Lost & Found Theatre scores with “Pocket Rocket”

23 Saturday Apr 2016

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Drama, Lost & Found Theatre, Pocket Rocket, Review, Waterloo Region

There are any number of hockey cliches that could be used to describe Pocket Rocket: A play in three periods currently being staged by Kitchener’s Lost & Found Theatre. Using any one of them (except in this blog’s head) would detract from the excellence of the production.

The first act, or period, took me back to my own adolescence in small Southwestern Ontario town where road hockey was the pastime of choice. I recognized (and remembered who was) the play’s characters:

Steve (Andrei Preda) – the jock who thought he was better than everyone else and let everyone know it.
Paul (Mark Kreder) – the physically and socially awkward teen with overprotective parents who desperately wanted to fit in.
Dave (Matt White) – the vulnerable one whose family circumstances leads him to look for a family in his friends.
Cindy/Sid (Hannah Ziss) – the tomboy on the brink of becoming a young woman.
Ifty (Suchiththa Desilva) – the new kid on the block and the outsider who changes the group’s dynamics.

Pocket Rocket is filled with humour, pathos and heart-wrenching emotion that will find you laughing one moment and deep in thought the next.

With Act 1 set in 1967, “Canada’s last great year” pronounces Steve, Pocket Rocket opens with our 14-year-olds – Steve, Paul, Dave and Cindy – saying good-bye to an old friend, hello to a new friend and discovering more about themselves than they want to. Playwrights Lea Daniel and Gary Kirkham have written a script filled with humour, pathos and heart-wrenching emotion that will find you laughing one moment and deep in thought the next.

In Act/Period 2, now set in 1981, the friends gather to help Dave move and, for old times’ sake, have another game of road hockey. The tensions – sexual, personal, familial and otherwise – introduced in Act 1 continue to simmer until they explode. By the end of the act everything has changed leaving everyone wondering if life will ever be the same. The shift in time gives the cast a chance to showcase their acting muscles from convincingly portraying adolescents to maturing adults.

Act/Period 3 opens 14 years later with the friends gathering for another farewell and one last road hockey game. Some of the old tensions remain, while others have been resolved. If I had one criticism of Pocket Rocket it’s that the play’s denouement seemed somewhat rushed in this act leaving some of the plays issues (especially around Dave and Steve) unanswered.

Pocket Rocket is another stellar effort from Lost & Found Theatre. To riff on Steve’s opening line, all I can say is “I love this play.”

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Pocket Rocket continues until April 30. For more performance and ticket information check http://www.lostandfoundtheatre.ca/#!performances/ffiv7

Film will move viewers close enough to hear God breathe

15 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by Robert White in Review

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Breathe..., Drama, DVD, Greg Paul, Jason Hildebrand, Jazz, Mike Janzen, Review

The scenes in Breathe… derive from a variety of sources:

Paul’s own life: in the opening vignette, “father…”, the opening vignette, tells the story of the last day’s of Paul’s father. “soapbox preacher…” tells how Paul’s grandfather was saved through the ministry of a Hamilton street evangelist.

Every aspect of Breathe… depicts the deepest need of the human heart: intimacy with God.

Scripture: “baptist…” portrays Jesus baptism by his cousin John (and effectively uses a rolling fog effect to portray the Jordan River). “feast…” invites all to be close enough to hear God breathe and celebrate His feast.

Paul’s ministry to the street-involved: “rob…” a poignant portrayal of a man succumbing to the demons of addiction that he’d long fought. “leonard…” a childhood friend of Paul’s who wonders if “God could love me like my grandmother does.”

The sparse set, for the most part, comprises only Hildebrand and Janzen at a grand piano. And, occasionally, a wooden chair. The lighting for each scene (predominantly white, with only a few color settings) helps set the mood, with a fog effect being used to depict smoke, clouds or water.

Along with restrained camera work, Breathe… gives the viewer the chance to be caught up in each story as Hildebrand brings to life the unforgettable characters Paul depicted on the page: from the gruffness of his father, to the lost innocence of Leonard, from the bewilderment of a street preacher, to the tenderness of a father with his newborn daughter.

