The Art of Bowling
The Art of Bowling raised over $13,000! Thank you to all of the bowlers, donors, volunteers and anyone involved in making The Art of Bowling a Striking Success!!
The Highest Team Pledge Award goes to NAC English Theatre. Thank you Odette Laurin, Kelly Beaton, Richard Cliff, Laura Denker, Andy Lunney and Robert Gould for going the extra mile to support Magnetic North.
The Highest Team Bowling Score Overall Award goes to Dan Laurin, Brenda Cairns, Robin Kells and Denis Paquin with a score of 480. With several prizes throughout the evening and awards for Highest and Lowest Score, there was something for everyone.
Magnetic Encounters
Judi Pearl, Festival Associate, announced highlights of Magnetic Encounters - a forum for artistic innovation and creative development, offering opportunities for artists and audiences alike to participate more fully in the Festival experience. This year we are pleased to offer some old favourites such as Speakers, Teas with Artists, Master Classes, and Post-performance Talkbacks as well as some exciting new initiatives. Magnetic Encounters is sponsored by BMO Financial Group.
We are delighted that our Speaker Series will feature Douglas Campbell (actor), Antoni Cimolino (General Director, Stratford Festival), Jian Ghomeshi (broadcaster/writer/musician), Marti Maraden (Artistic Director, Stratford Festival) and Ottawa native Andrew Moodie (playwright/actor), who will speak about their experiences building the past, present and future of theatre and the arts in Canada. Our Tea with the Artists series goes walkabout this year, as former Artistic Associate Sarah Stanley invites Festival artists to eclectic and intimate interview venues around downtown Ottawa, such as La Petite Mort Gallery, the Ottawa Jail Hostel, and Planet Coffee in the Byward Market. Watch our Program Guide for full details and schedule.
This year for the first time, Magnetic Encounters features a Student Performance & Forum entitled Future Flashing, an opportunity for theatre students to have their say about both this year’s festival and the future of Magnetic North! Join the Student Forum’s Facebook group to get all the details. Two other new projects under the Encounters umbrella are the Lamplighter’s Walking Tour of downtown Ottawa with lighting designer Martin Conboy (June 14 at 9pm), and our buddy system pairing each of our featured companies with a local host theatre company fostering social and professional interaction. Please watch our website and Program Guide for full details.
Master Classes
Registration forms for two Master Classes offered by the Magnetic North Theatre Festival are now online. Registration is first-come, first-served, up to a maximum of 12 participants for each class. Only a few spaces remain for each of these classes. Please note that it is only The Dancing Word and The Art of Puppetry master classes for which spaces remain open. Registration is closed for the Directors' Master Class offered through Canadian Actors' Equity Association. Click here for full details and registration forms.
Magnetic Ottawa
Magnetic Ottawa is designed to forge new and dynamic connections between the local and the national theatre milieu. In 2007, we will showcase productions from the local theatre community, partnering on three new performance initiatives to take place at lunchtime (12 non) during the Festival.
Beowulf
June 8-10 at 12 noon, Grounds of Tabaret Hall.
Right now Beowulf is standing by the shore of the dark pool where Grendel’s mother lives. Soon he will dive into the pool and fight his second major battle, this time underwater. And of course he’ll triumph, and another victory celebration will follow. That’s where we were at the end of rehearsal yesterday – Beowulf about to dive. Beowulf in this production is played by a woman (not playing him as a woman, just a woman playing Beowulf. In fact most of the characters are played by women…) and at this point six of her colleagues will lift her over their heads and flip her over so that she dives through the air and lands on her feet. Then (s)he’ll be in the pool.
One of the great pleasures of making this show is proposing these things to the stilters: “I thought maybe you could flip over her back at this point” and seeing how they can make it happen – bringing this action out of my imagination and into the world. It’s magical. And their courage and confidence is amazing: some of these people only learned to walk on stilts four months ago and now they’re doing things that I wasn’t even sure were possible before we started to make this show. So it’s a voyage of discovery for all of us, learning that what we thought was impossible is not and only beginning to imagine what more there may be out there…
After his triumph in the pool Beowulf still has to confront the dragon – 18 feet of dragon worn by three stilters. The dragon is attached to three backpacks. It has a sheet metal head and tail and metal ribs joined by fabric. It’s a crazy big thing and we’ve barely begun to learn what it can do. It’s an adventure.
Medea
June 11-13 at 12 noon, National Art Gallery, Amphitheatre.
