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Observations on The Mandate of Theatre

Logo-Ms-MarketingDoes the majority of society today think of theatre as a means to both educate and entertain the masses?  It seems to me, the value of theatre can become lost in the array of entertainment options available at the touch of a button in today’s society.  But are the shows we are watching on TV helping our society to learn about itself; criticize its hypocrisies and praise its advancements?

Bernard Shaw used the medium of theatre to convey his provocative and inquisitive messages to a greater audience.  Placing this satirical evaluation within a candy-coated ‘experiential’ outing, Shaw slipped in some rather  challenging, if not for some, even troublesome queries regarding equality, feminism, wealth, status, the implications of war, patriotism and so much more.  The modern-day ‘date night’ at the theatre has the potential to change the course of one’s opinion, which today is a much more empowered method of communication than in years’ past.  From their seat in the theatre, an audience member can formulate an opinion and send it out using their phone to thousands of people via Facebook, Twitter, and many other forums.

Ideas are being shared that question our systems of community, our understanding of ourselves in the present as educated through the past.  TV may be the best form of entertainment when you need to shut your brain off after a long day of work, but educating oneself through entertainment needs that aspect of real life that theatre provides.  It needs the actors to potentially make a mistake, for the orchestra to miss a note, for an audience member to sneeze at a highly critical moment in the play.  The reality of theatre conveys its messages to an engaged audience of viewers, who are not passively accepting entertainment, but are critically evaluating the thoughts being communicated to them.   It seems to me, the audience is truly participating in the building of those messages through their attendance of a performance.

The audience member’s opinion, constructed from the provocation of ideas from playwrights as Shaw, finds its place in history as a documentable assertion of one’s beliefs.  The opinion travels, worldwide through tweets and shares.  It is moulded, changed; added to and adapted in so many ways by society.  As it travels, its meaning is as changed as it would be if it was a message conveyed through the game ‘Telephone.’  And yet, as a ‘professional communicator,’ I think Bernard Shaw would accept and encourage this rapid transfer of knowledge, even with the inherent flaws of social media.

What are your thoughts?

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Ms Marketing Talks to Students

Logo-Ms-MarketingIt was a Friday afternoon at The Shaw.  A rather quiet day, but filled with anticipation nonetheless.  Today would be day the day I had a casual question and answer type chat with a group of Arts Management students from the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York.  This group was incredibly interested and engaged in the talk, they made it easy to stand up at the front of the room with my fellow marketing coordinator and talk about our efforts and initiatives in Marketing.

Both of us took about five minutes to discuss what our roles are, she discussed direct marketing and Twitter, I discussed Facebook, our mobile app and our other social media platforms.  We wrapped up after this very general summary and before the question, ‘are there any questions?” was fully put out there, five or six hands shot up!  Needless to say we were both really flattered – it is so exciting to discuss something you are passionate about with a group of like minded people.  The questions varied, from whether or not we had generated a QR code for our app (we had!) to how we used insights and analytical data to inform our marketing and advertising efforts and initiatives.

It was truly a pleasure to share what I have learned this far in my career with a group of people headed along the same path.  From sharing my education, to what direction our social media will take in future, I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and I think the students did too!

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Elderhostel Day Three, Part Three – Heartbreak House with Intern Director, Craig Hall

The minute Craig Hall walks in, an Elderhostel visitor remarks how young he looks. “I’m not really that young,” he says, and proceeds to list all his accomplishments including the two theatre companies under his watch.

There are two intern directors here picked from over 80 applicants across Canada, and he’s one of them. Each year they learn more about the art of directing, and get the chance to direct a one-act play from the mandate at the end of the season.

In the meantime, Craig prepared a speech on that evening’s performance of Heartbreak House to give us a better understanding of what is happening in the fast paced dramedy.

The play that has such themes as love, death, politics, class structure and heartbreak (naturally) have been compared to Cherry Orchard and King Lear, and whether or not Shaw intended it to be, it’s funny in its absurdity, outrageousness and wit. Shaw wrote it as a protest against the culture that he thought permitted the First World War. As was Shaw’s habit, he wrote a long-winded preface to describe the politics and philosophy of Heartbreak House, as well as an extremely detailed set description that he felt was integral to the play. The set was described as a room that looked like the interior of a large ship.

