What a delight to be able to wander around Saint-Laurent between shows on the weekend. It was closed to traffic from Sherbrooke to Mont-Royal for Festival Murale. Plenty of food, clothing vendors, buskers, restaurants, bars, vernissages. Plus dozens of participants in the Montreal Festival Murale. With the street full of happy pedestrians, the people-watching was rich and varied. Including a roving bachelorette party – did you kiss the bride-to-be? There’s also the permanent pedestrian mall of Prince Arthur, and the narrowed, pedestrian-friendly Duluth, both with many established eateries and drinkeries.

While Fringe Central (in the park at Rachel and Saint-Laurent) is highly visible, the venues are almost invisible. We found our seven venues by spotting a cash box on a table, guided by street addresses in the Fringe program.  No big sandwich boards proclaiming FRINGE DE MONTRÉAL. No marquees or roofed booths to protect the volunteers from the blazing sun or the pouring rain. Are there no carpenters? Yet this is a big festival with 111 companies performing at 19 venues!

Two peculiar features of this Fringe…there was only one volunteer selling tickets at most venues (very unsafe! not to mention depressing), and there was no front-of-house manager at some of the venues we visited.  Often the lone/lonely ticket-seller must do everything — sell tickets, decide when to let the audience into the venue, handle the doorway checking tickets as the audience files past, and handling problems (latecomers, illness, etc.) during the performance — and do all this without leaving his/her seat next to the cash box.

First night impression: a festival of small houses. Audience numbers ranged from three to nine. And that includes the audience for long-time Fringe veteran Jem Rolls.  Fortunately, the second day was a bit better – the audience numbers climbed to the mid-20s and for one local troupe, even came close to selling out.

Bring good walking shoes. The full distance of Fringe de Montréal, from Café Cléopâtre on Saint-Laurent near Sainte-Catherine to Rhodos on Avenue du Parc near Saint-Viateur is a 46-minute walk.  A good plan: choose your performances so they’re near to each other. Otherwise you risk having to sprint between venues.

Dear God, the food! Did you know that you can get poutine with foie gras as takeout from Au Pied de Cochon near Venue 3, Espace 4001 Space?  (Buy plastic cutlery at the depanneur at Berri and Duluth.)  Or swoon-worthy delectables and chocolate chaud at Juliette & Chocolat? Or start your day with Europe de l’Est or Eggs Bysantine at Bagel Etc., accompanied by bottomless cups of coffee?  (Get there before 11am.) Or yummy omelettes and impromptu entertainment at Chez José?  Ask the volunteers and locals for advice. Or follow your nose.

You can check out Brian and Carol’s reviews of the Montreal Fringe play Weaksauce on Fully Fringed!  ]]> http://apt613.ca/impressions-of-fringe-de-montreal-2013/feed/ 0 http://apt613.ca/weaksauce/ http://apt613.ca/weaksauce/#comments Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:17:08 +0000 François Levesque http://apt613.ca/?p=53572 Review by Brian M. Carroll, seen at Fringe de Montreal

55 min | Comedy/Storytelling | PG-13

Weaksauce is a coming of age story told by Sam Mullins who toured Tinfoil Dinosaur on the Fringe circuit last year.

He sets the stage with two short tales. The first is about his best friend Sesha who moved away when they were nine. The second is an acutely embarrassing experience when Sesha returns at age 13, and talks him into a swimming party at his house for all her girl friends.

Mullins survives the embarrassment, getting another chance to redeem himself with the fair sex at the age of 16, when he is a counsellor at a summer sports camp. His tale now revolves around Amanda, a pretty counsellor who sets his heart aflutter, and David, a professional sports player from Britain who rubs his amateur hockey player pride the wrong way.

16-year-old Mullins has his emotions tied in knots by the ensuing events involving Sam and Amanda, Sam and David, and Amanda and David. Sam learns a lot about women,…

about himself…

and about his relationship with a competing guy.

Sprinkled through this charming tale are delightful turns of phrase like: “your heart has that new heart smell”.

Many coming-of-age stories are delightful because of the discoveries of new love, and new friends. Weaksauce has this, certainly.

What sets this gentle tale apart is what Sam learns from meeting a rival.

Checking out the audience, the young women were especially enthralled with Mullins and his tale. So, guys: bring a date.