Deluxe Hot Sauce is revisiting and revisioning last year’s production of Euripides’ Medea by Ottawa’s Third Wall Theatre. For audience members who saw us at the National Gallery’s amphitheatre, you’ll notice some familiar faces and some changes. Musically, we’ll sound a bit different. Our composer, Nick Carpenter, is creating instrumentation for our original (a capella) music, and is adding an “orchestra” of flute and electronic cello. The challenges of working without supporting instruments last July increased in direct proportion to the number of motorcyclists choosing the Sussex Avenue/Interprovincial Bridge route to Gatineau. So we welcome new cast member and cellist Anne Davison to the team, and partner her with last year’s Assistant Director Kristina Watt on flute, and vocals. We are also adding soprano Doreen Taylor-Claxton (our ongoing vocal coach) to the fluid and haunting sound we created last summer. We’ll be bigger and stronger. Motorcyclists beware!
Our cast remains largely the same with some notable additions The wonderful Annie Lefebvre returns as Medea, as does Sarah Finn as Jason, Kelly Rigole as Tutor and King Aegeus, and Zita Nyarady as Chorus Leader and a Son of Jason and Medea. Doreen Taylor-Claxton is on stage this year as King Creon, Kristina Watt will be part of The Women of Corinth as well as on flute and Anne Davison will play a Son when she isn’t on cello. Alix Sideris, well-known to theatre audiences in this city, joins us as The Nurse and brings passion, skill and authentic Greek blood! Movement coach Peter Ryan returns to work wonders with the ensemble, and explore what part his version of “contact improv” will play in Medea’s battles.
We look forward to our association with the remarkable Magnetic North Theatre Festival!
Janet Irwin, Director
Rideau Project
June14-15 at 12 noon, Fourth Stage.
For the first time ever Magnetic North Theatre Festival will collaborate with Ottawa’s Théâtre la Catapulte and Festival Zones Théâtrales to create a piece of original, co-lingual theatre, that will introduce the francophone and anglophone theatre communities and their audiences to one another in Ottawa-Gatineau. The Rideau Project will be developed over a three-year period. In this first year, six Ottawa-Gatineau playwrights, three anglophone and three francophone, have been commissioned to contribute a short twenty-minute piece which explores the hidden Ottawa, or the Ottawa ‘derrière le rideau.’ The playwrights are Pierre Brault, Patrick Gauthier, Sarah Migneron, Luc Moquin, John Ng and Michel Ouellette. In 2008 the pieces will be work-shopped and then the finished piece, entitled Derrière le Rideau, will premiere at the 2009 Festival.
Volunteers are helping MNTF to prepare for its fifth season! They have distributed brochures and posters throughout Ottawa ensuring visibility. They staffed our display at the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama, promoting the Festival and Youth Access Passes. Volunteers and students brought Youth Access Passes to community centers and high schools. Six volunteers worked diligently at the Jewish Community Centre, stuffing and sorting approximately 2,000 envelopes for their membership mail-out. Our volunteers were instrumental in the success of the Art of Bowling fundraiser. They spent numerous hours acting as committee members, stuffing participant loot bags, registering bowlers, serving food, helping with set-up and clean-up and selling 50/50 tickets.
Volunteers have already provided over 100 hours of time, energy, resources and enthusiasm! If you, or anyone you know, is interested in volunteering with Magnetic North Theatre Festival please email volunteer@magneticnorthfestival.ca for more details. Or check out our “Become A Volunteer” link on our website www.magneticnorthfestival.ca.
Students, See more – for less!
Magnetic North offers amazing deals to students and youth - making theatre affordable on even the smallest student budget. Buy a pass and you will secure your spot in the 2007 Festival this June 6-16 and get to attend the Magnetic Encounters Series for FREE!!! Check out as much theatre as you can… then come and share your thoughts at Future Flashing, our student forum on June 16!
Can’t wait until then? Check out our blog where you can find insider information and chat about the Festival.
Ottawa Producers’ Workshop - Reminder
A special presentation offered by Magnetic North Theatre Festival with Sherrie Johnson and Menno Plukker
Join Sherrie Johnson (Touring Liaison/Magnetic North Theatre Festival, da da
kamera, PuSh Assembly/Producer) and Menno Plukker (Menno Plukker Theatre
Agent Inc) for this four hour hands-on session aimed at Ottawa area based artists with a keen interest in producing and touring Canadian contemporary theatre. Over the course of the workshop, Sherrie and Menno will demystify budgeting, grant writing, touring networks and arts markets, as well as prepare participants for networking opportunities during Magnetic North Theatre Festival's Industry Series.
Tuesday, May 15th, 2pm-6pm (4 hour session with a small break)
$25 per person
Location: Canada Council Boardroom, 350 Albert Street, 12th Floor, Ottawa, Ontario
If you are interested in this workshop but have not yet registered, please contact judi@magneticnorthfestival.ca
Dates to Remember
May 15 Ottawa Producers’ Workshop
June 6-16 Magnetic North Theatre Festival
June 9-13 Presenters Window
June 12-16 Performance Creation Canada
