SUMMERWORKS WEB REPORT - August 7, 2003
by Jon Kaplan
Another August, another SummerWorks. But this year’s theatre festival – its 13th – arrives with a difference.
It marks the first time that all the participants – and they number 47, the largest ever – were chosen by a committee of theatre artists for the quality and the potential of the writing.
Artistic director Franco Boni’s been moving in that direction for the past several years, first by inviting several groups into the then-lotteried festival and by last year splitting the festival half and half between invited groups and lotteried companies.
What we audiences have seen, as a result, is a festival that offers higher-quality works than is possible in a fully lotteried system. That doesn’t mean that every show is successful or is to everyone’s taste, but the overall theatrical standard has been pretty high.
There’s lots to anticipate with pleasure at this SummerWorks, which opens tonight (Thursday, August 7) and runs to August 17. We’ve highlighted a number of productions and participating artists in today’s print edition of NOW, also available online. But the fact is, we could easily have previewed many more, given the quality of the work that the artists have presented in the past.
We’ll provide you with ongoing coverage of SummerWorks here online, including regular reports about schedule changes, shows of interest and festival gossip, as well as mini reviews of the entire festival as we get to the productions. Check back often to see what’s hot and what’s happening.
Speaking of Franco Boni, the busy director and festival head has just been appointed the new artistic director of the Theatre Centre, a position he takes up in September.
Not that he would have time before that, given that he’s running SummerWorks and also director of the Youth Initiatives Program at Buddies in Bad Times. Not enough? He’s also director of the Spring Training Program at the Tarragon, head of the Toronto District School Board’s co-op theatre program and is also returning to Buddies to co-curate next season’s Rhubarb! Festival.
Boni’s always had an interest in developing young theatre artists, and this year proves no exception. In the past he’s invited teen finalists in the Sears Ontario Drama Festival into SummerWorks, to show their stuff alongside more seasons artists, and also held readings of new scripts by young playwrights.
Lots of youth-oriented shows and work by up-and-comers are part of this year’s SummerWorks. Among them are Giving It Up, in which a trio of teens grow up during an eventful summer in Etobicoke; Hemlock, featuring a cast of current students and recent grads of the National Theatre School of Canada; idiot, in which a 17-year-old "bad girl" reveals a scarred history; Incarnate, a student-written, -acted and -directed piece from this year’s Sears Festival; A Modest Proposal, which looks at the teen psyche through urban dialogue and movement; and Ungeziefer (Vermin), a new take on Kafka’s short story Metamorphosis by a group of young and passionate theatre artists.
Then there are a pair of one-offs being workshopped. Anthony Furey’s The Paper, about two best friends whose relationship is tested, has a free performance August 15, 3:30 pm, at the Factory Studio. Playwright Furey – SummerWorks’s youth play-reading coordinator and artistic producer of the Tarragon’s teen-focused Paprika Festival – has had works performed at the Tarragon and the Poor Alex.
Mitchell Cushman’s All Relative gets a reading as part of the Summer Youth Reading Series. The 17-year-old Cushman wrote and directed Intermission at last season’s Paprika Festival. The pwyc reading of All Relative is August 17, 12:30 pm, at Artword Alternative.
On another note, if you’re hanging around the Factory Theatre courtyard between shows, check out The Crapper, by Mariko Tamaki and Lindy Zucker. It might look like a Porta-Pottie – and don’t confuse it with others that could be in the vicinity – but it’s an art installation that offers various meditations on artistic waste. Think of it as a highbrow version of what to read when you’re sitting on the john.
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