Browsing The Bulletin Board

There are still a few spaces left in our free grant-writing information sessions on September 12 for theatre organizations and collectives; and on September 19 for individual theatre artists.  Come hear information, perspective, and tips from Pat Bradley from the Ontario Arts Council and Michael Du Maresq and Margo Charlton of the Toronto Arts Council.

Theatre Ontario members have priority access until August 30, and then registration is open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.  To register, please visit Grant Writing for Groups and Collectives, or Grant Writing for Individuals

Check out all the latest postings of workshops, calls for submission, opportunities for recognition on Theatre Ontario’s Bulletin Board (including information on how to submit) on our website

ONstage Openings for the week of August 27

In Southwestern Ontario
Aug. 30, I'll Be Back Before Midnight at Lighthouse Festival Theatre (Port Dover) with previews from Aug. 28

For all the theatre currently playing across Ontario, and information for theatres on how to submit your listings, visit Theatre Ontario’s ONstage theatre listings on our website.

Ontario Off Stage

Behind The Scenes at Ontario’s Theatres

• The Shaw Directors Day is always a highlight of my calendar; Casts for this year’s productions from Intern Directors Michael Wheeler and Krista Jackson have been announced on PraxisTheatre.com
• Kate Taylor reports in the Globe and Mail about how renovation capital is out of reach of medium-sized performing arts groups
• How many actors does it take to performing a home renovation?  Also from the Globe (in the Housing section)—how Ross Manson and Neema Bickersteth organized a metaphoric “barn raising”

Conversations Across Borders

• “Experience audits” are a way for theatres to examine the ways they are open to participation in their venues; Andrew Taylor explores on the Artful Manager how to audit the obvious?
• I was recently introduced to Holger Syme’s blog “dispositio” on which he offered “Five points of contention on Toronto theatre” arguing 1) our theatre needs classics, 2) our theatre is predictable, 3) there is never enough time, 4) our theatre is a deeply immoral institution, and 5) money isn’t doing what money should be doing; this also has trigged a good conversation with Jacob Zimmer and some back-and-forth between them
• Jacob is also continuing with his Public Application for the position of Artistic Director at Factory Theatre

Migrations

• Anita Gaffney is the new Executive Director of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (PDF)
• Kate Smith is the new Artistic Director at Salamander Theatre for Young Audiences in Ottawa
• Peter Smith is the new Interim Artistic Director of the Blyth Festival

Remember, you can also receive news every month by email.  Our archives of Theatre Ontario Presents... are online and the August issue is now available.

Assembled by Brandon Moore, Communications Coordinator

Call For Applications for the Youth Theatre Training Program

Theatre Ontario is now inviting applications for the October 15, 2012 deadline for the Youth Theatre Training Program (YTTP), funded by the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

The YTTP provides training dollars to fund accessible theatre programs involving youth aged 14 to 21. YTTP assists Ontario organizations that wish to undertake projects providing training to youth in various theatrical skills and disciplines, lead by professional theatre artists.

Read all about the Youth Theatre Training Program on the Theatre Ontario website. After reading the YTTP guidelines, applicants are encouraged to contact Tim Chapman, Professional Theatre Coordinator (tim@theatreontario.org or 416.408.4556 x.12) regarding your application.  You can also read about the most recent youth training (Spring 2012) funded by this program.

Attention Returning YTTP applicants: Please note that there are new requirements regarding Vulnerable Sector Screening under “Requirements For The Grant.”

Technology and Theatre: My quest to make peace with the modern world

By Anne Mooney, Community Theatre Coordinator

I used to be a luddite.  Not the destruction-of-property-as-a-form-of-protest luddite, but rather more of a neo-luddite who couldn’t get used to or didn’t want to use modern technology.

People would ask me about computers/cellphones/etc and I would joke, “I use a fountain pen.”  I realized I couldn’t use that joke anymore when one adult (30ish) asked quite seriously, “What’s a fountain pen?”  Okay, I could handle the blank stares from my students, but not adults.

In the past year I have made a giant leap in my technology intelligence.  I’m not and never will be terrific at technology, but - I have an iPhone.  I still haven’t figured out how to get voice mail messages yet, but I can text and I even use my phone as a hot spot—I can use my phone to get internet access anywhere.  I was so excited when I explained that I bought my phone for its ability to hot spot and my technology-savvy niece didn’t know what I meant.  Technology—I have arrived!

