TenBareToes Entertainment Inc. > News & Blog

Enter the Scriptorium

By admin | Published: April 11, 2013

Do you collect scripts?
Do you have one or two in particular you might want to produce/direct/act in one day?
Do you get tired of only reading them to your goldfish?
Do you get easily bored on Sunday nights?

Do you like to read?
Do you like to make up voices?
Do you have a gift for cold-reading under minimal direction?
Do you also get easily bored on Sunday nights?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions (and especially if you answered yes to ALL of them), TenBareToes Entertainment invites you to:

THE SCRIPTORIUM

Sunday April 21
Sunday June 23
Sunday August 25
(all events 7-10pm)

University of Waterloo
Hagey Hall room 119

This is a fun, free, performance & learning event open to the amateur theatre community, moderated by Yours Truly (Kb Grierson).

Every evening, we’ll pick 4-6 scripts from those people bring on the night. Those with scripts to present are required to prepare one scene that showcases some significant aspect of the show as a whole: plot development, crisis point, characterization and dialogue, etc. Bring enough copies of the scene to provide one for every speaking character. You give us a brief overview of the storyline and the major characters, tell us where the selected scene fits in the overall arc, and volunteer readers will do a cold read of the scene for you.

After the reading, we will discuss what you heard and learned from the addition of new/different voices, and your ideas around staging the production. Generally there will be experienced local amateur theatrefolk on hand (including directors, technical people, stage managers, and other experienced actors) who can provide some feedback on potential production challenges.

Script suggestions:

Most theatre addicts have scripts lying around, especially ones you’re toying with directing/producing/acting in one day. The SCRIPTORIUM is mostly aimed at public domain or commercially-published plays rather than original scripts (there’s on outfit in KW called Pat The Dog that does readings with playwrights and their original material). If there is sufficient interest in doing original amateur material, though, we’ll work that in.

Children are explicitly welcome to attend and participate; be aware there may be adult language and themes in the material provided on any given night, but we’ll work up a warning system for that so kids can clear out beforehand if necessary.

If you have any questions, please contact Anita or Kb

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Much Ado about Nothing at all…

By Anita Kilgour | Published: April 10, 2013

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
 For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
 For want of a horse the rider was lost.
 For want of a rider the message was lost.
 For want of a message the battle was lost.
 For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
 And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

One of the things I am learning, all over again, is have your ducks in a row (or have all the nails you need) before you tell people things.  Unfortunately, I lost one of my nails.

It is my unfortunate position to announce that we will not be doing Much Ado About Nothing this summer.  The greatest shotgun production in the west is going to have to get put on the shelf due to circumstances beyond our control.

I’m very sorry to those who had made time and invested emotionally in this project. Such are the wages of theatre – even with the widest and best pool of talent in the region, sometimes, that isn’t enough and you can’t make things happen, even with the best of intents. To those who were planning on coming to auditions, my sincere and profound apologies and I hope to see you out to future auditions for future projects.

Keep an eye out here for news of other plans for the summer that will involve less overarching need of personnel.

I’m going to go buy some nails now.

Anita Kilgour
Creative Director
TenBareToes Entertainment

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Today’s promo shoot for Much Ado About Nothing.

By Anita Kilgour | Published: March 16, 2013

Thanks Erin for making this possible!

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Audition Notice – Much Ado About Nothing

By Anita Kilgour | Published: March 5, 2013

AUDITION NOTICE:

TenBareToes Entertainment presents Much Ado about Nothing, written by William Shakespeare, adapted by Josie Rourke & Rob Hastie

OPEN ROLES:

  • Leonato, Hero’s father & Beatrice’s uncle (40-60 male)
  • Hero, Beatrice’s younger cousin (20-something female)
  • Claudio, Don Pedro’s companion, Hero’s lover (20-something male)
  • Balthazar, Don Pedro’s companion (male, 19+; singing ability preferred, experience playing guitar-like instruments also preferred)
  • Don John, Don Pedro’s villainous brother (male, 20-40)
  • Borachio, Don John’s companion (male, 20-40)
  • Dogberry, leader of the local Watch (30-50 male)
  • Messenger (M/F, 19+, minor speaking role)
  • Boy (M/F, 19-early 20s)
  • Verges, Dogberry’s sergeant-at-arms (M/F, 19+)
  • (Hugh) Otecake, a watchman (M/F, 19+)
  • (George) Seacole, a watchman (M/F, 19+)
  • Sexton (M/F, 30+)
  • Friar (male 30+)
  • 2-4 “attendants”; also function as stage crew (M/F, 19+)

AUDITION LOCATION:

UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO,
Math & Computer (MC) Bldg, room 2017
7-10pm

AUDITION* DATES:

MONDAY APRIL 15, 7-10PM
TUESDAY APRIL 16, 7-10PM
(CALLBACKS: THURSDAY APRIL 18, 7-10PM)
*All auditioners will be notified one way or the other by the end of Sunday April 21st.

