JONNO at the 2016 Winnipeg Fringe

Exciting news for Echo Theatre! We are extremely pleased to bring Alix Sobler's new play JONNO to The Winnipeg Fringe Festival.

Subscribe to the website for upcoming events surrounding this very funny and controversial exploration of narcissism, entitlement culture, and consent.
www.echotheatre.net

A STRANGE PAIR

 We are having a blast! Audiences are singing and laughing along and soon (very soon) it'll all be over.
Check out these reviews: communitynewscommons

winnipegreview

Book tickets online at astrangepair.brownpapertickets.com


Or go call 204-995-6876, email echoboxoffice@gmail.com or go to the echotheatre.net

A Strange Pair

A Strange Pair

This February (2016!)
There are 2 sittings per night, (4 on Matinees).
Due to a small house size and short plays, we want to give you some bang for your buck!
SO...We've got comedy, drama, a chase scene, music, dancing and...there are two chances each night to see the show! Whether you come for the 7:30pm or the 8pm show, you will see it all, just in a different order.

Here is the teaser:

In cooperation with the Dalnavert Museum, Echo Theatre brings you yet another exciting evening of dramatics and musical interludes featuring two short plays: Countdown & A Cut in the Rates. Sit in the parlour as a married couple has tea! Hear their innermost thoughts! Be astounded by the Ratings Officer come to collect! Follow her, trembling, as you discover what's in the cellar! Be cheered and delighted by nightly musical entertainment between 8:00-8:30!

From the company who brought you such Master Playwright Festival hits as Blithe Spirit, The Skriker, Jumpers!

 

$20 evening performances (all the bells and whistles)

$15 matinees (play only, no extras!)

66 (Old) Movie Dance Scenes Mashup (Mark Ronson-Uptown Funk ft.Bruno Mars)

I had to post this because I love tap dancing so much and this makes me sooooo happy. Look at those Tap-thletes go!

New Website!

Check it out!

www.echotheatre.net

It is very new, and not all of the play info is up, but it will be...eventually!

2015/2016 Season

Fast approaching are some opportunities to have some theatre fun with Echo Theatre.

STAY TUNED for AYCKBOURNFEST February 2016

Expanded Theatrical Experiment DR. KELLOGG'S SYSTEM 2016

FRINGE 2016!!!

So stay on the line!

 

We'll be with you in a moment :)

Blithe Spirit January 2015

 

Echo Theatre presents 

Blithe Spirit for Cowardfest 2015

"I've always believed in cutting my losses. That's why I died." – Elvira

Directed by Ross McMillan

Featuring Terri Cherniack, Sarah Constible, Trish Cooper,  Simon Miron, Steven Ratzlaff, Charlene Van Buekenhout, Stefanie Wiens

Gathering material for a new novel, Charles Condomine organizes a séance. Mystic Mme. Arcati, along with Charles' wife Ruth and their friends the Bradmans, settle in for an evening of skepticism and paranormal activity. Unbeknownst to everyone but Charles, the séance is a success and Elvira, his first wife, is back in his life: a ghost who's not going anywhere anytime soon!

Nestled in the parlour at Ralph Connor House, guests will enjoy drinks and music with jazz singer Helen White and songs by the playwright himself. Do not miss this uniquely intimate evening of Coward's finest comedy!

WHEN CAN YOU SEE IT? Check these dates out:

Saturday January 24 7:30pm SOLD OUT

Sunday January 25 3:00pm SOLD OUT

Tuesday January 27 7:30pm

Wednesday January 28 7:30pm

Thursday January 29 7:30pm

Friday January 30 7:30pm

Saturday January 31 3:00pm

Saturday January 31 7:30pm

Sunday February 1 3:00pm

Tuesday February 3 7:30pm

Wednesday February 4 7:30pm

Thursday February 5 7:30pm

Friday February 6 7:30pm

Saturday February 7 3:00pm

Saturday February 7 7:30pm

Sunday February 8 3:00pm

Monday February 9 7:30pm

Tuesday February 10 7:30pm

Thursday February 12 7:30pm

Friday February 13 7:30pm

Buy Tickets

Reservation and Information at Charlene.echotheatre@gmail.com
Phone# 204-995-6876

Dr. Kellogg's System Opens May 3rd & 4th 2014

We NEED your help with our experiment.

