soapbox

The wrong definition of value

November 30, 2011

I went to the theatre tonight to see a preview of Midwinter’s Dream Tale at The Great Canadian Theatre Company. “I take it you’re an actor,” said the woman next to me, at intermission. How she came to this conclusion, I don’t know. “Yes, indeed!” I replied. “I work around Ottawa a fair bit.” My [...]

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Come out, come out, wherever you are

October 31, 2011

Between Rick Mercer’s rant, last week’s Globe and Mail editorial, and a bunch of media stories in between, there has been a lot of discussion in the past week about whether or not queer folks in the public eye should be out and visible. I am downright militant on this topic, acknowledging my (fortunate) context [...]

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My tech compulsion: my phone is my master

July 25, 2011

Over the past few weeks, I have learned that I am utterly unable to ignore my phone. Unless I turn it off, it rules me completely. I became aware of this because I fell in love with the act of turning my phone off while dedicating time to writing. The less distraction I have, the [...]

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The passion’s the thing. Not the play.

June 19, 2011

The 15th Ottawa Fringe Festival is in full swing, and for the first time in a few years I’ve been able to attend more than a smattering of performances. I wasn’t able to take in anything on the first day of the festival; in the subsequent two days I’ve seen six festival shows. It’s been [...]

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Paging political theatre

June 4, 2011

I don’t know Brigette DePape. But yesterday, she was fired as a page for the Canadian senate after interrupting the speech from the throne in the House of Commons. She held up a red paper stop sign, labeled “Stop Harper”, in a gesture of quiet defiance. She’s paid with her job, but Ms DePape is [...]

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Nominated!

February 28, 2011

I’ve had my head in the snow in Edmonton for the past few weeks, so I didn’t even know the latest batch of Rideau Award nominations were due out today. I just checked the press release, and my year in the theatre is VERY well-represented! Facts (Great Canadian Theatre Company) — Arthur Milner’s world-premiere play [...]

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Roughage

January 5, 2011

The lights came up at intermission. One row behind me, a woman turned slowly to her friend. She sighed lightly. “Yeeeeahhhhh,” she said, tentatively. She smiled, placed her hands in her lap, and tried pretending: “That was good!” Her friend cleared her throat, and looked back. “Yeah,” she said. I liked it,” she lied. “Kinda [...]

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Shop talk

January 2, 2011

There’s an old joke about a gynecologist and his wife. Excited about his return from work, the gynecologist’s wife lowers the lighting in the house, lights some candles, and slips into an alluring new set of lingerie. As she hears her husband’s car pull into the driveway, she leans suggestively against the wall at the bottom of the stairwell [...]

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Another area where theatre schools fail us

November 25, 2010

I have a dream: that every repertory, conservatory, or otherwise performance-based theatre training program give complete control of at least one of their productions to the students. All such actor training programs have a healthy focus on performance. Some even require students to learn tech skills. And while I admit that I’m pretty ignorant of [...]

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CFSW: Don’t judge me

October 14, 2010

“How would you like to be a judge tonight?” he asked. “Uh.” Stammer. “I.” Wild gesticulation. “But.” Crotch moistness. “You know you want to,” he confirmed. “It’s too much responsibility,” I protested. “It’s just a responsibility. You’ll love it”. And with that a small whiteboard was dropped into my lap and I became one of [...]

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