But there was another set of potential audience members missing when we saw the show in Montreal.

Parents would be well advised to bring their teenage sons to see this show. As a former hockey player, Mullins provides a role model for teenage boys to talk about their feelings. Set some time aside to chat afterwards.

There is explicit sexual content in the script of this show. Under 12 not admitted.

Weaksauce by Sam S. Mullins will be playing at the Winnipeg Fringe at Venue #17 -PTE – Colin Jackson Studio 393 Portage Ave. – Portage Place, 3rd floor from July 17th to 28th. Tickets are $10.

45 min | Dramedy | PG

There’s definitely an audience for this play. You may be one.  We weren’t.

Around Miss Julie, by playwright Harry Standjofski, is about 4 young people and their attempt to put on a modern version of Strindberg’s classic tragedy Miss Julie.  There’s Julie, a wealthy young miss who knows zip about theatre but fancies herself a theatre director.  And there are her 3 cast members – callow young actors recently out of drama school:  Ilona with her Paris experience, Donna with her seething anger, and her boyfriend Lyle.  Julie casts them as Miss Julie, Catherine the cook, and John the chauffeur.

These four stumble through an audition, a first read-through, learning their lines, and clumsy rehearsals.  These scenes are interspersed with scenes from their real lives.  There are lots of in-jokes about the theatre world (ignorant directors, ugly costumes, life bleeding into art and vice versa), and lots of angst in each person’s “real” life.  Ilona’s long distance relationship with her boyfriend Sergio is crumbling.  Donna’s insecurity is threatening her relationship with Lyle.  Julie has dropped out of her Master’s in Philosophy to devote herself and her father’s money to this vanity project and random sexual adventures.

This madcap comedy will appeal to theatre students and young theatre professionals. They dominated the packed opening night house, laughing heartily at every in-joke. They clearly appreciated Standjofski’s plot twists. We recommend this play to that audience.

But why not a more general audience? Contrast it with Daniel MacIvor’s This is a Play, another in the “bad play within a play” genre. MacIvor has his actor/characters thinking (in voiceover) the same thoughts that audience members have when viewing a bad production. Around Miss Julie has the same thoughts that actors have during rehearsals.

We don’t expect madcap comedy to be realistic. But we do expect it to have characters we care about. In this case, only Ilona elicited sympathy.

Opening night revealed production problems:

Confusion: Afterwards, we couldn’t agree on which scenes were “rehearsal of the play” and which were “real life”. Such scenes ended with a “reveal” but we still couldn’t agree on two scenes.

Blocking: The actors’ movements were often awkward.  Sometimes the set worked against the actors, impeding their movements.

Music: The background music didn’t move the plot forward and sometimes over-rode the dialogue.

Sound cues: At least one sound cue (cell phone) was late.

NOTE: PG definitely means Parental Guidance; there’s explicit sexual content in the dialogue.

As we said before, this play isn’t for everyone. Is it for you?

Around Miss Julie by Hopegrown Productions is playing at T.A.N. Cafe on Tuesday, June 25 at 7:00pm;Wednesday, June 26 at 7:00pm;  Thursday, June 27 at 7:30pm; Friday, June 28 at 7:30pm; Saturday, June 29 at 6:00pm; Sunday, June 30 at 9:00pm. Tickets are $10.

We don’t often talk federal politics on Apt613, but we thought this topic was important because it’s not just about politics, but also human rights. When the Canadian government announced it was implementing cuts to health insurance for refugees, it created a big backlash among many groups – from new Canadians to the healthcare community. The government has thus far stood by its plan. The changes have been described by civil society organizations like Amnesty International as “unconstitutional” and falling “short of international legal requirements with respect to human rights and refugee protection.”

Today, June 17th, is the National Day of Action to show that Canadians will stand up for the most vulnerable among us. We’re happy to feature, as our video of the week, a performance by Ottawa poet Ikenna Onyegbula - 2009 & 2010 Canadian team Poetry Slam Champ,  2011 & 2013 Canadian individual Poetry Slam Champ and 2012 Ottawa Capital Slam Champ – on the rights of refugees.

It’s certainly my kind of place and I doubt I’m alone. If more and more of our economy is driven by data, information and knowledge, the storage and maintenance of information should be all the more important. Finding ways to build value from information and organize it in such a way that people can get something from it is something that librarians should be really great at.