Janzen’s score to Breathe… is as integral to the film as Hildebrand’s acting. Without it, Leonard’s story would be less poignant, the feast less meaningful and the father’s time with his newborn daughter less tender. But it’s not just the music. Janzen uses a looping effect to provide sound effects for a couple of scenes, including the bustle of Hamilton’s steel industry in the 1920s.

Every aspect of Breathe… – Hildebrand’s acting, Janzen’s music and the filmmaking – depicts the deepest need of the human heart: intimacy with God. For some, it will raise more questions than it answers. For others, it will provide the answers to their questions. For all, it will move them towards that moment where they’re “close enough to hear God breathe.”

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For more information on Breathe… go to http://www.jasonhildebrand.com

To listen to an Arts Connection interview with Jason Hildebrand and Mike Janzen talk about the creation of the stage version of Breathe… check http://tinyurl.com/h73s62e

And for more on how you can support Arts Connection go to: https://www.gofundme.com/artsconnection

“The Masked Saint” sets the bar for Christian filmmakers

20 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by Robert White in Review

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Canadian, Christian, Drama, Movie, Review, The Masked Saint

When Pastor Chris Samuels, the main character in The Masked Saint (portrayed by Brett Granstaff), is at his lowest, his wife Michelle (Lara Jean Chorostecki) makes as statement that sums up the whole movie:

“You’ve always been that little boy who’s afraid of the bully. Don’t be the bully. You’ve always been a son who’s looking for his father. Now you have to look after the church. You’ve always been a man looking for a second chance. Now you have one.”

The Masked Saint, which opens in Canadian theatres this coming weekend, is based on the novel by pastor Chris Whaley and is based on Whaley’s own career as a professional wrestler in the 1980s. In the movie, after being called to a small church in Michigan, Samuels faces a shrinking congregation, dwindling finances and a hostile neighbourhood. Thinking he’s left the ring for good, Samuels ends up using his wrestling skills as a masked vigilante and then as a way to prop up the congregation’s finances.

Having been disappointed by previous Christian films, I previewed The Masked Saint with some skepticism. But I was disappointed again. The film exceeded my expectations and, in my opinion has reset the bar for other Christian filmmakers.

The Masked Saint presents a solid story with well-developed and believable characters

Unlike other movies in this genre, The Masked Saint presents a solid story with well-developed and believable characters. Chris Samuels isn’t a perfect pastor who has it all together. In much the same way that Eric Liddell found God’s pleasure in running in Chariots of Fire, it isn’t until the saintly Ms Edna (veteran actor Diahann Carroll) encourages Chris to get back into the wrestling ring and use his God-given talents.

Still, The Masked Saint had a few weaknesses. One is in the character of Judd Lumpkin (Patrick McKenna), which comes across as more of a caricature of a controlling church board chair, than a believable character. This makes Lumpkin’s own repentance scene seem slightly contrived. Another weakness would be how some police procedures (the line-up scene) are sacrificed for the sake of increasing tension and conflict. In the end, though, the story and characters overcome any weaknesses.

From producer Cliff McDowell’s home-town of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario substituting for Michigan to the wrestling sequences, The Masked Saint is beautifully shot. And the use of wrestlers-turned-actors Roddy Piper (as the less-than-honest wrestling promoter Nicky Stone) and James Preston Rogers (as the Reaper) add authenticity to the movie.

As Chris Samuels struggles with his calling and the consequences from following that calling, The Masked Saint builds to an inevitable conclusion. That’s not to say it’s a cliched conclusion – there’s still lots of room for doubt and a surprise ending right up until the final scene. And that’s what makes The Masked Saint stand head and shoulders above its peers.

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For information on the Canadian release of The Masked Saint check http://www.p23ent.com/

New year a time of promise, wonder, excitement

14 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by Robert White in Commentary, General

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Arts Commentary, Arts Connection, Audience of One theatre company, Christians and the arts, Drama, Goals, New Year

A new page. A clean slate. A blank computer screen. An unpainted canvas. An unfilled calendar

For those of us in the arts, these phrases – new page, blank computer screen or unpainted canvas – take on a different meaning. Instead of representing a metaphorical new start, these phrases literally depict the start of our creative process.

