Year: 2009

Redesign

Just finished my first major redesign of Theatre in London. It looks a lot less like the default blog template and more like an actual media site. The biggest change is that I’m taking advantage of all of the imagery that’s available: posters are prominent almost everywhere, and I’ve made it easier to display images on individual articles. I’m also quite happy with some of the not-immediately-visible additions, like the overlaid icons for festival productions and the placeholder images for events that don’t have posters. Finally, I think the expanded event listings page and the calendar complement each other a lot better; at one point I had tried to include posters on the calendar too, and it was just an unreadable mess.

There will certainly be tweaks, but I think this is something that can stick around for a while without looking dated. And it’s only taken 12 months to get here!

Save the CBC

The title of the Save the CBC petition might sound a little alarmist—it’s not at risk of disappearing à la GM or Chrysler—but it’s not hard to extrapolate an eventual result from the actions (and inactions) of the party that’s currently in control of the purse strings.

So go sign it already.

Among other things, you’ll be helping to support Canadian musicians like Emm Gryner and T. Nile, and a news source that’s more trusted and unbiased than any other in the country (and perhaps the entire continent).

One Week, one day

Knowing a bit of the way these things work, I realize it’s not a huge coincidence that as soon as I came back from One Week I’d discover that Emm Gryner would be promoting the film on CBC Sunday (with director Michael McGowan). But it’s a nice surprise nonetheless!

Rats… Emm was on CBC Sunday (the 10am show) rather than CBC Sunday Night (the 10pm show). (Fortunately the interview segment is online.) Must make for a long day for Carole MacNeil and Evan Solomon, who host both shows.

Bob and Alice (but not Carol or Ted)

One of the best shows of last year’s London Fringe Festival is being remounted in Toronto next month, and one of the best of the Montreal Fringe is coming to London soon after.

The Toronto play is Chaotica. It’s written and performed by Christel Bartelse, who I had the opportunity to interview (along with her stage manager Colleen O’Reilly) for Theatre in London last August. Christel’s promo describes it well: the madcap adventures of Alice, a stressed-out artist caught in a nightmarish board game that transforms her into different versions of who she thinks she wants to be.

Also on the bill is a play I haven’t seen, Lionheart, written and performed by Diana Kolpak, who directed Chaotica. Sounds like it will be a good complement: it’s about Litty, a lion-tamer trapped in a ring where the usual rules don’t apply.

The plays are at The Theatre Centre, which is the interesting venue where I saw Evalyn Parry in Breakfast last year. Haven’t decided yet which of the five performances I’m going to (although it’s most likely to be Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon) but if anyone wants to come with I’ll be happy to drive.

Coming to London as part of this June’s Fringe festival, on the other hand, is Daniel MacIvor‘s See Bob Run, performed by Lydia Zadel. I’ve written about Lydia before, particularly for her work in The Body at the 2005 London Fringe.

The poster for the show is reminiscent of Lola rennt (aka Run Lola Run), although from what I’ve read of Bob it sounds like that’s mostly coincidental: Bob, a chatty teenager, decides to escape it all by hitch-hiking the trans-Canada highway. The only direction Bob gives to her rides is to go “East… Until you hit water. A lot of water.”

I’m really looking forward to seeing Lydia perform a MacIvor play, as she’s the one who got me interested in him in the first place; Jeff Culbert’s article a couple of years ago served to reinforce that interest, and I’ve seen all the performances of his work that I’ve been able to since, including House at last year’s Winnipeg Fringe Festival and Passionfool‘s excellent production of Never Swim Alone here in town. (Coincidentally, Never Swim Alone and See Bob Run are the first two shows I’ve heard about for the 2009 Fringe.) “Canadian theatre god” indeed.

On the edge

It’s ironic that this post will be a “meta” one—an entry about this blog—given my dislike for them (which I don’t think I’ve ever detailed; maybe that will be next). But coincidence abounds at the moment, and I’m a numbers guy, so I have to mark it somehow. It’s like watching the odometer click over, except in quadruplicate:

  1. This is post 800 on Petroglyphs.
  2. In this blog’s lifespan there have been 697 comments posted.
  3. I’ve posted 493 items on my longest-running work blog, samizdat.
  4. Theatre in London has seen 899 posts, with one more coming tonight.

Yay me.

Horrible news

attn canadians, the cd & dvd are on pre-order at amazon.ca! dvd: http://tinyurl.com/53zlb5 cd: http://tinyurl.com/3v5789

are you enjoying your dvds yet?

Hello from Amazon.ca.

We’re sorry to report the release of the following item has been cancelled:

   “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”

Although we’d expected to be able to send this item to you, we’ve since found it won’t be released after all. Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience we’ve caused you.

We’ve cancelled this item from your order.

As the kids say, WTF?