MAGAZINE FOR FRIENDS AND PARTNERS SUMMER 2021 3 Contents 2 THE EXTENSIVE 6 CATCHING UP WITH KYLE 10 SHAPING OUR WORLD: ON WITH THE SHAW! 12 THE NOT-SO-MYSTERY PROJECTS 15 CALENDAR 18 UPCOMING EVENTS FOR OUR FRIENDS AND PARTNERS 19 WELCOME NEW GOVERNORS COUNCIL AND CORPORATE PARTNERS 20 LEGACIES OF LOVE 21 2021 ENSEMBLE Shaw Magazine is a publication for the Friends Editor: Marion Rawson and Partners of the Shaw Festival. Design: Key Gordon Communications Production and Ensemble photography: David Cooper Photography Editorial Committee: Tim Carroll, Kate Hennig, and Lauren Garbutt Tim Jennings, Kimberley Rampersad, Marion Rawson Backstage and Niagara photography: Cosmo Condina Photography Artistic Director: Tim Carroll Your comments are welcome. Executive Director: Tim Jennings Please call the Membership Office at 1-800-657-1106 ext 2556 4 “In 2016, while I was still a rather ghostly figure about The Shaw – it was Jackie Maxwell’s last season; I was busy putting together my first – I spent a good deal of my time among the audience during intermissions. I would plant myself in a discreet spot to watch and listen. I learnt a lot, as you can imagine. Perhaps the most surprising thing I discovered was that we were not making the most of one of our most thrilling advantages: our garden, with its view of the Commons. I soon realised that, for shows at the Festival, the vast majority of our audience simply parked up early in our car park and sat in their seats for twenty minutes, or rushed to the front door late having had a terrible time trying to park in the town. At the end of the show there was a predictable rush to avoid the traffic and get on the road. I calculated that most people who saw a show at the Festival not only never went into the garden; they probably didn’t even know it was there. Well, COVID has solved that, hasn’t it? After four years of Pop-up Patios, Secret Theatre events, Poems in the Trees and other initiatives designed to lure people out to discover the stunning beauty of our situation, now I lurk in the intermissions and hear people saying: “This is so beautiful out here! Who knew?” We know it now. And we shan’t forget.” This page and cover: photos by Andrew Broderick. Andrew by photos and cover: page This – Tim Carroll, Artistic Director Shaw Festival 10 Queen’s Parade BMO Stage is sponsored by: Box 774 Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON L0S 1J0 1 The Extensive The Academy “extensive”: that’s what Peter Jewett, our board chair, dubbed 2021 Slaight the 2021 Slaight Family Academy Intensive. I thought it entirely apropos. Family Academy Two things became abundantly clear through our process: nothing replaces in-person learning; and the virtual Intensive — world provides unique opportunities and outreach — take advantage of it! Engaging with virtual learning allowed us March 1-13 to expand our annual training program in several ways. First, and most dramatically, we increased our attendance. Where normally we have between eight and twelve participants, this year we had sixty-three! The elimination of distance, was the second bonus: we were able to bring teaching artists from the UK, from Pittsburgh, from Chicago, from Halifax, and from Vancouver. We were able to provide training to artists from Newfoundland, from New York City, and from the Yukon. I think that both artist and educator were relieved to “stay at home” under the current circumstances. The programming began with core classes, as always: voice, movement, scene study. In addition we had singing, puppetry, rhetoric, and accent work. In the evenings, after classes, we held four Symposia on various topics: Indigenizing Musical Theatre - Dillan Meighan Chiblow, Anishnaabe actor/singer/storyteller 2 The by Kate Hennig Extensive in conversation with the Shaw’s Julie Lumsden; and Writing as Creative Process - Governor General’s Literary Award winning playwright, Hiro Kanagawa, in conversation with The Shaw’s Kate Hennig, were broadcast live on YouTube. The Actor and Universal Law, with life coach and inspiration speaker Claire Lautier; and Gender Identity in Theatre, with gender consultant and theatre maker Josephine Kearns, were each broadcast on Zoom. With the help of our communications and education departments we reached out to training programs across North America, and, though it’s hard to say how far afield we were broadcasting, we did reach about 300 people in all. Zoom fatigue is real, and everyone was pretty bleary-eyed by the time the wrap party happened on Saturday night. But, all in all, despite trying to do movement class in one’s apartment, and trying to do voice class with the mute on, and endlessly dealing with “freezing” and “dropping out”, we all managed, quite miraculously, Quick Facts to pull off an exceptional two weeks of connection, practice, learning, and 2 weeks of online classes contribution. So grateful. 