In this poetic and mystical comedy there are apparent themes of sleeping and dreaming as a way to explore unconscious minds. As said by Craig, Shaw was against people sleepwalking their way through life and allowing great tragedies to occur around them.

All in all, I’ve had a great time taking part in all the Elderhostel functions. It allowed me to see a lot more of the Shaw Festival, meet and understand more of the people that make The Shaw tick, and settle myself in. I look forward to being here for the next six weeks.

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Elderhostel Day Three, Part Two – The World of Stage Management with Judy Farthing

Judy Farthing, Shaw’s Production Stage Manager, has to be the nicest person I have ever met. Or at least, the nicest I’ve ever heard speak. The Elderhostel audience was literally so amazed at her job description that they couldn’t stop fawning over her and exclaiming how irreplaceable she must be.

With the help of the director, Judy pulls everything together:

  • She creates the paperwork for the crew to use during performances (the script).
  • She checks for continuity including audience reaction, pace, energy, drifting and maintenance of vision.
  • She trains two apprentice stage managers a year.
  • She handles requests for fittings, wigs and special classes.
  • And she calls her own show (that’s lights, sound, fly floor, trap doors etc.).

Her role is akin to a conductor but she claims it’s more about relationship management than the ability to organize and keep a tight schedule. She’s also extremely level headed and can’t lose her cool in a tough situation because the actors and crew are all looking at her to get them out of it. When it’s commented on that she must be really stressed out all the time, Judy casually shrugs it off: “Not really,” she says. Coolest cucumber I know.

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Elderhostel Day Three, Part One – The Warehouse with Anna-Marie Braet and Tanya Apostolidis

An overhead shot of the Wardrobe section in the warehouse

An overhead shot of the Wardrobe section in the warehouse

We began Elderhostel Day Three at the Wardrobe and Prop warehouse in St. Davids for a fantastic guided tour. Though still in the process of cleaning and organizing, these locations are already a wonderful addition to tours at The Shaw for special groups like Elderhostel. The clothes in the wardrobe section are meticulously divided into eras and decades, tops and bottoms, and style and gender. There are also separate sections devoted to hats and shoes. Some actors that have been with The Shaw for several seasons have their own collection of costumes sectioned off, and since their sizes don’t fluctuate they can be used again.

Some Wardrobe selections

Some Wardrobe selections

A handstitched dress on display

A handstitched dress on display

A unique and modern twist on a Victorian dress

A unique and modern twist on a Victorian dress

A clothing aisle

A clothing aisle

The shoe wall

The shoe wall

A wall in the hat loft

A wall in the hat loft

The other side of the warehouse holds all the props; literally anything you have in your house, and more, is in that warehouse. There are all manners of furniture, carpets, luggage, kitchenware, books and even a few skeletons. Oh, and a box labeled “rocks” which is probably very important. Most of the furniture is surprisingly sturdy and the only way to get them off of the enormous shelving units is a set of rolling stairs and some good old elbow grease.

Anna talks props

Anna talks props

A skeleton!

A skeleton!

More skeletons! And books!

More skeletons! And books!

The Elderhostel group checks out the never-ending halls of the props warehouse

The Elderhostel group checks out the never-ending halls of the props warehouse

Food props

Food props

Baskets piled high

Baskets piled high

These are all vases. ALL OF THEM.

These are all vases. ALL OF THEM.

Statues - this one's head fell off during a performance! Now you knowwww.

Statues - this one's head fell off during a performance! Now you knowwww.

But seriously, words do it no justice. Any Harry Potter fans out there? It is like the ultimate room of requirement. Too cool.

Prop shelves in the warehouse

Prop shelves in the warehouse

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Elderhostel Day Two – Music at The Shaw with Ryan deSouza

On Day Two of my Elderhostel experience, Ryan deSouza, Associate Conductor, gave a candid and informative discussion of music at The Shaw that centered on its importance in The Admirable Crichton.

Ryan started playing piano as a church musician in a choir operated by his parents, and though he was classically trained in piano, he went to school for human resources. He began accompanying community theatre performances and still prefers to accompany other people instead of be center stage himself. From the beginning, he had a very Shavian attitude towards breaking musical rules, and when it sounded good he was allowed to keep doing it.