Why don’t we have temples of data and information built in Ottawa? What does our city need from a library? Are we doing enough to make sure that a diverse range of Ottawans have access to the information and data they need to compete in our new knowledge economy?

Much of the hope for a temple of data in downtown Ottawa was squashed in the summer of 2010, when plans fell apart to acquire the block at Albert, Bay, Slater and Lyon for a new main branch of the Ottawa Public Library.

It got us thinking about the future of the public library in Ottawa and what we should be planning for. In what ways are the politics and economics of information changing what we need from libraries?

We’ve assembled a panel of some of the city’s librarian-philosophers to chat about what they see as the library of the future and how they see their profession evolving for the digital age.

• Leslie Weir, University Librarian at the University of Ottawa and former executive with the Canadian Association of Research Libraries.
• Jennifer Stirling, Division Manager for System-Wide Services & Innovation at the Ottawa Public Library
• Mary Cavanagh, Assistant Professor in Information Studies at the University of Ottawa

Join us Wednesday, June 26 at the Shopify Lounge for an evening of discussion and debate on the future of the public library in Ottawa. We’ll do live interviews on stage from 7-8 pm, pour the Kichesippi and see where things go. We’ll have librarians, beer and bloggers!

You NEED to pre-register for this talk on Eventbrite.

Thanks to the Public Service Alliance of Canada for their financial support, Awesome Ottawa for giving us some cash to get this lecture off the ground, and special thanks to Maker for our awesome logo. Also, thanks to Shopify for lending us their office for the evening.

Karen and Trevor kicked things off with an interview with Brian Cheung of Awesome Ottawa to talk about the third year of these awesome grants. They were joined by Kyle McInnes, a successful Awesome Ottawa applicant who pitched an idea for a dumpster pool party in the Byward Market. The party is yet to happen, but Kyle told us all about the inspiration for the idea and where it might go. He likened winning an Awesome Ottawa grant to being pushed out of an airplane, but he meant it in the best way possible.

The Ottawa Jazz Festival kicks off on June 20, and this year it features a diverse mix of jazz and jazz-inspired artists like Wynton Marsalis, Mavis Staples, The Herbaliser, Kellylee Evans and The Flaps. Chris was able to have a chat with Jazz Festival Programming Manager Petr Cancura about this year’s lineup.

Our hosts rounded out the show with Jean Grandbois and David Rust-Smith, two winners of the Apps4Ottawa contest. Jean and Dave used the City of Ottawa’s open data to invent apps that make Ottawa a better place to live. Dave’s project uses gamification to speed up ambulance response times in the city, while Jean’s app makes it easier to find city-run recreation classes.

Here’s the music we played on the show this week:

Danny Michel – Survivor’s Guilt
Sunparlour Players – You Are a Bright Light
Evening Hymns – Arrows
A Tribe Called Red – Sisters
Young Galaxy – New Summer
Data Romance – Caves

The “Little Market That Could” – so dubbed for its community-powered tenacity – is back for another season of one-stop shopping for quality local goods. Its grand re-opening takes place during the final weekend of the area’s 39^th annual Settimana Italiana (Italian Week).

A foodie destination to be sure, Preston Farmers’ Market (PFM) appeals equally to locavores, collectors, the curious, and the peckish.

PFM serves residents of Little Italy, Centretown, Kitchissippi East, Chinatown, and anyone who prefers a cozy, central market over some of the larger options out there.

Kelly Butler of Helios Farm. Photo courtesy of Helios Farm.

No longer the new kid on the O-Town farmers’ market block (Sparks Street just launched one), PFM has lined up another eclectic array of purveyors. Market-goers will be able to take home everything from local organic produce (Foster Family Farm, The Veggie Underground, Helios Farm) to sweet treats (Muffin King Plus, Crepe Joy, Bez Gluten Free), farm-fresh eggs (Beking’s Poultry Farm) to specialty sauces (Meow! That’s Hot). Purple Urchin returns with its creative handmade soaps while artisans new to PFM include Funk Your Junk, Calvin Diepenveen of Tombolo Concrete Furniture, and Read This Custom Visual Art.

When I pointed out the strange range of products on tap at PFM, co-manager Kelly Butler chuckled: “People are always intrigued by the diversity of goods we have for a market this young!”

