LSM Newswire

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Mitch Smolkin and Klezmer En Buenos Aires

Thursday June 18, 2009/Jeudi le 18 Juin 2009

8:30pm

The Segal Centre For Performing Arts

5170 Cˆ¥te-Ste-Catherine

Montreal, Canada

For tickets or more information call (514) 739-2301

"the most exciting, inventive, beautiful,

and just plain interesting Yiddish album in years."

"le plus excitant, inventif, beau, et tout simplement l'album Yiddish le plus intˆ©ressant au cours des annˆ©es"

Ari Dovidow, Klezmershack, 2009


Featuring Mitch Smolkin, Marcelo Moguilevsky, Cesar Lerner, Boris Sichon, Paul Brody and Aviva Chernick. Singer and former Artistic Director of the Ashkenaz Festival, Mitch Smolkin, teams up with world-renowned Klezmer En Buenos Aires and friends in a powerful concert that takes the audience on a journey through 100 years of Yiddish music. A Song is Born situates itself in the more recent explosion of cross-cultural collaborations in Yiddish and World Music. www.mitchsmolkin.com

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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

SEGAL CENTRE Theatre Listing May 31 - June 16


The Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre

in the Canadian Premiere of Gilbert and Sullivan's

The Pirates of Penzance

In Yiddish with English & French Supertitles

May 31 to June 16, 2009


Previews:

May 31 13.30

June 1, 2 & 3 20:00

Media Opening Night:

June 4 20:00

Performances:

Mon. ’Ä́ Thurs. 20:00

Friday DARK

Saturday 21:30

Sunday 19:00

Matinˆ©es

Sunday 14:00

Venue:

Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre

Segal Centre for Performing Arts

5170, ch de la Cˆ¥te-Ste-Catherine

www.segalcentre.org

Box Office:

(514) 739 ’Ä́ 7944

Admission:

(514) 790 - 1245

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre in the Canadian Premiere of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance

The Leanor and Alvin Segal Thetre and Reitmans (Canada) Ltd


The Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre and Reitmans (Canada) Ltd. present the Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre (DWYT) in THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, Gilbert and Sullivan's misadventure on the high seas, from May 31 to June 16, in Yiddish with English and French supertitles. The Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre is proud to bring this Canadian Yiddish premiere to Montreal in celebration of its 50th anniversary.



"It's fun to go back and forth between the 19th-century British silliness and sarcastic, campy Yiddish remarks ’Ä́ and remarkably smooth."

- Backstage, March 19, 2007



"This is England, circa 1890, where the British gentry are fair game for Gilbert's razor sharp wit," explains Director, Bryna Wasserman. "The star of the show, before anyone steps on stage, is without a doubt, the translator." In 1988, Al Grand achieved the monumental task of translating the dizzying tongue twisters and triple rhymes into Yiddish. However, for him it was a labour of love, combining his two great passions: the Yiddish language and the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. Grand brilliantly upholds the harmony between Gilbert's lyrics and Sullivan's music while preserving the Yiddish culture and language. As Isaac Asimov, author and Gilbert & Sullivan aficionado, wrote at the time, "Al Grand doesn't change Sullivan's notes; they're all there; every one of them. And he doesn't change Gilbert's words in essence. He changes them into Yiddish, to be sure. But he keeps the rhymes, the lilt and the wit."



"From today you rank as a full-blown member of our band"

becomes’Ķ

"It's your buccaneer Bar Mitzvah"



Grand's adaptation is a delightfully whimsical treatment that transforms the popular standard from British to Yiddish. The original English plotline remains intact with Frederic, an apprentice indentured to pirates until his 21st birthday, wooing Mabel, the Major General's daughter, only to discover that he was born on a leap year and won't be free to marry her until 1940. In the Yiddish version, the Major General becomes the Groyser General, an Orthodox Jew and friend of Benjamin Disraeli. Mabel is Malka, Frederic becomes Fayvl, a Yeshiva student, and Ruth, the hard-of-hearing nursemaid who mistook her master's instructions to apprentice the boy to a pilot (not pirate), becomes Rivke. To her, the wayfaring pirates brandishing their swords appear as a group of kosher butchers and the mayhem that ensues is pure Gilbert and Sullivan hijinks, replete with tongue-in-cheek satire and the legendary high-speed patter.