When I was at the QUONTA Festival last March, I forgot to bring my notebook to one of the adjudications.  I always find pearls of wisdom when listening to adjudicators and like to write these pearls down for future reference.  What shall I do?  I took notes on my cell phone! 

I recently designed costumes for a production of Arsenic and Old Lace and was reminded of the differences in my research techniques from my first costume design work in the mid 1980’s and the way I research now.  Back in the dark ages, when I roamed the earth with the dinosaurs (another tired joke I used on several generations of elementary school students) I would go to the public library and look through the tiny collection of costume history books, scour my grandmothers collection of clothing patterns and look through books of still photos of old movies to get my costume inspiration.  Now?  Right to the internet where Google even has image search!

Today, even the smallest town’s library has internet access.  The ability to research for inspiration on costumes, set, lighting, props is at our finger-tips.  Using the internet to find out the production history of a play (another source of inspiration and pearl of wisdom received from an adjudicator) makes life easier and easier. 

So now, I still have and use several fountain pens.  I still tell tired jokes.  I still prefer paper over touch screens, but now I use the internet as one of my first sources of research on theatre...and you can look up the terms luddite and neo-luddite on Wikipedia.

Browsing The Bulletin Board

Are you interested in self-producing?  Theatre Ontario’s Self-Start workshop is for you.  If you want to do a show but have never produced professionally before, and if you want to know what questions to ask first, register for our next “Self-Start” workshop on October 10 at 2pm.  For more information, including how to register, please visit Self-Start: The Basics Of Producing on the Theatre Ontario website.

Upcoming on The Bulletin Board

• Explorations: Larval Masks, with Robin Patterson & Terry Judd starts next week on August 27 at Odyssey Theatre in Ottawa
• The free workshop “Welcome to the Neighbourhood: Collective Creation”, with Cathy Gordon begins August 28 at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille

Check out all the latest postings of workshops, calls for submission, opportunities for recognition on Theatre Ontario’s Bulletin Board (including information on how to submit) on our website

ONstage Openings for the week of August 20

In Toronto
Aug. 22, Real Life Superhero at Minmar Gaslight Productions

In Central Ontario
Aug. 20, Do Not Disturb at Theatre Collingwood

For all the theatre currently playing across Ontario, and information for theatres on how to submit your listings, visit Theatre Ontario’s ONstage theatre listings on our website

Welcome to our New Talent Bank Members

We’re excited to welcome the newest members of the Theatre Ontario Talent Bank for 2012:

• Shimera Dionne – makeup instructor
• Jeannette Lambermont-Morey – acting instructor and direction of drama instructor

Theatre Ontario’s Talent Bank members are professional theatre teachers and trainers, available for workshops and short-term consulting contracts to train at community theatres and educational organizations.

We are also pleased to announce that the following Talent Bank members have been accepted into new categories:

• David Antscherl – instructor of technical production
• Luciano Iogna – instructor of improvisation and play polisher
• John P. Kelly – play polisher
• Annette G. Procunier – play polisher
• Mark Schoenberg – play polisher
• Laurel Smith – play polisher
• Chris Worsnop – play polisher

For more information about the Theatre Ontario Talent Bank, please visit our website

Getting Started for Actors

Our first “Getting Started For Actors” workshop of the Fall will be on October 3, from 2pm to 4pm.  We’re pleased to announce that this workshop is now available to both members and non-members of Theatre Ontario.

Getting Started sessions are for actors beginning their professional careers. In this two-hour workshop, Tim Chapman, Professional Theatre Coordinator answers the most frequently asked questions about the business of acting.  Find out about the realities of showbiz, pictures and resumes, Equity and ACTRA, agents and casting directors, auditioning, and maintaining and improving your acting skills.

Getting Started is free for Theatre Ontario members, and $30 for non-members.  There is a $5 charge per participant for photocopies of the materials distributed at the workshop.

For more information, including how to register, please visit Getting Started For Actors on the Theatre Ontario website.

