Placement

I have found out my first practicum placement is at the Center for Arts in Human Development

Orientation begins on Monday, therapy sessions will take place Monday and Friday’s

The Center was made in mind for Masters Students from the CATS program, I will be working with the other disciplines as well as Drama Therapists. There is a structure in place here, which to me, provides the necessary organization I NEED right now to have confidence in this program (which has slowly dwindled due to what seems like lack of administrative organization…or I may be anxious to start – I have a new brain today, so I’m tossing all ill confidences out the door)

For preparation, we are discussing in class t counselling skills and strategies for therapeutic benefits (how to prepare sessions/contracts/improv) with this specific population (developmentally disable adults)

current mood: …something

Creative Arts Therapies (CATS) Orientation @ Concordia University

Last week was the orientation day for all CATS at Concordia’s Visual Art building, downtown Montreal. I stayed within my own pack [DT's], finding the ten of us fairly outnumbered by the other disciplines: art and music therapy (this was initially surprising to me considering drama encompasses both therapies – vaguely. But maybe I am more biased than anything).

The orientation introduced us to the professors, the heads, the chairs, the secretaries… Everyone was friendly and welcoming (a maternal feeling, obviously, from the dominating number of women), it was a safe place to be. Trust was immediate, which I think necessary in any context of therapy.

I was lead to believe we would find our placements and assistantship positions (if granted), but was disappointed. At this point I am confused to where I will be placed for practicum (which is picked for you by professors based on your interactions in the orientation – eshk).

We were separated to our packs and I felt very sincere and refreshed when grouped with these people again, I am grateful to them; doubtless in my observations and hopeful for the next two years.

Our warm-up exercises (anything from drama class/make it personal) included the same ‘get to know you’s’ as we participated with in our Introductory course.
-”what’s your name mean with a food that “describes” you?” (lyndsay simmons/generic/steak/*vegetarians everywhere*);
-”embody the feeling you hope to have two years from now ” (my immediate thought was of literally jumping onto a gold mountain, not even climbing but hugging it)
-”with a partner, dramatize the next two years in one minute” (Carlos was my partner, it was terrible, “that sucked” he said….high school ha)
-”who’s here in the room with us” (a little scary, I brought Brit and cat)
-”magic box” (the necessity of ending something – the box comes from the ceiling and you take something from this MAGICAL illusive box and leave anything behind – ie. guilt/cynicism)

LUNCH: was ok…surrounded by bees.

It’s a new: city/thought/future

Within the past few months I have been accepted into the Creative Arts Therapy Program with specialization in Drama Therapy at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.

So this is now, here, and well, here I am:

The city is what I’ve always wanted, and the masters program seems made for me.

I’ve taken the Introduction course and was spell bound by the lovely people I am to spend the next two years with. Seriously, insta-click. I can’t tell you how comfortably horrifying it feels to be on some kind of track.

With this now, my posts will soon be changing from theatre to therapy literature, and in the city there is no more gardening…although really awesome markets. I hope to produce empirical research in my two years here for a really wise but very new purpose.

I also have to find out what CHEERS is en francais.

Au revoir

Article for ‘Theatre in London’; New Production site up

It’s funny, I stalked this site for months when I first came to London and now I’m on it!
Peter Janes from TiL asked me to write an article for his site about my LOAF experience, you can view the article here

Also, we’ve finally got our site up for Brit Cruise Productions, please check it out and tell friends who have friends that need anything…we can do it.

Found a review for “On the Menu” (woooaaah)

On the Menu [Review by Donald D'Haene]

Written and directed by Lyndsay Simmons
Played by Brit Cruise, Kathryn Harter, Cameron Michael Murray, Kathy Quayle, Lyndsay Simmons

My personal favourite of the nine LOAF shows is On The Menu about an independent catering company that provides delicious “services” to suit any event.

What a talent writer/director/actor Lyndsay Simmons is and her god-given voice is perfect for comedy. How Simmons as Penny and Brit Cruise as James opened the show as two caterers in their automobile on the way to a gig was delicious. When they met up with Kathryn Harter as Lydia and Kathy Quayle as Valerie, they were matched every step of the way.

I forgive any mistakes in a show when the production values, writing and performances are this good. And On The Menu gets even higher marks for working all my senses. I imagined a past and future for all these characters, all the while very engaged in their present. That’s tough to accomplish in a thirty-minute one act play!

I predict we will hear and see much more about Simmons long after her show gathers trophies at the LOAF awards this weekend.

