Swan Song of Maria--Coming Soon!

SWAN SONG OF MARIA--FUNDRAISING LETTER

December 1, 2009

Dear Friend of the Theatre,

Threshold is known for its dynamic and unpredictable brand of theatre that blends the verbal and visual, personal and political, social and poetic. Our latest project, in association with El Destino Productions, is playwright/actor Carol Cece Anderson's critically acclaimed new play, Swan Song of María: A Tragic Fairy Tale. I am excited about directing this piece, which imaginatively fuses language, classical ballet, tap, and Afro-Cuban-Latin-Jazz music, to depict the story of Jillian and Joe, an interracial couple, together since the late 1960's. As Jillian, an aging tap dancer, confronts Alzheimer's, she is haunted by her playwright husband, Joe's ever present muse: María, a beautiful ballerina he met briefly, decades earlier, in the midst of a revolution. Jillian wonders where she belongs in Joe's life, and Joe is ultimately compelled to face his own fading idealism, and the painful promise Jillian once asked him to make. Swan Song of Maria is a poignant story of two hearts struggling to rediscover love before it is lost forever.

Anderson began working on her play in 2006, and honed it as playwright-in-residence at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, during their 2008/09 season. This culminated in an NAC sponsored staged reading in July 2009, at Dancemakers in the Distillery District. Threshold and El Destino assembled an extraordinarily talented creative team for the reading, all of whom have expressed interest in participating in our planned Toronto production. These artists include: actors, Lili Francks & John Blackwood; Cuban pianist, Hilario Durán; National Ballet of Canada, dancer, Bridgett Zehr; ballet consultant, Evelyn Hart; choreographers, Roberto Campanella & Debbie Wilson; and NAC dramaturg, Paula Danckert. In November 2009, Black Theatre Workshop presented the successful world premiere of Swan Song of María at the MAI Theatre in Montreal.

Threshold Theatre and El Destino Productions are committed to staging Swan Song of María, in Toronto in 2010. In order to do this, we need your help. Our fundraising target is $50,000.00. So far, we have raised $26,000.00 from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council. We have set a fundraising target of $24,000.00 from individual and corporate supporters. Your donation will contribute directly to the Toronto premiere of this powerful new Canadian play. A reply letter is below. Your contribution to Threshold Theatre, no matter how large or small, is 100% tax-deductible, and a charitable receipt will be issued to you, with our deepest gratitude.

Sincerely,

Mark Cassidy

Co-Artistic Director Threshold Theatre

www.thresholdtheatre.ca

Yes! I wish to support Swan Song of María: A Tragic Fairy Tale by making a charitable contribution to Threshold Theatre. Name ________________________________________________________________________

Address ______________________________________________________________________ City ___________________________ Prov ___________ Postal Code ________________

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Please make cheques or money orders payable to: Threshold Theatre.

I would like to make a contribution of: $100 $75 $50 $25 Other amount _________

About Carol Cece Anderson's Swan Song of María: A Tragic Fairy Tale:

"A poetic blend of word and image…A melancholy ballad of a play…Carson McCullers and her Ballad of the Sad Café come to mind…The play's intermingling of art forms creates an unforgettable ambiance that leaves the audience spellbound…A bittersweet joy…A gem. Anderson doesn't preach, she weaves." - The Montreal Gazette

"There is much human frailty here…Anderson's probing play, achieves a moving portrait of difficult subject matter." - The Rover

"Characters prevail in a beautiful tragedy…The play is innovative, fusing language, dance, and music to tell a story." - The McGill Tribune

"The play is realistic in its depiction of Alzheimer's, and the story of two lovers losing their deep-seated connection is powerful and heartbreaking."

- The Concordian

Please mail cheques or money orders to: Threshold Theatre c/o El Destino Productions 465 Yonge Street, P.O. Box 73013

Toronto, Ontario,

M4Y 1X0

We will be accepting donations for this project from December 1, 2009 - September 30, 2010.

