director's notes 2

Chris Stanton came to rehs yesterday (Sound Designer) and we played with foley sound created by the actors to blend/mix with recorded sound. This kind of meta-theatrical approach (actors on stage watching actors perform, creating scenic and aural shifts/support for the action) is at the core of the kind of theatre that I learned working with James Reaney and Keith Turnbull years ago on Reaney's Donnelly trilogy. Reaney referred to it as "Kanuki Theatre". I love it, but I always end up questioning my love of it because we live in such a cynical age when it comes to such simple theatre traditions. Audience and practitioner alike has been inundated with so much "realistic" drama via TV and film that the predominance of "naturalistic" theatre in the Toronto theatre scene at one point became, for me, suffocating.

Anyhoo---it was fun to try and replicate the sound of a pot of burning turnips and the sound of Janine (played by Kyra Harper) scraping the grill in her cafe..the sound of potatoes deep frying (popcorn kernals poured into a steel bowl).

We are spending probably way too much time for the actors' taste trying to get the scene changes moving smoothly and briskly (see post #1) and I feel that old pinch of time trying to make sure that I give the scene work enough time and attention. NOTE to self--make sure you do!

Three weeks rehearsal for a new play--how does this country's theatre survive this way. Flo is fantastic support in rehs but there is so much to learn about the play and so much tinkering text wise to make sure it is "right". It is tragic that our theatres consistently do not have the infrastructure and funding to commit to a six week rehs period for new plays---if only the arts councils and foundations had a fund for new productions that specifically focused funding to additional weeks of rehs of new works. So much is at stake for the writer..we are a country for the most part of one production for new plays..the ones that get picked up are so dependent on strong first productions to make that impact.