Hey, It’s Not All Bad! 2016 In Review

It’s becoming a bit of a tradition, doing a “year in review” post, so here goes one for a year most of us agree has been pretty shit; 2016.

Despite the awful things happening in the world, the ridiculous number of celebrities to pass before their time, 2016 has been good to me in a lot of ways. Here’s the highlights.

Tarragon Theatre

As I mentioned in my blog from this time last year, in January of 2016 I started working for Tarragon Theatre as the Assistant Producer; this has been my all time favourite job. The people at Tarragon are awesome, and I very quickly got to learn a lot. From doing CAEA contracts with Kesta, the Business Manager; mailings and social media marketing with Lauren, the Director of Communications; foundation & grant research with Leslie, Director of Development; workshops with students lead by Anne, Director of Education; and special projects grant writing with Richard, the Artistic Director, I’ve had a chance to do a little bit of everything and that has helped to confirm that, yes, I love everything about theatre. It’s been a hard year in a lot of ways and the staff have been very supportive, and I’m going to miss the place when my contract ends (soon). But I think I have now a good idea of what sort of training & experience I need to have a position there, and so I’m headed down that path in hopes of working there again someday!

New Apartment

A rare photo of a mostly clean apartment – Thanksgiving 2016

We only clean for guests

Bathroom with vintage tile

For anyone thinking of moving to a new apartment a week before opening a show, I have one piece of advice; don’t. Despite it being insanely hectic, and taking a very long time to get organize and settled in, I’m very happy with my new home. It’s a lovely old building, built around 1910, and has a ton of vintage charm, which (surprise!) I love. Plus, I’m here with 4 of my favourite people; my bunny, Felicity, my budgies, Felix & Rooney, and my ever-supportive boyfriend, Conor (aka Coogle). Pretty great.

Wait Until Dark

In April Bygone Theatre mounted a production of Wait Until Dark in the rehearsal hall at Tarragon Theatre. As happens with every show I direct, I got to meet a ton of funny, talented, and all-round awesome people. Also got to reconnect with Anthony Neary who I had worked with on Madeline Robin Known As Roxann a couple years back; he came out from Ottawa to set up some funky LED lights. We got to expand our Youth Outreach with this show by getting several teenage volunteers involved, which not only lessened my workload, but introduced all of us to some up-and-coming Toronto talents.

Directing with Richard Rose

This year I finally had a chance to take a class I have wanted to sign up for for YEARS; Directing with Richard Rose. I don’t have any formal theatre training and so I had wanted to add some things to my resume and get tips from a pro; for anyone looking for the same, I highly recommend this class. I haven’t had a chance to direct a show since taking the course, so we’ll see come His Girl Friday if his words of wisdom will improve my directing skills!

Vaudeville Revue

(Most of) The Cast of Vaudeville Revue

Since I started Bygone back in late 2012, I have wanted to do a vaudeville show; in June 2016, I finally got the chance. Vaudeville Revue had a short run but we had an amazing variety of talent, and I’ve got another one planned for this season; hopefully this will grow into a yearly event. Everyone was not only talented but wonderfully positive. Despite not having the usual rehearsal process, I really witnessed bonding among performers backstage. That’s always one of my favourite parts of a show.

Tucked Away Antiques

In August I decided to try and make some extra cash out of my second biggest passion (next to theatre); antiques. I have a ridiculous number of vintage & antique items at home – from shows, my own collections – and I always want to buy more. So I opened up an Etsy shop, Tucked Away Antiques, to feed my collecting addiction without making me go broke; it worked! It’s growing slowly, but it is growing, and I am making a profit. In the new year I hope to build it more and get it to a place where it can be a regular source of income.

Human Rights Hearing Against Theatre 20

This is meant to be a positive post, so I won’t go into this here. I’ll just say that the hard part is over, and that you can read more about it here.

Coming Up

I’m already knee-deep in 2017 in a lot of ways. Work on Bygone’s next show, His Girl Friday, started a few months ago, and rehearsals will start in early January. I’ve signed up for online courses through Lynda, so I can brush up on my Adobe skills & Google Analytics, as well as learn how to use new programs like Quickbooks & Sage, and get some training on HTML & C++. Hopefully these skills will help me not just with Bygone, but any future work as a producer. I’ve got a bunch of things on the back-burner at the moment, and hopefully will have some more updates soon, though I won’t jinx it by mentioning them now.

All for now. Happy New Year!
– E.

Opening Weekend – 3 Sold-Out Shows!

We just wrapped up the opening weekend of Rope, and I must say this was the smoothest opening I’ve ever had. I don’t know if I am actually getting better at this whole “producing” thing or if the theatre gods were smiling that day, but we managed to get through 3 shows in a site-specific venue that was not without its difficulties, braving the sudden snow (you’d think Canadians would be used to it by now, but no, they can’t figure out how to drive in it) all without any accidents, incidents or missed cues. I am happy.

Matt McGrath and Jamieson Child watch Chelsey MacLean tie a “jolly good parcel”. Photo by Danielle Son.

It’s always exciting to see the show finally come together; don’t get me wrong, it’s been in a good place for weeks now, but the energy of the audience always kicks the actors up into high-gear. Even with those who I’d worked with many times before, I was thrilled to see new levels emerge, and actually found myself jumping at falls I’d seen a dozen times, getting teary-eyed at speeches that I know by heart. That’s always an amazing feeling.

Leete Stetson and Jamieson Child. Photo by Danielle Son.

As a director, I was proud to see the actors all perform at their absolute best. All the little notes and nuances that had occasionally appeared during rehearsals were remembered and performed to perfection. I was thrilled with each and every one of them.

Matt McGrath, Chelsey MacLean, Nicholas Arnold and Leete Stetson. Photo by Danielle Son.

As a producer, I was ecstatic to have 3 sold-out performances in a weekend, something that has never happened before for a show I’ve produced. Having a packed audience helps the cast and it helps Bygone’s budget as well.

“You suspect what, did you say?” Jamieson Child confronts Leete Stetson. Photo by Danielle Son.

As a designer I was relieved to see none of the costumes fell apart, and that they looked good together onstage. The lighting worked, the sound cues were effective (even if they weren’t what I initially had in mind), and thankfully I had a stage manager (Devon Potter) who was keeping everything running smoothly.

As anyone who works in theatre knows, a general rule is that, if it can go wrong, at some point, it will. And usually that’s what happens during the tech & dress (if you’re lucky, everything falls into place for opening). I’m knocking on SO much wood as I write this, but really, this time, nothing has gone wrong. I’ve said before that I think my greatest strength as a director is with my casting. I don’t claim to be doing anything new or groundbreaking, I choose plays with a clear plot and don’t try to change the audience’s view on anything. I just want to entertain them with a great show performed by talented actors. It’s happened again here. I have a brilliant cast and crew who I couldn’t be more pleased with. Everyone has come through to not only perform their best onstage, but off as well; this is a group I can trust and rely on, and for that I am so grateful.

We’ve still got four performances to go, with a few days in between here for us to all take a breath and finally exhale. I can’t wait for next weekend, I’m sure they’ll all blow me away again.

My beautiful cast. Photo by Danielle Son.

My beautiful cast. Photo by Danielle Son.

Haven’t gotten your tickets to Rope yet? Get them online now through TO Tix.

Want to see more production stills? Check out our facebook page. Photos by the talented Danielle Son.