AUDITION REQUIREMENTS

Please bring one prepared monologue, preferably in period language, 3-5 minutes in length. You will also be required to cold-read from the script.

Please provide ONE (1) copy of your theatrical CV; headshots welcome but not required (we will take your photo during the audition; all audition photos will be deleted immediately upon completing the casting process.)

**REHEARSALS BEGIN APRIL 30 2013**

TUESDAYS 7-10PM
THURSDAYS 7-10PM
SUNDAYS 12-6PM
(additional rehearsals may be scheduled as required)
TECH/DRESS REHEARSALS: AUGUST 3-6

PERFORMANCE DATES:

AUGUST 8-10, 15-17, 22-24 (12 shows total, inc. 3 Saturday matinees)

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And now a word from our guest director…

By Anita Kilgour | Published: February 19, 2013

I’m pleased as punch to be heading back onto the TenBareToes deck this summer with a surprise production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. I say “surprise”, because it went from one of those “something we’ll do someday” fantasy projects to “OMG we’ve seriously got a SHOW” in about 72 hours right around Valentine’s Day. How we got there is a funny story, but one perhaps best not shared in a public venue. Or sober. Probably both.

Anita and I have both long held Much Ado in a very special place in our respective hearts, and it has been something we’ve been discussing as a joint project since before I directed my first show in 2007. It remains one of Shakespeare’s most endearing scripts not only because it is a comedy but because, in comparison to many of his historical or tragic works, the language remains both vibrant and accessible to the masses down through the intervening centuries. The tragedies were written to move a jaded Elizabethan court, the histories to teach it; the comedies, on the other hand, were most often for the public. It’s not just the witty repartée between Beatrice and Benedick that keeps this particular story lively, but it’s Beatrice’s own timeless observations and cynical understandings of the limitations of being a woman, echoed in the waiting woman Margaret’s own flirtations with Benedick (“What, shall I always be below stairs, then?”) and lived out in the marriage of Hero to Claudio, that keep much of this story relevant. Countless re-tellings have offered new angles to the story and characters; new adaptations and stagings keep the dialogue moving in contemporary fashions. I am delighted beyond measure to be able to work with what I think is one of the most brilliant of those modern adaptations, the 2011 revision edited by Josie Rourke and Rob Hastie. In it, I believe we’ll find a revitalization of the characters and themes that leave no doubt that this is still as relevant and engaging a tale in the 21st century as it was in Shakespeare’s own time.

To that end, please allow me to introduce the principle casting for TenBareToes’ 2013 production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing:

Benedick/Conrade: Chris Klein
Conrade/Benedick: William Russel
Beatrice/Ursula: Anita Kilgour
Ursula/Beatrice: Erin Moffat

Don Pedro: Jim Hill
Antonia (Leonato’s wife): Susan St. John
Dogberry: Greg MacNeill
Margaret: Ange Clayfield

Some principle casting may continue in the next few weeks, but I expect to shortly announce open auditions for the remaining roles to be held in mid-April. We’re also still in the process of pulling together a team of production leads, so watch this space for updates!

- Karen Grierson

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Announcing the summer 2013 production

By Anita Kilgour | Published: February 18, 2013

TenBareToes Entertainment presents its 2013 production, Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”, directed by Karen Grierson. Performance dates are August 8-10, 15-17, 22-24 (with Saturday matinees), at Kitchener-Waterloo Little Theatre: 9 Princess Street East, Waterloo ON.

We are immediately seeking an experienced Technical Director (experience with the KWLT space preferred) and Costume Head, as well as Front of House manager, ASMs and/or tech & stage crew. Please email the director at kb.grierson@gmail.com to apply or volunteer.

We will also be doing an open casting call in April (dates TBD) for several supporting and minor roles. Audition details will be announced shortly, and rehearsals will commence the beginning of May.

Please note: Because of the director’s availability issues, the rehearsal schedule is already set for Tuesday/Thursday evenings, and Sunday afternoons 12-6p. Those considering volunteering or auditioning MUST be available for those dates; the rehearsal schedule is non-negotiable.

Watch this space for more production and ticket sale information!