May 3rd (b/w 7-9pm) & 4th (b/w 3-5pm)
We'd like you to show up at the Ralph Connor House (54 West Gate)

At anytime,
between those times,
to watch the show.

The show will run on repeat.
If you stay for an hour, you will have seen an entire show from the perspective of the scenes you saw. If you stay for longer, you can check out the scenes you didn't see. Get it?

The play runs throughout the house with scenes that happen at the same time, in different rooms.  Your quest?  Find the play!  Head towards the voices, follow an actor, come in or leave a scene in the middle to check something else out.  It's up to you.

We have have never done this before, and we want to see if this sort of loose, choose your own adventure format will work.

If you want to come, send me an email (or just show up), but I'd love to know if you are coming, because the more bodies there are and the more staggered your start times, the more it can help us in this crazy experiment.

charlene.echotheatre@gmail.com

Remember, suggested donation is just a suggestion if you can afford to pay less (or more), go for it!

AFTER THE SHOW, SEND ME YOUR FEEDBACK, OR MAKE A LUNCH DATE WITH ME, AND TELL ME WHAT YOUR EXPERIENCE WAS! THAT'S HOW I WILL KNOW IF IT WORKED!!

Open House

Whoa, what day is it? It's the day I actually write a blog after a *cough* year *cough* since the last one...oh I've written since then, but they were unpublishable! And I've been busy: I went to France to shoot a movie, I got married!!! I was in a big ol' show at MTC and helped put a Cherry Orchard in front of Winnipeg audiences. Quit my day job and got an acting gig. All stuff to write home about, but who had the time? Not me obviously. I don't even have it now, but since I am staring at the computer anyway, trying to finish this damned play: DR.KELLOGG'S SYSTEM at the Ralph Connor House May 3rd & 4th 2014. I thought I'd drop a line. Here it is: Open House for Dr. Kellogg's System an experimental work of theatrical experiment. No start time, no end time. Drop in, stay awhile, the show is yours to experience! Intrigued? Come and help me figure out if this type of framing convention will even work! Feedback required! Let me know if you want to come by emailing charlene.echotheatre@gmail.com

Chekhovfest 2014

As promised:

RMTC's 2014 Masterplaywright is none other than Anton Chekhov.

Hooray for us (little ECHO & TBTR) since we already decided to produce The Cherry Orchard.

We couldn't resist moving our show into the festival after learning who the playwright was, and so we will be presenting ...

The Cherry Orchard
 at the Frame Art Gallery 
January 22nd - February 9th, 2014

Actors on Acting

Actors, why did you get into acting?

Was it to play yourself in different situations?

Or was it to play different characters in their situations?

I'd like to hear what draws you to this art form, as there are differing opinions about actors and the roles they ought and want to play.  There is a school of thought that the person you are is who you can play. I call this stereotyping and I am against this.  I think that the person you are should never limit the roles you play.  An actor is trained at being empathetic and open to a myriad of situations and types of people, and it is their talent and job to relate this combination to the audience.  To be clear: The actor does not have to already be the character in real life to best portray the role.  (Actually, perspective often creates a more 3 dimensional and emotionally layered character. It's more difficult to do this when you are playing a role similar to yourself, although a good actor can do this.)

I'd like to tell a story about my theatre school days.  Our class had a project assigned to us.  It was to create/ write our own monologue based on a painting (U of W students may know what I'm talking about.  Ye olde "Painting Project" it was called).  

I had decided that I wanted to write a dramatic piece that was really emotional because it was something I hadn't done before and I wanted to challenge myself.  

The piece ended up being about France during the war and a daughter losing her father.  (I also had a secret desire to cry in the piece, as I had never done that before, and I wondered if I had it in me to get there emotionally blah blah).  SO at the end of the piece the girl finally lets herself feel the pain of losing her father and I broke down and it totally worked.  

During the end of project / grading interviews where the Prof. and student discuss the work and the reason the grade was given I had a strange experience.  I received an A on my project and we discussed the material and why I chose the painting etc.  At the point in the interview that we discussed the "tears" moment, the following exchange occurred (to the best of my memory it went something like this):

Prof:   It must have been very difficult, with your father gone, to go to that place.
Me:  ?
Prof:  Your father dying.
Me:  My father is still alive.  I was acting.

That is approximately what I remember happening.  I also remember being a little confused and hurt that the Prof. thought I would put my reality on the stage for a school project.  I was in an acting class.  I was practicing acting.