Ryan deSouza speaking to the Elderhostel group

Ryan deSouza speaking to the Elderhostel group

The orchestra under Ryan’s direction consists of eight musicians and included the clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, bass, drums, ukulele, violin and cello. Ryan said that working with director Morris Panych gave him a strong sense of ownership and collaboration that allowed him to have a strong voice in the creation of the music and underscoring.

Crichton was not always a musical, or as close to a musical as you can get without being a musical, Ryan had the difficult job of picking music to fit this fantastical story. They picked a number of obscure songs from the 1920s, likely unknown to today’s audience. Some songs were so obscure that they couldn’t even find the original owners to access the rights to the song, paying a flat fee to use it instead. Once the rights to a song are bought the buyer can pretty much do whatever they want with it. In this case, Ryan changed them, combined them with other songs and used parts of them in the underscoring.

They also decided to go with a twist on the 1920s big band sound. Typical military bands or big bands have over 20 musicians; Ryan had to whittle that enormous sound down to his eight band members. They used the typical horn instruments but added a violin and cello for a more melancholy sound since the play centers on love and losing. The cello and violin were also used for a more appropriate underscoring. The musicians used the plucking style of playing for the underscoring which has a more acoustic sound and can easily fade into the background.

Some of the Elderhostel visitors had questions for Ryan like: why is there a live band and why don’t you record the music? Ryan had the perfect answer: “You can base your music better on audience reactions. This allows for more fluidity and originality in each performance.” An example of this is the Friday night performances. These performances are notoriously quieter than other nights because people are tired from the working week, therefore Ryan picks up the tempo to encourage more audience reaction. A live band also allows the actor more freedom in terms of tempo and delivery, and in case accidents in timing occur on stage. On top of which, recording is still very expensive and doesn’t allow for any changes after the fact. It also doesn’t encourage audiences to notice the music. In The Admirable Crichton, the band also has the ability to improvise during certain parts, which they appreciate.

Ryan was also asked why the band wasn’t on stage or seen during the performance, to which he replied:

  • It’s too distracting to the audience if the band had to change instruments or fix an equipment problem while the show was going on (like strings breaking, programs malfunctioning etc.).
  • Most plays don’t build the band into the story, stage or performance.
  • Their visibility takes away from the play and actors.
  • Most musicians prefer not to be seen so that they don’t have to dress up or stay still during scenes where they aren’t playing.

At the end of Elderhostel Day Two, the overarching themes I noticed are the encouragement to break the rules, adapt to anything possible and collaborating for creativity.

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Elderhostel Day One, Part Two – The Fun Stuff with the Docents and Jeff Robertson

After the history lesson, our guides, Guy Bannerman and Sharry Flett, invited some of the Elderhostel visitors to try on some period piece costumes! They gave a fantastic historical background to each piece of clothing. Guy explained that his vest, striped black and grey, was a servants vest and the stripes represented the colours of their employer’s coat of arms.

Guy and Sharry assist Elderhostel volunteers into costumes

Guy and Sharry assist Elderhostel volunteers into costumes

While wrangling a volunteer into a corset, Sharry explained the different uses of women’s clothing and accessories. Hats, gloves, parasols and fans were considered tools of power to frame beauty and mystery. They allowed women the ability to conceal and reveal as much or as little as they desired. The confining or restricting clothes made an exposed earlobe or slope of the neck more sensual. Clothing restriction also required women to be enticing through the use of language; they used beauty, manners, money and wit to get what they wanted.

One visitor asked if all the accessories were liberating or confining to young actors, and Guy replied: “We teach the rules [of the time] because a lot of [Shaw’s] plays are about getting around the rules.” It encourages actors to use their brain and emphasize words and language. It also helps them find the strength in their conviction.

