Spending time with Frog and Toad

In addition to playing Lady Bird and Mole in A Year With Frog and Toad, Jennifer Villaverde’s recent theatre credits include Top Girls (MTC Warehouse), This Is About the Push (Seventh Stage Productions) and Prison Dancer (staged reading - fu-GEN). Other credits include A Year With Frog and Toad (Canadian Premiere - MTYP & Citadel Theatre), Blink (Soulpepper Academy), As You Like It, Three Sisters, The Time of Your Life, The Threepenny Opera (Soulpepper), Merchant of Venice (SITR), My Fair Lady, Evita (MTC), The Importance of Being Earnest, Godspell, Love You Forever and More... (PTE), The Secret Garden, Romeo and Juliet, The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, Mirror Game (MTYP) and The King and I (Citadel Theatre). Upcoming for Jennifer is The Post Office (Pleiades Theatre).

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There's something about working at Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People that I really, really like. Sitting in the green room during a break is a bit like a kitchen party and everyone is invited. Depending on the day, there's always a very diverse group of people in there: stage technicians, designers, actors, arts educators etc. I like that. I like working at a place where everyone is equal. I like that there is no distinguishable hierarchy and that it is completely unpretentious. I like getting to know the people there and their lives outside of the theatre. I like hearing stories told and re-told about experiences on and off-stage. I like being privy to backstage hi-jinx. I like when mothers and fathers share their most recent adventure with their curiously precocious children. What I like best is that there is always laughter. Before leaving for work in the morning, it's comforting to know that laughter will be part of my day.

I live by this philosophy that where I am at present is where I am meant to be. The experience I am having now is the experience I am meant to have. So, I often wonder to myself, "Why am I here?" Then something will happen and then I'll think, "A-ha! That's why."

Before we started rehearsals our friend, Denis Simpson, passed away. He was supposed to play Frog and I was really looking forward to working with him again. He was love, beauty, and friendship personified. I was so sad when I heard the news. I cried a lot, but I also breathed in fresh air. Instead of living inside of myself, I looked outward and saw the people around me and saw their beauty.

It's so fitting that we are presenting A Year With Frog and Toad. Our story is about friendship and the importance of having a really good friend in your life. I know that when my contract at LKTYP ends, I'm going to miss the laughter, the joy, the warmth, and the love. So, I'm going to embrace this family while I'm here and when I leave I'll have a really nice memory to remind me how lucky I am to have made new friends.

Field Trip

Linda A. Carson, a graduate of Vancouver’s Studio 58, and has been a professional actor, writer, and teacher for the past 25 years. Linda's writing credits include Dying To Be Thin (Jessie Award), Mom’s The Word (Co-creation,Jessie Award) and George and Martha, adapted from James Marshal’s stories. Linda’s recent performing credits include The Last Drop by Kim Selody (Dora nomination), Patty’s Cake by Tim Web (Dora Award), Where the Wild Things Are adapted by Kim Selody and Rocket and the Queen of Dreams (Dora nomination) by David S. Craig. She is currently the playwright in residence for LKTYP and looking forward to producing more work for young and older audiences alike.

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Have you ever thought you knew exactly where you are going but when you arrived you were nowhere near the place you thought you would be? This happened to me one warm September morning when I went to the Casa Loma Daycare to try out some ideas for a new play I was working on. But let me back up…

Last year I was lucky enough to join a group of writers gathered by Lorraine Kimsa Theatre For Young People who were interested in creating work for 3-6 year olds. LKTYP linked us with George Brown College and their affiliated daycares so we could observe our potential audience in action. We quickly learned that it was difficult to simply sit back and observe the dynamic play we’d arrive into because within moments we’d want to join in. Many of the successful theatre I had seen for this age group were interactive in nature and I thought, “Ah, this is why! The youngsters probably feel like jumping into our play as much as we feel like jumping into theirs!” With this in mind, I wrote windows of opportunity in my new play for the young audiences to jump in. But, would these sections work?

This question found Allen MacInnis, Stephen Colella and myself on the steps of the Casa Loma Daycare. We felt like we were on a well deserved field trip into the day to day lives of our audience. As we waited to be led down to our class, inquisitive toddlers caught our eye from the doorway into their room and began to entertain us with their antics. Great fun. Eventually they were led outdoors. hand in hand. and we were led into our kindergarten class. Sitting before us were sixteen sets of bright, happy eyes quietly waiting for us with their teacher Ms. Laura.