It didn't take me long to find the whole thing very funny, and interpret the experience as an example of the power an actor has to transform themselves and commit to the reality of the moment in order to transport the audience into the world of the piece. 

This brings me to my final point.  I truly believe you do not have to be the type of person to do the things your character would do.  You do have to be an actor.

So, Actors, What do you think?




(Please note: I don't believe crying onstage equals good acting.  It can be a result of good acting, and can be great.  But a lot of people (actors and non-actors) can cry on demand without emotional investment, so one does not equal the other. I happen to think that sometimes it is more moving to watch someone try NOT to cry than to watch the waterworks.  In the words of the great Winnipeg actor Doreen Brownstone "If you (the actor) cry, they (the audience) won't.")
 

It's a scary scary scary SCARY musical world

Thought of the day: As we settle into January (and it's new weather format) I have a few things to say on the subject of fear.  Apart from some obvious uses of fear in our world, in our country (most recently the Harper government attempting to cast a shadow on the Idle No More movement and discredit Chief Spence by releasing that Attawapiskat audit early is out of, you guessed it, FEAR!), and closer to home, personally I feel fear plays an enormous part in a person's creative self.

Since I was very little I wanted to be a performer.  It scared me half to death, but something inside of me (and sometimes my mom, outside of me) pushed me onto that stage for fear that, if I didn't I would never be happy and always regretful.  Actually this did happen one time, I was supposed to recite a poem for a festival and I let my fear take over.  I made my mom take me home before we even made it through the door, and I never want to feel that feeling again.  I could feel it coming from my mom too, I think she was disappointed or at least frustrated with my stubbornness, but I was really paralyzed with fear. 

Since then, I continue to believe that if something that is interesting to  me scares me that much, its probably worth doing, if only to alleviate the energy that piles up when being anxious about it.  Since then I have continued pointing my career aspirations towards that scary wooded area that isn't lit.  Which brings me to the present moment.  I find myself in Sondheim's Into The Woods, a musical with District Theatre Collective. 

The key word in this is "musical".  I don't do musicals.

I've done a lot of things that have been scary for me.  Aerial dancing, clowning, producing theatre, etc...

AND...

I love singing, I sing all the time at home, I have done little songs in shows I've produced (mostly silly, joky, simple stuff), but I don't do musicals. 

To better clarify the point of this, I have stopped auditioning for musicals and have adopted a "no musical" policy in my auditioning circuits because it never goes well.  In fact, it usually turns out awful.  All of my audition nerves live inside my throat and show themselves when attempting to sing, for people, who might give me a job.  I have voice training FOR SPEAKING, and music training FOR INSTRUMENTS, but I DO NOT have singing training.

Isn't this just perfect?  Somehow the universe has thrown me into this scary thing in order to face my fears.As the musical director of the show said, when I decided I couldn't sing "that high" and that the show director told me I could just speak these lyrics, "I think you're just scared".  YES!  Nailed it!  I was/am just scared.  It doesn't make me a better singer to admit that.  But, what it did do was fuel my desire to not let fear take over.  I am practicing my little bits of singing every day and am getting better at hitting the notes.  By no means will I be an amazing singer (like the singers in the show, GO SEE INTO THE WOODS IN SONDHEIM FEST!) , but at least I won't have to live with the feeling that fear won.  It's only fear because I haven't experienced it yet.

Now all I have to do is sing, for people, who have paid money to see the show.  GULP!

(Please check out all of the talented people involved in Sondheimfest this year.) 

Life is FULL of CHERRIES!!!

ANNOUNCEMENT:
Little ECHO Theatre in a theatrical partnership with Theatre By The River will be presenting Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard sometime in the future, somewhere, and somehow.  In any case, it will occur.
 For more info about TBTR head to:
http://www.theatrebytheriver.com/home.html

4 stars for Lulu

I maintain that it deserves 5, but I guess the acoustics of the venue, of which we have no control (although I did hang some blankets at the back of the room) prevent our full star potential.

http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/scene/fringe/2012/07/lulu-a-monster-tragedy.html

Anyway, here is the CBC review by a very well informed reviewer who knows his theatrical stuff.  It's an actual review of the production and not just an acoustic complaint like some other  "reviewers" (if you can call some that, since they don't review theatre for the entire year, yet we are to accept their opinions as authority.  Oh Fringe, where is thy sting?).  Bitterness?  No!  If I, as a theatre artist, am to be open to criticism of my art, then so should they, as theatre reviewers, be open to criticism of their art. 

