Need A Little Gut-Wrenching: A Review

And really who doesn't every now and then?  Luckily, when I found myself in need of something more thought provoking and visceral than the usual entertainment that abounds at this time of year (tent-pole productions, anyone?), I had You Won't Be Here (Tomorrow) to turn to.  Produced by young theatre company Theater in Spite Of, this play is approximately sixty minutes of an emotional roller coaster ride that grabs the audience by the gut and refuses to let go.  Written by James Fanizza and directed by Carrie Adelstein, this two hander production moves deftly from heartbreaking tragedy to laugh-out-loud humour.  Joss Whedon would be proud.

And that tip of the hat most definitely goes to writer Fanizza.  They say that writing is akin to opening a blood vein and letting it flow onto the page.  While not autobiographical in any specific sense, Fanizza did draw on personal experience to write this play.  It takes courage to write and present anything publicly but the sheer tenacity to showcase such a gritty play that focuses on women is almost unheard of.  And the risk to wade into such tumultuous waters paid off in spades as evidence by the emotional response of audience with very few dry eyes in the house.  

The action revolves around two sisters, Julie (played by Julie Lemieux) and Simone (played by Karen Ivany) and delves as much into their shared history as it does into their present circumstances.  Despite there only being two characters physically present on stage, it feels as though an entire cast of characters is waiting in the wings, full developed and waiting be explored.  This feeling is intentional according to Adelstein.  She wanted to make the worlds of these characters so real that the audience never questions whether or not these two women are related.  It became part of the rehearsal process to really discuss and develop the back story of Julie and Simone. Which in turn allows for the actresses to act like family, being able to communicate an entire lifetime of bitterness, love, and feeling with a single glance at each other.

Which provides an excellent segue into the acting of this play.  As an actress, I can tell you that really wonderful and deep material for women barely exists, either on stage or on film.  These parts are masterfully written by Fanizza and give these actresses something to really immerse themselves in.  And immerse they do.  Lemieux's portrayal of Julie is astonishing.  Tightly wound, distrustful, but with that shred of kinda-maybe-hope that is so evident in so many people in her position.  (Yes, I'm being vague on purpose. Go see it to know what I'm talking about.)  Lemieux's years as a voice actress are fully on display here as I'm sure her natural voice is not the years-of-drinking-I-just-swallowed-an-entire-ashtray-of-cigarette-butts growl I heard on stage.  Let's face it.  We all know a person like this and watching Lemieux bring it to life on stage was both amazing and painful in a wonderful way.

Karen Ivany as Simone is the perfect counterpoint.  Again, she's that neighbour, friend, or family member everybody knows that is so perfect you just want to barf.  Her struggles are so real and so poignant that her shiny gleam of perfection becomes another cross for her to bear.  And if we all know someone like Julie, we've all been Simone; the friend or family member that doggedly picks up the pieces tragedy after tragedy and holds up bitter hope that life will be better for a loved one.  Ivany walks the thin line of supporter and hardliner in this production with ease.  She nails Simone's quickly drying up patience with her sister while still loving her deeply.  And her vulnerability as she reveals more about her own tribulations are some of  the most hard-hitting moments in the play.

Part of the site specific portion of the Toronto Fringe Festival, any mention of this production would not be complete without mentioning the location.  Located in The White House Studio at 277.5 Augusta Ave (yup, slightly out of the traditional Fringe perimeter), the "set" is as much a character here as Julie and Simone.  It's dirty, messy, and derelict, reflecting much of the emotional work these two characters deal with, both on stage and off.  It's intimate and that's just how Adelstein wanted it. With the actresses a mere foot or two away, the audience is forced to experience this play more as passive participants, rather than spectators. Confused by that sentence? Just feel the physical reaction of the audience as a collective whole as the play builds up to its climatic ending and you'll know what I mean.

There are a few chances left to see this locally produced production and I highly recommend you take that chance.  Here are the remaining showtimes as well as ticket information:

• July 08 08:00 PM
  July 10 08:00 PM
  July 11 08:00 PM
  July 12 08:00 PM
  July 13 08:00 PM
  July 14 08:00 PM
• All individual Fringe tickets are $10 at the door (cash only). Tickets are available online at www.fringetoronto.com, by phone at 416-966-1062, in person at the Fringe Club, 581 Bloor St. W, July 3rd-14th, noon – 10pm (Advance tickets are $11 – $9+$2 service charge)
• Value packs are available if you plan to see at least 5 shows.

Happy creating!  And Fringe-ing!