After a brief introduction, we set right to work with one of my interactive ideas. I had imagined a quiet game of "store" in which the audience would put their hands up and bid to buy the toys I wanted to sell. Oh la, la! When I set up my exercise, the students got very excited (a good thing!) and full of ideas, (another good thing!) but somehow my structure led them to begin to call out, jump up and down and run over each other to get their ideas to the centre of our attention. What was going on? This had never happened when I had earlier observed Ms. Laura working with her class but now the walls were vibrating while some of the quieter students sat in despair with their hands over their ears. Oh yi, yi, yi, yi! Learning on our feet, we changed and adapted till we had things more settled and eventually went on to some games that we knew would work. But, where had I gone so wrong?

As I limped away Ms. Laura and Sue Feltoe (who heads up the daycare and has been extremely helpful to our process, thank you Sue!) gave me some suggestions to try the next day. Allen, Stephen and I regrouped at the George Brown College coffee shop and made some plans. We decided we would need a strong contract with the audience to bring them back into a listening mode after and during our interactive sections. Also, we would have be extremely clear about what we wanted them to participate in and how. Perhaps it is not a good idea to ask too many questions that they of course all want to answer! With the help of Allen and Stephen, back to the drawing board I went.

The next day, much to our delight, our new listening game worked wonderfully and the young audience stayed on track and were able to listen and participate in our story. However, the activity that I thought they’d be intrigued with fell flat. Hmm? It had all gone so well in my imagination. But thanks to the process, I immediately got a new idea to try out next time around, so onward ho!

I owe a huge thank you to Allen, Stephen, Sue Feltoe, Ms. Laura and her class for providing me with the opportunity to find things like this out while I can still change course and re-write! As we left the still bright and smiling faces of Ms. Laura's class we thanked them for their help and invited them to our show once we got it up and running at LKTYP.

Thank you so much Sue Feltoe, and your group of great teachers, for providing us with this safe place to experiment as we create our plays for your young students. And thank LKTYP for giving me a chance to explore my writing in this way.

And now? Back to the drawing board for me!

Returning to a Role: Dale Yim and Hana's Suitcase

Dale is a Toronto-based theatre artist, whose credits include: playing the Master of Ceremonies in R. Murray Schafer's The Palace of the Cinnabar Phoenix (Patria Projects), playing Sheldon in the Dora-nominated cast of Banana Boys (fu-GEN/Factory), sound design for A Summer’s Day (Play Inc Theatre), sound design for Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (Deus XM/Summerworks), and stage management for Hallaj (Modern Times). Upcoming credits include: The Complex (Bound to Create/Fringe), and The Adventures of Chuck and Friends (Nelvana/Hasbro).

Q: How does it feel to be doing the Hana's Suitcase again?
A: I've been playing Akira for the last three (out of four) runs of Hana's Suitcase that LKTYP has done. When I first started the role, I was really, really nervous. Like REALLY really. The first Akira (ever) was played by Richard Lee, who was really, really good (and who's also one of my best friends). Could I be as good of an Akira as my friend? What if I'm really bad and the director doesn't like me? What if Hana comes to my room as a ghost because she's so mad at how badly I'm telling her story?!

She never did. And Allen keeps asking me to do the role again (and again), so I must be doing something right. =)

I'm still really, really nervous, though. I think it's because I believe so much in this story that I want to make sure that we do a good job telling it. It's so important and so incredible on many levels, and I'm terribly honoured to be a part of it. So even after a hundred performances, I'm still just as nervous and excited as I was on my first day. I'm glad I have smaller tasks to focus on during the show!

Q: Is the show different this time?
A: Sort of not, but totally yes. Though the show is essentially the same in terms of design and overall direction, having a newly-built set (with nicer doors!) and some new cast breathes a fresh air and gives it a great new energy! (Three of the eight cast members this time are totally new to the show). In some ways, it feels like I'm working on a new show with familiar faces. I'm not sure if the rest of the returning cast and crew will agree with me, but this incarnation of the show seems to be slightly warmer and clearer than previous ones. That might just be my own experience.