Lulu's promo video - a taste of what's to come!

We have AIR CONDITIONING

We now have an air conditioner in our venue.  Please tell everyone and anyone who might not come to a show with no a/c that they have nothing to worry about. 
It's a big room and a small a/c but it won't be as hot as outside, and it won't be cold.  So you don't have to pack a sweater to see the Lulu or Lungs shows in Venue 25.  You just have to come, sit, and drink in the talent. 

How much?

Every once in a while I am astonished that more people don't know what it costs to put on a show.  Not just a show, but a fringe show because there is a price cap and the ticket amount does not reflect expenses.  Personally, I don't keep it a secret, and I don't think it should be.

So here is a breakdown of Lulu so far: ( $ are rounded for aesthetic purposes )

Fringe BYOV cost : $675

Venue rental: $1000

Rehearsal space: $475

Copyrights: $600

Actor Equity insurance (if you use professional actors in the fringe you have to pay insurance, in case we get hurt)  : $290

Costumes: $100 (so far, we've done alot of borrowing, but some things had to be built and bought)

Set: $45 (so far.  we've got a beautiful venue and did some borrowing so didn't need to purchase much for sets)

Posters and Handbills: $100 (I haven't printed the posters yet so am just going to round out the number to $50, it might be more.   800 handbills cost me $50)

Lighting , sound, and chairs are all borrowed so we dodged a bullet there too!

Running Total = $3285

Please note this does not include any paycheques for the actors, director or stage manager :-(

This is where the audience comes in!

Let's average the ticket price at $9 (regular 10, 8 matinee and 2 for 10 on opening)

If 35 people come for every show I will have covered our costs.  If more people come after that, I'll be able to pay everyone for their excellent work.

Can we do it?

Smoky The Fringe Dancing Bear says:

Only YOU can prevent unpaid Theatre artists!

Last minute

Remember when I said I was prepared?  Well, it turns out I'm in the same place as I always am as the Fringe quickly approaches.  The panicked state when you realize you open next week.

It's the last minute life style and things are coming together, albeit a bit later than I'd hoped. 

Someone asked me this week

"how are you feeling about things?"

I think as promoters we are to say

 "great!  hope you'll come see it!"

But as honesty always trumps my forethought or common sense in situations like these I said

 "We are in that scary place where you don't know if the show is going to come together"

 I quickly ammended my comment with:

 "of course it always does"

and it does.  But every year, every show you get to feel that little bit of fear.  Keeps you on your toes, as they say.

HOPE YOU'LL COME SEE IT!

Lulu's Venue, Show Times & Ticket Prices!

July 

Wed 18   6:30pm * 2 for $10 *

Thur 19   6:30pm

Fri    20   8:30pm

Sat   21   6:30pm

Sun  22   1:30pm

Tue   24    6:30pm

Wed 25    6:30pm

Thur 26    8:30pm

Fri    27    6:30pm

Sat   28    8:30pm

Sun  29    1:30pm

Regular $10

Matinee $8

Venue 25

72 Princess - 3rd Floor (Absurd Machine Studios)

https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=72+princess+winnipeg&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&hnear=72+Princess+St,+Winnipeg,+Division+No.+11,+Manitoba+R3B+1K2&gl=ca&t=m&z=16

Most Unusually Prepared

The rehearsal space is paid for, cast is confirmed, the handbills are designed, printed and circulating...in a most unusual turn of events, I am on the other side of fringe prep hell.  Not sure what this bodes, but it should feel good, right?  

It feels weird.  This has never happened to me.  Usually I'm sitting in someone's office (who has photo-shop) trying to desperately to insert, cut, and paste a poster together (while teaching myself photo-shop, because I am the only one in the arts community who has no idea how to use it) so it can be printed and ready to go for the weekend before fringe opening.


I feel like I'm forgetting something...maybe a huge oversight will rear it's fangs and I'll be off running the fringe race against time again.


Yet To do list:
-Costumes (find and borrow)
-Props (find and borrow)
-Set (find and borrow)
-Blood prep & rehearsal (make blood, test for effect)
-*Have a read through of the play with cast
-*Rehearse play for best results


*Super important


So all I've really done so far is a little advanced marketing...phew, there are tons of things for me to do before the show.