#26 The Bellows: Friendship Is Magic by Michael Kruse

This special The Bellows episode features carpenter Kevin Hutson, our moderator, joining writer/director Kat Sandler, technical director Dean Johnson,  independent producer Aislinn Rose, technician and stage manager Pip Bradford,  and designer and technician Rebecca Vandevelde discussing how to work with your friends while remaining professional.  It was recorded live at Theatre Passe Muraille on January 18th.  The first 10 minutes of the introductions was lost because SOMEone forgot to hit record: it happens.  This audio starts with with Rebecca Vandevelde introducing herself. As well, the audio has been panned in order to facilitate the identification of the speaker with the audio field being layed out as they presented: Kevin, Kat (who joins later), Dean, Aislinn, Pip, and Rebecca.

Bios

Kevin Hutson

Kevin is the head carpenter at The Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and one of the founders of The Bellows.  Kevin has also performed as a production manager, technical director, lighting designer and general technician in Toronto for may years.

Dean Johnson

Dean is a technical director, carpenter and technician in Toronto.  He freelances as a technician at Theatre Passe Muraille, Theatre Direct, Roseneath Theatre, St. Michael’s College.   He has worked as production stage manager for Theatre Brouhaha for Punch-Up, We are the Bomb, The Unseen Hand and has also lent a hand on a few other Brouhaha productions.

Kat Sandler

Kat is a writer/actor/director working in Toronto.  She is the Artistic Director of Theatre Brouhaha, and has staged six or her original plays; LOVESEXMONEY (Next Stage Festival), Help Yourself (Best of Fringe, winner of the Fringe New Play Contest), Delicacy (Summerworks), Rock (Storefront Theatre), We Are the Bomb (Toronto Fringe, Sucker (Storefront Theatre) and directed Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton, and The Unseen Hand (Playwrights Project). As an actor she has appeared onstage with Theatre Gargantua in the world premieres of FiBBer and Imprints. She is a graduate of Queen’s University. Kat will be writing Retreat while in Tarragon’s Playwrights Unit.

Aislinn Rose

Aislinn is an independent producer, theatre maker, member of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts’ Board of Directors, and Co-Chair of TAPA’s Indie Caucus. She recently joined the producing team for Luminato’s 2013 festival as Associate Producer, and produced the festival’s L’Allegro by the Mark Morris Dance Group, Feng Yi Ting directed by Atom Egoyan, and Ronnie Burkett’s The Daisy Theatre. This year she will be guest curating Harbourfront Centre’s HATCH 2014 season along with her Praxis Theatre colleague, Michael Wheeler.

As the Artistic Producer of Praxis Theatre & Co-Editor of praxistheatre.com, she led the Open Source Theatre Project for Section 98 at Harbourfront Centre, created the experimental Dungeons & Dragons (not) The Musical, was Artistic Producer of You Should Have Stayed Home, and Producer for Jesus Chrysler in Association with Theatre Passe Muraille. She will be producing their upcoming cross Canada tour of You Should Have Stayed Home in Whitehorse, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. She and Michael Wheeler were named Theatre VIPs for 2012 by Toronto paper, The Grid, after having been named “People to watch” that year by Torontoist.

Last year she produced Aluna Theatre’s inaugural PANAMERICAN ROUTES Festival of Theatre for Human Rights, and was Co-Producer with Fides Krucker on the electroacoustic opera Julie Sits Waiting (nominated for 5 Dora Awards including Outstanding Production – Opera/Musical). Other recent projects include producing The Lesson For Modern Times Stage Company (nominated for 8 Dora Awards, including Outstanding Production).

Social media experiments include working as a consultant & online creator for the sold-out run of Michael Healey’s Proud and developing “The Brain”, the online counterpart for Liza Balkan’s Out The Window for The Theatre Centre’s biennial Free Fall Festival.

Aislinn is the recent recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts Professional Development grant as an Independent Theatre Producer.

Sarah ‘Pip’ Bradford

Pip has lived and worked in the Toronto theatre community for the past five years. She freelances as a technician and stage manager for many companies in Toronto, including The Randolph Academy of the Performing Arts, Aluna Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Factory Theatre, Steady State Theatre, and the Toronto Fringe. Pip has a BA in Technical Theatre and Scenography from The University of King’s College in Halifax, is the founder of Art Is Hard, a grassroots arts philanthropy project, and sits on the board of Steady State Theatre Project.