Playing Akira certainly feels different for me: I think he's slightly older, though (strangely) more naive. There's a greater sense of inquisitiveness and discovery this time around. I'm taking this opportunity to discover the show anew: I printed out a clean script for myself, and decidedly refrained from referring to my old one. Having a new Maiko (the fabulous Zoe Doyle, with whom I share all of my scenes) forces me to listen to the words afresh and react in new ways. I've also changed a bit since 2006; I like to think that I've matured, though I'm not sure if anyone else would notice a difference. I'm also not sure if being 'more mature' is a good thing when I'm playing a young person.

We didn't have as much time in rehearsal for the first tour, so I remember that there were moments where I felt unclear of what I was doing on stage, and I didn't feel like I could change them. It's a rare gem for actors like me to be able to revisit a part and refine our choices, and Allen is wonderful at encouraging the specifics and mining out the truthfulness of each action. It's such a treat to work with him and to watch him work with the other cast members! I'm really glad that we have a longer rehearsal period to explore and refine every detail. I'm much happier with my choices this time around. But I'm still really nervous!

Q: What's your favourite thing about working on Hana's Suitcase?
A: There are three things that blow my mind when I think about this show.
1. I love working at LKTYP. It's a truly special place with truly special people. It's also where I saw my first theatre show when I was a young person. It haad a profound impact on me. And now I'm working at the same theatre, making an impact on other young people.
2. We get to tell Hana's story.
3. Hana gets to be a teacher of young people all over the world. In fact, she's one of the world's most famous teachers now. (Booyah!)

Monsters!

Daniel Nielsen, age 6, had a few probing questions for Nina Lee Aquino, the director of the LKTYP's show The Monster Under The Bed.

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Daniel: How do actors carry such big things (props) on stage? Who decides where they take them?
Nina: The carpenters make sure that they look big but are actually quite light. The boss (me, the director) decides who takes what and where.

Daniel: How do the actors know what to do with their parts? They only have their scripts for a second right?
Nina: It actually takes 30, 240 seconds for them to really really know their parts. That's why every day we practice and practice (like what you do with your school work) until the actors start remembering all the words the playwright has written and all the direction the director has given them. Practice makes perfect.

Daniel: Is the monster going to be scary? I think monsters look like dinosaurs with a tail and a spine. How did you decide what your monsters look like? I think they will be green.
Nina: Monsters are always scary at first until you get to know them. Once you are not afraid of them anymore they are actually really friendly and are just like us. They sleep and they get hungry. Like us they come in all shapes, colours and sizes. We decided that our monster will be...YOU HAVE TO WATCH THE SHOW TO FIND OUT!















Nina Lee Aquino is a director, dramaturge, and playwright. She is the artistic director of Cahoots Theatre Company, the outgoing artistic director of fu-GEN Asian-Canadian Theatre Company and an artistic associate of Factory Theatre. She is also the editor of Canada’s first Asian-Canadian drama anthology titled love & relasianships (Playwrights Canada Press, Spring 2009). Other credits include awards for directing (Ken McDougall Award 2004, Canada Council John Hirsch Prize 2008), and Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for outstanding direction (Singkil, fu-GEN Theatre Company 2007; People Power, Carlos Bulosan Theatre 2008, lady in the red dress, fu-GEN Theatre Company 2009). Nina co-wrote Miss Orient(ed) and her monologues have been published in Beyond the Pale (Yvette Nolan, ed.) and She Speaks (Judith Thompson, ed.).

Signing the Bard

Kennedy C. MacKinnon is the Artistic Director of Shakespeare Link Canada, a company that is working with LKTYP to create a version of Romeo and Juliet using both spoken and sign language.

I was at the end of my high school career back in the early 90’s and I vividly remember coming to LKTYP to see MacBeth directed by Maja Ardal and starring Rick Roberts as the Scottish King. I remember sitting in the theatre being swept away by the magic of the story. I remember thinking, “one day, I want to work at this theatre on Shakespeare. I want to be a part of that making that kind of magic”.

Two decades later I find myself at the end of what can only be called two of the most inspiring weeks I have ever spent in a studio. And guess what? I was working on Shakespeare, here at LKTYP in preparation for a bilingual production that I have a very good feeling will be magic.

Not long after I saw that production of MacBeth I graduated from theatre school and my passion for Shakespeare took me to the UK with my great friend and colleague Edward Daranyi. We had the privilege of working with our now sister company Shakespeare Link on their first hearing/deaf workshop of MacBeth (now isn’t that serendipity). Our job, as actors, was to help make the text clear so that the deaf actors could create the signs to translate the text into British Sign language (BSL). It was an incredible experience. We were both challenged and inspired as we fought to literally make new words in BSL. I have continued to work in the UK with Shakespeare Link translating into BSL and then shooting to DVD Shakespeare’s plays. To date they have four plays and a lot of the sonnets translated onto DVDs, which are in the school system allowing deaf students long overdue access to these plays.