“Where else can you find a rainbow of produce, dog treats, and a shamanic healer in the same spot?” (referring to growers, Gunner’s Kitchen, and Kathleen Leeson)

Butler is proud that PFM is a place where emerging local entrepreneurs – such as Top Shelf Preserves, Magasa Jewelery, and Crepe Joy – want to showcase their wares in an intimate setting.

Other confirmed participants include Hen Wo Taco, Hodge’s Meat, and Face to Grace organic skin care. Like last year, organizers expect to field vendor applications well into the summer.

PFM’s famed farmer’s breakfast courtesy of the Preston Farmers’ Market.

Back by popular demand will be PFM’s famed farmer’s breakfast. The “buy a plate & circulate” format has been a huge hit, with some fans calling it Ottawa’s best hangover breakfast. And local musicians are again providing the market’s live soundtrack. Those two features alone compelled many visitors to lounge, linger, and commune. I believe that’s part of this market’s charm – its size allows for a slower tempo, good conversation, and the fostering of relationships.

“We all believe strongly in building sustainable connections between producers and consumers,” says Chris Penton, PFM co-manager. “The market is small enough that we can really get to know each other.”

Through the spirit of supporters, the PFM continues to grow with its community.

“Since we’re not tethered to a particular organization, we rely solely on good will to make this thing run,” Penton says. “With the Filoso family sacrificing their Saturday parking dollars, volunteers helping in so many ways, and our patrons remaining loyal, we couldn’t be happier with our results.”

“It’s really all about community.”

A theme day each month will feature special guests, information, and fun family activities. Already in the works are a ‘Green Day’ and a lively ‘Giorno di Vino’ in conjunction with Little Italy’s La Vendemmia celebration.

What: Preston Farmers’ Market

When: Saturdays from 9am – 2pm until October 12^th

Where: Il Postino parking lot (corner of Preston/Louisa)

PFM on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PrestonFarmersMarket

PFM on Twitter: @PrestonMarketO

Looking for a whole lot of variety, packed into a short amount of time? Head to Pressed this evening for a variety show like no other. You can also head down to Mercury Lounge for the indie rock stylings of Daniel Ellsworth & the Great Lakes, along with High Waters. Tonight is also the CHUO Edition of Battle of the Bands down at the Lunenburg Pub – vote for your favourite local group!

Friday, you can find three different female Ottawa singers from a variety of musical backgrounds, coming together under one bill. That same night, Couchwrecked and In-Flight Safety will be a Zaphod’s, and it’s Kitchen Party. Bob Loblaw and Pseudo Vista stop by Cafe Dekcuf Saturday night to rock out, while there will be a whole lotta punk packed into the Hellbros and Maximum RNR show at the Dom. You’ve got a few music options for Sunday, too: Shannon Rose and the Thorns at 8 Locks, Antennas Up at the Mercury Lounge, and the Bean Trio at Umi Cafe.

Reporter and author Chris Hedges will be in town to talk about his latest book, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. The Magnetic North Theatre Festival wraps up on Saturday, with four plays happening this weekend.

Gardeners get a few bonuses down at the Experimental Farm – a book sale (with more than just gardening books) and a workshop should fit your bill.

At the dance end of the spectrum, the Ottawa Dance Directive will have a new performance this Saturday, followed the next morning by a special Father’s Day edition of the burlesque brunch.

What else? There’s an Israeli Film Festival, a bike fest, and Ontario Craft Beer week kicks off on Sunday. Share your other events below!

On Tuesday, June 25 from 7pm to 8pm we will be hosting a live chat with several of the people driving the success of Ottawa’s beer scene, including:

Robert McIsaac, one of the co-owners of Beyond the Pale, the Hintonburg-based brewery that just can’t seem to keep its flavourful brews in stock.

Paul Meek, owner of the Kichesippi Beer Co., the beer that US Ambassador David Jacobson was drinking as he danced on the grave of our dashed playoff dreams.

Steve Beauchesne of Beau’s beer, who not only makes one of the region’s iconic brews, but every Oktoberfest also throws one of the Ottawa Valley’s best parties.

If you have any questions about beer, brewing or starting a business in Ottawa, here’s your chance to talk directly to the city’s beer barons.