Small Detail. Big Picture.

I am fussing about pens, and water. Forms and script printouts. And I can only describe it as fussing, though this kind of behaviour is really not like me. I have taken on the two jobs of Directing and Producing this time out and, because of a twist of fate, might have to stage manage the piece as well.

For those of you who don't know what that means: The Director is in creative charge of the big picture. She will make large and small decisions, including what pens go on the desk onstage, but she will not fuss over the pens and pencils we use in rehearsal. Or the coffee, or whether we need tea or milk or whether the signs are up or... She will, instead, focus on the talent and the creative. In auditions (we are starting them tonight), the Director's full attention aught to be on the actors coming in, on assessing their abilities and deciding whether they can play the parts on offer. It's the Producer who wants to worry about whether there is an audition secretary, whether there are signs, and who wants tea.

Preparation seems to be the key word for the day -- and will be, I think, for the rest of the production. I am pretty sure I can stay weeks ahead of deadlines as long as I am clear what they are - assuming I remember everything. Tall order being a lady of a certain age. Ha! So this is probably why I am fussing.

I was worried, I have to admit, that immersion in detail might affect my enjoyment of the process. Funny from someone who used to live for the detail. I was a professional stage manager for a very long time. Lists, lists, lists. Think, think, think. Safety, safety. For me, productions were like one huge puzzle of thousands of pieces. Each piece fit together or I made it fit together and, by the time we opened, the whole machine would work. And work well, for the most part. But, now, I worry that too much attention to detail might get in the way.

As a Director, I feel I need to keep my mind and heart open to express truthfully, listen simply, and respond honestly in the hope that we can, as a group, develop a piece that makes absolute sense, resonates emotionally, and tells the story extremely well. Now, don't get me wrong. I do my due diligence, my research, make my lists, know what I want, and read, read, read the text. It's all about the text. But, when I get into rehearsal, I am capable of throwing out the lot if we start moving down a new path that really works. That's fun for me. To discover. And, it looks like this process works judging from how folks tend to respond to the work.

So I wonder: will I be able to stay open while fussing over what time it is? We shall see. This production marks my first return to sorting detail in years. Years. I think I was staying away from the minutia on purpose, actually, in order to more fully become what I am now without falling back on behaviours that were comfortable or easy. Because making a list is dead easy. Honesty is hard.

So, onward with my new theatrical experiment. Perhaps I will find that handling the small details won't get in the way of the creation of the big picture. Who knows? But I will, definitely, find out.

And, oh shoot, I'd best print out that signage.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing and producing Oleanna by David Mamet for a two week run at the Red Sandcastle Theatre, prepping and leading her Shakespeare is Boffo! theatre arts camps for active kids, directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  

Make a donation to Raising Oleanna, a fundraiser in support of Jacqui's production of Oleanna by David Mamet.

Jacqui Burke
talk/text: 647-292-0210
twitter: @jaybird01
skype: Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/



Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camp for Kids. The Homeschoolers` Version: 11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $150. Quiet supervision available from 8:30 am for only an extra $50 a week. Spots are going fast. Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca 

Can't thank everyone enough, so far, except...

I have been working away, working away trying to raise funds for Oleanna by David Mamet, my production opening in November, for the last few months. It's been my primary focus. I have had to stretch myself quite a bit and embrace behaviours that I previously would have found difficult. I have put certain things aside (like the blogging) as I learned about how to address social media platforms, assessed different marketing strategies, weighed options, and did the bookkeeping (bleck).

This project has been good for me. And the show has done well. We have not raised the lot but we have more than enough money to keep going and for that I am thankful. Never felt luckier to have this opportunity. And, once again, I want to thank those who were able to support Oleanna thus far. Can't thank you enough.

In fact, there are folks that have been so supportive for the last couple of years that I have been wracking my brain to try and figure out appropriate ways to thank them. I bet you know who you are. There is great food and wine in your future...  But, after really pondering this problem, I think I understand the best way to thank everyone.

I have to do not only a good but an amazing job on this show. The absolute best I can do.

That's it. Nothing more to say.

Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing and producing Oleanna by David Mamet for a two week run at the Red Sandcastle Theatre for her own company Jaybird Productions, directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  

Make a donation to Raising Oleanna, a fundraiser in support of Jacqui's production of Oleanna by David Mamet.

Jacqui Burke
talk/text: 647-292-0210
twitter: @jaybird01
skype: Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/



Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camp for Kids. The Homeschoolers` Version: 11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $150. Quiet supervision available from 8:30 am for only an extra $50 a week. Spots are going fast. Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca 

It could happen.

