caught it like nobody’s business and continued on.

Now if had been a split second earlier those chains would have knocked me flat out! I remember thinking afterward that how the hell did I catch those chains without even thinking or knowing where they were coming from? That’s theatre: you never know what’s gonna happen and when something different does happen it’s a gift and you go with it.

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Describe BLACKBIRD in three adjectives, a phrase, or with sound.

Surviving, Putrid, Lovely

Do you have anything else you’d like to share? Photos, videos, links, posters, stories, wishes?

What I’d like to add is this:

Come see the Blackbird link for tickets:

http://blackbird.brownpapertickets.com/

A link to my comedy web series: Van Damme Motors. Be sure to check out all 7 TV spots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms9zN64Kt2c

Also, check out Eric on twitter!

@actorreg

dossier: Heather Marie Annis and Amy Lee for MORRO AND JASP: GO BAKE YOURSELF

As a fellow clown, albeit a new one who really has no experience clowning with or around these two, and York alumnae (it’s about time I shamelessly showed pride of my roots on this site – I realize that sounds like I harbour problems with York’s training. Really, I don’t; I had an excellent time there and think the training I received was exactly what I needed. I just don’t talk about it much anymore. Gotta move forward, amiright?) I am greatly excited to bring both Amy Lee and Heather Marie Annis by today to chat a little about the reprise of their hit, GO BAKE YOURSELF! That’s right, Morro and Jasp are in the field to chat about what got them started.

Amy, Heather and I mostly just missed each other at York University. I had seen them around, and I think Amy had seen me, or at least knew my face, but it wasn’t until, maybe three Fringes ago that we actually met and had a conversation. It’s funny because I think I’ve actually seen these two perform more frequently out of nose than I have in nose (if you haven’t seen these two bust out their acting chops, do yourself a favour and keep your ear to the ground for what they’re up to next; usually they come as a pair, but individually they are their own unique forces of theatre-nature. It’s quite refreshing).

I know Fringe is well underway, but if you need to fill a hole in your roster and you’re just hearing about this show right now (which you probably aren’t), there’s still time to catch it! You’ll just have to line up a bit early…

dossier #18:

Who are we talking with?

Heather Marie Annis and Amy Lee (sometimes known as Morro and Jasp).

What drew you down this path? (to theatre, to clowning, to Fringing, to wherever the hell you are in life)

We were in theatre school at York and discovered that we really loved working together. Byron Laviolette (our director and co-collaborator) had studied Pochinko clown and after he saw us in a physical piece together, asked us if we’d be interested in playing around with clown. We said yes, having no idea what to expect, and then we kept saying yes to every opportunity to experiment with/perform clown.

What is your earliest memory of realizing, yep, this is what I’m going to do with my life?

Amy decided when she was 6. Heather decided in high school. Although that was acting, not clown. Clown was a bit of a surprise love for both of us.

Why MORRO AND JASP: GO BAKE YOURSELF?

We both love cooking, baking, and food in a serious way. When we were roommates we would experiment with new recipes and they would almost always turn out disastrously (even though on our own, we are pretty kitchen saavy). We thought, “What could be more fun than letting our clowns play in the kitchen?” We also wanted to look at our relationship with food and how food helps us relate to one another. And we have a whole lotta fun doing it…

What kind of atmosphere do you intend to set up, or can someone expect from MORRO AND JASP: GO BAKE YOURSELF?

Fun, delicious, and full of love.

You’ve done the Canadian Fringe circuit often in the past. What do you look forward to the most when touring a new show to a new city?

Every audience is difference. And because we interact with our audiences so much, that really impacts us and the show. It is always really exciting to see how the space, city and people will affect the show and how we can play with that.

What is your favourite memory from a past Fringe circuit show?

Ah! Too many to pick one! Although, if we have to…We created a very audience-dependent ending to our show last year and we had no idea whether it would actually work, so on opening, when it did, we cried so many tears of joy!

Describe MORRO AND JASP: GO BAKE YOURSELF in three adjectives, a phrase, or with sound.

Mmmmm….

Do you have anything else you’d like to share? Photos, videos, links, posters, stories, wishes?

Here is our trailer for it:

We are sold out of our advance tickets for the run, but there are still tickets at the door every show!

We want to wish every Fringer out there, whether you’re performing or watching, so much love, so much gratitude, and may the Force be with you!

much ado about funding.

As the storm rages for an extended four weeks around Monkswell Manor Guest House, a new company (and when I say new I mean the individual members working together, not the body as a whole) of passionate artists are banding together and pledging their time, their hearts and their mental well-beings to put on a show themselves. They do this for love and for hatred, for wit and for dullness. They do this because, simply, they cannot do anything else; it is everything, and it is nothing to them.

This past Tuesday, was the initial meeting and read of Shakespeare BASH’d‘s upcoming Toronto Fringe staging of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. And it was wonderful. We sat in a boardroom on the fifth floor of the TIFF Bell Lightbox, a boardroom that was altogether too big for us (and this is not saying we are a small or meek cast). We ate, we drank, we met one another and right away we were able to play with one another. I have never had this experience before. First reads with new casts are, in my experience, usually kind of reserved, there’s a little air of caution all around us as we test the waters with one another. Not so with Shakespeare BASH’d. These waters were as warm as a hot-tub’s.