Browsing The Bulletin Board

Upcoming on The Bulletin Board

• The application deadline for the York University MFA in Stage Direction in Collaboration with Canadian Stage is tomorrow – Wednesday, August 15 – for sure this time (we hope!)
• Tomorrow is also the deadline to apply for the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival—this program is for directors in the early and middle stages of their careers who have had some experience working with the classics, but not at a theatre of the complexity and scope of the Festival
• Blyth Festival is hosting a Design workshop with Victoria Harrop for up-and-coming arts and curious community players on August 18

New on The Bulletin Board

• Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto is now inviting applications for a volunteer position as “Youth Brigade Captain”; deadline is August 24
• TPM in also hosting a free Collective Creation workshop “Welcome to the Neighbourhood” with Cathy Gordon beginning August 28
• For playwrights who have “hit the wall” or are having trouble starting, Blyth Festival is holding a workshop with Beverly Cooper on September 15
• Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre is now inviting submissions for the 2013 New Ideas Festival
• Newmarket Stage Company is looking for a director (non-paying) for their October production of A Murder Is Announced

Check out all the latest postings of workshops, calls for submission, opportunities for recognition on Theatre Ontario’s Bulletin Board (including information on how to submit) on our website

ONstage Openings for the week of August 13

In South Central Ontario
Aug. 14, Private Lives at Theatre Aurora
Aug. 17, Barefoot In The Park at Rose Theatre Brampton

In Southwestern Ontario
Aug. 15, Nobody's Perfect at Century Church Theatre (Hillsburgh)
Aug. 15, The Melville Boys at Drayton Entertainment: Drayton Festival Theatre, with a matinee preview
Aug. 15, Johnny & June at Drayton Entertainment: Huron County Playhouse (Grand Bend), with a matinee preview
Aug. 16, Annie at Drayton Entertainment: Huron County Playhouse (Grand Bend) with previews from Aug. 15
Aug. 16, Storm Warning at Port Stanley Festival Theatre, with previews from Aug. 15

In Toronto
Aug. 15, Two Gents at Shakespeare In The Ruff

In Central Ontario
Aug. 18, St. Francis Of Millbrook at 4th Line Theatre (Millbrook) with previews from Aug. 13

In Eastern Ontario
Aug. 14, Jasper Station at Ottawa Little Theatre
Aug. 16, Sister Amnesia's Country Western Nunsense Jamboree at Suzart Productions (Ottawa)

Touring
Aug. 17, Aleck Bell at IANA Theatre Company (Brockville / Stirling / Toronto)

For all the theatre currently playing across Ontario, and information for theatres on how to submit your listings, visit Theatre Ontario’s ONstage theatre listings on our website.

Ontario Off Stage

Behind The Scenes at Ontario’s Theatres

• Krista Jackson’s latest update on PraxisTheatre.com on her work as a Shaw Festival Intern Director
• Our Smart Marketing workshop was a hit, bringing together professional and amateur organizations from five regions, celebrating successes and acknowledging challenges

Conversations Across Borders

• “The death of subscription series might be going differently if my participating in a FULL season at your theatre paid off in some way.”  Travis Bedard reminds us that instead of constantly complaining about the problem, we need to start proposing solutions.  His first one: tent-pole seasons

From The Wire

• This past June, we heard the sad and frightening news of the stage roof collapse in Downsview Park prior to a Radiohead concert, and the death of Scott Johnson, a 33-year-old drum technician from Doncaster, England.  The Ontario Ministry of Labour Live Performance Health & Safety Advisory Committee (of which I am a member) is working on a Temporary Outdoor Performance Structures Working Group. The goal is to create a guideline for organizations that design, construct, install, operate and maintain these structures at performance and event venues.  Can you help?
• Creative Trust and Picasso PRO have just released two handbooks for producers and presenters of Audio Described and American Sign Language interpreted performances. These practical toolkits provide step by step guidance for anyone planning to open their programming to Deaf/hard of hearing or Blind/low vision attenders
• Nine organizations submitted written interest in the sale of Toronto’s performing arts theatres (St. Lawrence Centre, Toronto Centre for the Arts, and the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts.)

Migrations

• Rita Davies has left as Executive Director of Culture for the City of Toronto.  The Toronto Arts Council wrote a nice appreciation

Assembled by Brandon Moore, Communications Coordinator

Smart Marketers at Ontario’s Theatres

By Brandon Moore, Communications Coordinator

This past June, Theatre Ontario hosted “Smart Marketing”, a one-day workshop facilitated by Cheryl Ewing from our Talent Bank.  Attended by theatres from five different regions, both professional and amateur organizations, the interaction around the table reflected the diversity of Theatre Ontario’s mandate at its best.