Performance; Adjudication; Awards

I lost my rhythm of posting and have to bunch a huge post, so here it is:

we did it!

the performances went really well, better than expected. So much energy, it was fun to get that horrifying puke feeling before performance that I haven’t had since high school. We lost a few lines each night, no big issues, everyone knew the play well enough to run it smoothly. After the first show we had to move the set back about a foot because it was uncomfortably close to the audience. Laughs were unexpected at parts and Brit was hilarious…he really came through (he has great stage presence that doesn’t really…um…come out in rehearsal ha)

the adjudication was done by Caitlin Murphy, a Montreal playwright. I really liked her, right from the get go. What she said about my play: successful; she loved my voice; thought the revealing moment was a bit muddy; there’s no need to end the play with a big ideal (marriage) ending – that never happens; don’t mix a bunch of mimed props with real ones (be conscious of the flow your giving the audience, they can take what’s ‘not real’ until there’s something really real to compare it to); she loved brit’s expressions; liked the changes I made with the mother to older sister (she said the mother would have been a cliché profiler, very true); raise stakes for the caterers – make it their first gig, etc.; in the end she said we really pulled it together, and she didn’t think we would when she read the script. After the adjudication I was swarmed with people and saw a glimpse of her walking away, alone, smoking a cig, with an ipod on and thought “oh man you’re so cool”

the awards ceremony today at the blackshire pub was the biggest surprise of all. I was awarded, with pretty rock sculpture things, for MOST OUTSTANDING ACTRESS (like, woah?); MOST OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION; and the big prize of a spot in the Theatre Ontario Summer Intensive
. What an honour. And horrid surprise. People screamed “speech” and I walked like a sheep with a bag on it’s head away and said thanks in a baby voice behind a frightened red face…really….I am very proud of myself deep down. But don’t tell anyone!

I want to thank everyone for all their help and my cast and cam and caitlin and MJ and LOAF for the wicked opportunity and all my friends and family coming for support. seriously: thanks.

here’s some pictures we captured that i liked before our last performance.

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Rehearsal Notes

Everything is running smoothly: lines are known, blocking is blocked, and we still have 12 minutes leeway for improv and errors.

Today we decided to just put the couch on the lawn (literally, if anyone wants an old couch its’ on our lawn now, please come take it) and set our living room up as our set! It’s hilarious. I want my whole house/life to be stage sets. We’ve even placed one of B’s film lights for testing.

We still have props to work out (whether to use real food or cardboard food or 50/50, will be decided throughout the week). Otherwise, I have no stressful comments to make and am very ‘level’ about our process…although, there is a light cold flowing through cast members which blows (literally…) but we’ll survive.

Here’s some of todays’ set up and practice:

(brit makes a stove out of a box we got from dundas)

(lyn painting box to stove)

(cam directing in daylight)

(kate + kathy scene)

(b face cooking)

LOAF Oritentation at the McManus Studio

Last night the LOAF festival had its’ orientation where I finally met the ghost people I’ve been speaking with everyday for the past month, they are very lovely women…and the other groups.

It was informative; gave me a little more confidence and a little more stress.

Here are some of my notes from the evening:

- Each group is allowed one LIGHTING special, but that’s Brit’s business as he is in charge of lighting. Here’s what they got (taken from an email)
* Strand Lighting, Light Board 300 Series 2 scene preset and/or 200 channel computer operation.
48 channel x 24 submaster configuration.
* 96 Strand CD80 dimmers with 2400 watt capacity.
Actual limit is approximately 2200 watts.
* 6 36 degree Source Four (have 2 drop in irises)
* 45 Berkey-Colortran mini-ellipses, 30-40-50 degree (500 watt)
* 20 Strand-Century 6 x 9’s (750 watt)
* 16 Strand-Century 6 x 12’s (750 watt)
* 10 Strand-Century 6 x 16’s (750 watt)
* 14 Strand 6” fresnels Patt 123-with barndoors (500 watt)
* 15 Strand 8” fresnels Patt 223-12 barndoors (1000 watt)
* Gel stock is Rosco-lux
* Sidearms, floor stands etc. may be available (shared with mainstage)

- The STAGE is a perfect size for what we have: There’s a sensitive curtained backdrop; a small offset of the stageright (like a walk in closet) that cannot hold much more than a couple bodies and won’t be used much with my play; a backspace for storage (my 7″ X 4″ dolly will be perfect for the setting/table idea I had…be so organized too…just roll it on); I must be cautious of my spiking set pieces as the first row audience will have trouble seeing where I had in mind to put things (*stove). Here’s the stage dimensions and pictures:

* Stage width at up center wall – 25’ across
* Stage width at setting line – 37’ across
* Up center wall to setting line (stage depth) – 17’6”
* Setting Line to first row of chairs – 3’8” (first row of chairs is on the ground)
* Setting Line to seating risers – 5’0”
* Clear height to grid – 17’6”
* There is no exterior cross over. Entrances are from stage right. An interior cross over can be created with draperies (decreases depth of stage)

