The Inside Scoop

Why an Interview,,,

Over the years we have been able to meet and talk with some very interesting people. They have shared with us their knowledge and have provided us with a great deal of insight as to how and why festivals and events work and why they are so important to our communities and to the Province of Ontario. With this in mind, we decided that we wanted you to meet and hear from some of the wonderful people who work so hard to provide us all with such wonderful Ontario Festivals and Events! We are pleased and proud to present "THE INSIDE SCOOP"!

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival ~ Maid for a Musket

www.stlawrenceshakespeare.ca

Ian Farthing, Artistic Director, St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival

Lucia Frangione

“THE INSIDE SCOOP” is excited continue with the “SCOOP” from the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, Prescott, Ontario about their upcoming performance “MAID for a MUSKET”, a brand new comedy by Lucia Frangione, Original music by Melissa Morris. Ian Farthing, Artistic Director of the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival has kindly introduced us to Ms. Lucia Frangione, internationally produced award winning playwright and actor, we continue …

Auditions, Planning, Concept, MUSICAL Collaboration … MAID for a MUSKET …

Ian Farthing, Artistic Director, St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, shares with us that nearly 1000 submissions from actors across the country wanted to audition for the season, which includes Hamlet. I was able to ask Ms. Frangione, how long did it take to come up with the concept and then create and write “Maid for a Musket”? I was surprised by her answer … “I didn’t have a lot of time, actually. A year and a half. I usually like to have two years at least. I had a lot of history to wade through too, but it was all very interesting and fun work.” Ian Farthing goes on to tell us … “As Lucia mentioned, we've done the whole new play creation process in just over 18 months, but in terms of planning the mainstage season, things are usually mapped out 2 years ahead”.

Ontario Visited wondered what Ms Frangione duties/roles are prior to and during a production for “Maid for a Musket?” She tells us …“I really hand over the reigns to the director but I’m around to make any edits and changes to the script that they inevitably discover in rehearsals. In this case, I am around for the first week of rehearsals and the last week right up to opening night.”

Maid for a Musket, at this year’s St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival features Original Music by Melissa Morris. We have had the privilege of watching Melissa Morris over the course of the past 4 years at the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival and enjoyed her roles and performances. Melissa is a drama and music graduate of Queen's University. She is also an actor and singer, music director and composer. I asked Ms. Frangione if she could tell us a little about her experience and collaborations with Melissa pertaining to “Maid for a Musket” creation. Lucia replies … “Our collaboration was long distance so we didn’t get to talk much. She was quick accommodating and super talented. It was easy because she’s utterly capable.”

Stay tuned for more exciting “SCOOP” from Lucia Frangione and Ian Farthing, St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival! Check out their website for the details (www.stlawrenceshakespeare.ca), plan on a fun, and great, memorable time!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival ~ Maid for a Musket ~ Forget the History Lesson

www.stlawrenceshakespeare.ca

Ian Farthing, Artistic Director, St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival

Lucia Frangione, International Award Winning Playwright

Forget the History Lesson …

Merging Historical Characters into a Fiction Story …without it being just another “HISTORY LESSON”

Ian Farthing, Artistic Director, St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, is also an accomplished Director/Actor/Singer/Performer. He is also “witty” “cleaver”, kind, generous and thoughtful! I was fortunate to have Ian’s input with the next question for Lucia Frangione. Ian asks Ms. Frangione … “How does one tell a story clearly without it becoming a “history lesson?”

Lucia replies …“This is always the danger. I love history and it’s easy to get engrossed in details I find utterly fascinating but they don’t move the plot forward. For instance, the whole history of the Glengarry Light Infantry and the Macdonells…a whole trilogy of plays right there. The trick is to touch on it enough to pay tribute without getting too histrionic. Same with the historical characters. I am writing a fiction, an outrageous fiction, based very loosely on some historic events and people. I want to include the names of people who were around in order to honor them and to give the audience a little historical tidbit of interest. But if I get too precious with them and turn them into saints, that’s a strange sort of disrespect in and of itself. And let’s face it, perfect people are boring. I don’t know the dark side of Red George and Bishop Macdonell. History books don’t like to share that. So, I have lovingly and respectfully rendered them but I’ve invented a little rivalry all in good fun. This way they are human.”

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival ~ Maid for a Musket

www.stlawrenceshakespeare.ca

Ian Farthing, Artistic Director, St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival

Lucia Frangione, International Award Winning Playwright

A TOUGH ACT TO FOLLOW... MAID for a MUSKET … Expectations …

Ontario Visited had the privilege of seeing “Trouble on Dibble Street” in 2010 at the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival. The audience “loved it”. It might be a tough “act to follow”. I wondered if Lucia Frangione had obtained any inspiration from this production and; if she was concerned of “living up to such high expectations” from Patrons of the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival?