Last year I began setting goals instead of making resolutions, some of which were vocationally related. Some I accomplished (finish The Fall of Niagara, begin the outline/treatment for The Fall of Tecumseh and continue work on the Stone Churches Project). Others weren’t (start a Love Inspired historical romance, start the outline for a book on the intersection of faith, arts and Canadian culture and find funding for the Arts Connection broadcasts on 94.3 Faith FM). One vocational project I hadn’t planned, but completed, was co-writing and seeing the Audience of One Christian Theatre Company production of the musical Meet You at the Manger.

I’ve continued this practice and created a list of vocational goals for 2016: find a publisher for The Fall of Niagara, continue the first draft of The Fall of Tecumseh, complete the photography and research for the Stone Churches Project, work on an other play for the Audience of One and look at the start-up of an event photography business.

The concept of goal-setting can seem to fly in the face of the creative spirit.

To some, the concept of goal-setting can fly in the face of the creative spirit. Until a year ago, I was more like the boy who shot an arrow at the side of the barn and painted the target around the arrow. Some targets were missed, but others were hit. And that encourages me. My experience last year showed that goals can be as motivating as an editor’s deadline.

As artists who are Christian, spiritual growth may not be among the list of vocational goals, but I hope it’s a life goal. Topping my list of goals in 2015 was the desire to maintain a consistent devotional life with daily prayer and Bible reading. The one-year chronological plan through the YouVersion smart phone app was key to meeting the last part of that goal.

Working on my 2016 goals, topping the list, again, was a desire to grow spiritually through prayer and study. As the calendar turns a page and I’m reminded of God’s faithfulness to me, I pledge my faithfulness to God. I don’t know what this year will bring—happiness or pain, loss or gain, health or illness—but I know that God will be in the midst of it all, carrying me through whatever happens.

My new year’s wish is that your blank slate, unwritten page, unpainted canvas, empty computer screen will be filled as God breathes His creative spirit into your life.

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Portions of this column appeared in the January 2, 2016 edition of the Guelph Mercury column “Make the spiritual a priority in your new year.”

Latest Lost & Found Theatre play destined to be a Christmas classic

08 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by Robert White in Review

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A Christmas Carol, Arts Commentary, Charles Dickens, Charles Dickens Writes A Christmas Carol, Christmas, Drama, Lost & Found Theatre Company, Waterloo Region

Descriptions such as “a holiday classic” or “must-see theatre” have been used so frequently that they seem hyperbolic this time of year.

This isn’t the case with Lost & Found Theatre’s latest production: Charles Dickens Writes A Christmas Carol. If tonight’s performance is any indicator, this play is destined to be a Christmas classic and certainly is must-see theatre for the few performances that remain.

Written by L&F company member Richard Quesnel, Charles Dickens Writes A Christmas Carol tells the story behind the now-classic story of the redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge.

“Written in 1843, a time when the celebration of Christmas was considered out of fashion in London, A Christmas Carol became one of the most popular books of the English language and has been credited by some as ‘almost single-handedly reviving the Christmas holiday'” writes Quesnel in the playwright’s notes.

The play depicts the challenges Dickens (Gareth Potter) faced in providing his publisher with a story as successful as The Pickwick Papers – which had been published seven years earlier. Drawing inspiration from a group of carollers and a tightfisted publisher who insisted on new and publishable work by Christmas morning, Dickens slaves through the night to produce A Christmas Carol.

Charles Dickens Writes A Christmas Carol seamlessly weaves the story of how Dickens crafted the story with the story itself

Quesnel, who also directed the play, seamlessly weaves the story of how Dickens crafted the story with the story itself. Potter assumes the role of both Dickens and Bob Crachit while L&F company member Christy Ziss is memorable as Mrs. Dickens and Mrs. Cratchit. Both veteran actor Ted Follows (Jacob Marley/Old Joe) and L&F’s Kathleen Sheehy (Mrs. Dilber/Mrs. Fezziwig) are unforgettable.

For me, the challenge of any actor depicting Ebenezer Scrooge is meeting the standard set by Alistair Sim in the 1951 film Scrooge. Vince Carlin’s portrayal of Mr. Hall/Scrooge meets and, dare I admit it, exceeds that standard. In his own way, Carlin shows Scrooge’s self-centred approach to life in which only his business is preeminent. By the end of the visits of the three spirits, Carlin is able to demonstrate Scrooge’s repentance in which mankind becomes his business.

