Gracing The Stage

So, Colin and I have FINALLY sorted out the email database issues – sort of (for a full account of what exactly happened to the site, and what we’ve been dealing with since February, check out this post). A very small minority of the subscribers receiving this update may have unsubscribed already, as it’s from an older back-up: if that describes you, my apologies. Please shoot me another email, and I’ll take you off the list (again). Conversely, if you’re reading this post and wondering why you didn’t get an email about it, email me, and I’ll hook you up.

Enough business! Read on for the good stuff.

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IN THEATRE & DANCE,

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it’s International Theatre Day this Saturday, and goodness me, is there a lot to choose from.

Top to bottom: Ravi Jain, Troels Hagen Findsen, and Katrina Bugaj, in Why Not Theatre's "I'm So Close... It's Not Even Funny". The movement / multimedia play is part of the Free Fall Festival that wraps up this weekend, though "I'm So Close" continues another week at the Theatre Centre. Poster by Mina Mikhail.

You could start with one of the festivals, like the Free Fall Festival ‘10, which wraps up on Sunday; it features new works from companies across the country, at the Theatre Centre, and at the Harbourfront Centre, in conjunction with that institution’s World Stage Series. Offerings include Theatre Direct’s drama “On The Side of the Road” (from Calgary), The Chop Theatre’s interview compilation show “KISMET one to one hundred” (visiting from Vancouver), and tri-national company Why Not Theatre’s visually inventive “I’m So Close…“, which runs one week longer at the Theatre Centre.

Also closing this weekend are dance/theatre hybrid company Theatre Rusticle’s “Birnam Wood” at Theatre Passe Muraille, a work inspired by (but not telling) the story of “Macbeth”, and the youth showcase Paprika Festival, up at Tarragon Theatre.

Tarragon’s also playing host and producer to Daniel MacIvor’s gripping new play “Communion“, which is near the top of the heap of continuing shows. Other worthy contenders include “Breakfast” at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and “Art” and “The Overwhelming” at recently rebranded Canadian Stage’s two Front Street venues. There’s also quite a few musical offerings, such as popular fringe hit “My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding” (extended one last time to April 10th), Soulpepper’s wartime revue “Oh What A Lovely War“, and the very musical (but WILDLY different) “Who Knew Grannie: a Dub Aria“. Be forewarned; many of these shows must close on April 3rd or 4th…

One of my favourite projects on right now in Toronto is Theatrefront’s “The Mill“, which has four different parts, each written by a different playwright, all centering around a rural mill that’s been a site of various horrors and ghostly intrigue over the centuries. Tara Beagan’s “Part 3: The Woods“, which opened last week at the Young Centre, is a prequel of sorts, to Hannah Moscovitch’s “Part 2: The Huron Bride” and Matthew MacFadzean’s “Part 1: Now We Are Brody“. Both Parts 1 and 2 get a very limited couple of performances this week and next weekend, to supplement the run of Part 3.

Other just opened or opening shows this week include the Actor’s Repertory Company production of Martin Crimp’s “The City“, and Theatre SMASH’s world premiere of Graeme Gillis‘ “A Boy Called Newfoundland“.

Finally, Morgan Jones Phillip’s storytelling show “The Emergency Monologues” returns for two nights (and four sets) late next week, to say goodbye to The Cameron House, the  tiny backroom venue on Queen Street that’s rumoured to be closing in the next few months.

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Local indie rockers Dinosaur Bones are opening for Canuck rock legends Thrush Hermit all this weekend (including an all ages show Sunday afternoon) at Lee’s Palace; they’re also in the coveted slot of band #100 for local filmmaker Mitch Fillion’s ambitious Southern Souls project. Mitch has just been asked to film videos for several months in Montreal for influential live video site La Blogtheque.

Film, Comedy, Music, more vids and pics, and the weekly calendar picks, are just one “Read more” click away…

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Steve when he realized gracingthestage.ca V. 1 was FUBAR.

So, I’ve told many people in person what happened to the website over the past month, but I’ve been putting off the written version for some time, because I thought it would come across as really depressing in print. And maybe it will, although there’s lots of odd and funny twists to it.

The short version; gracingthestage.ca was infected by malware in February, prompting us to take it offline to de-bug it; while we thought we’d backed the whole site up, when we restored it, everything, save for the post content, had been lost. So the site is now back up in a bare-bones (read: simple and kinda ugly) format, and will be changing slowly, as we attempt to restore the site to its original lustre and functionality.

For those interested in more detail on what the malware did and how we handled it, read on. For those who just want to know how it’ll affect the site from now on; future posts should be fine, past posts will have their pictures and mp3s restored (very, VERY slowly, one at a time), and the site will be repaired and improved (top bar bio and other pages, side bar blogroll, archives, etc., etc.) slowly over the next little while, from the current settings.

Also, the email list was impacted, so you should contact Steve if you’ve changed your email in the past year or two, aren’t receiving the weekly update (by next week), or start receiving it when you’d requested to be unsubscribed.

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