Charitable Registration #846280956 RR0001

Director's Note for Forms of Devotion....now playing at the Baby Grand Theatre in Kingston....Sept. 25-Oct.10

I first met Diane Schoemperlen back in the mid 90's when Threshold Theatre was based in Kingston. I loved the down to earth characters, rich imagination and innovative style of her wonderful first novel, In The Language of Love, and contacted her to see if we could get permission to adapt it into a play. She said yes and that show went on to very successful runs in Kingston and Toronto. When her subsequent book of stories, Forms of Devotion, came out I was blown away by its inventiveness, humour, sensuality, and multi-layered take on the 'faithful vs. the faithless'.

Threshold's Forms of Devotion mixes selected texts from Diane's stories with our responses to the themes of faith, doubt, fear, longing, and hope, through the lens of a contemporary couple. Our aim has been to capture the spirit of the book while creating a performance that has it's own theatrical life and emotional logic. Throughout the process, I have been guided by the quote Diane provides at the beginning of her first story: "Strangely enough, we are all seeking a form of devotion that fits our sense of wonder." I hope that there are scenes, images, moments in the piece which speak to you. My sincere thanks go out to the entire creative team who contributed to and collaborated on the adaptation every step of the way.

Mark Cassidy

oakwood village theatre festival!

In March 2010, Threshold Theatre will launch the first annual Oakwood Village Theatre Festival. This project is exciting on many levels, combining ground breaking theatrical works with grassroots community-building. The Oakwood Village Theatre Festival will unite artist and audience in experiencing a village, both real and imagined, remembered and envisioned.

We see the Oakwood Village Theatre Festival as an annual event occurring in the first week of March at the Oakwood Village Library and Performing Arts Centre in the northwest part of Toronto. Proposals will be invited from theatre artists/groups based in the area bound by Eglinton West, Bathurst, Davenport and Lansdowne From these submissions, four will be selected. Two other artists/groups from outside the area will also be invited to participate. The festival will be curated with a view toward presenting works which reflect the cultural diversity of the area along with a dynamic range of theatrical approaches. As well, a few local artists from other disciplines will be invited to participate around the theatrical productions: for example, an exhibit or installation at the library during the festival, and musical performances as part of the opening and closing celebrations. The Saturday afternoon of the festival will feature a roundtable discussion with local politicians and concerned citizens, to share perspectives on some of the themes being raised in the plays presented. To engage local youth and showcase their talent, student groups from Vaughan Rd. Academy and Oakwood Collegiate Institute will be invited to perform during the weekend segment of the festival. Threshold will produce, administer, promote and publicize the festival as well as provide technical support. Participating groups will prepare their shows independently and collect 100% of their box office revenue.

What’s the big idea? Simply stated, it is to understand the importance of village, and then to help build one. This is a festival that brings together a community while exploring compelling socio-political ideas through theatre. For our first festival we have decided to ask artists to respond to the theme of VILLAGE. It is a concept rich in associations. A quick search on the internet reveals a few of these:

There was this mountain village in Russia where my music was getting in on some German radio station. I remember this because music used to get up to Saskatchewan from Texas. Late at night after the local station closed down.

Joni Mitchell

You understand something that many people here don’t recognize: the extraordinary power that is Africa at village level - at community level.

Stephen Lewis

The new electronic interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village.

Marshall McLuhan

Many of our own people here in this country do not ask about computers, telephones and television sets. They ask - when will we get a road to our village.

Thabo Mbeki

You could perhaps better tell the story of a place by writing of a tiny village as a sort of prism into the bigger issues the culture was facing. Nicholas Kristof

It takes a whole village to raise a child.