From a cast which effectively handles British accents and Victorian dialogue, to a simple set which transforms itself from Dickens’ study to the Cratchit’s cottage to Scrooge’s bedroom, the play shines. A particularly memorable scene, often missing from film versions of the story, is the Ghost of Christmas Present’s visit to those celebrating Christmas: a pair of miners, a lighthouse keeper and those aboard a ship at sea. Under Quesnel’s direction, the scene features carols in German, French, another language I couldn’t quite catch and ends with an English version of the the traditional Austrian carol “Still, Still, Still” in a moment which brought the audience, including myself, to tears.

The acting is superb. The set is stunning. The original music is moving. Charles Dickens Writes A Christmas Carol will become a Christmas tradition. And that’s a prediction, not hyperbole.

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Charles Dickens Writes A Christmas Carol continues its run at the Conrad Centre in Kitchner until Saturday, December 12. For ticket information check http://www.lostandfoundtheatre.com/

To listen to playwright/director Richard Quesnel talk about the origins and production of Charles Dickens Writes A Christmas Carol check http://tinyurl.com/ojf22xr

Stretching creative muscles may ache, but they’ll be stronger in the long run

21 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by Robert White in General

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Audience of One theatre company, Christians and the arts, Christmas, Drama

Around the time the Audience of One Christian Theatre Company was holding auditions for this year’s Christmas production, I came across the link to an article titled “How to be a Playwright in the New Play Rehearsal Room.”

The article was full of great advice, especially since this was the first time a work I’d written was being produced. I was quite willing to put into practice the advice playwright Stephen Spotswood suggested:

Be around for the first few rehearsals so you can answer questions about character, plot and structure
Get to know your director (which had already been done while we worked on the initial drafts of Meet You At the Manger).
Be ready to listen to actors who may either ask questions or make suggestions.
See the script as a blueprint which can be modified (instead of quoting Pharoah from The Ten Commandments by saying “So let it be written. So let it be done.”)
Know when to put some distance between you and the play to allow the director and actors to develop the play.

This project has opened new avenues of creativity for me. First, it was taking two short stories I’d written and crafting them into a script. Second was working on song lyrics which were edited, polished and put to music by Audience of One artistic director Kim Pottruff. Second, in my conversations with Kim, I shared my long-standing interest in directing, so she invited me to take on the task of assistant director. Third, once auditions were over, we found we still needed a male actor/singer for the role of the play’s antagonist. Despite my reservations and limitations, I was cast and began learning the lines I’d written (and realized the remainder of Spotswood’s advice was now irrelevant).

This project has opened new avenues of creativity.

Rehearsals have been underway for a few weeks now. Recently the cast and musicians gathered for a Saturday rehearsal and worked through the first half of Meet You at the Manger. Up to that point, the cast was working on individual scenes or working with the musical director (who initially auditioned for a part, but whose background suited him to his current role). The “stumble through” allowed the cast to see the sum of the parts.

The stumble through also demonstrated the collaborative side of workshopping a new production. The songs Kim created had initially been transcribed by a musician who is now back home in Ireland. Those transcriptions are being worked into shape by the musical director. As we put roles, music and blocking together, ideas come to the fore — from everyone: director, musicians, actors, writer. Working through one section, where we moved from one scene to the next for the first time, a blocking idea came out that brought out some humour and foreshadowing.

As I’ve said in previous posts, being involved with this production is an adventure. And it’s an adventure that’s stretching my creative muscles. Yes, sometimes those creative muscles ache but I know, in the long run, they’ll be stronger for the experience.

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For more information go to http://www.audienceofoneguelph.ca/

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Post-interview chat leads to new Christmas musical

25 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by Robert White in General

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Arts Connection, Audience of One theatre company, Christmas, Drama, Meet You at the Manger

One of the joys of my work is the chance to meet with all sorts of interesting people. And also never knowing what will be the outcome of one of those meetings.