Rebecca Vandevelde

Rebecca is a designer, technician, and anything-manager based in Toronto. Career highlights include creating interactive installations like Flip the Table with Art is Hard, PM/TD with Theatre Columbus/Common Boots, lighting design for Broadfish (Hatch at Harbourfront Centre), production SM for You Should Have Stayed Home (Praxis) video co-design for Red Snow (Red Snow Collective at the Shanghai International Contemporary Theatre Festival & Theatre Passe Muraille); an apprenticeship in lighting/video design with Trevor Schwellnus; and production work for many festivals. She holds a BA in Drama, History and speaking French sometimes from Glendon College at York.

#25 Steve Lucas by Michael Kruse

Steve Lucas is a designer based in Creemore Ontario.  Steve and I have known each other for years as the familiarity will show in this 2 hour interview.  Steve and I talk about his early career at Alberta Theatre Projects and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre as well as his development of the "symphony of lights" with Hillar Liitoja at DNA Theatre.  We also cover his work on the hit play 2 Pianos, 4 Hands and the work on his newest incarnation of Breath[e] a play made of design.

Steve's Studio

Steve's Studio

The score for the Symphony of lights for a DNA Theatre production

The score for the Symphony of lights for a DNA Theatre production

In One with  Beverly Emmons and Tharon Musser and the choreographer Martha Graham 

The Last Supper by DNA Theatre

This Is What Happens in Orangville

Theatre Passe Muraille

The proscenium at Theatre Passe Muraille

The proscenium at Theatre Passe Muraille

Breath[e] by Steve Lucas

Breath[e] by Steve Lucas

Steve Lucas

Steve Lucas

The Bellows and The Title Block LIve on Periscope by Michael Kruse

On February 22 2016, at 19:45 EST The Title Block will be broadcasting its recording session of The Bellows live on the mobile app Periscope.  This month's talk will be Why You Need to Hire a Production Manager. it is sure to be an enjoyable and informative discussion. Instructions to join us live are below:

1. Download the app on ITunes or your android device.

2. Sign in using your Twitter account or your phone number (it is easier with a twitter account). Make sure to enter your confirmation code in order to complete the sign in procedure.

3. Create your Periscope name and you are good to go!

4. Search for @thetitleblockCA or The Title Block in periscope and join the session after 19:15 EST.  You can add comments and I will be monitoring the broadcast throughout the session and will replay when I can.

For more detailed instructions see this link.

To listen to the first episode of The Bellows, go here.

 

#24 The Bellows: How To Get Hired in Theatre by Michael Kruse

The Bellows founders Kevin Hutson and Sarah "Pip" Bradford

The Bellows founders Kevin Hutson and Sarah "Pip" Bradford

This week a special episode recorded on November 16th, 2015 at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto.  The Bellows is a monthly panel discussion on the art and business of theatre production which promises to create "a place for artists in performance to get together, share information, and get to know more about the production side of the business."  Created by Sarah "Pip" Bradford, Kevin Hutson and Christopher Ross, the discussion is curated by working professionals and should appeal to newcomer's and veteran's alike. 

From L to R: Jason Golinski, Shanna Miller, Kevin Hutson, Ray Salverda

From L to R: Jason Golinski, Shanna Miller, Kevin Hutson, Ray Salverda

The Title Block has teamed up with The Bellows to record and broadcast live via Periscope these panels so that they reach a wider audience and every working or aspiring production person can benefit.  In this episode the panel, made up of Kevin Hutson, Jason Golinksi, Shanna Miller, and Ray Salverda, discuss how to get hired and stay working in the theatre. Ever wonder how to set and negotiate your fee?  The panel may have your answer.  This is the first in many recordings and the next one will be broadcast live via Periscope on January 18th 2015, so don't miss it!

#23 Bonnie Beecher by Michael Kruse

In 1996 I started my career as an assistant to lighting designer Bonnie Beecher working on Frida K, a vibrant and challenging play staring Allegra Fulton and directed by Peter Hinton.  I was struck by Bonnie's use of colour and the way that she embraced expressionism.  Since then, Bonnie has become a top tier designer in Canada and started in the past several years working in France and Germany on ballet and opera.  With over 250 productions under her belt she has a very interesting story to tell about Canadian theatre and how she works abroad.  Bonnie joined me at Soulpepper Theatre in May of 2015 to chat about her life and style.

