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e-bulletin 31
March 2008
Hello
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(NTS).
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Histoires
de banlieue
Written by 2007 French playwriting graduate Étienne
Lepage and directed by Theodor Cristian Popescu,
Histoires de banlieue will be playing at the Hydro-Québec
Studio of the Monument-National from March 11 to 15. For more information,
please read the release.
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Danièle
Lévesque
at the TNM
March 4 to 29, 2008, Montreal audiences can see Set and Costume
Design Program Director Danièle Lévesque’s
unique scenographic signature style on display at the Théâtre
du nouveau monde’s production of La
Petitie Maison en haut de l’escalier, written by
Carole Fréchette (Interprétation,
1973), and directed by TNM’s Artistic Director Lorraine
Pintal.
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21 Inc.
Ryan Griffith (Playwriting, 2007) was selected one of 21
promising community leaders in New Brunswick by 21
Inc. . On January 19, Ryan embarked on a 10-month leadership
training program with twenty other talented people. Over the course
of this program, they will have the opportunity to learn from established
New Brunswick and national leaders, accelerate their leadership
development, and join a dynamic and diverse network of engaged young
New Brunswickers committed to their province and its future.
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Relative
Good
2007 Acting graduate Christine Aubin Khalifa is
performing in Relative Good, David Gow’s
new piece now playing at Montreal’s Centaur Theatre until
March 30. Spike Lyne (Production, 1986) designed
the lighting for this production.
For more on Relative
Good.
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Revisited
Written and created by Christian Barry (Directing,
2005), Steven McCarthy (Acting, 1997) and Michelle
Monteith, Revisited first saw the light of day
as part of Christian Barry's final directing project at NTS. It
has gone on to international acclaim and has recently been named
production of the year by the Victoria BC Critics’ Circle,
was successively named a top production of the year by Now Magazine
(January 2007), and the National Post (January 2008), and received
5-star reviews at it's showing at the Theaterformen fest in Hanover,
Germany in June 2008.
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Oh and Dupuis
at the Genies
On March 3, Sandra Oh (Acting, 1993) hosted the 28th Genie Awards,
honouring the greatest achievements in Canadian film. More on Sandra
Oh.
1986 French Acting graduate Roy Dupuis was up for
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for his performance
in Shake
Hands with the Devil.
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Michel St-Denis
Founding member and senior advisor to the National Theatre School,
Michel Saint-Denis (1897 -1971) now has a web site
dedicated to his memory and his achievements in theatre. This website
was created by his descendants with the aim of presenting his life
and work.
On November 2, 1960, Michel St-Denis officially declared the NTS
opened. In memory of his passing in 1971, the School named the St-Denis
Street campus in his and his wife’s honour – The Michel
and Suria Saint-Denis Pavilion.
For the website >>
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Alumni –
Have you moved?
Don’t forget to keep us informed of your new whereabouts by
sending us a change of address notice. To ensure that your file
is up to date in our database, please write to info@ent-nts.qc.ca.
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Thanks to photographer Maxime Côté.
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Registrations are over –
Let the auditions begin!
 Registrations
for the 2008-2009 school year saw close to 950 candidates send in
their application forms and now the audition process begins.
Set and Costume Design applicants will be judged on their designs
and maquettes; Danièle Lévesque will
conduct interviews following this process. Micheline Chevrier
and Lesley MacMillan, Production Program Consulting
Co-Directors, will conduct interviews with prospective students
starting in mid-March, after which candidates will be required to
write a production concept for the mounting of a play chosen by
the School. Playwriting Program Director Brian Drader
is busy reading the plays applicants have been required to send
his way; this too will be followed by an interview and selection
process. Sherry Bie, Artistic Director of the English
section, will be travelling to points across Canada auditioning
the hundreds of Acting Program applicants; callbacks will be held
in May 2008.
And that’s the kind of year it’s been. We are keenly
aware of the fragility of the moment and wish each and every candidate
the very best.
National Theatre School of Canada would like to thank CanWest
Media for its generous and continued support of the national
application campaign. NTS would also like to thank Astral
Media for its valued assistance with the Toronto area billboard
and Montreal specialty channel campaigns. Many thanks to Mona
Bandeen, member of the NTS Board of Governors, for making
the billboard design and production possible.
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| Atelier
lyrique
 For
the fourth consecutive season, the members of the Atelier lyrique
de l’Opéra de Montréal are collaborating with
the Monument-National and artists of the National Theatre School
of Canada. Ravel’s L’Heure
espagnole and Wolf-Ferrari’s Il
Segreto di Susanna will be performed back to back in the
Ludger-Duvernay Theatre of Montreal’s Monument-National from
March 26 to 31. Written by Franc-Nohain, L’Heure espagnole
is a one-act musical comedy sung in French with English and French
supertitles, and Il Segreto di Susanna, with libretto by
Enrico Golisciani, is an opera in one act, sung in Italian, also
with English and French supertitles.
Alain Trudel will conduct the Orchestre de l’Opéra
de Montréal; stage direction will be assured by Gilbert
Turp. Moïka Sabourin is designing
a unique set for both operas while Cynthia St-Gelais
is the costume designer; they are 2007 graduates of the NTS Set
and Costume Design program. Alexis Ouellette-Rivest,
2008 graduating French Production program student, will artfully
create the lighting. His classmates Judith Allen
and Renaud Pettigrew will be assistant director/stage
manager and technical director, respectively, on both operas.