Full Stage:

**** AS YOU CAN TELL FROM THE AUDIENCE VIEW IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT ACTORS ARE LOOKING UP THE ENTIRE TIME ****

Where the car will go:

The backspace where the set and props are set for performance *five minutes on/five minutes off:

- THINGS TO KNOW FOR TECH REHEARSAL APRIL 18 @ 1PM:
- BE PREPARED
- have full (finished/tidy) script with ALL lighting/sound cues (we forgot to ‘get’ a stage manager so we asked if we could make it easy and get one of the organizers to do it, this is good because now we have to do it right and not screw up)
-we have1.5 hours for entire tech + they want to run through it at least once. Our running time is 30 minutes thus far, so you can understand how TIGHT this is.
- in one hour we have to:strike set, light cues, sound cues, etc.

-AWARD CEREMONY is April 26th, 2 pm at the Black Shires Pub on Talbot st. The awards are made by artist Katrina Callahan

Set Design Ideas for “On the Menu”

I have made my first 3D template for the set of “On the Menu.” The rules are it must be kept as simple as possible, with five minutes to put on and five minutes to take down. This gave me a smashing idea…

First…Here’s the top/side views of what I had in mind:

stage left:

stage right:

There are four initial sets written in the play, the main being the car (which is represented in the diagram on stage left in two curves) and the kitchen scenes. I will hopefully be able to manipulate lighting to suggest the separate spaces – outside/living room/kitchen/bathroom, lights will go on/off dependent on scene, all other lights will be off during these scenes (etc.)

There is a transition (between sc. 2 to sc. 3) where P and J are in the “living room” while V and L are speaking in the kitchen. P and j are to stay still in the darkness. During this scene, V will be putting the entire kitchen set together, piece by piece. Initially L will be sitting at the island on a stool and that is all that is on stage. The oven will roll out (or be carried out if made light enough) and the wine rack, etc. Should be comedic.

During the bathroom scene the lights will rise on stage right, all other lights will turn off. The wine rack from the kitchen will be turned into a sink and scene will pursue (P may set up bathroom during scene where L and J are talking)

more to come…

Character sketch after first rehearsal (Entry #1)

The first rehearsal went well, and I’m very happy with my team.

Some fixers though, this is a post for the production process.:

-I found my biggest issue is acting and directing, I thought if Clint Eastwood could do it I totally could. It’s difficult to determine blocking while I’m onstage, actors are standing around while I’m trying to get my lines right, which isn’t professional.
how to fix it? I have been fortunate enough to have Cam (my roommate) sit in on rehearsals so I have asked him to be my other set of eyes and act as director while I’m onstage. This I noticed has helped tremendously as he has helped me with my character PENNY when I didn’t get a chance to think about it.

-My second issue then is not being able to get into character while directing at the same time.
how to fix it? My goal next time will be to get more involved in character warm ups as opposed to just directing them. I realized how necessary they are, even though I loathed them deeply in all acting classes (sorry judith thompson)

So, here are some notes I took after the first rehearsal for character profiles and some info to help my actors:

PENNY: feels like she is stepping on everyone’s toes, wants to make everyone happy, while being happy herself. Extremely sensitive to James’ ‘issues’ and portrays this with her every interaction to other characters. Very sweet and simple otherwise, noble and kind, but resistant to open to others, especially other women (definitely more to develop lots more).

JAMES: a lot more confidence in your language. J is cocky, professional and not emotional. Scene between J and Lydia should be almost mockery. He is telling her things not in flirtation but to control the conversation and situation (as you see in the blocking where he guides her to do his dirty work) we will go over some more character sketches during warm up to get you into it

LYDIA: hot tempered but not yelling or whining, more staccato with lines. This comes from being VERY confident, but confidence comes from having to always defend yourself all the time from being different from your perfect older sister (so it’s almost an empty confidence)
Scene 4 – pg 10, instead of saying “to shout” (because you don’t really shout ha) say “I’m sorry to act this way”
pg. 12 “the perfect profile” gaze at the audience as I think they will connect with you more that way

VALERIE: I love when you say “I loved Collin” like you didn’t at all, that’s perfect. V is very reserved and very rational, very proper with her sister. She becomes lightened up and different it seems when guests come into her home (I call this the ‘hostess syndrome’ where some people are more nice to strangers than their family). V is not necessarily always walking around but busy (I will bring the cups to next rehearsal and see how that works, otherwise I’m waiting for something to click that you should be doing…something to think about)

These are some things to consider for next rehearsals. Keep up the great work!