During this time I couldn’t help but wonder…what if, we put both sign language and spoken text on the stage at the same time? I kept thinking that although deaf audiences have occasional access to these plays through the help of interpreters on the side of the stage, what if the story was simply spoken in their language. Hearing and deaf people fall in love all the time. Why couldn’t Romeo be deaf and Juliet hearing or vice versa? And why wouldn’t an audience be interested to see and hear that story told?

So, in 2006 I gathered a company of actors to explore this possibility. We looked at a variety of ways to tell the story in both languages; shadowing, double casting, one person signing while another spoke. In the end, I discovered that the idea not only worked but it was compelling, alive and deeply moving. It allowed the story to come to life in a whole new way.

As with many theatrical endeavors funding issues slowed our process down. But the dream of Signing the Bard (what the project was fondly referred to as) Romeo and Juliet continued to grow. I knew I needed to find a company that could work with us to develop this production. And then it hit me. LKTYP! I was so thrilled when Allen enthusiastically agreed. Not only had this theatre inspired me as a young audience member but I had spent my summers throughout my theatre school training here teaching for the Theatre School. I am incredibly grateful to now come full circle and be working my artistic chops inside these walls.

So, with three workshops now under our belt we have a core artistic company experienced in breaking down the text and developing new signs for the language, a cut version of the play (so that we can run the show at 90 minutes), an almost complete translation into ASL and an unstoppable passion to tell this story in a new way. And I can’t tell you how excited I am for next fall when we will spend three weeks developing a workshop production here at LKTYP. Magic!


KENNEDY C. MACKINNON is the Artistic Director of Shakespeare Link Canada and is affiliated with the Shakespeare Link in the UK. She is an actor, director, coach and teacher. Most recently she created and directed With Love, Will Shakespeare a commissioned play for the Sunnybrook Veteran’s Residence and co-directed/co-adapted the NAC/NEPA production of Death of the Chief. With SLC she created and directed Hamlet, Alone and Drowning Ophelia for the Shakespeare Link International Festival in Wales, and has co-directed three workshops of Signing the Bard – Romeo and Juliet. She spearheaded The Africa Project: Dance with Us, Not with AIDS and was co-creator/co-director of Romeo and Juliet, Medida Por Medida (Measure for Measure), A Tempestade and Sonho Nocturno – Dream at Night and is very excited about SLC’s continued partnership with Montes Namuli in Mozambique.
Kennedy has been Head of the Voice at the Humber College Theatre School for the past ten years where she also taught Shakespeare. She is the creator and coordinator of the Summer Shakespeare Intensive. She spent 3 seasons at the Stratford Festival of Canada as a Voice Coach where she had the privilege to apprentice under the guidance of Janine Pearson. She has taught for the Education Department in Stratford for 9 years. She is a graduate from the Stratford Conservatory for Classical Theatre Training where she also taught. She is joining the coaching team again this season. Kennedy has taught and given workshops for Native Earth Theatre, Centre for Indigenous Theatre, George Brown Theatre School, Equity Showcase Theatre/Player’s Academy, University of Windsor, York University, Randolph School for the Performing Arts, YPT and the National Voice Intensive.
She coaches for film, television, radio and at theatres around Toronto. In Denver, Colorado, Kennedy interned as assistant to Gary Logan (Head of Voice and Speech) at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts/ National Theater Conservatory. She holds an MFA in Acting, a Diploma in Voice Teacher Training (York University) and a BFA in Acting (University of Windsor).

LILY HU is a student who had a co-op placement with LKTYP.

Alas, my co-op placement has come to an end. After 4 months of a cozy snuggle with the greatest children’s theatre ever, I have no choice but to crawl out of its comforting arms. I had some really memorable moments at the LKTYP theatre.

I remember the first week, where I actually cried reading the Hana’s Suitcase script. One of the reasons why I love theatre is because of the talented playwrights that can tell stories so effectively and leave the reader feeling like something suddenly clicked inside of them.