One of my latest projects, a Christmas musical titled Meet You At the Manger began as a conversation with Audience of One Christian Theatre Company artistic director Kim Pottruff. She had come to the Faith FM studios to take part in an Arts Connection interview. In the conversation that followed, I found out the new Guelph-based amateur theatre company was looking for new material.

My interest in theatre goes back to high school where I was part of Ridge Players, a community theatre company that, by the time I landed in the chorus, were producing shows like Oklahoma, Carousel and Fiddler on the Roof. I was also involved in a number of church productions and when I started attending Lakeside Church, I became part of its now-defunct drama team and landed the role of Caiphas in Lakeside’s production of Dust of the Rabbi.

This production is a fresh look at the Christmas story

Along the way, I’d written a few unproduced sketches and even a full-length play – something I mentioned in the conversation with Kim. Whether I offered or she asked, copies were sent to her in the hopes that one would be produced.

She wasn’t interested in any of the ones I sent. Instead, she asked if I could write a Christmas musical. I knew I take a shot at writing the script (or “book” as commonly known in musical theatre circles). But it had been a while since I’d tried songwriting. Still, I said “yes.”

Skipping to the salient parts, I wrote the book and took a stab at the lyrics. Kim honed the lyrics and came up with the music. Et voila, a musical was born:

Ro’i never wanted to be shepherd. Sharar never wanted to be an innkeeper. When they were childhood friends, neither expected to become each other’s sworn enemy. Meet You At The Manger follows Ro’i’s and Sharar’s lives from their boyhood escapades and adult animosities to their reunion at the manger in Bethlehem. This production is a fresh look at the Christmas story and its impact on the lives of those who encounter the Babe of Bethlehem

The journey, to date, has been exhilarating and challenging. And we’re only at the halfway point. Kim and I will meet later this week to go over last minute details before next week’s pre-production meeting. Then, from September 10 to 12, auditions will take place before rehearsals start later that month.

What’s been going through my mind lately is: “this is really happening.” And a mixture of trepidation and triumph. I’m still anxious about what the audience reaction will be once the curtain goes up on opening night. But I’m excited that there will be an opening night.

I hope to see you there.

For more information about auditions, check http://www.audienceofoneguelph.ca/productions

Exposing ourselves through our art

14 Thursday May 2015

Posted by Robert White in Commentary

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Arts Commentary, Audience of One theatre company, Christians and the arts, Christmas, Drama

Last night ranked among the top 20 of the most exciting and most anxiety-inducing experiences I’ve had as an artist.

I’ve dabbled in theatre, starting in high school as an extra with the Ridge Players, which started out with Gilbert & Sullivan works, eventually expanding to contemporary musical theatre. I started out as part of the chorus in my first couple of musicals, graduating to Boy #1 in the next two. I took part in church-produced production as an adult and became part of a church drama team.

Even though I enjoyed treading the boards, writing was still my first love and began writing sketches and plays. All, at the moment, unpublished and unproduced. But God intervened last December when, through an Arts Connection broadcast, I met Kim Pottruff, artistic director of Audience of One (http://www.audienceofoneguelph.ca), a new Christian amateur theatre group in Guelph.

While researching the company’s website, I noticed they were looking for playwrights. So I mentioned to Kim that I had a few plays gathering dust in my computer and wondered if she’d be interested in reading them. By the beginning of February, I was writing the script to a musical which, if all goes well, will be staged in December.

Which brings me to Wednesday, May 13, where nine people gathered to read through, aloud, for the first time the script of Meet You at the Manger.

You’d think after three decades as a journalist and author, I’d be used to setting my words free for others to read

You’d think after three decades as a journalist and author, I’d be used to setting my words free for others to read – never knowing what readers thought of them. A table reading is an entirely different experience. You’re sitting there, with your words exposed by another’s voice, disappointed when a particular word or phrase didn’t quite work and excited when people laugh at the right time.

But that’s the tension we face as artists. Without a reader or an audience or a viewer, the book or play or movie or music or painting are simply exercises in self expression that will gather dust. And for those of us who are trying to impart a Christian worldview through their art, that message is muted and our calling is unfulfilled.