Links

University of British Columbia

John Lazarus

Banff Centre for the Arts

Adam Stewart

Chris Popowich

Neil Peter Jampolis 

Jane Reisman

Harry Frehner

Neptune Theatre (Halifax)

Tom Kerr

Richard Ouzounian

Brass Rubbings

Shaw Festival

Stratford Festival

Robert Thompson

Beth Kates

Andrea Lundy

Glen Davidson

Mirvish Theatre Productions

Frida K

Peter Hinton and Here

The Duchess of Malfi

Cabaret

Joe Ziegler

The Conjuror by David Ben

Dominique Dumais

FIDa festival

Desrosier Dance Theatre

Kevin O'Day

Mannheim National Theatre

Bridget Briner  and Ballett im Revier

Stuttgart Ballet

Dortman Ballet

Royal Flanders Ballet

Beleuchtungsmeister

InOne by Cory Pattak

Beverly Emmons (designer for Martha Graham Dance Company who speaks of face lighting in dance)

Sweet Charity

Morris Panych and Ken MacDonald

Cameron Davis

Charlotte Dean

Rosco I-cue

The Dybbuk

Opera Atelier

Gerard Gauci

Versailles Opera House

Bonnie Beecher.  Photo by David Cooper

Bonnie Beecher.  Photo by David Cooper

#22 Michael Gianfrancesco by Michael Kruse

Michael Gianfrancesco, Photo by David Cooper

Michael Gianfrancesco, Photo by David Cooper

In this long belated episode I speak to designer Michael Gianfrancesco.  Michael and I worked on his second production after he was out of Concordia University in 1998 and since then he has become one of the top designers in the country, working on new works, opera, ballet and now appears yearly at the Stratford and Shaw Festivals.  Michael and I spoke in the design office at Shaw in May 2015 about his show there this summer.

Links

Concordia University

Pat Flood

Banff Centre for the Arts

Terry Gunvordahl

Stratford Festival

Patrick Clark

Peter Hartwell

Debra Hanson

Ann Curtis

Richard Monette

Ted Dykstra

Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre

Canadian Stage Company

Des McAnuff

The Shaw Festival

The Divine: A Play for Sarah Bernhardt by Michel Marc Bouchard

Christine, la reine-garçon

Tom at the Farm

Jackie Maxwell

Bonnie Beecher

John Gzowski

Peter Hinton



#21 Fina MacDonell by Michael Kruse

Fina Macdonnel.  Photo by Michael Kruse

Fina Macdonnel.  Photo by Michael Kruse

Fina MacDonell is a founder of and partner in Toronto props house Rabbit's Choice, but her early career included collaborating with Paul Thompson with the seminal Farm Show in Clinton ON.  In this this interview we talk about her early life in Manitoba and southwestern Ontario and the building of one of the most important props houses in Canada.  Fina was also honored this summer with the Dora Mavor Moore Silver Ticket award.

Links/Keywords

Manitoba Theatre Centre

Rainbow Stage

Fina's desk at The Rabbit's Choice

Fina's desk at The Rabbit's Choice

FLQ October crisis

Opportunities for Youth Grant Manitoba

The Patchwork Players

Paul Thompson

The Farm Show

Theatre Passe Muraille

Miles Potter

The prop shpo at The Rabbit's Choice

The prop shpo at The Rabbit's Choice

#20 William Schmuck by Michael Kruse

William Schmuck, photo by David Cooper

William Schmuck, photo by David Cooper

William Schmuck is the head of design at the Shaw Festival. We spoke in May of 2015 before the first opening of the season about his life and the Moss Hart play Light Up The Sky which William designed this year.  We dig into what you need to know before you apply to apprentice at a festival like the Shaw and what it was like to transition between artistic directors in his 20 years as head of design.

Links

The Shaw Festival

University of Waterloo

1980 Quebec Referendum

National Theatre School

The Grand, London ON

Jack King

Leslie Hurry

Kelli Fox as Frances Black, Shawn Wright as William H. Gallegher and Laurie Paton as Stella Livingston in Light Up the Sky. Photo by David Cooper. Set and Costumes by William Schmuck, Lighting Design by Louise Guinand, Direction by Blair Williams, Projection Design by Beth Kates and Ben Chaisson