As a coop student, I had the pleasure of being able to roam around the theatre and poke my head into interesting workspaces. Watching the process of bringing plays to life was really awesome. To be able to see a theatre space go from dull and lifeless, to a stunning visual work of art was quite exciting. The artists at LKTYP are really amazing at what they do. It seems to be that everyone at the theatre is hand selected from the most elite pool of talent or something. They all play such vital roles to making the theatre so worthwhile.

I really do believe that my purpose in life is to be involved in the arts. I may not know exactly what my focus in life will be, but I have a general idea of the things that make me happy, and will continue to seek opportunities that fulfill that desire. As long as I am exposed to creativity, I think I’m going to be just fine.

I wouldn’t change my decision for one second to have done coop at LKTYP. I learned so much about myself, and what I need to do in order to be the greatest me that I can be.

I LOVE LKTYP.

Lily

PS. Dead Mao Five is pretty cool too.

El Numero Uno: How this little piggie came to the stage

EL NUMERO UNO is a community affair, a play of other people’s doing. It’s been an international undertaking from the start, for the people who have made it happen come from all over the world. In both these respects, it’s like DE MAN, a verse play I wrote many years ago, so first I’ll say a bit about DE MAN: A PERFORMANCE POEM.

One Good Friday after church, Fr. Ollie Nickerson, my parish priest and a Jesuit from New England, said to me, “Why don’t you write something for Good Friday?” DE MAN was the thing that I hurried to write when Lent had already begun the next year. I finished a first draft in time for Good Friday and the play was performed as part of the service that day. But if Fr. Ollie hadn’t asked, I’d never have written it, so it was truly a Jah-meri-can creation.

EL NUMERO UNO took a bit longer to come about, but happened in much the same ‘lots-of-people-crossing-borders-to-come-together’ way. Some time in 1994-5, IBBY (the International Board of Books for Young People) asked a gentleman from Holland, a Dutch author and illustrator, Max Velthuijs, to draw a series of illustrations. IBBY sent them to me, (I’d recently moved to Canada), as well as two other storytellers, one Chinese and one African.

“Shuffle these around, put them in any order, and make up your own story,” the organizers said, “then come to our conference and tell that tale to everyone. We’ll show Max’s pictures on the wide screen as you narrate.”

So the three of us did. I named the hero of my story El Numero Uno, and he was a huge hit at the Conference, at which were gathered people from all over the world.

Then some time in about 2001, Vivienne James (originally from Grenada), who succeeded Dr Rita Cox, (originally from Trinidad), as head of the Parkdale branch of the TPL, sent around word that the Young People’s Theatre were looking for treatments. Playwrights would receive funding, if their treatments were selected. I thought of Uno’s story and wrote it up, the treatment was one of those selected, and by 2002, I had written and presented the first draft of EL NUMERO UNO to Pierre Tetrault, a French Canadian who was then Artistic Director.

Folks from all kinds of backgrounds took part in the workshops over the next few years and make up the current cast: First nations, Jamaican heritage, Barbadian heritage, Trinidadian heritage, British born, Asian heritage, along with Canadian folks who hail from Northern, Eastern, Western and mid-Western Canada. Our director was born in Jamaica; our dramaturg is a German/Italian/Polish/British heritage American from Philly.

The playwright is herself of Asian, African, British, Scottish, Haitian and Jewish heritages. (Those are the ones she knows about!)

It’s a big mix-up mix-up, just like the play itself, which uses all kinds of languages – French, Spanish, English, Jamaican creole, Trinidadian creole, Rasta talk – and ‘tiefs’ from many cultural traditions to create the play. It’s “A multifarious mash-up! A cultural conglomeration! A pepperpot of peoples!” as Uno would say. And it’s a fantasy that’s very, very funny.

So do come along and mingle wid de masqueraders between January 31 and February 25, at LKTYP at 165 Front Street. We’re expecting you…


Pam Mordecai’s poems and stories for children have appeared in textbooks and anthologies in Africa, North America, the UK and the Caribbean. Author of five books for children, four collections of poetry – Journey Poem, de man, Certifiable and The True Blue of Islands – a collection of short fiction, Pink Icing, and (with her husband, Martin) a reference work, Culture and Customs of Jamaica, Pam was born in Jamaica, and educated there and in the USA. A former teacher with a PhD in English, she has edited groundbreaking anthologies of Caribbean writing, compiled numerous language arts textbooks and written critical articles on Caribbean literature. She immigrated to Canada in 1994 and is, most famously, Zoey Rita’s grandma.