Frangione shares … “I am a big fan of John Lazarus as a writer and as a person. I have not read his script yet because I don’t want to worry about any parallels. I’ll read it later. I’m so glad the audience loved Dibble Street: hooray for new Canadian plays and to Ian for commissioning them! The Prescott audience is intelligent: they’re theatre-goers and many of them know their history and know their Shakespeare. So, I do hope I’ve dotted all my i (s) and crossed all my t (s). Obviously these are patrons who love language and also love a good night out along the water with a glass of wine and a bunch of friends. It’s a great audience to write for: super smart but unpretentious and up for good quality fun. I have felt nothing but freedom here. I can throw this audience complex thought and wit and poetic language and they’ll soak it up with ease. I can throw them some naughty jokes and silly physical humor too and the husbands will chuckle and the wives will swat them, or vice versa, heck! They’re a good bunch. It’s a party. I’ve had the privilege of sitting in the audience several times, of meeting the community one on one and doing a public reading of a first draft of this script. Prescott really does have something special here. That’s why Ian Farthing and so many others have worked so hard to keep it going.”

St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival ~ Maid for a Musket ~ Inspiration & In the Action

www.stlawrenceshakespeare.ca

Ian Farthing, Artistic Director, St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival

Lucia Frangione, International Award Winning Playwright

Inspiration!!! & “In the Action”!

Fragione shares with us …“When I was a young writer I grappled with some of my own questions about identity: what is it to be a Canadian, what is it to be the daughter of an Italian father and an English mother. What is it to be a feminist Christian: what is prayer, pilgrimage and ritual to me in this modern world? Now that I’m older and a parent my scope has widened, my spirituality has broadened and my questions are not so self-centred. I am looking rather closely at community responsibility right now: how we work collectively as citizens, what amazing feats can be accomplished and how and why some victims fall through the cracks. I think I’m also moving into a phase of having some silly good fun too. Sure Maid for a Musket is about the war of 1812 and love and family. But it is also very physical, bright, lively and utterly ridiculous. I had so much fun writing this.

I like a good challenge. Sometimes a theatre will call me and offer me a commission to write whatever I want and sometimes they will call with very specific guidelines. In this case I had to write a play about the war of 1812, it had to be comedy with some music and allude to Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost. I had to share a cast with Hamlet, write for the outdoors, set the play in Prescott and I had to wrap up my storyline before the sun goes down the mosquitoes come out!”

I thought you might like to know about Lucia’s interests that may have had some input in her career and life. I asked Ms. Fragione what her favorite production was and why? Who was her favorite performer and why? And, finally, did she prefer to be “behind the scenes” or “in the action performing”

She tells us … “I have many favorites but here are some: The Overcoat: a wildly beautiful play with no words, one of the Vancouver Playhouse’s finest achievements. SEEDS by Montreal’s Annabel Soutar, directed by Chris Abraham from Crows Theatre in Toronto: important docu-drama. My favorite production I’ve ever been in was Streetcar Named Desire as Stella. A terrific cast, directed by my dear friend, a true Southern gentleman who has now left us for the other side, Jeremy Tow.”

Frangione’s favorite performer … “Anita Wittenberg is one of my favorite performers. She’s actually at Thousand Islands Playhouse this summer in Boeing Boeing. She’s gracious, honest, brave. One minute plain, the next minute she’s the most beautiful woman on earth. My favorite fellow is still Tom McCamus. He seems to carry with him a loyalty, a commitment to the moment, the story and his scene partners. It’s always a generous, unpredictable performance.”

Lucia states … she prefers to be “in the action, I often write myself into my own plays”

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival ~ Maid for a Musket ~ Non Propagandist, How?

www.stlawrenceshakespeare.ca

Ian Farthing, Artistic Director, St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival

Lucia Frangione, International Award Winning Playwright

“Non Propagandist” ~ How?

From Lucia Frangione, internationally produced award winning playwright and actor “Biography, I noticed that she been closely associated with Vancouver's Pacific Theatre, whose mandate is “the non-propagandist exploration of Christian issues”. I asked Lucia … “As a “Propagandist”, is a form of communication aimed towards influencing the attitude of the community toward some cause or position by presenting only one side of an argument, we were wondering how you portray and write scripts based from a non-propagandist position. I was wondering if “humor” helped with the transition to non-propagandist explorations of issues.”

Frangione replies … “I think it is a playwright’s responsibility to ask questions, not to give answers whether your mandate explores feminism, Christianity, the poverty in the East side, vegetarianism, Canadian history, BGLTQ community, the African Canadian experience…doesn’t matter. If an audience is told what to think or feel, they will be turned off, bored, and it will simply be crappy art. Exciting theatre is debate. It’s a balanced argument. It’s a tug of war of loyalties. It’s surprise. Audiences are engaged with a story when they can’t predict the ending, when they have to figure out for themselves who to root for and why.

