Eyes fixed on Lunchbox’s latest comedy

By LOUIS HOBSON, CALGARY SUN

Last Updated: 3rd February 2010, 10:14pm

By HALFSTEP TUE, FEB 2 2010

BY STEPHEN HUNT, CALGARY HERALD

FEBRUARY 4, 2010

Spotlight

Mr. Fix It, by Caroline Russell-King, runs at Lunchbox Theatre through Feb. 27. Tickets: 403-265-4292

—

Caroline Russell-King is the author of Mr. Fix It, which opened Tuesday at the Lunchbox Theatre, where it’s playing through Feb. 27. Centre Stage caught up with King on Tuesday.

Q: What’s Mr. Fix It about?

A: It’s a one-act romantic comedy about a man who wants to fix his relationship, but he can’t fix himself.

Q: What was the genesis of the play?

A: The truth is, I was inspired by the Neil Simon plays of my youth. I did dinner theatre when I was in my 20s, and I wanted to pay homage to Neil Simon, who I think is a great comedic writer — he’s gone on to win the Pulitzer Prize and things, but he’s also dismissed, you know? Especially in academic circles. I wanted to write a Simon-esque piece, and he obviously wrote The Plaza Suite and California Suite, so I wrote the first Palliser Suite.

Q: Is this the first of a series of Palliser Suite plays?

A: Well, I think it’s possible that there’s a couple more waiting to come out. I have a couple rough drafts.

Q: You were the literary manager at Lunchbox for a number of years. Did reading all those plays help your playwriting?

A: I think the mistakes playwrights sometimes make is they don’t read enough plays. I read plays all the time. As a literary manager, being paid to read plays is kind of nirvana.

Q: Do you have a writing routine?

A: I’m really one of these people who needs to get away and go deep. So I like to actually seclude myself in the mountains, through the Banff Colony, or my husband will give me fabulous gifts where he will send me to Canmore and I’ll just shack up in a hotel and live, breathe, eat and dream the play. I’m not very good at little increments here and there. I don’t have one of those Stephen King, get-up-brush-my-teeth-work-forfi ve-hours, have-a-cup-of-tea-do-something-else. That’s not who I am.

Q: I heard you’re writing a play called Symphony in OCD. What’s that?

A: It’s about a woman who’s an obsessive compulsive cleaner. She comes home to discover her sister has given her a surprise house renovation. She gets home early. Her husband has Tourette’s and he’s a checker, a door checker, and she’s a compulsive cleaner. The sister comes in and the sister is losing her hearing, so she’s learning sign language. So you’ve got somebody signing, somebody checking and somebody cleaning. It’s extreme.

Q: What’s the status of that one?

A: I put it on the back burner when I got this show, so it will come back to the fore this year.

Q: Who besides Neil Simon are your comedy inspirations?

A: (David) Mamet. (Norm) Foster would have to be right up there. Bernard Slade — Same Time, Next Year — (still) holds up. He’s really great. (And) Stoppard. Tom Stoppard is a genius.

Q: What’s next?

A: I want to finish Symphony in OCD Major, which is in second draft and has a lot more work to do on it in workshop. And I just got a commission to do a brand new comedy called Shakespeare Under the Bed, so I’ll be working and developing that with The Shakespeare Company. It’s a comedy about Shakespeare, but he’s in contemporary times. It’s loosely based on the portrait that was found a few years ago in Ontario — nobody’s written about it! I can’t believe it. But, of course, Shakespeare’s got to show up so — it’ll be my first fantasy piece.

shunt@theherald.canwest.com

By LOUIS B. HOBSON, CALGARY SUN

Last Updated: 30th January 2010, 9:35pm

Calgary actor Brian Jensen admits he’s had to fix the odd thing like vacuum cleaners, toasters and relationships.

Sometimes the mending went well, but sometimes the appliance and the relationship had to be replaced.

“The awful realization is that if the relationship has ended it’s too late to try fixing it even thought that’s what we sometimes try to do.

“Then it’s a case of what happens after happily-ever-after collapses,” says Jensen whose had to deal with “those lingering feelings you have for the person you’re no longer with.”

What has Jensen mulling over those long ago broken appliances and broken relationships is his role in Lunchbox Theatre’s new comedy Mr. Fix It that opens Monday.

Jensen plays Mel, the owner of a chain of Mr. Fix It shops.

There isn’t an appliance Mel can’t fix but he’s hardly the same kind of wiz in the relationship department.

“Mel started out as an appliance repairman. He got so good he opened a shop and then two and three and then a whole chain of them.

“As his business was taking off, his marriage was crumbling.

