Ottawa Theatre Confidential

Tania, Andrew, and Heather Marie open the 2011-2012 theatre season, featuring The 39 Steps and Amelia: The Girl Who Wants to Fly. We also wax philosophical about adaptations, programming a season, the reasons behind retro culture, the viability of the season model, and slam poetry.

The Ottawa Theatre Confidential team is back with a 2011 Ottawa Fringe Festival wrap-up episode. We discuss the shows that won closing night and best in fest awards as well as our own picks for the hits and misses at this year's Festival.

In this episode we cover the final show of the GCTC season: Daniel MacIvor's "This is What Happens Next" playing in the Irving Greenberg Theatre in partnership with the Magnetic North Theatre Festival; Third Wall Theatre's "Exit the King" directed by James Richardson and starring Andy Massingham; and "YICHUD (Seclusion)", another Magnetic North show, originally from Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto, playing in Academic Hall at the University of Ottawa.

Andrew and Heather Marie do a tongue-in-cheek debriefing of this year's Rideau Awards Gala (which took place April 10th, more info can be found here: http://www.prixrideauawards.ca/), including what we found surprising and who made our best dressed list. Heather Marie then shares her pre-recorded interview with Ekaterina Shestakova, Artistic Director of Once Upon a Kingdom Theatre here in Ottawa. The interview was recorded during a rehearsal for "The Little Prince", OUK Theatre's upcoming production (for more information please visit http://www.onceuponakingdom.com/); the additional voices you hear are cast members Jennifer Capogreco and Chris Wardell.

This episode contains a discussion of the Ottawa Theatre School's "Under Milk Wood" directed by Janet Irwin, and "The Middle Place", a Project: Humanity production at the GCTC. Andrew tells us about "Rivage a L’Abandon, Medee-Materiau, Paysages Avec Argonautes" at the University of Ottawa, and "Lauchie, Liza, and Rory", a Mulgrave Road Theatre production at the NAC. We go over the newly announced 2011/2012 season at the Great Canadian Theatre Company, Tania delivers a rant about honest feedback and theatre subscribers (okay, maybe that's two rants) and finally, Andrew fills us in on the fabulous party that was John Koensgen's 60th Birthday/New Theatre of Ottawa fundraiser and mystery season launch.

Welcome to our bonus Rideau Awards episode! Tania hosts as we discuss the nominations and our picks for this year's Prix Rideau Award winners, who will be announced at the 4th annual gala on April 10. A full list of nominees can be found at: www.prixrideauawards.ca and Andrew's blog, where you can find his post "My Inaccurate Rideau Awards Predictions" can be found here: http://snobiwan.wordpress.com/

In episode 5 we discuss Pierre Brault's "Shadow Cutter" at the GCTC, the English Theatre Company's "St. Carmen of the Main" at the NAC, Third Wall Theatre's "Antigone" and we give a quick shout out to Centaur Theatre's "Instructions to any Future Socialist Government Wishing to Abolish Christmas" and the Ottawa U Drama Guild production of "The Jew of Malta".

In this episode, Andrew and Heather Marie discuss the fallout from Denis Armstrong's strongly worded blog post about Ottawa theatre on OttawaSun.Com (full post along with comments can be viewed here: http://blogs.canoe.ca/nowopen/general/14431/) as well as the company launch that precipitated it - the launch of the Ottawa Shakespeare Company, headed by Charles McFarland. And, Heather Marie shares her exclusive interview with David Whiteley, one of the artistic directors of Ottawa's "other" new theatre company, Plosive Productions.