From there, we took a backstage tour of the Festival Theatre, care of the Docents, which included the dressing rooms, Wardrobe department, backstage set storage and under the stage. I learned a lot of interesting and unexpected facts:

  • Once fitted for wigs, actors aren’t allowed to have different haircuts or hairstyles for the entire season and have their current haircut maintained by Shaw stylists. This is because there are painstaking measurements taken of each actor’s head, and the wig-making process can take over 24 hours in total, one real piece of hair at a time. Changing a hairstyle midway through the season can compromise the exact fit of the wig that the wigmakers worked so hard to achieve.
  • Facial hairpieces aren’t taken from unruly British mountain men, but from the coarse and curly yak! Yes, yaks! (It wasn’t explained how their hair was obtained.)
  • Though actors have helpers to assist them with wigs each performance, they do all their own makeup for allergic and hygienic reasons. Ensemble members are given the opportunity to learn how to do their makeup from professionals beforehand.
  • In the Shavian manner, there is no star power here at The Shaw; Ensemble members share group dressing rooms.
The Docents and Elderhostel visitors in the Wardrobe department

The Docents and Elderhostel visitors in the Wardrobe department

We took a quick tour through the Wardrobe department where visitors oohed and aahed at dresses on display, but what I found most interesting was that sometimes the Set Designer and Wardrobe Designer are one in the same person to promote overall design continuity.

The Wardrobe department

The Wardrobe department

Afterwards backstage, we met up with Festival Changeover Hand Jeff Robertson, who explained to us that 1/6th of the floorboards weighs 2300 lbs and that they use compressed air systems (hydraulics) to move large set pieces around during changeovers. They keep three full sets backstage at the Festival Theatre during the season, in a practically impossible space, so everything is moved around and stored very precisely.

Jeff Robertson backstage

Jeff Robertson backstage

Our last stop was under the stage, which is built so that pretty much any part of it can open into a trap door. That area is used for storage, and has a few extra dressing rooms for the first time ever. During shows, actors and crew can only navigate down there using a faint blue light and reflective floor tape.

I met back up with the Elderhostel group for a matinee performance of Candida at The Royal George. I thoroughly enjoyed how witty and playful it was, but am confused by Shaw’s actual opinion of women because apparently Candida is supposed to be a sarcastic portrayal of Shaw’s actual opinion of women and feminism. He is against the idea that men should idealize women and was under the impression that women already have most of the power in a relationship. This was echoed in the Manners Mandate lecture when Sharry and Guy said that women were considered socially superior to men by nature. I am beginning to see a theme in Shaw’s plays where the man controls the house, but the woman controls the man.

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Elderhostel Day One, Part One – Manners Mandate: A History Lesson with Guy Bannerman and Sharry Flett

As the new public relations intern for the Shaw Festival Theatre I was encouraged to attend a three day event, Elderhostel, to learn more about the people and plays of Shaw. I gladly agreed.

My adventure into Shaw started with the Manners Mandate lecture led by Guy Bannerman and Sharry Flett, two seasoned actors in The Shaw’s acting Ensemble. They discussed various topics found in Candida and My Fair Lady about manners, rules, hierarchy and their influence on Bernard Shaw’s playwriting style.

They began by asking: “what are manners?” The Elderhostel group replied: civility, codes of conduct and public displays of behaviour. After some prodding by Sharry and Guy the answer they were looking for became clearer; manners were an evolutionary process of rigidity and rules, different for every class, without which there is chaos.

Simply put, manners were an invented code of behaviours to protect the hierarchal aristocracy from the threat of the burgeoning middle class. Nobility and wealth were once obtained through strict hereditary lines. Homes, wealth and titles were passed down from family to family. However, in the 1800s the middle class was formed; they obtained wealth and land and “married up” into higher society.

The lines between the aristocrats and the lower classes were blurring and this frightened the aristocracy. The only way to maintain their position as morally superior, since wealth and ownership were no longer class distinguishers, was to invent strict rules of behaviour, resulting in the creation of manners. By observing manners, such as who offers their hand first, who eats first, what chairs are used for what occasion, one could determine if the person they were interacting with was of high or middle class.

If someone didn’t follow the rules of behaviour and manners they ran the risk of social embarrassment. In an extreme case, such as adultery, they ran the risk of divorce, loss of children and property and even banishment. In My Fair Lady one of the biggest worries is that Eliza, a lower class street urchin posing as lady of high class, will be discovered as a fraud through her language and mannerisms. If discovered, she would be socially disgraced and shunned from high society. Even Professor Higgins would lose credibility for trying to trick the higher classes.

