Edmonton actor Richard Lee Hsi reveals what it’s like to create a play collectively. He talks about mask work and the unique experience of portraying real life people on stage.

Excerpts from this interview were presented in the audio documentary about The Invisible Project. This is the whole interview.

More About The Invisible Project

Audio Documentary and Slide Show
Recording of the Play at a Live Performance
Interview with a Shelter Client
Interview with David van Belle, the play’s Director and Facilitator

If you need to, please resubscribe to the feed. The address is

http://feeds.acting-and-theatre.com/dramaticimpact

Even better yet, if you have iTunes, go to our page and click the Subscribe button there. Here is a link to get you there:

Dramatic Impact on iTunes

The next episode is just about to be released. Sorry for the delays. I’ve been unusually swamped.

One Big Massive Retweet

I’m planning something very different, an episode that I’m calling “One Big Massive Retweet” in honour of the popularity of Twitter. I’m just using the term to refer to the fact that I’ll be recommending podcast episodes, books, and web sites that help sustain my enthusiasm and passion for acting and theatre. So I’m using the term “tweet” very loosely here. Nothing to do with Twitter. There will also be a corresponding blog page that will link to all of these fantastic resources.

Honest, You Won’t Get Hooked

As part of my life as an actor and owner of the business Often Seen New Media, Inc., I played a small part in, and I am volunteering to help publicize a short independent film by Edmonton filmmaker Ben Babchishin. It is an outrageous comedy about smoking and our society.

Read the synopsis. And if you are interested, join the Facebook Group for the film to see stills from the film and shooting, to see related videos, to see the trailer, and to be notified when the film is released.

See the film online starting March 1, 2010 at www.hiredgunfilms.com. Or if you are in Edmonton, come to the screening.

Saturday, February 27, 2010
New City Likwid Lounge
10081 Jasper Avenue
Free Admission
Doors: 7:00 p.m.
Live Music by Dale Ladouceur: 7:30 p.m.
Screening of Film: 8:00 p.m.
Fantastic door prizes from offbeat and alternative Edmonton businesses.
You must be 18 years or older to attend.

Here is part 4 of our first video episode about the Theatre Production program at Grant MacEwan University. In this program, students learn about backstage aspects of theatre, such as set building, lighting, costumes, and sound.

Part 1 and Part 2 feature interviews with students.

Part 3 features an interview with the chair of the Theatre Production department Geoff George. Part 4 is a continuation of the interview.

In Part 4, Geoff teaches us some really interesting things about lighting design. The John L. Haar Theatre in which we shot the interview is a very well-equipped theatre with an inventory of 300 lighting instruments, some automated and some conventionals.

Geoff talks about the steps for implementing a lighting design and tells us what a cue to cue is. He explains about such aspects of lighting as lighting plots, what a hang, circuit, and focus is, and how the lighting designer and director do a level set.

Geoff also describes in detail what students do in the first and second years of the Theatre Production program. He talks about how students study many areas of technical theatre in the first year because a well-rounded technician is an employable technician and how students pick and get practice in their specialty in the second year.

We interviewed Geoff during production week before the opening of the world premier of The Addlepated Nixie. This original comedy by Canadian playwright Stewart Lemoine was performed by the acting students at Grant MacEwan University. The Theatre Production students were responsible for all backstage aspects of the play, which as you’ll see was quite a tall order.

Did you like this video? Then subscribe to our RSS feed and get informed about new episodes immediately! Please also use the buttons below to spread the word about this documentary in blogs, forums, on twitter, facebook, or through email. Thank you very much and enjoy!

Episode 20 contains an in-depth interview with director and facilitator David van Belle about The Invisible Project, a play about homelessness. The interview was recorded last January after the performance of the play at the Drop-In Centre shelter in Calgary. The Invisible Project was also performed at City Hall as part of Calgary’s High Performance Rodeo.

In this interview, David van Belle

• Discusses how The Invisible Project relates to other theatre projects in his career.
• Tells us about the background of the project and the research that was done on site by his company at the Drop-In Centre and Mustard Seed shelters.
• Tells us the story of the unusual auditions he held for the actors on the project.
• Talks about the response to the play from members of the homeless community, who were part of the audiences for the performances.

Check out Episode 16 for more information and to see a slide show of photos from the play taken by mask maker Douglas R. Witt.

Episode 19 features an audio interview with Drop-In Centre shelter client and volunteer Linda Coleman. In this interview, Linda Coleman discusses her reaction to the The Invisible Project, a play about homelessness, and how the content of the play related to her own life experiences.

If you want more background on The Invisible Project, you can listen to Episode 16 and Episode 17.