Shakespeare BASH’d’s mandate is one of love, of camaraderie and of that warm embrace of social lubrication.

Now, unlike the Lower Ossington, which is currently housing The Mousetrap, indie-theatre is largely incapable of (i) selling-out their initial run before opening, (ii) being in the position to extend said run by a month, and (iii) be lucky enough to have a producer willing to put up the entirety of the starting capital required to fund a show (even a small one). Now, this is not saying this never happens. I’m just saying when it does, it is a rather rare event. The nature of being independent puts us out in the vast ocean, swimming furiously amongst hundreds, if not thousands of others trying to do very similar things. The advancements of the age we live in have done a tremendous amount for the arts. Crowd-sourcing has become a powerful tool that gives the user, the patron complete control over what they want, how they want to experience it, and how they can help produce more and more of it.

With that said, Shakespeare BASH’d has set up an indiegogo campaign to support Much Ado as we go into rehearsals. As many independent theatres don’t own a building, don’t program a season of 4 to 6 shows, and, therefore, don’t offer the traditional method of support (subscription packages), indiegogo campaigns are an excellent way to show your support for what is sure to be an exciting experience.

If you’re unsure how this fundraising may help, here’s an example: a pledge of $10 is enough to ensure an hour of rehearsal time. And we’re doing Shakespeare here, people, we’ll need / want all the rehearsal time we can get!

So, without saying much more, I ask you to please go and check out the Shakespeare BASH’d indiegogo campaign here. Check out the perks you’ll receive for every level of donation received, some of them are really fun, like a pair of tickets to opening or closing, beer and a fun night out with James Wallis or Rob Kraszewski, posters and more.

If you’ve ever wanted to support some great indie theatre, or the stuff I do, this is the opportunity.

Thanks for reading.

UPDATE: Also, if you need a little more info on this style of fundraising and haven’t seen this yet, check out singer Amanda F***ing Palmer’s TED conference talk called THE ART OF ASKING. It is beautiful.

dossier: Kate Nankervis for SHE WAS

Today marks a little bit of history on this blog o’ mine. With Kate’s dossier, this marks the first time a “mostly” dance piece is featured!

Kate and I just met last week, at what was the beginning of an exciting new opportunity for the both of us plus four others (details are quite secretive right now), and I couldn’t be more excited to showcase this event of hers on my blog. Reading about it makes me sad I won’t be able to see it as I’ll be performing at the same time. If you’ve never checked out a dance show, this one sounds like a great place to start!

Alrighty, without further ado, here’s dossier #12:

Who are we talking with?

Kate Nankervis, a Toronto-based performer and choreographer.

What is your earliest memory of needing, or wanting to dance?

Not sure if it is my earliest memory, but I definitely remember dancing all the time in grocery stores and stores like Sears, because the floors were nice and slippery so I could turn easily. I also remember playing t-ball and always going to out field and just dancing not really paying attention to game- I had a really good cartwheel after that season.

Why do you do what you do?

Wow, good question…! I have almost always danced; it has really become part of my everyday life. Creating dances and producing has been a way that I can further explore my own interests in the world and the people around me. When I consider why I work the way I do it is also really influenced by the people involved. I am surrounded by wicked people, artists and collaborators that really make the all the parts come together and keep me moving forward.

Why “she was”?

‘she was’ is a double bill show of 2 dance works. My work, ‘only place’ is a solo show about a woman left behind. Simon Renaud who is my partner in crime, is making ‘les reines orphelines’, with dancers Joanie Audet and Jasmine Inns. The evening is a collaborative arts event with two dance works, live music, a pop-up lounge featuring work from visual artist Sarah Smith and live music. We are really putting together a whole evening out for audience to come together and experience independent contemporary art.

What can an audience expect from “she was”?

It is an evening out with friends and family to meet artists and encounter new work by mainly emerging artists. We are shining a light on our work and the work of the artists in the city who are inspiring to me and Simon. They can expect to be entertained, moved and maybe provoked, then to move into a lounge with awesome live music and artwork and a bar, of course.

What is your favourite memory from a past dance show?

I remember this performance of a Calgary artist, Helen Husak. she was performing at Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival. She made this emotional and physical perfomance to Timbre Timbre. It was short and it was a mixed program but I remember crying for most of the solo and not knowing why just that I was affected by this work.

Describe “she was” in three adjectives or a phrase.

classy, provacative, ambitious.

Do you have anything you want to share with us? A story? A photo? A song? A video?

she was
choreography by Kate Nankervis and Simon Renaud
May 16- 18, 2013 8pm
The Citadel, Toronto
For tickets email: shewasperformance@gmail.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Kate has provided us with the press and media release. This event sounds amazing folks. Check it out!

Media Release SHE WAS (dance, music, art) May 16-18, 2013 The Citadel, TO