#this is a media appreciation life

Tomorrow is the last chance to see our very own Matthew Bissett’s charming and idiosyncratic production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni for Burnaby Lyric Opera. Once again teamed up with David Boothroyd, together he and Bissett have created a rich world, with a minimal set and only piano accompaniment. The strong and beautiful voices of the fantastic cast round out the fullness of performance.

The main set piece is an enlarged scroll, telling the story of Don Giovanni from his servant’s point of view. Incorporating “found” objects such as map fragments, this set piece serves both to offer information to the audience about setting and backstory, but also to engage us more directly with the experiences of the characters.

This production features Willy Miles-Grenzberg as Don Giovanni, supported by Arianna Sovernigo, Michael MacKinnon (who you should remember from last year), Melanie Krueger, Jeremy Griffin, Chloe Hurst Soprano, Jason Cook and Andrzej Jeziorski (both NSLOS alums). Cast bios are available here.

Playing at the Shadbolt Centre in Burnaby, closing night is March 5th and is well worth the $30 (adult) or $25 (student/senior) ticket.

originally written for and posted @ nslos.wordpress.com

Memoirs of a Single Gay White Male, written and directed by David Blue, is a comic and poignant exploration of life, love and relationships, told through the perspective of the so-called SGWM.

Employing effective staging and a strong lead in Jamie Foster, this production is able to speak intimately and candidly to the audience. With a casual Scrubs-like dismissal of the fourth-wall, the conceit of a story built almost wholey from flashbacks peopled with the same actors as the present day counterparts isn’t jarring – it comes across as natural and affecting. The skillful teasing out of a character’s inner life and experience within the confines of the stage and without benefit of a musical number is extremely impressive.

The meta-structure also gives rise to many of the particularly dramatic and comedic moments. With the remnants of the fourth-wall at the audiences’ feet, the lead character can demand the entrance onto, and exit from, the stage of another character without endagering the reality of the narrative. The dramatic structure, built around the six aspects the show explores, is shaped by what amounts to a Greek chorus speaking to the audience.

With a beautiful hyper-minimal set that integrates representations of those aspects, strong performances from the entire cast (many of whom are called upon to fill multiple roles) and an incisive but gentle commentary of the changing times and the aging that goes with them, Memoirs of a SGWM is not to be missed.

Starring Jamie Foster, Bryan Kelly, Kathleen Driscoll, Scott McGrath, Bill Houston, Matthew Fedorowicz, Larry Colcy and Tara Webster, Memoirs is a Raving Theatre production playing at Performance Works on Granville Island.

To get tickets call (604) 684-2787, go to ticketstonight.ca or visit Little Sisters Book Store. Runs April 7-10 @ 8pm with a 5pm showing on April 11th.

originally written for and posted @ nslos.wordpress.com