African Proverb

While one artist/group may create a piece about an ancestral village, another may concentrate on the implications of the so-called global village. Yet another group may reflect on the phrase ‘village idiot’ and create a piece about outcasts and ostracism, about mental illness or homelessness. All the artists involved will be asking vital questions about how we belong, about community. By definition, the village community is regarded as the political unit out of which the modern state developed. The concept of village continues to define us in many different ways. The productions featured in the first annual Oakwood Village Theatre Festival will bring fresh perspectives to the theme and spark dialogue in a way that only theatre can!

trying to unravel the mysteries swirling within and around you....theatre-- our obsessions and neuroses distilled, laid bare... in a way that offers something unexpected, challenging the patterns we get stuck in

because yeah, the notion anything is possible is true and staring at us daily even though we are hovering in same bodies... husks for the connections which can be made between people

the blessing of working with others....of reaching toward something artificial yet in other ways more real

more plays....shared mysteries!

dream forces

theatre should be a vehicle for huge dream forces. we limit ourselves so much in our desire to be liked. attempting to replicate others who society says are 'doing it right'.

i want a theatre that is both bigger (in imagination) and simpler than the one i see around me. there won't be an emphasis on technology, but space internally and drive for entering the dreamworld.

i am inspired working with people who want to challenge the notion of what is acceptable in art...who genuinely work in the now, meaning the depths and possibilities of it.

julian beck's questions

Researching for a new Threshold piece BEAUTIFUL NON-VIOLENT ANARCHIST REVOLUTION, based on diaries of Julian Beck and Judith Malina--there is a section in Becks diaries where he asks a series of questions which still seem so relevant:

questions 1963

what is the difference between questions and answers

why do you go to the theatre

is it important to go to the theatre

is it important to read

do people who go to the theatre differ from people who don't go to the theatre

what happens to you if you go to the theatre

when you leave the theatre have you changed, that is of course you are changed by each moment of experience so three hours later you are naturally different, but i mean have you changed actively

do you want to change actively

are you content

is it good to change

is anything sufficient unchanged

do you go the theatre for answers

do you have any questions

does it matter how we live

what is happening to us

what happens in the theatre

do you go to the theatre to find out about life

is it easier to observe life in the theatre or in the street

have you experienced joy in the theatre

have you experienced joy in the street

what do you enjoy

do you get sensations in the theatre

do you go to the theatre for intellectual exercises

do you go to the theatre to find out if it has figured out what is going on

do you go to the theatre because it might be telling the truth

is anything that is the truth

are newspapers the thruth

do playwrights record the truth more than editors

do newspapers lie do playwrights lie do actors lie

do playwrights or editors or actors lie deliberately

do you got the theatre to see how well an actor can disguise himself as somebody else

do you think that actors should try to personify excellent being

what is excellent being

can an actor show you excellent being

what is useful

what is a good question

what is a way to find answers

what will knock down the prison walls

what is the way

what is the relationship between the actor and the spectator

what is speech

what is the important enquiry

do we have time to ask all the questions

which ones do you want to ask

will you ask them now

what do we need

how can we get it

how can we touch one another

how can we make it happen

how can we make a theatre which makes love now

how can we make a theatre which is worthy of the life of its spectators

how can we make a theatre when we do not know any answers but only vague hints about how to ask questions

i end with questions because i have no answers

but what i want is answers

questions 1968

how do we feed all the people

how do we stop all the wars

how do we open the doors of all the jails

how do we disintegrate violence

how do we obliterate racism

how do we get rid of money (capitalism)

how do we undo early death

how do we end militarism

how do we put an end to authoritarian systems

how do we end the class system thing

how do we find the answers to these questions

how do we do it now

churches of theatre

the churches of theatre are afraid of ...reaching out toward

a world that is in a perpetual state of rhythmic becoming, changing, renewing

they want to freeze the world with themselves as experts, intermediaries

removed from our senses

rigid, ossified, 'classic'.

T.O. street fragments

In preparation for our upcoming workshop of Sprawl: The City in which I Love You, we have been gathering images and fragments to interweave into Isaac and Aura's sketchy urban art tapestry of downtown T.O. --pls let us know of anything you've seen/heard in the public sphere lately you'd like to add to our list in progress, thx.