“He had an affair which led to his wife wanting a divorce which he gave her.

“There’s a snag with the divorce papers so his ex-wife (Barbara Gates Wilson) comes to see him.”

Mr. Fix It, which was written by Calgary playwright Caroline Russell-King kicks off Lunchbox Theatre’s 35th season in Calgary.

“It’s exciting for Lunchbox to have a world premiere to help celebrate its 35th year because the company has showcased so many premieres over the decades.”

Jensen says it’s always exciting for actors to be involved in a premiere because “you have the playwright right there during the rehearsal process. You actually get to ask questions and feel you have some real input.”

He has nothing but praise for Russell-King’s script.

“Caroline says her play is a homage to Neil Simon and, like Simon’s best plays, the laughs are there but there’s a true bittersweet feeling to the story.”

“I think it all started when I played a Christmas tree in grade three. I got hooked.”

More recently, Jensen was seen as Marley’s Ghost in A Christmas Carol, and as a Great Blue Whale in The Invention of Music.

Tickets for Mr. Fix It, which is directed by Kevin McKendrick are available by calling 403-265-4292.

louis.hobson@sunmedia.com

I of the storm

Dream Vacation is a funny look at the lives of three characters
Published December 17, 2009  by Kathleen Renne in Theatre

Tequila and spicy food combine for another (un)memorable evening.

DETAILS

Dream Vacation presented by Lunchbox Theatre
Lunchbox Theatre
Monday, November 23 - Wednesday, December 23

Vacations to sunny destinations, like Mexico, are frequently on the minds of Calgarians, particularly when the temperature dips below the deep-freeze range. But, if you can’t make it down to warmer climates yourself this December, you can do so vicariously through Lunchbox Theatre’s world première of the musical Dream Vacation.

The play tells the story of three people — Cindy (Onalea Gilbertson), Judd (David Shelley) and Norman (Kevin Dennis) — who win a “dream vacation” to Mexico. However, their vacation soon turns into a nightmare when they are forced to share the same cheesily decorated room (cactus headboard anyone?) and, true to Mexican weather stereotypes, a hurricane hits.

Trapped together as they wait out the storm, the characters come to terms with some of the things they want in life. For Cindy, that means bedding the hunky Judd in order to get a job in the Calgary office of an advertising firm. For Judd, aside from his usual preoccupation with snagging another client, it means working on some of his issues around acceptance of homosexuals. For Norman, it means finding someone special and getting a life.

Jonathan Monro, the Toronto-based actor, playwright and composer who wrote Dream Vacation, also premièred his musical With a Twist at Lunchbox Theatre two years ago, earning four Betty Mitchell Awards. Without wanting to jinx anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if Dream Vacation follows suit.

The songs are light and catchy with wonderful rhythms and harmonies, and Mark Bellamy’s choreography is infectious (Bellamy also directs the production). Gilbertson, Shelley and Dennis are all strong vocalists and their voices contrast, and combine, well with one another.

There is plenty of humour laced throughout the show, much of it of a sexual nature, along with some laughs about homophobia and bodily functions. (Just to give you a little sampling…while Judd is “baking brownies,” Cindy excuses his “windy pops”). There is even an entire song dedicated to “Montezuma’s Revenge,” which, if the brownie reference didn’t clue you in, Judd is suffering from.

Is the show silly? Yes. Is it over-the-top? Yes. Is it fun? Absolutely.

As all three characters work in advertising, there is plenty of fun poked at the business of creating and selling ads. “We arrest peoples’ intelligence long enough to make money,” is how Cindy and Judd describe their work.

In amongst all the silliness, however, there is a touching storyline belonging to the gay Norman. He sings a plaintive little song called “Third Wheel,” and dreams of leaving the advertising business to settle down with someone, have a dog and raise kids. He adds a sweetness to the show that gives the production some depth amongst all the shtick.

My only complaint with the production is the way in which the hurricane seems to drift in and out. After the initial mention of the storm, which sees all three characters screaming for help and banging on the doors of their room, that sense of inclement weather disappears from the story altogether, until near the end when bits of wood and debris fall onto the stage. It’s a minor point, but perhaps a continual sense of a storm brewing outside would add some consistency to the show and remind viewers why the characters are stuck there in the first place.

All in all, Dream Vacation is a funny and entertaining show. The music and choreography are fantastic and, even if it’s not exactly a substitute for travel to a warm-weather destination, at least it will provide you with a lunchtime of warm laughter.

Media Release
For Immediate Release – November 12, 2009

Calgary, AB – Pamela Halstead, Artistic Director of Lunchbox Theatre is please to announce the selection of Kathryn Waters as the 2009/2010 BD&P Emerging Director.