Successes were celebrated, challenges were acknowledged, and ideas were shared.  Cheryl presented some of the research about building relationships with patrons, and participants benefited from a mix of exercises and discussion.  The feedback forms raved about the workshop— if you missed the first workshop, and you too want to become a Smart Marketer, contact Cornelia Persich, Education Coordinator, at cornelia@theatreontario.org to pre-register, and if demand warrants, we will schedule a second Smart Marketing Workshop.

We are busily planning a number of future workshops—including one on social media for theatres which I am developing, and another from Cheryl on succession planning.  We look forward to announcing more about these and other workshops in the fall.

Browsing The Bulletin Board

Upcoming on The Bulletin Board

• Pre-Conference workshops and certification courses at CITT Rendez-vous 2012 begin next Tuesday, August 14

New on The Bulletin Board

• Deadline to apply for the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival—this program is for directors in the early and middle stages of their careers who have had some experience working with the classics, but not at a theatre of the complexity and scope of the Festival
• ACT II Studio in Toronto is hosting a Studio Information Day on September 5; an opportunity to learn about this theatre training program for 50 and older

Check out all the latest postings of workshops, calls for submission, opportunities for recognition on Theatre Ontario’s Bulletin Board (including information on how to submit) on our website

ONstage Openings for the week of August 7

In Eastern Ontario
Aug. 9, Harvest at Festival Players of Prince Edward County (Picton) with a preview on Aug. 8
Aug. 11, The Clockmaker at Thousand Islands Playhouse (Gananoque) with a preview on Aug. 10
Aug. 11, Mary, Mary at Classic Theatre Festival (Perth) with previews from Aug. 10

In Southwestern Ontario
Aug. 9, Rum Runners at Lighthouse Festival Theatre (Port Dover) with a preview from Aug. 7
Aug. 10, Hedda Gabler at Shaw Festival (Niagara-on-the-Lake) currently in previews
Aug. 11, Helen's Necklace at Shaw Festival (Niagara-on-the-Lake) currently in previews
Aug. 11, Elektra at Stratford Shakespeare Festival, currently in previews

In Central Ontario
Aug. 9, Blue Suede Shoes: Memories Of The King at Drayton Entertainment: King's Wharf Theatre (Penetanguishene) with previews from Aug. 8
Aug. 10, The Merry Wives Of Windsor at Theatre By The Bay (Barrie) with a preview on Aug. 9
Aug. 10, The Good Doctor at Peterborough Theatre Guild
Aug. 11, Jacob Two-Two Meets The Hooded Fang at Theatre By The Bay (Barrie) with a preview on Aug. 10

For all the theatre currently playing across Ontario, and information for theatres on how to submit your listings, visit Theatre Ontario’s ONstage theatre listings on our website.

Call for Applications for the Professional Theatre Training Program

Theatre Ontario is now inviting applications for the October 1, 2012 deadline for the Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP), funded by the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

The PTTP offers financial support for unique and flexible training with a chosen mentor in any theatrical discipline (except performance.) One can apply for professional development in his/her own discipline, or a "change of direction" in a career. To apply, applicants must have at least two years of professional experience following their formal education.

Read all about the Professional Theatre Training Program on the Theatre Ontario website.  After reading the PTTP guidelines, applicants are encouraged to contact Tim Chapman, Professional Theatre Coordinator (tim@theatreontario.org or 416.408.4556 x.12) regarding your application.

Read also about the most recent mentorships (Spring 2012) funded by this program.

Theatre Ontario Hosts Two Grant Writing Information Sessions

Theatre Ontario is excited to announce that we are hosting two free information sessions on grant-writing, with Pat Bradley from the Ontario Arts Council and Michael Du Maresq and Margo Charlton of the Toronto Arts Council.  The first session on September 12 is for theatre organizations and collectives; the second session on September 19, is for individual theatre artists.

Space in these workshops will be available exclusively to Theatre Ontario members until August 30, and then opened to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.

Read more about our Grant Writing Information Session for Organizations and Collectives, and our Grant Writing Information Session for Theatre Artists.