Well, as one embarks on a new endeavour, there are those dark moments in which one contemplates the pure, utter disaster that a failure could be.  Whoosh.  Super-not-so-fun.  I know about his because I have failed before -- it's embarrasing, to say the least.  Usually costs a lot of money.  But...I've also managed a few wins.  

I often want to get up and have a gander at the world.  As short as I am, I will pile things up, climb on top and and have a good look around.  Makes me quite the target.  So, with Oleanna, my latest project, I am pretty much up as high as I can go and whosoever might be gunning for me (fate, circumstance, plain bad luck) should be able to take me out without too much trouble -- as I have gone ahead and piled up what could be considered some rickety stuff to stand on this time out.

Not that Oleanna is, in any way, a bad play or that I am unsure of being able to a great job of it but more this:  We are living in interesting times, as the old proverb goes, and most theatres are doing shows that are easier and more fun to go and see. They want as many bums in the seats as they can get. Oleanna is many things, including a riveting piece of work, but it is not easy. It's not fun. And, of course, theatre is supposed to be dying.... Yikes!

Well, I am pretty sure theatre isn't dying but I do think our audience is no longer aware of the innate benefits of seeing live theatre. I was shocked a year or so back when a woman in her late thirties confessed that she had never seen a live theatre production in her life. Never. Wow. And I am thinking there are more people in her shoes than I would have previously believed. Of course, there are a lot of folks for whom live theatre is only the last touring production of Beauty and the Beast.  Hmmmmm....

So, if a lot of my potential audience are in these boats, how would they know that intimate, live theatre is a fantastic, visceral experience shared between artist and audience? That there's nothing like it? Well. They wouldn't.

So, I am going to have to sell this one. And I will. As well as contacting the theatre lovers, since Oleanna is an altercation between college professor and student, I have a marketing plan that includes reaching out to the (how many?) college and university level students and faculty in the fine city of Toronto. Hopefully, I can intrigue some of them to try something that may be completely new to them.

Other than that, I have my fundraiser on the go and getting all my other ducks lined up nicely. All I wish is this: That I will do everything in my power to make Oleanna a success. If I do it all and still fail, then I will actually be proud of myself even though it will look a lot like failure to other folks. I am thinking that we only really fail in life by not trying, by not doing what we imagine, or by not trying hard enough when the opportunity comes along.

And maybe, just maybe, all that work will add up to a win this time out. It could happen.


 
Make a donation to Raising Oleanna, a fundraiser in support of Jacqui's production of Oleanna by David Mamet.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing and producing Oleanna by David Mamet for a two week run at the Red Sandcastle Theatre, prepping and leading her Shakespeare is Boffo! theatre arts camps for active kids, directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  



Jacqui Burke
talk/text: 647-292-0210
twitter: @jaybird01
skype: Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/



Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camp for Kids. The Homeschoolers` Version: 11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $150. Quiet supervision available from 8:30 am for only an extra $50 a week. Spots are going fast. Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca 

Why this piece? Why now?

I am launching a project to produce a little show called Oleanna by David Mamet.  You'd think that, considering I am an articulate and intelligent type, I would have a dozen great reasons for the why of this particular play.  The project is going to take a lot of time and resources.  I will be begging favours, I know, for months before this project is done.  I will be drained when I am through. So what are all the reasons to embark on this craziness?

I can tell you it's an excellent piece.  It's written by David Mamet, arguably the best American playwright alive today.  Mamet has changed the way way we understand relationships -- even the way we hear ourselves.  In Oleanna, a student goes to her professor seeking help with course material.  In that first meeting, the student is convinced that the professor attempts to sexually exploit her.  She subsequently accuses him of such and ruins his life.  Their power struggle is riveting.  But that's not really why I am doing the show.


I can tell you that if I don't do this show myself, I will likely not be able to do the show in Community Theatre.  We are living in difficult times and the uncertain economy is having a huge impact on Community Theatres all over Toronto.  These organizations are responding with material that is easily approachable, that is funny or heartwarming.  It can be argued that all stories are worth telling but I think that we are shying away from stories that are challenging because we believe that  no one is interested, that no one will come.  I don't think this is true and I am looking seriously at many challenging titles.  But that's not really why I am doing the show.

