By Chris Craddock, adapted from the novel by Miriam Toews.
Shameless Hussy Productions
Sept 2nd, 8 p.m.
So, I’ve never seen a bad play. There’s just so much in how the staging is done, in how space is occupied, etc. There’s something about the breathing presence of live actors that gives a performance tension; I always feel tied to the actors on stage, and experience them as physical entities, unlike television, where you are a passive witness to slim projections of light and colour. It’s the difference between observing a live person and a facsimile.
Saturday night, Wayde & I decided to see “Summer of my Amazing Luck,” a Chris Craddock adaptation of Miriam Toews’s novel. Three actors, Daune Campbell, Renée Iaci, and Thomas Conlin Jones, played all of the roles. Since Iaci played Lucy, that left Campbell to cover eleven characters, and Jones to cover twenty-two. Brilliantly. The staging was minimalist, a series of blocks that could suggest a stoop, a kitchen table, a housing front. Four chairs that could be slid into the blocks, to virtually disappear, or could be arranged on stage in different formations to represent a van, a home, a series of benches. Simple clothing – a hat, a pair of glasses, a jacket that was clutched closed or fully worn – was enough to signify shifts in character. That and the transformations in the actors’ expressions and voices. From one line to the next, they’d shift personas recognizably. While there were a number of literal cues, in the staging, props, and costuming, to indicate what role was being played, much of it came down to facial expressions and shifts in the way the actors inhabited their own skin. It was astonishing to see these three carry it off – and for a full two hours at that. The roles weren’t assigned to each actor according to a division of gender. Instead, gender was also ‘worn’, indicated through stance and voice and a hundred other small cues, so that gender, too, was performed in this staging.
Wayde was wondering, as we left, if the actors got a grant. He said, I can’t imagine the time that went into development and rehearsals. Months. He said, you know, actors are kind of like writers. All that work, and it’s not for the money – so few of them make a decent living. And it’s not for want of talent, either. It’s about making a choice to spend your time at what you love – in spite of the fact you’re not going to make a decent living at it.
September 13th, 2006 at 11:01 am
How fitting that, as I was searching the internet for some reviews of Summer of My Amazing Luck to accompany grant applications, I came across your very generous review. and your very important questions: How do we do it for peanuts?
shameless hussy productions is a local established charitable, not for profit organization. We find a play or develop our own script and then we spend months applying for grants to the government and private foundations. For this show in particular, we received one grant of $1,000- that was from 8 applications. So, no, this show was not funded by grants but from three fundraisers, selling ads in the program, getting local businesses to sponsor us, and the generosity of donations from friends and family, as well as ticket sales. We work under Equity contracts and it is not a lot of money. As for the producing of the play, it began in January and just ended, and my payment for that is knowing that we put on a great show that will tour BC and beyond in the years to come.
It’s true, it is very hard to make a decent living in theatre- but on the side I waitress, do voice over work, sing, and will do pretty much any job that pays money. Maybe in the future I can make a living running a theatre company, but until then, I will try to be satisfied with finding great plays and great roles for myself and then producing the whole damn thing!
September 18th, 2006 at 11:16 pm
I think what I have the hardest time getting my head around is the unequal distribution of money. There are shit-stupid amounts spent on producing gawd-awful television shows and small but quality production companies have to squeegee their way to the curtain call. Crazy. I’m glad the posting was useful to you and I’ve got my fingers x’ed for you to get that grant!
A.
November 13th, 2006 at 11:29 am
Does anyone know if Summer of my Amazing Luck is coming to or has been in Calgary?