--two police officers to tourist looking guy wearing handcuffs behind back, his bag and an expensive looking camera on hood of cruiser, loudly protesting his arrest, --charles st. just west of yonge:

Keep your fucking mouth shut!

--teacher to other teacher on sidewalk in front of school after staff meeting:

Let’s go get some caffeine, nicotine, anything to make us feel better.

--guy in restaurant to his wife referring to their son: I’ll pay you just to get rid of him. other previous comments to son: you haven’t eaten a thing, all you’ve done since you got here is whine and complain. I was just testing you about the ice cream. You’re not getting ice cream until you finish everything on your plate.

mother adds: you know who likes whiners? no one, nobody likes them.

--guy in line at Tim Hortons in Dominon: (really quick auctioneer like delivery)

Had a coffee already today but I liked it so much I think I’ll have another coffee.

other person in line: can you say that any faster?

guy: after I drink my coffee.

--women in Graham Park both pushing 18 mo old kids in swings: she is ruining her life with him, throwing her life away.

He is 35 yrs old with nothing to show for it, nothing to put on his c.v. Even if he gets himself out of debt, he will just start all over again. He likes the good things in life.

--near Viewmount park-- pregnant woman pushing baby carriage, an 11 or 12 yr old girl on way to school brushes carriage on way by-pregnant woman pushing carriage, grabs and shakes the girl and says: “don’t you ever touch my daughter again!”

--in Starbucks on Eglinton:

one woman (late thirtiesh) to another on way out:

How bad was it?

It was bad.

Real hardcore.

About as bad as it gets...


--Lakeshore and York, homeless type guy says to woman stopped at intersection....get off the fucking cell phone....why don’t you learn how to drive...hey bitch get off the cell phone....

she doesn’t hear him and he walks past the car

--St Clair & Christie

son about 7 yrs old to apparently recently separated father walking down street...daddy what does ‘agitated’ mean? father: agitated...how do you mean? what context did you hear it in? son: i don’t know just agitated? father: well, if you were to use it in a sentence you would say....the man was really agitated, meaning he was upset. son: why? father: why what? son: why was he upset? father: who? son: the man in the sentence. father: well, there could be lots of reasons...somebody did something wrong to him, he lost at something. bad day at work. son: or father: or what? son: or he got into a fight with his wife. father: where are you hearing these words anyway?
son: agitated is not a weird word, i just never knew what it meant. father: so now you do? son: sort of. father--why don’t we go get a lottery ticket. son: and a freezie. father ok

Two women jogging in cedarvale ravine: yeah he’s living such an insular life now he says his freedom is in phone calls.

Cedarvale again...one woman with her dog from way across the park to another woman--how was the surgery? the other woman, long pause, starts walking slowly toward her...how much time do you have? and this conversation is taking place bit by bit as the one woman walks slowly toward the other...i thought of sewing up the wound. the first one went ok apparently, but there were complications and the second one didn’t go so well.

--Davenport/Alberta parkette....middle aged guy lying down in park on bench reading porn magazine

--outside Yorkdale: guy to group of guys....i’m free from the crying machine, the screaming machine, the wrecking machine....i’m gonna really enjoy these two hours away from him.

--St. Clair and Atlas.....woman bleached blonde late twenties, on cellphone--emphatically: but that’s charity, not friendship, you know i don’t believe in charity...that wouldn’t be doing anyone any favours...etc

--St Clair and Dufferin....three people on street in front of sports cafe 40’s or 50’s italian....they are all facing one of the other guys and talking in a kind of monologue to them....each guy who is being spoken to, is himself speaking to someone else...all three are for the most part talking over top of each other. not sure about what.

--St Alphonsus school, kid hiding in amongst school buses and cars in parking lot...father pissed off...i've had it with this shit....get in the van now...kid throws a few more snowballs....sense he might get beat on, but he doesn’t care, he’s been beaten before, probably will get beat anyway, so might as well have some fun beforehand, screw you dad and mom....mom, the busdriver has yelled at him in the past, she is being strangely silent and letting dad, the guy who seemed like the quiet one before (maybe he was always just really hungover) do the talking. both kids and mom have long bright red hair.