The Drop-In Centre is a homeless shelter that can house up to 1250 men and women per night and that serves up to 3500 meals per day. The Invisible Project is an original play based on on-site research with homeless people, featuring masks created by Douglas Witt.

Did you like this episode? Then subscribe to our RSS feed and get informed about new episodes immediately! Please also use the buttons below to spread the word about this episode in blogs, forums, on twitter, facebook, or through email. Thank you very much and enjoy!

In this interview, Linda Coleman discusses her reaction to the The Invisible Project, a play about homelessness, and how the content of the play related to her own life experiences.

If you want more background on The Invisible Project, you can listen to Episode 16 and Episode 17.

The Drop-In Centre is a homeless shelter that can house up to 1250 men and women per night and that serves up to 3500 meals per day. The Invisible Project is an original play based on on-site research with homeless people, featuring masks created by Douglas Witt.

Here is part 3 of our first video episode about the theatre production program at Grant MacEwan University. In this program, students learn about backstage aspects of theatre, such as set building, lighting, costumes, and sound.

Part 1 and Part 2 feature interviews with students.

Part 3 features an interview with the chair of the Theatre Production department Geoff George. Part 4 is a continuation of the interview and will be released soon.

We interviewed Geoff during production week before the opening of the world premier of The Addlepated Nixie. This original comedy by Canadian playwright Stewart Lemoine was performed by the acting students at Grant MacEwan University. The theatre production students were responsible for all backstage aspects of the play, which as you’ll see was quite a tall order.

Geoff George introduces us to the program, shows us the set design for the production, explains how the work is organized, and how the students get their assigned jobs for the production.

Don’t forget to stay tuned for Part 4 in which Geoff tells us about lighting design!

Did you like this video? Then subscribe to our RSS feed and get informed about new episodes immediately! Please also use the buttons below to spread the word about this documentary in blogs, forums, on twitter, facebook, or through email. Thank you very much and enjoy!

Part 3 contains some of my own ideas about how the pursuit of acting can give us insight into our own lives and can influence our personal development. I originally recorded these ideas as part of the “Secrets of the Actor” episodes but then cut them out because I didn’t want the episodes to be too long. I hope you’ll find that my ideas echo and elaborate on some of the ideas in Parts 1 and 2 that came out during the interviews.

Technical Difficulties with the RSS Feed

If you are one of the original subscribers to the show from when it was still on the Theatre Alberta web site, you may have noticed that you didn’t get the latest video episode I posted on the site, Episode 18: Technical Theatre at Grant MacEwan College, Part 2. I finally identified the source of the problem (a server that crashed and lost a crucial setting). It should be working again now, but if you ever need to resubscribe, our feed address is

http://feeds.acting-and-theatre.com/dramaticimpact

In iTunes, just choose Subscribe to Podcast . . . from the Advanced menu, and copy and paste that address into the window that pops up. It’s a similar procedure in other feed readers.

Also Parts 3 and 4 of the Technical Theatre video episodes are now up on YouTube.

Download this Episode (39 MB)

Watch Part 2.

This is the first video episode for Dramatic Impact! Episode 18 will be in four parts and focuses on the Theatre Production program at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The Theatre Production program is a two year training program in technical theatre. Students learn about areas of the theatre, such as lighting, set building, drafting, props, stage management, and costumes.

Parts 1 and 2 feature interviews with two of the students in the program.

Mentioned in this Episode

Theatre Production Program at Grant MacEwan University (Edmonton, Alberta)
Stewart Lemoine and The Addlepated Nixie

Credits

Videographer and Director, Brandon Rhiness
Production Assistant, Karen Sherlock
Producer and Host, Elaine Elrod
Video Compression, Elaine Elrod
Music: Something Special by Twenty Reasons Taken © 2008
Music provided by the PodShow Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at music.podshow.com

Episode 16 of Dramatic Impact was an audio documentary about the play The Invisible Project; and as promised, this new episode consists of an edited stereo recording of the play. I recorded the play last January when it was performed at The Calgary Drop-In Centre, a homeless shelter that can house up to 1250 men and women per night and that serves up to 3500 meals per day.

For more background on the play, I recommend listening to Episode 16 and checking out that blog post, which includes photos by mask maker and photographer Douglas R. Witt.

© 2009 Douglas R. Witt

1. Download this episode (25.4 MB)(Instructions for Downloading: Right click the link and choose Save Link As or Save Target As. Choose a folder on your computer to save it to. Then open the .mp3 audio file in any media player on your computer.)

Or

2. Play Now

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3. Subscribe to the podcast using the Add to iTunes or RSS Podcast Feed links in the sidebar on the Dramatic Impact web site.

Photographs by Douglas R. Witt

Click here to see a Slide Show.