63 participants on 17 courses 300 attendees of 4 symposia In addition to the ongoing support A virtual wrap party - BYOP of The Slaight Family Foundation, the Shaw Festival gratefully (bring your own pizza) acknowledges a generous bequest from Ada Slaight earlier this year. 3 The Monologue Jam — A new initiative In the early autumn, as the pandemic was in a bit of a trough before the second wave, I was feeling compassion for the young people who were planning on entering their professional lives as actors in 2020, some of whom we would normally be auditioning at this time. So I came up with a two-stage initiative we called the Monologue Jam. The first stage consisted of individual monologues in a group setting. We received 130 applicants, and saw 115 of these in Zoom rooms of 14-16 actors each session. Actors prepared a two minute monologue of their choice. The sessions were one hour in length, and actors attended the entire session observing their peers at work. From this initial group I chose 40 actors for the second stage. This was a virtual acting class, with 8 participants in each session, led by Tim Carroll and Kimberley Rampersad. For this second stage the young actors had one week to prepare a two minute monologue of George Bernard Shaw. In the end, Tim Carroll, Kimberley Rampersad, and I agreed on sixteen young actors that were given “honourable mention”. It was later decided that due to the unique “virtual” circumstances of this year’s Slaight Family Academy Intensive these young artists would be invited to apply for courses and continue to work within this Shaw Program. Of the sixteen, fourteen were able to participate. Previous page: Puppetry class with Mike Petersen. This page: Kalarippayattu with Brandy Leary (bottom left hand corner of lowest picture). All photos captured by Kate Hennig. Participants from Monologue Jam Alison Beckwith Owen Boucher Jack Copland “My pal Dillan Chiblow and I took our usual topic Brynn Godenir of conversation public exploring the future possibilities and opportunities of bringing Ray Jacildo the Indigenous experience into line with new, Karthik Kadam old and yet to be created musicals. We were humbled to see over 150 artists, friends, and David Klein community members tune in to watch. We Erin Loretta Mackey were even more grateful for the thoughtful Jawon Mapp questions that flooded in in the final 30 minutes of the chat. The possibilities of Indigenizing Francis Masaba theatre are endless, as we discussed that night, Izzy Nagel and there is not one right way to move forward, but many, especially with the support of those Anni Ramsay who watched, reached out and participated in Elena Reyes our Symposia talk. We are all moving the needle for Seven Generations from now. Iris Rhian Maarsii to all who joined us!” — Julie Lumsden 4 2021 Slaight Family Academy Intensive Team Kate Hennig Director of Artist Development Jeff Cummings Planning Director Stephanie Filippi Company Manager Meredith Macdonald Series: Andrew Broderick participates Production Stage Manager in Esie Mensah’s Movement and Michelle Mohammed Intention class. Communications Assistant Teaching Artists Brandy Leary Kalarippayattu Tim Carroll TC Class Kate Hennig Voice and Text Alexis Milligan Speaking in Silence Suba Sankaran South Indian Singing and Rhythm Kimberley Rampersad Scene Study - Shaw Ausar Stewart Free Your Voice Graeme Somerville The Word Hoard Mike Petersen Puppetry Esie Mensah Movement and Intension Paul Sportelli Song Interpretation Marcus Youssef Character, Self, and Other Edda Sharpe How to Do Accents Jaz Fairy J Movement and Imagination Philip Akin Scene Study - Suzan-Lori Parks Nova Bhattacharya Playlists for Practice Selma Dimitrijevic Scene Study - Ella Hickson 5 CATCHING UP WITH BY: MARION RAWSON KYLE 6 M: WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST LONG DISTANCE INTERVIEWS HAVE YEAR AND A BIT? K: Needless to say, the past fourteen months have been unlike any other. Some of what I try to bring to my acting has suddenly become BECOME THE NORM THESE DAYS, critical to practice in my daily life: simply trying to be in the moment without getting caught in thinking too far ahead. The Shaw’s resilience in the face of these challenges has been SO IT IS NOT SURPRISING THAT THAT astounding. Just over a year ago we moved our 2020 rehearsals to Zoom. Then through the summer Ryan deSouza and I produced a series called “Gift of Song” where members IS HOW I CAUGHT UP WITH KYLE BLAIR of the ensemble recorded musical offerings which were delivered to over 50 individuals as well as long-term care homes in the Niagara community. I ended 2020 performing in The RECENTLY. WHAT MAY BE SURPRISING Shaw concert series. In the midst of this, not knowing if we’d be able to continue our Shaw work, I decided to start a Master’s degree which I am still engaged with.