Regarding balance, when I write a tragedy I always include a lot of comedy. When I write a comedy I always include tragedy. Maid for a Musket is a complete fun romp of a farce but it’s only funny because each character has a moment of genuine pain. Each has legitimate fear and hope for love. This isn’t a device: this is the truth of life. We laugh at funerals and we cry at weddings. It’s the way it goes. And in real life, like it is in a good play, we can constantly choose how to see things: light or dark.”

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival ~ Maid for a Musket ~ Jack of all Trades

www.stlawrenceshakespeare.ca

Ian Farthing, Artistic Director, St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival

Lucia Frangione, International Award Winning Playwright

Ontario Visited came upon this quote about Lucia Frangione… “Frangione is considered one of BC's most promising writers. Critic Colin Thomas called Espresso "one of the best scripts ever produced by a Vancouver playwright." Ian Farthing, Artistic Director, St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival was telling me that he worked for some time in Chemainus previously … For our readers today, they might be interest to know from Lucia, how much does a young person today need to be aware of their career path? Do they need to focus on a “core base” or be willing to travel, be adaptable and flexible, or, is it advisable to remain consistent with your path.

Frangione replies … “I believe one has to be a real “jack of all trades” to survive as an artist in Canada, especially in BC: the province with the least funding by a long shot. I write and act for stage mostly and that has been my focus, my first priority. And I established that first as I do have to work in several provinces. But along the way I have also done a bit of screen, anime scripts, industrial writing, audio scripts, radio plays, online magazine articles, voice over work. I teach playwriting and I’m a drama editor for Talon books, a single Mom, I’ve been a producer, an artistic director a board member and to make ends meet I nanny.

My advice to a young person: diversify. What you learn as an actor will inform your writing. If you learn to play guitar it will inform your writing. If you direct a play, it will inform your writing.

Also, there are many programs out there for emerging talent as a writer and actor, take them. There are grants out there specifically designed for emerging talent: apply. You’ll network, you’ll learn, you’ll build community. What theatres are looking for is someone who is talented, yes, but almost more importantly, someone who can be relied on to work hard, to be able to take direction/dramaturgy, and be humble and open in the creative process not precious or lazy. Find a few heroes, watch them, read them, ask them out for lunch (and pay) and then ask them questions about their career and any advice. Most people in theatre are very accommodating and happy to lend an ear or share experiences.

Don’t give people or theatres your scripts, they’ll never get read. Invite them to a reading you put together. And put together a reading with professional actors: they don’t cost much and they’ll make your script sound genius. Volunteer for events, find a theatre that has a mandate you can get behind, see everything you can, get to know the major players. If you care about who they are and what they’re doing, eventually they will start to care about who you are and what you’re doing.”

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival ~ Maid for a Musket ~ Comedy is in the Frangione Blood

www.stlawrenceshakespeare.ca

Ian Farthing, Artistic Director, St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival

Lucia Frangione, International Award Winning Playwright

The St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival is gearing up for a full exciting Festival Season. Just recently, Ontario Visited had the pleasure of making the trip to the quaint town of Prescott to experience Yours Ever, Jane.

Today, “THE INSIDE SCOOP” is excited to share some “SCOOP” about their upcoming performance “MAID for a MUSKET”, a brand new comedy by Lucia Frangione, Original music by Melissa Morris. Ian Farthing, Artistic Director of the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival has kindly introduced us to Ms. Lucia Frangione, internationally produced award winning playwright and actor. Together with Ian’s input, I have lots of “SCOOP” to share with you!

“Comedy is in the Frangione blood” … Getting to know you …

Ontario Visited would like to introduce our guest Lucia Frangione. I asked what her initial background was and what led her into “Arts”.

The reply … “Comedy is in the Frangione blood: apparently we descended from a court jester. My family came over from Italy in 1956 and settled in Ottawa, starting many prominent businesses, including Preston Hardware and Bemac autobody. We have several teachers in the family as well: a different kind of live performance. I’m the only stage performer in the family, me and my musician sister, but we are certainly not the only jesters around the dinner table. My Dad owned a latino disco on Preston Street called The Roof Garden for several years before he passed away. I’m sure all that karaoke had some influence on me as well. As for my mother, she was English and from Alberta, an avid reader. She instilled in me a love for literature.

I was first drawn to drama as a teenager because I was quite religious at the time and thought perhaps I would be a preacher someday and took drama to get over a slight stammer. I fell in love with theatre the minute I spoke my first line and haven’t looked back since. I published my first poems when I was 16, produced my first play when I was 18 and have since had 25 plays hit the stage, some of them internationally. I grew up in Alberta, but the rest of my family is all here in Ottawa, including my brother, so I’m back regularly to visit. It’s a great thrill for me to be working so close to this side of “home”.