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Stratford & Henry V

By Anita Kilgour | Published: July 25, 2012

So last night, I joined a couple good friends and we headed over to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival to watch Henry V.

Henry V is one of the few Shakespearean histories that I really enjoy. Pretty much, Henry & Richard are the two that I can stay awake in.  Charismatic kings – who knew? I’ve seen Henry a number of times, both professionally staged & amateur.  I like this play.

Short version – I really enjoyed it.  Technical aspects were amazing, performance was very good.  Couple moments where I questioned decisions, but overall, really lovely.

Longer version.  ;-)

One of my friends & I wound up in a disagreement regarding the treatment of the Chorus.  In a different treatment than I have seen, the Chorus was portrayed by the company as opposed to a single entity.  By splitting up the lines and having it come out of many mouths, there were times when I did lose the thread of what was being said slightly (the worst, sadly when an actor who had a prop in his hands in front of his face then walked up the aisle in the orchestra, voice lost to me in the balcony  despite his valiant efforts), but the effect for me was that of History speaking.  Many mouths, one story.

I adored the technical aspects of the show.  The bridge that dominates the stage was battlement, balcony, ramp & roof.  The use of it to change the heights of the actors and assist in the fluid changes of locations was wonderful.  The simple dark staining of the wood made it trivial for it to be anywhere and everywhere.  To add to the bridge were the banners – England’s St. George Cross and France’s Fleur-De-Lis, dropping in from the arch of the stage and then falling in seconds as the scene ended.  The banners were writ large on the floor when the second half began & we met the French & English in the hours before the Battle of Agincourt.

Anyone who’s been to Stratford’s Festival Theatre knows about the traps on their stage.  They have them and they use them well, but possibly my favourite visual of the night was the night before Agincourt as Henry dons a cloak & walks through among the men.  They had brought the actors playing the soldiers up on the stage, in groups gathered around the traps.  They opened the traps & then lay down, cloaks wrapped tight against the cold ground.  Heartbeats later, campfires lit in the traps.  Combined with the dim stage lights & the slight mist from the fog machines above, you had the feel of a battlefield camp, heavy with the need for sleep the night before the day to come but watchful for strangers.  It was glorious and an excellent use of the traps.

Possibly my favourite Henry moment in the play was the final scene as we go from a confident & in control Henry to the Henry that delights us as we see the human man, not the heroic warrior king, unmanned by a slip of French princess.  The timing on the 3 comedic moments that must be right (for me) was pretty much bang on perfect & left me happy & giggling.

That made up, mostly, for the very human error that happened in the first act.  Harry is throwing the tennis balls that the Dauphin has sent to him as “treasure” while making threats of what he will do to the French when one of the balls hits the floor in front of him.  The actor quickly ducked down, picked up the ball & put it back in the box – and my suspension of disbelief died when he did.  It was completely out of character for the irate King who is in the middle of chastising foreigners for insulting him.  It was normal for an actor who is making sure that errant props don’t wind up tripping up someone else, but it should never have happened.  Almost anyone else on the stage could have picked it up except Henry.  I can understand the impulse as an actor.  As a director, I would have made sure that the actors on the stage understood who was responsible for it if it happened (when you’re dealing with flying objects, you have to assume at some point, something goes screwy).  That it was  a dropped ball was so very apropos.

There are other bits I loved, but I’ll leave it for you to go see the show.  It was fun, it was technically brilliant and there were enough moments of shining performances that I am seriously considering going again.

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Thinking about Cyrano

By Anita Kilgour | Published: May 22, 2012

Anyone who’s done my directing prep workshop is familiar now with the fact that I want to do Cyrano de Bergerac as my next play.  Actually, anyone who’s spent any real time near me at all knows that.

During the workshop, I used what I had done as prep for Cyrano to give the attendees examples of what sorts of things I meant when I said “write up what you want, what you need, where your problem children are and start brainstorming how you’ll fix that.”  (I also fundamentally believe it isn’t the director’s job to figure out how to make the costume work (for example), but if the director can’t be arsed to think of a way it might work, then they can’t give any real information to the costumer.  But that’s me and my generally opinionated way about doing things.)

