Hye’s Musings: “The Killdeer” director interview

Blogger Heidy M. interviews The Killdeer director Barbara Larose about her vision for the play, including depicting the magic/fairy tale elements that are juxtaposed with the realism in James Reaney‘s script.  Read the interview here:

http://hyemusings.blogspot.ca/2013/04/alumnae-theatres-retrospective-choice.html

The show opens tomorrow night at Alumnae Theatre.  http://www.alumnaetheatre.com/1213killdeer.html

“The Killdeer” opens on Friday! Interesting facts…

Last night’s rehearsal changed from what was supposed to be an on-our-feet Italian run with props (yikes!) to a regular sit-down Italian – phew.  While lighting designer  Ed Rosing tweaked the lighting plot and conferred  with stage manager Margot Devlin about programming the new cues, the cast gathered in the theatre lobby with director Barbara Larose and assistant director Ellen Green to do an Italian run of the play.  In theatre lingo, that means to speakquicklyandwithoutpauses.

It was an interesting exercise, especially for a play like The Killdeer, with such a convoluted plot.   Listening to lines spoken this way really brought home such things as the sequence of events;  who knew what and when; who was lying and who was telling the truth.  The acid test will be to see if the audience can understand it on their first (only) viewing!

DID YOU KNOW?

In 1960, Alumnae Theatre’s Pamela Terry (1926-2006) directed the first play written by esteemed Canadian poet James Reaney (1926-2008) – The Killdeer. She continued to direct several other of Reaney’s plays, including One-man Masque, Night Blooming Cereus, and The Easter Egg.  In recent years Terry promoted Alumnae Theatre’s participation in cultural festivals such as Doors Open Toronto, and took charge of the company’s participation in Toronto’s first Nuit Blanche in 2006.

Mr. Manatee the hangman (played by Mike Vitorovich) spouts some unusual words – here are some:
BURDOCK:  coarse herb with globular flower heads and prickly bracts.
CAMPION:  plant of the pink family. Herb with white flowers.
FREEMARTIN:  sexually imperfect, usually sterile female calf, twinborn with a male.
SHRIKE: thrush; grey or brownish bird with strong notched bill hooked at the tip. Feeds chiefly on insects which it impales on its bill.

From the website www.jamesreaney.com/:
Pamela Terry … and her husband, composer John Beckwith, were friends of James Reaney’s, and she encouraged him to write The Killdeer and persuaded the Alumnae Theatre to produce it. John Beckwith put together a background score for The Killdeer, and in his book, Unheard Of: Memoirs of a Canadian Composer, he describes how he composed the score: “… following Pamela’s directorial suggestions, I improvised musical cues at the piano, as she and I devised various muting devices after the model of John Cage’s ‘prepared piano’…”

 I checked with current sound designer Rick Jones, who tells me that ‘prepared piano’ is a term for effects created on the piano, other than by the normal use  of the keyboard – striking the strings inside, for example.  This was “something that musicians were “playing around with” in the 50’s and 60’s but has since fallen out of vogue.   Rick also pointed out an interesting coincidence:  in both the original and current productions of The Killdeer, the sound designer and director were husband and wife!

 Playwright James Reaney’s son has blogged about our upcoming production: http://blogs.canoe.ca/brandnewblog/general/the-killdeer-flies-back-to-alumnae-theatre/

 

The show opens on Friday April 12 and runs to April 27.  Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.alumnaetheatre.com/tickets.html, or you can reserve seats by phone (416-364-4170, box 1), then pay in cash (sorry, no credit or debit cards accepted at Box Office) on arrival.

Alumnae Theatre Company presents “The Killdeer” , April 12-27, 2013

The Killdeer

by James Reaney

Directed by Barbara Larose

 “It’s love’s solution to the puzzle of hatred.”

So is it just me who didn’t know what a killdeer was until I read this play?  Really?  The killdeer is a small bird, known for feigning a broken wing to draw predators away from its nest, which is built on open ground, and for calling out its own name.  Read about it here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killdeer

 James Reaney (1926 – 2008) was already an award-winning poet by the late 1950s, when he was encouraged by a friend, director Pamela Terry, to write a piece for Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre (then located on Bedford Road).  The resulting work, The Killdeer, launched his drama career when it premiered in January 1960, directed by Terry.  Alumnae Theatre Company presents The Killdeer as this season’s Retrospective Choice  – part of our ‘Countdown to 100’ as we head toward the century mark – the company is now 95 years young!

Reaney was influential in establishing a style of writing that came to be called ‘Southern Ontario Gothic’ (later made famous by Alice Munro), and that style permeates The Killdeer.  Director Barbara Larose describes the tone as a combination of realism, fairy tale and magic, a piece filled with humour and poetic imagery and metaphor – “It’s dense and challenging. This play excites me”, she says.  “It is a story of growth and coming of age, with elements of love and innocence, a search for identity, and a courtroom drama that arises from a murder mystery. “

With vines erupting from walls and a tree indoors, set designer Marysia Bucholc creates a sense of “nature climbing in” as the civilized social order fails to fully impose itself on natural growth and impulse.  Lighting designer Ed Rosing evokes the effect of light falling into a forest glade.  Costume designer Razie Brownstone takes inspiration from the script, in which characters are compared to natural elements (a mushroom, a carrion crow, the killdeer, etc.).  Sound designer Rick Jones has composed a score incorporating thematic material inspired by John Beckwith‘s original music from the 1960 production, as well as “magical elements” – a gypsy motif for Madam Fay, bird cries, the storm, etc., to create a total sensory experience.

Alumnae Theatre Company’s new production of The Killdeer features Tricia Brioux and her real-life nephew Matt Brioux as long-absent cosmetic saleswoman Madam Fay and her childlike son Eli; Rob Candy as the sinister “hired man” Clifford; Paul Hardy as young lawyer Harry; Blythe Haynes as Rebecca, the girl he loves; Anne Shepherd as Harry’s meddlesome mother; Marie Carrière Gleason as her gossipy friend; Naomi Vondell as the jailer’s wife; Tina McCulloch, Joanne Sarazen and Michael Vitorovich in dual roles; and Peter Higginson as the swamp hermit, Dr. Ballad.

Tickets can be reserved at 416-364-4170, box 1.  Payment in cash only on arrival.  Or you can purchase online (for Wed – Sat performances only) at  http://www.alumnaetheatre.com/tickets.html

Tickets for Sunday matinees are available for in-person cash only sales at Box Office.  Box Office opens one hour  before performances.

PERFORMANCES Wed – Sat at 8pm; Sundays at 2pm.  A Talkback with director & cast follows the April 21 matinee.

TICKET PRICES: Wednesday 2-for-1; Thursday/ Friday/Saturday $20; Sunday PWYC.