Vancouver Greenroom is all about the local theatre community.
Stage managers, including the lovely Angela Beaulieu, keep productions sane.
BACKBONE
Like a parent, but calmer—or maybe a best friend but less indulgent—the stage manager is the backbone of a production.
This week, there’s celebration of stage managers from a playwright who has two scripts in production at once, and some practical considerations about full-time and part-time stage management positions.
Barbara Cook appears with Vanessa Williams, Tom Wopat, and Norm Lewis in Sondheim on Sondheim in 2010.
FLIGHTS OF ANGELS
When Broadway legend Barbara Cook lay dying last week, her friends came to sing to her. Vanessa Williams, who shared the stage with cook in Sondheim on Sondheim, sang “Send in the Clowns.” Norm Lewis, who was in the same show, showed up and sang. Many others, including Audra Macdonald and Hugh Jackman sent tapes.
Although Cook was unconscious, doctors advised her friends that she could probably still hear. Singer Jessica Molaskey remembers one of Cook’s gestures: “We started singing and she lifted her finger up to her mouth. She tapped her lips twice and I thought she was singing with us.”
Composer John Cage looks like an older version of actor Jonathon Young, right? That’s another reason we should trust him.
CAGE-Y
Composer John Cage’s “10 Rules for Students and Teachers” could just as easily apply to actors and directors—to all artists, really. I am a very big fan of Rule One: “Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for a while.”
Stunt woman S.J. Harris was killed while filming her first film as a stunt driver.
DEATH
Vancouver’s creative community, including many actors who work on both the stage as well as in film and TV, are reeling over the death of Joi “S.J.” Harris, who was killed Monday morning while filming Deadpool 2 at the Jack Poole Plaza downtown.
She was performing a motorcycle stunt by Domino, a new character in the series, when the accident occurred.
Reportedly, Deadpool 2 was Harris’s first film as a stunt driver.
Meet you new best friend. Well, your new app. Same thing, right?
WHO NEEDS FRIENDS?
What are they good for, right? They eat all your food and they’re always telling you what to do. Let’s face it: you just keep them around because they’ll run lines with you.
Well, you can sever that leash! Now you can buy lines2memory app—for $4.99! cheap!—on the iTunes store.
Lines2memory lets you do all sorts of cool things, you can record scenes on your tablet or smartphone and then play them back without your lines being audible—so you can fill them in.
You’ll never need friends again. And you can be the only one with access to your fridge.
Apparently, everybody’s fine with Virginia Woolf now—although Martha is still a bit pushy.
COLIN THOMAS’S FRESH SHEET
In this week’s edition of Colin Thomas’s Fresh Sheet, which will drop on Theatre Wire’s site on Friday, I talk about the new play Everyone’s Fine with Virginia Woolf, an actor with Tourette’s performing Beckett’s Not I, and the influence of a library prank on Joe Orton’s career—and murder. I also pick out a couple of promising Fringe shows, including an original script by a local writer.
You’re welcome.
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