Kathryn, who has recently been named the Artistic Director Designate for Urban Curvz Theatre, was selected from close to twenty applications from across Alberta.

Kathryn graduated from York University’s Creative Ensemble program with her BA (Theatre) in 2004, and returned to her home province of Alberta the following year. Never satisfied with only one plate spinning, she has worked as an actor, director, dramaturg, producer, writer, and administrator since returning to Calgary. Kathryn is past Festival Coordinator of the Calgary Regional One-Act Play Festival, and managed the box office and education programming at the Pumphouse Theatre from 2007-2009.

Some of Kathryn’s favourite credits include The Shakespeare Company’s When That I Was (production dramaturg); Downstage’s The Piper (actor) and Queen Lear (producer/assistant director); Essay & The Russian Play (producer) and The Venus of Basin Street (producer/director) for Urban Curvz. She is currently directing Camera, Woman for Urban Curvz Theatre.

“Kathryn impressed me very much in the interview with her intelligence and passion,” says Artistic Director, Pamela Halstead. “I came to directing myself through apprenticeships, so the BD&P Emerging Director Program is one of the things that excites me most about Lunchbox Theatre. It is a great privilege to be invited into another director’s rehearsal hall and I am thrilled to welcome Kathryn into the process here.”

The BD&P Emerging Director Program, generously sponsored by Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP, gives early career directors an apprenticeship under the tutelage of established professional theatre directors. Kathryn’s apprenticeship at Lunchbox Theatre will begin in the new year when she will assist three established directors: Kevin McKendrick on Mr. Fix It, Artistic Director, Pamela Halstead on The Submarine and Glenda Stirling on This Could Be Love. The final stage of her apprenticeship will be the direction of a one-act of her choosing, a project which she is already researching. The BD&P Emerging Director Presentation will run May 20-22, 2010.

Previous graduates of the program include Scott Roberts, Aaron Coates, Simon Mallett and Val Planche.

The world’s longest running lunchtime theatre, Lunchbox Theatre is a professional company that caters to downtown office workers over the noon-hour by producing six plays per year as well as the Petro-Canada Stage One Festival and the BD&P Emerging Director Program. Lunchbox Theatre recently relocated to a new theatre at the base of the Calgary Tower.

www.lunchboxtheatre.com

For more information, to request an interview, or to visit a rehearsal:
DJ Kelly
Marketing and Communications
Lunchbox Theatre
403 265 4292 x 229
dj.kelly@lunchboxtheatre.com

Media Release
For Immediate Release – November 16, 2009

Calgary, AB – With a prolonged economic slowdown, swine flu fears, and the coming holiday season, Lunchbox Theatre is pleased to give Calgary’s downtown workers a break: for 12 hours Lunchbox will make tickets to the first week of Dream Vacation available for just $12.

In an online box office only sale from 10am to 10pm on Friday, November 20 all tickets to the first week (Monday, November 23 – Saturday, November 28) of the world premiere musical Dream Vacation will be available for $12 each. This represents a 33% discount on the regular ticket price.

“We had tremendous success with this promotion last season during our last musical, Come Fly With Me when we had about 150 patrons take us up on the offer,” says artistic director Pamela Halstead. “The holiday season can be a stressful time to begin with and with the added stressors of H1N1 and the state of the economy we wanted to offer a mini-Dream Vacation to people. The business community – and downtown office workers in particular – are our audiences, our family. The $12 for 12 hours promotion is just one way we can give back to the community.”

Lunchbox Theatre offers theatre-goers and downtown office workers the opportunity to take a much deserved trip to Mexico during the holiday season as part of the world premiere of Dream Vacation, a new musical by Jonathan Monro, which runs November 23 to December 23.

In Dream Vacation, three people from the same advertising agency win dream vacations to sunny Mexico and are more than a little surprised as to how their holidays unfold when they are forced to share the same hotel room. Trying circumstances result in hilarity as the trio endure and come to grips with their expectations.

The world’s longest running lunchtime theatre, Lunchbox Theatre is a professional company that caters to downtown office workers over the noon-hour by producing six plays per year as well as the Petro-Canada Stage One Festival and the BD&P Emerging Director Program. Lunchbox Theatre recently relocated to a new theatre at the base of the Calgary Tower.

- # # # -

www.lunchboxtheatre.com

For more information or to request an interview:
DJ Kelly
Marketing and Communications
Lunchbox Theatre
403 265 4292 x 229
dj.kelly@lunchboxtheatre.com