Author Archives: strecker

THE CHARITY THAT BEGAN AT HOME: CAST AND DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER NEWTON IN BRILLIANT FORM AS THE SHAW FESTIVAL RETRIEVES A FORGOTTEN GEM

Posted on August 5, 2014 by strecker

If The Sea, though first produced in 1973, is set in 1907, the rarely produced The Charity that Began at Home by St John Hankin, another theatrical gem at the 2014 Shaw Festival, was actually mounted on stage a year … Continue reading →

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THE PHILANDERER BY SHAW AT THE SHAW FESTIVAL: “I LAUGHED WITH DELIGHT FROM BEGINNING TO END”

Posted on August 5, 2014 by strecker

OR THIS….. For maybe four decades, on every trip to London, I have made it a point to visit the National Portrait Gallery and sink, each time, into the gaze of one or two different female subjects who hang there … Continue reading →

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SHAW FESTIVAL PRESENTS A COMPLEX, INTENSE, FUNNY, AND THEATRICALLY BRILLIANT PRODUCTION OF EDWARD BOND’S THE SEA

Posted on July 30, 2014 by strecker

A young man and a young woman, respectively, turn and turn a wind machine and, with increasing urgency, shake a metal sheet that one uses in theatre to effect a storm. They seem delighted with their theatrical devices and certainly, … Continue reading →

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CREATURES: MARIE-LYNN HAMMOND’S NEW CD SHOWS A SINGER-SONGWRITER’S ARTISTRY, COURAGE, AND COMPASSION FOR ALL LIFE

Posted on July 28, 2014 by strecker

Marie- Lynn Hammond’s superb new CD, Creatures, is a work of finely realized imagination, seamless artistry and delightful variety. Sometimes this gently potent collection does heavy duty work in the fibers of the heart and does so with grace, composure … Continue reading →

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A MEMORABLE TAKE ON SONDHEIM’S “COMPANY” FROM THEATRE 20 AT CANADIAN STAGE-BERKELEY THEATRE

Posted on June 30, 2014 by strecker

“Bobby….Bobby” At first this melodic motif is a gentle, multi-voiced echo that later recurs throughout Sondheim’s Company, even as a cello-alto sax duet, and in all cases it is hauntingly ambiguous. We sense affection, to be sure, yet also a … Continue reading →

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AN INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHT EDWARD BOND ABOUT HIS LONG AND “CONTROVERSIAL” CAREER IN BRITISH THEATRE AND HIS PLAY “THE SEA” NOW AT THE 2014 SHAW FESTIVAL

Posted on June 17, 2014 by strecker

This season the Shaw Festival is producing its first take on a work by Edward Bond, a playwright who, through his uncompromising play Saved, first produced at the groundbreaking Royal Court in 1965, helped to change censorship laws in Britain. … Continue reading →

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INTERVIEW WITH LOUISE PITRE OF SONDHEIM’S “COMPANY” AT TORONTO’S BERKELEY STREET THEATRE FROM JUNE 21

Posted on June 7, 2014 by strecker

Actor-singer Louise Pitre has understandably been called Canada’s first lady of musical theatre. She has garnered a variety of accolades, in her ongoing and distinguished career, which include a Theatre World award for Mama Mia! on Broadway, a Tony nomination … Continue reading →

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RICHARD PRYOR: OMIT THE LOGIC: An Interview with the film’s executive producer -and the comedian’s widow- Jennifer Lee Pryor

Posted on May 27, 2014 by strecker

The film Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic serves as a compassionate but unflinching exploration of comedian-actor Richard Pryor’s inner and outer lives -and how one affected the other. It’s a rich experience of a film, in part because of many … Continue reading →

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HAMILTON PHILHARMONIC & TWO FINE BOOKS ON FILM

Posted on May 14, 2014 by strecker

Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra Perhaps it was our especially cold winter lingering still in one’s bones, but conductor Gemma New’s recent take on Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony with the HPO certainly drew one into the richness of an approaching spring. Here was … Continue reading →

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Kafka, Kurtag, Dunlop and existence in every word, every note: An interview with soprano Stacie Dunlop

Posted on April 25, 2014 by strecker

Stacie Dunlop’s ongoing crusade for the composition and public performance of contemporary vocal music hits Toronto on Saturday, May 10 with Gyorgy Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments at Toronto’s Gallery 345. Ms. Dunlop’s longstanding intention is to challenge her listener’s multisensory being … Continue reading →

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