Sharry Flett and an Elderhostel visitor

Sharry Flett and an Elderhostel visitor

This was an interesting history lesson, but I wondered what it had to do with Shaw. Well, Shaw was a follower of Karl Marx and a devout Socialist, who strongly advocated the removal of unequal class structures in society. His personal beliefs strongly influenced his plays, which went against the social mores of his time and broke the rules of a hierarchal society. In turn, this has influenced the mandate of the Shaw Festival by pushing boundaries to educate and entertain audiences every year.

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A Busy Fall at The Shaw

Logo-Ms-MarketingThe funny thing about working in Marketing at the Shaw Festival is that the busiest time of year is, in a way, the most unexpected. I recently mentioned to a friend that the Fall was going to be the beginning of my most hectic time at The Shaw, much to their surprise. Although it seems logical that when we have all 11 plays on stage we would be running wild with work, some of our busiest times are actually spent in preparation of the next season.

The Shaw Festival, although not a year-round theatre company, releases its 2012 playbill at the beginning of September, with tickets on sale for Members as early as November. For me, this will mean switching gears completely from the messages and images of our plays this year, like My Fair Lady and Drama at Inish, to our new set of plays and their themes, meanings and messages.

It will mean a major overhaul on our website, and all new signs at our theatres; an updated strategy for our social media based on our learnings from the past year; and creating new advertising that will be seen throughout our target markets in Canada and the US. It’s an exciting time of re-invention, and I am coming to understand more and more the complete marketing cycle here.

Working at The Shaw is unique for marketing – our ‘products’ change every year, and completely new messages need to be put out in to the marketplace. Although the theatre always stays within its mandate, the effective communication of these ever-varying offerings represents our opportunities and challenges each year.

The 2012 year will be an exciting one, with our 50th Season celebration coming to a close, we are not slowing down, but ramping up with some big changes and big announcements for our playbill and marketing approaches – and now we will just have to wait and see what those are!

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When the Rain Stops Falling

Logo-Ms-MarketingOld Gabrielle circles around young Gabrielle, at first at a slow pace, gradually though, she moves faster and faster until she is running around the table young Gabrielle stands on. Her voice carries throughout the entire theatre; a strong warning, and as she runs she begins to yell, passionately and violently – a premonition for young Gabrielle, the foundation of regret from a life spent lived to the extremes of worst, to best, to just lived. I can feel my heart pound. This play can’t ever end – I need to know the whole story.

Rain_1113_DC

I’ve heard the expression ‘heart-pounding’ before, of having a physical reaction to theatre, but until I saw When the Rain Stops Falling I had never experienced such a thing. This play is completely captivating, agonizing and realistic. The Shaw ensemble never ceases to amaze; the set enables the story and allows the actors to fully capture your attention. Andrew Bovell spins a remarkable web of life histories, creating a family tree ripe with discontent, disillusion, harsh realities, and yet hope. And as the title says, the rain does stop falling, and one is left feeling the rush of adrenaline produced from this plays’ emotional moments can be placed certainly in a brighter future, fuelled with the lessons from those many dark pasts.

Ric Reid opens the show – he is Gabriel York. He tells the story of his upcoming reunion with his son Andrew (Wade Bogert-O’Brien) whom he hasn’t seen for many years. The guilt he feels over abandoning him at a young age, depicted in his description of his filthy apartment that he just cannot get clean. He is the start of the play, and also marks the end of the play’s story.

Rain_0445_DCI had the pleasure of sitting in on a discussion with Leonard Connelly and some fifty theatre goers who saw the show during the Education Department’s August Seminar. The attendees talked over one another in excitement, they could not stop discussing this play’s themes, symbols and metaphors; the fish and its meaning in Christianity, the repetition of similar acts throughout the years, the chairs with dates marked ever so subtly on their backs, the postcards…

I will not elaborate greatly on the story of the play other than to say it is a layered story of a family tied together through the name Gabriel. It moves through generations in a fluid non-consecutive time order that intrigues and engages the audience. When the Rain Stops Falling is being presented in Shaw’s Studio Theatre, and is a modern Shavian. An incredibly thought-provoking play, this one is a must see.

Photos By David Cooper
Above: Wendy Thatcher and Krista Colosimo
Below: Graeme Somerville and Cast

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