"He [Al Grand] also ably captures the silly, giddy humour that has endeared Gilbert and Sullivan to generations of fans."

- Forward, December 15, 2006


Gilbert and Sullivan operettas demand strong, nimble vocalists with split-second comedic timing and the DWYT delivers in spades with Gabor Hegedus, from the Segal production of Houdini, in the role of Fayvl opposite Montreal lyric soprano, Kerry-Anne Kutz, as Malka, his love interest. Stephen Mo Hanan reprises his role as the Groyser General from the 2006 New York Off-Broadway production and Jonathan Patterson, who played Ko-Ko in the Janiec Opera Company production of The Mikado, plays the mischievous Pirate King. Michelle Heisler, a DWYT fixture with a versatile range of characters to her credit, steals the show as the well meaning but deaf-as-a-doornail Rivke and Elan Kunin, (Harry Houdini in the DWYT production), rounds out the main cast of characters as the hilarious Head of Police.


Nick Burgess is at the musical helm of this lavish production, overseeing the six-piece live band. Since musically directing The Wise Men of Chelm last year, Nick has added YAYA (Young Actors for Young Audiences), the youth division of the DWYT to his association with the Segal Centre, and is currently developing the "Born for Broadway" program for the Academy. Having performed for eight seasons in various Gilbert and Sullivan productions at Stratford, under the direction of Canadian icon, Brian MacDonald, Jim White's choreography revitalizes the famous farce, drawing on a vast vocabulary from a 35-year career as a dancer and choreographer. Award-winning John C. Dinning, who has designed sets for more than twenty DWYT productions as well as across North America, creates the vibrant 'topsy-turvy' world where pirates and aristocrats collide. Three-time MECCA award winning costume designer, James Lavoie, crafts the grand upper crust attire and colourful buccaneering garb, with Kirsten Watt, having just designed the Segal's sold-out smash, Over the River and Through the Woods, providing the lighting. Paul Brian Imperial stage manages the sizeable 31-member cast, with assistance from Emilie Zifkin and Daphne Ben David.


This year, the annual trilingual offering from the Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre is the inaugural production of the first MONTREAL INTERNATIONAL YIDDISH THEATRE FESTIVAL, an ambitious event running from June 17th to 25th, initiated and hosted by the Segal Centre featuring companies from Poland, Israel, Australia, France and more. (For festival details, contact Suzanne Shugar: SShugar@segalcentre.org.)



Run Dates: May 31 to June 16, 2009

Previews:

May 31 13.30

June 1, 2 & 3 20:00

Media Opening Night:

June 4 20:00

Performances:

Mon. ’Ä́ Thurs. 20:00

Friday DARK

Saturday 21:30

Sunday 19:00

Matinˆ©es

Sunday 14:00

Tickets:

Adult: $31 - $44.

Seniors: $29 - $40.

Students: $22

Groups (20 or more) $17 - $34

Venue:

Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre

Segal Centre for Performing Arts

5170, ch de la Cˆ¥te-Ste-Catherine

www.segalcentre.org

Box Office:

(514) 739 ’Ä́ 7944

Admission:

(514) 790 - 1245

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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

'Buried Child' at the Segal Centre

The Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre & KPMG

Present

Buried Child

By Sam Shepard

Directed by Peter Hinton

A co-production with Canada’Äôs National Arts Centre (Ottawa)

MONTREAL January, 2008 ’Ä́ The Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre launches the second half of its 2008-2009 season with the co- production of Sam Shepard's Pulitzer Prize winning play, Buried Child - marking the first ever partnership between the Segal Theatre and Canada’Äôs National Arts Centre (Ottawa).

’ÄúWe are proud to be presenting this production together with the National Arts Centre,’Äù said Bryna Wasserman, Artistic and Executive Director of the Segal Centre. ’ÄúWith Peter Hinton directing the play, Buried Child promises to be a powerful theatrical production’Äù.