I can tell you that this show is in line with many of my sociopolitical interests.  I am an unabashed feminist and interested in power as it impacts human relationships.  This show deals with a lot of these issues and a lot of my friends are into discussions on these topics; so I am sure I have an audience - even if it might be a small one.  But that's not really why I am doing the show.

I can tell you I will do a solid job.  I have just finished two two-handers in a row and had a great time doing them:  Wrong For Each Other for Encore Productions and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions.  Both directing efforts were well received.  But that's not really why I am doing the show.

Here are all the reasons why I am doing the show: 

1)  Because I want to.

That's it.  That's all of it.  I want to, committed to, ready to work like crazy over the next few months to do this thing.  And despite the fact that folks would assume I am much more complex being, the truth is very simple.

And I hope you come and see it.


Support Raising Oleanna, a fundraiser (similar to Kickstarter) in support of this project.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing and producing Oleanna by David Mamet and is looking forward to directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $155.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $200.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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Invasion

On Wednesday, the Toronto Fringe Festival starts.  It's a crazy invasion of over 150 shows, hundreds of artists, thousands of theatre lovers tipified, in my mind, by The Great Poster Sprint (in which artists can put up posters advertising their shows) on Wednesday at about 4:30 pm. I am on a jury that is adjudicating as many offerings as possible to choose eight or nine shows for The Best of the Toronto Fringe Uptown, a fantastic festival in August that showcases some of the best of what the Fringe is all about.  As part of that jury, I will see, likely, thirty-five shows.  And then, after, as many as I can....  :)  I couldn't be happier.

But, you say, the Fringe can be so hit-and-miss!  You might sit through a lot of bad stuff. Yes!  Yes, it is and I do.  And yay!

For those of you who don't know how the Fringe Toronto works:  This festival is un-adjudicated.  Entries are chosen by lottery.  That's it.  So, if you have an idea and you want to submit your name, ya pays yer entry fee and ya takes yer chances.  Some of the companies who win are more than up to the task. Others struggle.  Some very worthy companies do not get picked.  It's completely random.  Once picked, a company builds and presents its show and ticket sales determine how much a company makes.  So, it's a good idea to do an entertaining show.  Some shows are hits; some not.  But the worthy ones tend to rise to the top.

Long and short, however, is this:  The Fringe is the celebration of creative drive and spark.  A festival of intent, a festival of initiative.  Amazing. I am happy to sit through dozens of shows to see one terrific one.  If you feel the way I do and want some company, message me and I will let you know what shows I am seeing.

But, even if you are leery, there are options.  Hold off until Friday, for example. Many of the 'good' shows are determined in the first days of the festival.  Take a look at the following for feedback but be aware that if you wait, the popular shows will be harder to get into:

http://www.nowtoronto.com/guides/fringe/2012/
http://www.mooneyontheatre.com/
@Toronto_Fringe

And there are many other options for vetting shows.  Definitely by Friday, the hits of the Fringe will be apparent and you can go and see them without fear. As soon as I am able - bearing in mind that the committee deliberations need to be private - I will release what I can.

However, I invite you to come down right at the very beginning.  Come see a show on Wednesday night.  I think that part of the Fringe Festival is fear.  The artists lay so much on the line every time they get out there.  I think that, perhaps, audience members could also, from time to time, lay something on the line, too.  Be an integral part of the process.  Be a part of the invasion.  Super fun.


Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening June 20. 2012 at the Palmerston Library Theatre for one night only, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions running July 20-21st, 2012 at the Alum Studio.  Next year, she is looking forward to producing/directing her own show in the fall, directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $155.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $200.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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Skipping to the End

Have you ever looked back at yourself a few years earlier and wondered: "Who the heck was I?  I would never do that today!"  Or:  "I cannot believe I was so green."  It is a natural part of life that we live and grow constantly and that what we become, sometimes, is so different to what we were that we can hardly acknowledge that the you-now and the you-then are even the same person.  Some folks actively pursue change through self-improvement but most of us, without realizing it, are learning all the time, changing constantly, and becoming something new, something wiser, not always better, but always evolving.

Plays can be viewed as microcosms rife with change.  Something is happening here: something very important; something by which absolutely everyone will be affected.  Every character, from the chorus boy to the leading lady, will be touched in some way by the prominent story arc and, because of it, will change and will evolve into something new.  In some cases, that evolution will entail the individual literally changing her mind or actions completely.  In some cases, the change will involve the person becoming more rigid or justified in his beliefs.  But, something will happen in that character's head out of the process of the show that will require or force that character to grow - for the good or the bad.