Musings from a (formerly) Silent Actress

All right, full disclosure: I've been silent since my last blog post.  And I mean silent.  Right after that long ago post in March, I woke up sans voice.  First thought, laryngitis.  But then it didn't go away after a week, two weeks, a month.  So off I went to the specialist who diagnosed me with a paralyzed left vocal cord. And while the kind doctor assured me that it really wasn't as traumatic as it sounded and up to two thirds of patients recover fully, my natural dramatic tendencies kicked into overdrive.  Paralyzed....PARALYZED!?! As in, nothing-you-can-do-about-it paralyzed?  The cause was unknown which is normal with this condition and treatment options were limited.  Really, the only treatment available in Canada is injecting a substance (it has a long and complicated medical name that I don't even begin to remember) into the affected vocal cord and even that doesn't make the thing move, it just helps eliminate some of the symptoms.  But doing something, anything appealed to my Type A personality.  So while the thought of having a needle put through my throat caused some panic attacks, I had to do something.

I'm not a huge fan of not having control over my life and career.  Yes, that seems to be at odds with my career choice but for all rights and purposes, I believe that actors do control their careers.  There is always something we can do to be working.  But this condition suddenly brought to light that there are some things I don't and never will have control over.  And it terrified me. Beyond the obvious lack of being able to audition well, any parts I was offered through my wonderful film family, I had to turn down. I didn't know from one day to the next whether my voice would be kinda OK or not at all.  In no way did I want to be responsible for possibly lessening the quality of their finished products. I began to question my abilities and inevitably, my thoughts turned to possible career changes.  Which, of course, nearly killed me.  I'm an actor.  I love acting. How could I possibly consider doing anything else?  I had one spectacular breakdown caused by simply booting up Netflix to watch Arrested Development.  Needless to say, I wasn't a happy camper.

Slowly but surely over the course of three months, those close to me kept insisting that my voice was sounding better.  I refused to believe it, figuring that my right vocal cord was just getting used to compensating for the lazy left one.  But then one day, when I was home alone, I was able to sing.  It wasn't great and it was no where near my usual range but music came out of my mouth.  I nearly cried.  That's when I started to hope.  I had already been doing visualizations of energy running through the nerves of my vocal cord (no one told me to do this, I just figured it couldn't hurt) so this spurred me on to do it more.  It's amazing what even a small shred of evidence of progress can do to a person.

Fast forward to the day I was booked to get the dreaded needle through my throat.  Not only was I scared out of mind (I'm OK with needles, I'm just not OK with needles going through my throat) and nervous about the cost (FYI: not everything is free in a universal healthcare system), I was stressed that I would be doing this procedure every three months until I either healed or they would have to do surgery.  The doctor had explained this wouldn't get my voice back, it would merely make it stronger.  But still my voice was sounding better.  I could get through a day without devolving into silence by five.  So imagine what happened to that small glimmer of hope when I opened my mouth to say hello to the doctor and his immediate response was, "Your voice is better"; it erupted into a full-fledged inferno.  One scope look later pronounced me almost 100% better, no injection required.  The left cord is still a little slow and lazy but it moves.  Trust me, I saw it on the nifty video.  I happy danced and high fived my husband all the way out of the hospital.

So things are looking up.  As one of my besties said when I joyous called her with news, no career change needed.  Call it the power of prayer, visualizations, karma, or whatever, I've woken up each day since sending off oodles of gratitude to the universe.  Cuz, really despite of it all, life is just plain fantastic.  And I'm telling everyone!

Happy creating!

Web Series: The Future is Knocking

OK, I'm going to put out my broad definition of web series.  For the purposes of things I post, when I refer to "web series", I'm referring to serialized shows that are intended to be watched via a device that connects to the interwebz.  So this very broad definition includes (for me) not only your YouTube friendly shows, but those shown on channels such as Kold Cast , Blip, Vimeo, and, yes, Netflix and Hulu.

This may show my age (I'm twenty.  Twenty, I tell you) but I remember when online videos were actually just cute annoying home videos that were for families to enjoy while the rest of us pretended to be fascinated that Bobby could now count to thirty.  Then, they evolved into mini episodes of your favourite TV show (translation: available through your cable package chock full of commercials) usually involving a secondary character but mostly designed to carry the audience through to next season.

But not-so-quietly breaking ground outside of this realm came the gamechangers.  Now, you may not agree with my picks on this front but in my opinion, these guys kick the door open for the rest of us.  Felicia Day and Joss Whedon.  Felicia Day, after realizing that her online gaming addiction was proving more steady than Hollywood, wrote, produced, and starred in "The Guild".  Using the age-old adage of writing what she knew, it's about online gamers.  From it's humble beginnings (all those names in the credits are people who donated to the production) to it's uber-huge presence on Netflix and XBox, that show paved the way for creators who were sick of the traditional gatekeepers.