He (Peter Hinton), his actors and designers have located the theatricality, the poetry, and the tricky balance between realism and symbolism, between horror and humour, that defines Shepard's Pulitzer-winning play. In so doing, they’Äôve tapped into the terrible beauty that is Buried Child. Patrick Langston, The Ottawa Citizen January 10, 2009

Buried Child is an edgy, gritty portrayal of a dysfunctional family in the American Midwest. Set on an Illinois farm, it revolves around the unannounced return of a long-lost grandson. But strangely, no one seems to remember him at first. The farmhouse is rundown and a dark secret looms within its walls, contaminating the family psyche.

At times disturbing, even destabilizing, this play rips the veneer off the ’ÄúAmerican Dream,’Äù exposing its shadow side to harsh unflattering light. Taboos and secrets surface and are unceremoniously unearthed.

’ÄúThe play reminds us that beneath the mythology of Norman Rockwell lie buried secrets that are both absurdly upheld and dangerously exposed. Given the condition of the United States today, recent turns in the economy, a new president, and an uncertain future, Buried Child has never been more timely or relevant’Äù, says Hinton.

Buried Child is hard-hitting and provocative but it will also make you laugh. In this fine Sam Shepard drama, tragedy and comedy can turn on a dime, and its dysfunctional characters, even the boorish sociopaths, can rouse roaring laughter.

’ÄúBuried Child brings a ray of hope’Äù, adds a reflective Bryna Wasserman, ’Äúa new path, if we choose to take it’Äù.


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As part of a truly outstanding cast, David Fox stars as Dodge, a cantankerous and broken old man whose adulterous wife Halie, played by Clare Coulter , openly flirts with her love interest, Father Lewis, who is played by John Keonsgen. The highly-respected cast also includes Randy Hughson as Tilden, a disturbed former athlete, Alex Ivanovici plays his violent brother Bradley, a long-lost grandson Vince is played by Christie Watson and Adrienne Gould plays his girlfriend Shelly.

The design team has created a stunning stage where reality and surrealism merge to support Sam Shepard’Äôs strong use of imagery. Mastermind creators include Eo Sharp, set and costume design; Robert Thomson, lighting; and Troy Slocum, sound design. Laurie Champagne is the stage manager and Todd Bricker completes the team as assistant stage manager.

88.5 CBC Radio One proudly presents Sunday-@-the-Segal
Sunday, February 1, 11am. Admission is free.
Join us for another season of intimate conversation and riveting lectures.

Director Peter Hinton will focus on the importance of Sam Shepard’Äôs voice in modern drama and why Buried Child is so timely and relevant today.

Monday Night Talkbacks
As usual following the play, some of the actors and/or designers will remain on stage to take questions from the audience. Monday Night Talkbacks provides an intimate opportunity for audiences to engage up close and personal with the personalities bringing first class professional English language theatre to Montreal.

Pre-Show Talks

The Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre, in association with The Argyle Institute of Human Relations, has scheduled several pre-show talks with family therapy professionals. www.argyleinstitute.org

Pre-show speakers are invited to enhance the audience's understanding and appreciation of the plays presented at the The Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre.

Building audiences for the future
Everyone in this field knows that what matters most is the creation and fostering of new audiences. To this extent, the Segal Centre is offering fantastic savings for those under 30. The hope is to see full advantage of this taken, from full-time college and university students to young professionals just starting out.

TICKETS AND MEDIA INFORMATION

Run:
February 1- 22, 2008

Previews:
February 1, 1:30 pm
February 1 - 4, 8:00 pm

Sunday-@-the-Segal:
February 1, 11:00 am

Media Opening Night:
Thursday, February 5, 8:00 pm

Performances:
Monday - Thursday, 8:00 pm
Saturday 8:30 pm
Sunday 7:00 pm

Matinˆ©es:
Wednesdays 1:00 pm
Sundays 2:00 pm

Box Office:
(514) 739-7944

Admission
(514) 790-1245
www.admission.com

Segal Centre for Performing Arts at the Saidye
5170 Cote St. Catherine Rd.

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