--two guys mid 30’s, paunchy, walking dogs with starbucks coffees, in Cedarvale Ravine near the Heath st. side

guy one (i think describing nanny who he wanted to get rid of but his wife wants to keep): she doesn’t cook, she doesn’t drive and she is an abysmal cleaner.

other guy: i could see maybe finding a way to deal with the first and second of these but not the third one

Atlas ave. sidewalk-- a toddler (3-ish) slips and falls down on ice while holding his mother’s hand. she roughly pulls him/her back up, dangling kid a little, then sort of shoving the kid angrily forward. kid careens ahead.

thots on spontanaiety and control

i think there is a fear of abandon...of the chaotic energy at the heart of creation which we all have within us...it seems we are afraid of being overwhelmed by it...kids, of course have a lot more immediate access to this energy, it is a birthright and huge resource...there is this myth that the process of growing up, maturing, involves giving up access to this sense of spontanaiety, play, unpredictablility....our lives become much more about obedience and conformity, following set paths toward certain rewards...yet through drinking, drugs, video games, art etc. we do whatever we can to not lose this part of our lives...and dreams, of course insist we keep contact with the underground, however much we are cut off from it in daily life.

in ‘night follows day’ (tim etchells/forced entertainment) there is a scene where the kids kind of just go wild, but it’s not wild really, (anyone who has kids or works with kids sees this all the time) just human play, a sense of abandon, provocation, contact, conflict, physical risk, the gap is shrunk between impulse and action-- this maybe is the key, thought processes are moving with the body, or sometimes the body is actually leading...it feels slightly dangerous and fun both to watch and participate in!

we have a theatre here in canada where, for the most part, the mind is always carefully mapping things out and justifying it in terms of authority/status quo/common sense/the rational way, before moving ahead with emotion, passion, the body....we do shows about the effects of repression without incorporating subconscious and irrational energies into our creative processes. what we seem to like best is doing productions of artists who have themselves worked with these irrational forces in ways that, though once new and bold and potentially subversive have long since been incorporated into society, (mommy/daddy/corporate and gov't funding bodies) as culture. so that we pretend to be exploring, out there, "still very relevant" stuff, when actually we are just rehashing, things which now are quite comfortable, familiar perspectives, and not at all connected to the newness and strangeness of the current moment.

art, of course, requires structure and is, well, artificial, so in the end there needs to be impeccable control and interplay of elements....i think though that we only allow ourselves a very reduced sense of what those elements could consist of...in our desire to name and control, and prove our thesis as it were from the get go, we cut off many avenues of possible exploration....a certain life force in the mix...perhaps dark, perhaps radiantly bright-- because it is somewhat frightening...it reminds us of things we are trying to repress, have been taught are childish, that we should grow up from. all these absurd rules about behaviour which are part of socialization, most education. most of our theatre reflects this fear of our birthright-- to experience the creative font of anarchic exuberance and spontanaiety at the core of being.

striving

toward an aesthetic of a theatre drawn from life....its flow, power, interior vastness; setting an electric charge between performers...accessible to audience

spare sets moving back and forth in time, sensually alert, awake to the possibilities, our biological/ spiritual drive to connect with as many as we can

what gives drama its life is death, the possibility of change, finitude, gives us immediacy, urgency, a sense of preparing for and dreading death of people we love (ourselves included) pushed down in us emerging as ritual

no ideas but in things, plays which show people working things out through relationships, the illogical truth of it, doing things fiercely with hunger, need, reaching out to the various people in your life, to be of service to each other, expanding the notion of what we can be to each other and who can enter our circle

sharing intimate details of our lives with strangers in the park

lifting someone else up with the story of your own fall

the world opens up rather than shrinks, evasively...a bounce in your step

opposite of:

"And art made tongue tied by authority,

And folly (doctor-like) controlling skill,

And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,

And captive good attending captain ill."