Something new for Dramatic Impact, an audio documentary. This is also our first episode about a play that was researched and created outside the traditional theatre community. The Invisible Project is a play that was created collectively and researched in Calgary’s homeless shelters. The performances of the play that I recorded last January were at Calgary City Hall and at the Calgary Drop-In Centre, a shelter that can house up to 1250 men and women per night and that serves up to 3500 meals per day. The Drop-In Centre was also where the play’s director and facilitator, David van Belle, assistant director, Aviva Zimmerman, stage manager, Paisley Sim, mask maker, Douglas R. Witt, mask assistant, Carla Ritchie, set and lighting designer, Terry Gunvordahl, and actors Molly Flood, Richard Lee Hsi, and Jed Tomlinson rehearsed and researched the show.

The music in the play was captured from adhoc “performances” given by clients at the Drop-In Centre. I also used snippets of this music for segues in the documentary.

Next Month

• An edited stereo recording of the performance of the play at the Drop-In Centre shelter.
• Recordings of the parts of the interviews not included in Episode 16. The interviews, which you’ll hear in Episode 16 and in later episodes, were with (in order of presentation) Linda Coleman, Drop-In Centre client and volunteer, David van Belle, director and facilitator, and Richard Lee Hsi, actor.

More About The Invisible Project and This is My City

Video About the Positive Impact the Mask Making Workshop had on One Homeless Participant (Directed by Dominique Keller for the City of Calgary)

The City of Calgary This is My City Initiative
Calgary Herald Story about the Play
Douglas R. Witt’s Photos on Flikr
One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo and The Invisible Project

More About Homelessness and The Calgary Drop-In Centre

Calgary Drop-In Centre Web Site
Drop-In Centre Blog

This episode of the Dramatic Impact podcast features an interview with Edmonton actor and singer Cory Christensen. Cory shares discoveries he’s made about his craft on stage and in rehearsal.

Cory will be playing Clifford Anderson in Death Trap at Edmonton’s Walterdale Theatre, April 1 through 11, 2009.

Cory Christensen

Next Two Episodes

Lots of exciting content coming up in the next couple of episodes. Episode 15 will be an interview with Edmonton actor Cory Christensen.

Episode 16 will be part 1 of an audio documentary about The Invisible Project, a very powerful play created with and for Calgary’s homeless community. It will feature audio from the actual live perfomances at the Calgary Drop-In Centre and City Hall and interviews with director and facilitator David van Belle, actor Richard Lee Hsi, and Calgary Drop-In shelter client, Linda Coleman.

James discusses his approach to directing and what excites him most about theatre as an art form. He compares the pleasures of acting and directing, talks about some of his peak experiences, and discusses some of his upcoming projects.
Three easy ways you can listen to this podcast:

1. Download this episode (17.5 MB)(Right click the link and choose Save Link As or Save Target As. Choose a folder on your computer to save it to. Then open the .mp3 audio file in any media player on your computer.)

Or

2. Play now.

Or

3. Subscribe to the podcast using the Add to iTunes or RSS Podcast Feed links in the sidebar on the Dramatic Impact web site.

More About James MacDonald

Citadel production of Julius Caesar, February 21 through March 15, 2009

Vue Weekly Article About Conor McPherson’s Shining City, directed by James MacDonald
Vue Weekly Article About the Citadel’s production of Vimy
Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia Listing about James

Dramatic Impact Theme Music

Contact for Aaron and Mike Sabourin, creators of the Dramatic Impact theme music

You can click on this screen capture from iTunes to be taken directly to our page in the iTunes Store.

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-2575be4f3b96de2e5042aa46391449ab}

This episode features the opera singer, tenor, and career music educator, Lary Benson. Lary reveals the arduous work involved in balancing technique with expression as an opera singer, and gives advice to singers to help them rediscover the feeling of a song each time they perform.

Lary Benson

Mentioned in This Episode

Edmonton Journal article about Lary’s ATGO Gas Lifetime Achievement Award presented at Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts
Lary’s page at MacEwan College Theatre Arts web site
Foothills Male Chorus News Release about joint concert with Lary’s quartet, Tenor Power

In this interview, Timothy J. Anderson sheds light on how he comes by his unique combination of gifts and accomplishments. Hear how this actor, singer, director, playwright, and librettist discovered his love of music and performing. Timothy also discusses how performing in the chorus for world class opera productions at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa shaped him, and how he developed his skills as an actor. In addition, Timothy reveals what he would consider a dream project, shares his philosophy of acting, and discusses the pitfalls of the workshopping process.

Timothy J. Anderson

Mentioned in this Episode

Contact for Aaron and Mike Sabourin, Creators of the Dramatic Impact theme music

Site about the composer, Aram Khachaturian
National Arts Centre web site
Timothy’s novel, Resisting Adonis, at Amazon.com