Please click
here for box office information.
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| Valentine’s
Day Celebration
a Success
 Love
was most definitely in the air on February 14. Hearts beat in sync
as benefactors, NTS governors, students, and staff gathered in the
Pauline McGibbon Studio to share declarations of love. Bursary funds
were at the heart of this celebration highlighting the importance
of the hand-in-hand relationship that exists between benefactors
and students. Director General Simon Brault opened
the festivities by announcing that $230,000 in bursaries would be
distributed to students in the coming weeks. Édith
Ducharme, Managing Director, Corporate and Public Affairs,
TD Bank Financial Group, spoke with disarming candor of the empowerment
and enriching qualities of the performing arts; Mr. Peter
A. Stern shared personal anecdotes about the necessity
of sharing with artists in order to ease their way during their
learning process. Graduating actor Jake Epstein
took us on an insightful and humorous tour of school life –
a journey made easier by donors such as those gathered in the Pauline
McGibbon – and Julie Lafrenière, third-year
French Acting student, regaled us with her tender musings on love
and the art of giving. And there was stunning choral singing followed
by the kind of surprises that can only happen at the National Theatre
School of Canada. A great party to chase away the February blues
that will surely be repeated next year!
Would you like to make a donation to the School or start your own
bursary fund? Please contact Dorothy
Massimo, CFRE, NTS Director of Development.
 Bleviss
Family
Library
A straight-from-the-heart Valentine’s gift came our way when
Alan Bleviss and his family gathered in the library
of the National Theatre School for an intimate ceremony marking
its re-naming. Alan is a 1966 NTS Acting alumnus; he sits on the
School’s Board of Governors and is president of the Alumni
Association. The library is now officially known as The Bleviss
Family Library and we extend our sincere and profound gratitude
to the entire Bleviss family.
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CALP
On January 15th, 7 projects were submitted to the Cultural and Artistic
Leadership Program (CALP) selection committee. Projects that received
funding were: Assisting the Assistant, by 2007 Acting graduate Jonathan
Seinen, for an assistant directorship for the English-language
premiere of Forever Yours, Marie-Lou, to be directed at
Montreal’s Centaur Theatre by Sarah Stanley
(one of the two lead mentors of NTS’s Directing Program);
Awaiting, production management and team building on a
dance project, by Timothy Rodrigues, 2006 Lighting
Specialization graduate; Bill & Buddy & Bill’s
Dead Wife, by 2006 Production program graduate Sarah
Yaffe, for two in-situ pieces that played at Montreal’s
Theatre Ste-Catherine at the end of February 2008; The Battle
of Alberta, a play about the dark side of the Alberta boom,
headed by Patrick Lundeen, 2nd year Acting student;
and A Bad Year for Journalism, a piece that follows a news
broadcaster’s journey into psychosis, by 2007 Acting graduate
Sarena Parmar.
This unique and innovative program encourages NTS students and recent
grads to give form to creative notions or novel ideas that explore
social themes and issues of community. Projects that have been supported
to date range from new exploratory theatre forms, multimedia, theatre
for young audiences, musicals, puppetry, and in situ pieces, to
community outreach.
Please take note that the next deadline for
original proposals is April 15th and that it’s the last chance
for 2005 graduates to present a proposal.
To learn more >>
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Banff
Playwrights’ Colony
 Charlotte
Corbeil-Coleman, 2008 graduating playwright and winner
of the 2007 Herman Voaden National Playwriting Competition, has
been invited to this year’s Banff
playRites Colony. She will be continuing work on her play Scratch
(for which she won the prestigious Herman Voaden) over the course
of a two-week residency at the colony, with the support of dramaturg
Iris Turcott. Brian Drader, Playwriting
Program Director, has much to be proud of: this is the third year
in a row that one of his graduating students has been invited to
the Banff playRites Colony. There was Jason Maghanoy
in 2006, Darrah Teitel in 2007, and now Charlotte.
Bravo Charlotte and kudos to Brian Drader for his excellent guidance
and mentorship.
Scoop – Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman will be the sole
playwright of this year’s New Words Festival, held yearly
at the Hydro-Québec Studio of the Monument-National. Her
plays JOHN … Sudden Death and NANCY … A
Perfect Circle will be performed from April 23 to May 3. More
on New Words in the next e-bulletin and on the NTS website by early
April.
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Visiting
teachers and directors
This is a busy show production time for both the French and English
sections. Each program has its projects, final and otherwise, that
will inevitably lead to the end of the school year. Several visiting
teachers and coaches were or are presently in our midst: Bonnie
Beecher, award-winning lighting designer for over 200 productions
in theatre, dance and opera across Canada, Germany, New Zealand
and the United States was here as lighting coach for the mainstage
production of Major Barbara; Maria Popoff,
Canadian stage manager extraordinaire, was here to coach the art
of stage management on the Major Barbara production; director,
actress, teacher Ann-Marie Kerr is coaching 1st
year actors and playwrights in the fine art of the Jeu technique;
and Hungarian stage designer Judit
Csanadi, who lives, works and teaches in Budapest,
is here until the end of March to explore the language of space
with 2nd year Set and Costume Design students. |
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National
Theatre School of Canada
5030 Saint Denis Street
Montréal, Québec H2L 3P5
Tel.:
514 842-7954
Fax.: 514 842-5661
info@ent-nts.qc.ca
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