Then came a musical blog by Joss Whedon.  "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog" was created while the WGA strike was raging a few years ago.  Basically, Joss wanted to be working on something.  So did his friends.  So he called up his buddies to see if they wanted to play. For free. And behold, the awesomeness which is Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day singing about superheroes, villainy, and love was born.  The three part series was released slowly over a month or so and proved so popular that not only did it win awards, it broke the internet.  Seriously, the mountains of viewers disabled the site's servers.  Constantly.

And now here we are.  Everything is viewed online.  Videos are the key to business even outside the film world.  Just look at any moderately current website.  There's probably a video on there.  I count myself lucky that the Toronto web series community is one of the best in the world.  Don't believe me? Do some Googling of "Out With Dad", "Clutch", "Mircowave Porn", "Pretty in Geek", or "Pete Winning and The Pirates".  These indie productions are mostly self-funded a la Dr. Horrible and are garnering a ton of international and national attention.

While these shows are entering their second and third seasons, a whole new crop of series are breaking out of the gate.  It's an exciting time for indie producers and creators.  People are watching and sharing.  And the big wigs are taking notice. So much so, the big studios are funding their own web series but that's a whole other post.  So let's suit up and show 'em what we've got.

Happy creating!

One Small Choice

Recently, I went out for coffee with a friend I haven't seen in fifteen years.  While even just the fact I can say that I have friends that I haven't seen in over a decade is mind-boggling (aren't I still sixteen?), it came to light during our discussion that one of my biggest regrets in life could have been a huge opportunity.  Let me set the stage:

I'm fifteen and accompanying my then boyfriend to an audition in Toronto.  This is HUGE deal because we are from a super small town and he has an actual agent and is being sent on actual auditions.  So cool, right? We have both been acting in our community theatre for years so this sort of thing is amazing to us.  He's excited and nervous but really wants to break into musical theatre.  Like a good teen girlfriend, I helped him with his sides.  Quite frankly, I thought it was the weirdest thing I've ever read, all chock full of mutant teenagers or possibly aliens. But preparing is preparing.

So I'm sitting in the waiting room and the casting director (or possibly assistant.  I was fifteen and didn't really pay attention to anything but my teenaged angst) comes out of the audition room.  She stopped and looked at me for a moment before asking if I wanted to audition.  I giggled nervously and assured her that I was only an amateur actor doing community theatre.  So no auditioning for me.  I was just waiting for someone. 

And that was that.  I've often wondered where my life would have ended up if I had said yes to that casting director.  Would I still be acting?  Would I have met some of my dearest friends?  Would I have met my husband?  But mostly, I shrugged it off as a learning experience.

Turns out that audition for something I thought was kinda weird?  It was for a huge franchise.  I'm talking huge.  They're still making movies for it.  Fifteen. Years. Later.  

New lesson for me: I said "no" to something because I didn't know what it was and I wasn't sure of myself.  By saying "no" to it, I passed on something that could have been life-altering.  I'm not saying that I would have gotten a part but imagine if I had.  Or imagine if I had started along the professional acting path almost a decade sooner than I did.  Would I be in LA now?  I'm not saying it's probable but I am saying it's possible.

So here's the moral of the story.  Don't say "no" just because you don't get it.  Definitely don't say "no" because you don't think you can do it.  Just say "yes" because you never know what mutant franchise starring future Oscar nominees you might be cast in.

Happy creating!

Shameless Self Promotion

It's time for a little bit of sharing!  I did this short film at the end of 2011, against the very lovely backdrop of High Park.  I love this film for a number of reasons: 1) it was the first time I worked with Jay Clarke, the writer, director and producer.  Jay is fan of all things horror and thriller and is a practical institution on the horror scene here; 2) I got to work with my husband again.  We met originally on set so whenever we film together it's like we're recreating that first meeting; 3) my character is something entirely different from what I usually play.  For those actors out there, you know how awesome that is.  Quite often we are cast by our type (read: first impression).  This script let me play outside that boundary.  And I loved it.  And you know you rocked it when your agent gets so into it, she calls your character a name!

Anyway, enjoy Orange!

Happy creating!

Awards Season!

The commercials are playing, people are commenting on fashion choices, and die-hard fans are getting into online arguments over what should win what.  It can only mean one thing: award season!  

The Globes are done (ummm, just sign up Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for everything, OK?), Sundance is under way (not technically an award show but winning at Sundance is a pretty good indicator of future success.  See Jennifer Lawrence), and the Oscars are next month.

So what are your favourites this season?  Lincoln? Or do you prefer your drama set against the musical backdrop a la Les Miserables?  Speaking of signing up for everything, just give Anne Hathaway all the awards.  Seriously.  If the amount of tears shed by audience members equals the amount of hardware someone goes home with, she should actually get all the awards for all time.

Regardless of your picks, I hope you're enjoying this year's round of industry kudos as much as I am!

Happy creating!

Tonya