And it is that growth, that dawning understanding, that realization of caring or hatred, that ownership of need that we, as an audience, recognize in our bones, identify with, and makes us love that character.  It's the journey that makes us care about them - whether they triumph in the end or no.  It's the journey.

So, I invite all my gentle readers, when preparing to present a character onstage or in scene study, to ask yourself two questions:

1. Who is this person at the beginning of the play/scene?
2. Who is this person at the end of the play/scene?

When you know where the character starts and where the character ends, much will become clear.  How did the person behave at the beginning?  Is she flippant and fun?  Is he morose and brooding?  How does this person behave at the end?  Does she become serious and forthright?  Does he lighten and open his heart?  Answers to these questions will give you clues on general character body work, energy, pitch of voice.  Answers to these questions will tell you how the character moves, talks, holds her head even, and especially, if the character seems not to change.

And how the heck does she get from point A to point B?  What moments affect her?  Where does she have her epiphanies?  Reading the story for moments of change is a great way to identify the character's journey and will fuel your own creativity as an artist trying to honestly portray a character in crisis.

So many shows lose the journey, somehow.  We are often presented, at the beginning, with the creature into which the character should, finally, evolve.  Sadly, so many shows skip to the end.



Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening June 20. 2012 at the Palmerston Library Theatre for one night only, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions running July 20-21st, 2012 at the Alum Studio.  Next year, she is looking forward to producing/directing her own show in the fall, directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $155.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $200.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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Clay and Dirt.

I am starting The Last Five Years in just a couple of days.  Now, just a week or so ago, at the fundraising event for the show, I was pleased to meet Toby, one of the industrious young folks producing and starring in this show.  I was dead impressed with the energy and talent at this fundraising event and was happy to have attended.  But Toby said the funniest thing when I met him and I paraphrase:  "You're the one who's going to mold me into shape, huh?"

It was and, I suppose, still is common in theatre to see a director as the only truly active artist in the room, the one who takes dumb slabs of clay, bends them and molds them and returns a work of art of which only she can conceive.  Actors are not a part of a generative artistic process and are considered vacant vessels waiting to be filled with the vision and wisdom of the director.

In my view, it's all poppycock, of course, but that's what some people believe.  I think of the process as a more collaborative one in which I have done the most thinking and research and reserve the right to final decision-making (thereby avoiding unnecessary conflict) but enjoy those fantastic moments of discovery and epiphany in rehearsal that can lead to a solid show.

I prefer to think of myself more as a kind of gardener, helping a performer grow into a role.  The performer is not a dead hunk of wet dirt but, more, a delicate plant trying to push itself up out of the ground and thrive in the sunlight.  In this way, if I think of the creative process as something quivering and young, as opposed to dead in my hands, I believe I will be less likely to ground these seedlings into the dirt before they have a chance to grow into a beautiful, majestic performance.

And, I always like to add when I am discussing this analogy, it helps this process of growth that I am so full of shit.




Jacqui Burke is a freelance director, writer, and theatrical teacher living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  She is currently directing Kidsplay 2012:  The Mayan Prediction opening June 20. 2012 at the Palmerston Library Theatre for one night only, and The Last Five Years for TOKL Productions running July 20-21st, 2012 at the Alum Studio.  Next year, she is looking forward to producing/directing her own show in the fall, directing Love Letters for Encore Entertainment, and directing Lend Me A Tenor for Scarborough Theatre Guild.  She is, also, serializing The Pretender, her first novel, online at http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/.  She is preparing for two Shakespeare is Boffo! summer camp sessions for 2012.

Want to contact me?

Jacqui Burke
Artistic Director
Jaybird Productions
talk/text:  647-292-0210
twitter:  @jaybird01
skype:   Jacquiburkecell, jacqui.burke
www.wordsnimages.com
www.jaybirdproductions.ca
www.shakespeareisboffo.ca
http://jacquiburke.blogspot.ca
http://thepretender-amarcienoelnovel.blogspot.ca/
http://jaybirdproductions.blogspot.ca/

Ask me about Shakespeare is Boffo! Premium Summer Camps for Kids.  Two installments in 2012:  The Homeschoolers` Version:  11:00 am – 3:30 pm, August 13-17, 2012 for only $155.  Premium Full Day Summer Camp:  9:00 am – 4:00 pm, July 16-20, 2012 for only $200.  Both prices hold until May 15th, 2012.  Spots are going fast.  Register, now at www.shakespeareisboffo.ca

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