One of the phrases I used a lot during the workshop was “this is the plan, and no plan survives first contact.”  Theatre is a collaborative exercise.  The actors & technicians are not automatons and part of why you want to work with them is for the skills, imagination & passion that drive them.  Your eventual project is all of those dreams wound together to form a stronger tie to pull the audience into the world you build.  So no matter how brilliant and how fully formed your vision and your prep is, something will happen, often in rehearsal or discussion with tech, that will cause you to have a “huh – which path do I choose?” moment.  That point where you ask yourself is your original plan what you want to do still or is this new option better.  I tried to convey during the workshop the acid test I use.  “Will this make the story better?  Will it be something that makes it work better?”  If so, go for it.  If not, turf it.  And if you’re not sure, decide anyway.  Nothing and I mean nothing kills a show more than a director who cannot make decisions.

All of which leads to what’s been happening to me for the last 10 days.  I’ve wanted to do Cyrano for a while, but one of the limiting factors has been a location.  The theatres we can really afford right now are too small to put that number of actors with swords in.  The theatres that might be able to hold it are well & truly out of my price range.

Then I talked to a lovely friend I haven’t seen in ages (thanks, Amanda!) who works in the industry in Toronto and she made a suggestion that was the proverbial butterfly wing to my plan.  She suggested I take a look at finding a warehouse space that was willing to take a month or two rental – that I could probably find one for roughly what I was paying in rent for the ones I can afford but would be larger.  There would be drawbacks (no theatre, for example), but if we make the hook that it is in a warehouse, then we might just make this work.

That was two Saturdays ago.

For most of the following 7 days, it perked quietly in the back of my head.  With Shadowlands coming into its closing weekend, I had a number of t’s to cross & i’s to dot, so I didn’t spend a lot of time actively thinking about Cyrano.

If you saw Shadowlands, you know how utterly proud of that cast & crew I am.  They are amazing. If you didn’t see it, you missed out.  Seriously.

Sunday morning at 4am, I am leaving the strike party.  I’m driving one of the cast/crew members home and after dropping them off, the cascade starts.

I don’t know how other directors do this, and I’m not saying I don’t have to do a lot of just plain slug-tastic gruntwork when I’m developing a play, but I live for the moments where the cascade happens.  Where the kernel idea suddenly hits enough braincells that I find myself going “okay, if that, then this.  and if I do this, then I will need that over there, and, and, and, and…”  Where the itch to direct goes from being the mild irritation of a single mosquito bite to hundreds of them and I have to direct to get the images out of my head and on a stage.  It is where I get my passion for this.  Well, that and the moment where I can hear the audience collectively react to something I’ve done to mess with their heads.  That’s pretty awesome too.

Yes, I’m deliberately not saying what I want to do with Cyrano yet, because as awesome as the cascading ideas are, I need to sit still with the script for a bit and do that internal weighing.  I think that this will serve the story, give me something I can sell, give me a place I can do it in and give me a take on Cyrano that hasn’t been done (or if it has, I can’t find it on Google).  I need to test the idea.  I need to talk to my nascent team and ask just how insane I am for changing things.  My original idea of Cyrano was very classic – 17th C France with all the lace & frippery that calls for with Cyrano’s plainer soldier’s garb standing clear against it.  My new concept calls for a very different look but I think I can make it work.  But I need to (those of you who took the class, say it with me) read my script again.

I think I know what I’m doing for the next few weeks….

 

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Hungry before Shadowlands?

By Anita Kilgour | Published: May 3, 2012

The Embassy Bar & Grill

Just finished talking with Dorothy and the folks at the Embassy Bar & Grill.  They’re right across the street from KWLT, facing King Street. She’s offering a 10% discount (excepting alcohol) to all TenBareToes patrons upon providing proof (tickets or a print out of your ticket confirmation email) for the night of the performance you are attending.  The food there is wonderful and we’re hoping to have a long lasting relationship.

So, if you’re hungry before the show, head on over with your tickets & they’ll make sure you have a great meal before you amble across the street to KWLT to see the show.

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Down to the Wire

By admin | Published: April 25, 2012

‘Twas a week before Op’ning, and all through the house,
The cast was in panic, the crew much did grouse…

I don’t know how it is for other companies, professional or amateur, but the final month before opening night, and the last two weeks in particular, really drive home the magnitude of the undertaking that is theatre. Especially since the play polishing with Philip Akin of Obsidian Theatre in mid-April, it seems like the production clock has been running down at twice the usual speed. There have been two build days in my garage (the theatre is too small to house a workspace of its own), the polishing, the move-in and set build, all in addition to the regular rehearsal schedule. The last two weeks, starting this past weekend, have looked like this:

Saturday: Build day #2
Sunday: early morning truck rental and loading, load-in @ theatre, set building, rehearsal, initial set painting
Monday: rehearsal @ theatre
Tuesday (blessed non-theatre night)
Wednesday (tonight): final build & painting @ theatre
Thursday (tomorrow): rehearsal @ theatre
Friday: light hang
Saturday: Tech Weekend officially starts (cast call is 10am, I’ll be there an hour or more early)
Sunday: Tech Weekend continues with either cue-to-cue or a full rehearsal
Monday: Tech/Dress 1
Tuesday: Tech/Dress 2
Wednesday: dark night
Thursday: Opening Night and the ON After-Party
Friday: show night
Saturday: show night
(Sunday: I’m in Stratford for 8:30am for the Festival’s all-day Directors’ Workshop)

And in case it’s not already looking like rather a lot, there are day jobs, and families, and the other typical dross of daily life (eating, sleeping, doing laundry, et cetera) mixed in with the theatrical commitments for good measure.

It’s these final two weeks leading up to opening a show that really test the mettle of a director; of the entire company, really, especially for amateurs since we don’t have the dubious luxury of doing this as our day jobs. Our art has to squeeze around the margins of other life necessities. And sometimes, it comes with one hell of a toll to pay when all is said and done.

It’s at times like this we find out who in any given company has the mettle to match, and who does not. It’s not that we start out assuming anyone lacks the desire for the production to succeed, but the hardcore types are the ones who put their kids to bed then go back to the theatre to finish painting something, or who drive all over town purchasing supplies for the build on their lunch hours or en route to pick babies up from day care. I stopped sleeping about three weeks ago, personally, and spend my late night hours coordinating emails and schedules, plotting changes to music and image transitions, hunting for sound clips, sometimes sighing quietly into a late-night single malt while I try and clear my head.

Stuff gets done, and it’s amazing to watch the speed with which things happen. There was a time not so long ago while the theatre at 9 Princess street was being rebuilt, that KWLT productions (this was in the time before TenBareToes) rented show space from other companies and had ONLY the two days of Tech Weekend in which to move in, build, paint, hang lights, set levels, run the cue-to-cue, and generally maul everyone towards dress rehearsals. Those weekends were exhilarating, glorious messes that I appreciated for what they were and hope to hell I never have to live through ever again. It’s hard enough handling a one-week move-in process, which seems downright luxurious by comparison; it’s a testament to my cast and crew that we get this far and do this much work ourselves — my cast IS a large part of the production crew — without falling to knives at every available opportunity by Tech.

There are great moments of silliness; since Liaisons, my chief grip has referred to her stage crew as “flying monkeys”, and the choreographed intricacy of set changes as “the Monkey Dance”, so it was only a matter of time, really, before the grips were teaching each other how to do a proper monkey dance (after we’d sorted out the what-goes-where part of the set change in question, mind you; we usually remember to handle business before mayhem, though sometimes the two are not as distinctly separate as a director might wish). And there’s always some chaos as we deal with first-time uses of new set properties, and doorways that aren’t now where they were in rehearsal space. But at the same time, there’s nothing like seeing the actors pull their headspace together once they are IN THE THEATRE; there is something so intrinsically different between being “in rehearsal” and being “on the stage” that even without the lights, the audience, the costumes, there is still suddenly far more show there than there was even a week ago.

The whole process, rushing madly past me as it always does at this point, takes my breath away.

Tomorrow will be our final regular rehearsal. This process has been significantly longer than my previous shows; another luxury of working under the TenBareToes banner that I have very much appreciated, and only rarely despaired. We’re still so focused on getting through the final aspects  of the on-stage development, that the nearness of that bittersweet moment when I officially hand the show over to Stage Management and stop messing around with things hasn’t really been felt yet. I know it’s coming, but there’s still so much to do between now and then that I’m putting off the inevitable grieving process. (Also, I can’t cry at rehearsal; it will mean I owe the cast & crew the first round of drinks at the opening night after-party if they think the show has finally over-powered me… though at this point, my SM and I may well be the last people standing in that regard; did we mention this play was a powerhouse??)
So we come down to the wire. All the technical details are now in play, or will be in the next 48 hours. The tension across the company builds towards climax and denouement; art imitating life, though perhaps with fewer spoilers. This company has done some truly inspiring, moving work with this production; I honestly believe that, in the midst of all the personal learning and growth opportunities, we have met my own goal of raising the bar, even a smidge, on what “amateur theatre” is capable of achieving in terms of performance quality and acting craft (we have Philip to thank for most of that). If we can translate into performance nights what we’ve frequently managed to create in rehearsal space, then I don’t think anyone will remain unmoved by the magic that is Shadowlands.

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