While we may worry about the reaction to our work, we can’t let that prevent us from making it public. We do need to make sure our art has been polished and perfected as much as possible. But there’s a point when we have release our art even if we don’t think it’s perfect.

And that’s the point I reached with Meet You at the Manger . I know it still needs work. But I also needed to hear other voices speak the words of the characters. And I dreaded the first read-through. I feared the changes that might be suggested. I worried they wouldn’t understand what had been written.

All in vain.

For the most part, the readers gave positive feedback. Except for a few words or lines here and there that needed to be changed, and a section that relies more heavily on the still-to-be-completed song than the script, they liked it. They really liked it.

This is only the first step setting the play free. There’s still opening night and the play’s run before a live audience. And the jitters that will come.

For now, it’s back to proofing and polishing.

Book takes “Subway Stations of the Cross” from the stage to the page

01 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by Robert White in Book Review

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Book Review, Canadian culture, Drama, Ins Choi, Visual Arts

A year ago, during the one of the runs of the award-winning play Kim’s Convenience, I had the chance to talk to Ins Choi about one of his other works: Subway Stations of the Cross.

Subway Stations of the Cross has its roots in a conversation Ins had with a homeless man in a park in downtown Toronto. Puzzled by what seemed to be ramblings at the time, Ins eventually found himself intrigued by what was said and began writing poems and songs based on it. By 2009 he began performing a song or poem in church services during Lent, a project that ultimately grew into a 20-minute performance.

“Over the years it started to grow and grow and now it at about an hour long,” said Ins in the interview.

Now, this work of the stage has been transformed into a work of the written page with the House of Anansi Press publication of Ins’ spoken-word poems and songs, beautifully illustrated by artist Guno Park.

The book opens with an illustration of Ins in character as the play’s nameless vagabond who is both beggar and seer. The poem “Repent” sets the tone for the book with lines that seamlessly meld social comment, humour and theology:

“Compare/Laissez-faire/Up in the air/On a whim and a prayer/Neither here nor there/Neither hide nor hair/Multi-million dollar home five car garage private jet plane mega-billionaire/MDiv PhD summa cum laud professor director member fellow published text book nicky picky air tight I’m right doctrinaire ye the way of the Lord.”

My personal favorites are “Bread” and “Wine” (two poems that look, separately, at the elements of the Last Supper), “Birkenstock Jesus” (which asks “If Jesus came to visit us today/How would he react to the church?”) and “A Field” (the parable of the hidden treasure from Matthew 13). But I also find a new “favourite” every time I read through the book again.

The beauty of Ins’ words is matched by Guno Park’s wonderful illustrations. “Guno and I grew up in the same church in Toronto, Toronto Korean Bethel Church,” writes Ins in the Author’s Note. “For an immigrant Korean church, or any church for that matter, it had an unusually disproportionate amount of artists.” In the same note, Ins says Guno’s drawings were “the perfect visual companion to my poems and songs.”

And they are. The publisher has formatted the book so that Guno’s pen and ink subway scenes can fold out in a panorama of human drama. Or as Ins writes: “like lost travellers on a holy pilgrimage who, after many years, forgot where they were going and why.”

While Subway Stations of the Cross can be a quick read, its complexities will draw the readers back to it time and time again for new insights into human and divine natures. It’s going to be in my re-read pile for a long time.

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For the complete interview with Ins Choi, which looks at Kim’s Convenience and Subway Stations of the Cross go to: http://selawministries.ca/content/arts-connection-monday-april-7-2014-ins-choi-kims-convenience-and-subway-stations-cross

Arts Connection

~ The intersection of faith, arts and Canadian culture

Tag Archives: Drama

Top 2016 posts feature artists, musicians, playwrights and authors

February 9, 2016

February 17, 2016

March 15, 2016

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Lost & Found Theatre scores with “Pocket Rocket”

Film will move viewers close enough to hear God breathe

“The Masked Saint” sets the bar for Christian filmmakers

New year a time of promise, wonder, excitement

Latest Lost & Found Theatre play destined to be a Christmas classic

Stretching creative muscles may ache, but they’ll be stronger in the long run

Post-interview chat leads to new Christmas musical

Exposing ourselves through our art

Book takes “Subway Stations of the Cross” from the stage to the page