Behind The Scenes Report #3
In just 60 days,the World Premiere of The Giant's Garden will be onstage at Theatre Orangeville. Don't be disappointed. Get your tickets before it's too late!
In this week's update you will find out about the source of the show, a little bit about Oscar Wilde, and hear about the first 3 evenings of auditions for our child leads.
Where Do Giant Musicals Come From?
The Giant's Garden was inspired by a famous children's story written by Oscar Wilde entitled The Selfish Giant. This 6 page story is beautifully written and tells the tale of a selfish giant who chases the children out of his garden and the result is that Summer goes away and Winter comes to stay. This story was written during a period of Oscar Wilde's life where he was fascinated with Christian themes and the story is quite religious. Our story is not so centrally focussed on the religious aspect of the story, but certainly has a GIANT and WINTER and SUMMER. The storyline is more focussed on the children and how their change from selfish behaviour to sharing and friendship helps save the day. What started as an adaptation, quickly veered away from the original story line and took on a life of its own.
The two child leads in the play are called Oscar (named in honour of Oscar Wilde) and Constance (which was the name of Oscar Wilde's wife).
A Little Bit About Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, Ireland on October 16, 1854. He was an early leader of what was called the "Aesthetic Movement" which advanced the concept of "Art for Art's Sake." In adult circles, Oscar Wilde is best know for his plays Lady Windermere's Fan and The Importance Of Being Earnest. Amongst children, his best known fairy tales include The Happy Prince, The Selfish Giant and The Nightengale And The Rose.
Oscar Wilde died on November 30, 1900.
So how are we finding our Oscar and Constance?
General auditions for children from Orangeville and surrounding area were held in the evening on September 25, 26, 27 and continue on October 1st and 2nd. We will see over 50 children through this process and the final call-back process will take place on October 9th and 10th.
The children we saw last week ranged in age from 8 up to 14 years of age. Each child was asked to bring in a story, or a monologue less than two minutes in length fully memorized. They were also asked to prepare a song from memory that they could sing to show their ability to interpret music and hold pitch.
Aside from suitability for the role, we are looking for other factors that aren't usual with adult performers. The characters of Oscar and Constance are leads, which means that they will be in full time rehearsal with the adult actors beginning on November 13th and will work 6 days a week. During the run of the show, they will be doing 8 shows a week, 3 of which fall during daytime school hours. So as well as being talented, we are also looking for children who are bright, have the permission of their school teacher and principle to miss a certain amount of school, and have a support structure in terms of parents and teachers that can ensure that their studies can be structured around their work on the show.
The child leads are treated as professionals. They are paid for their services as actors and as such are called for similar hours to the grown-ups. It is a BIG commitment on behalf of the child, their parents and the school, but it is also a HUGE opportunity for them to learn from experienced actors and get a chance to be on stage in a professional production.
One might think that a community the size of Orangeville wouldn't have a huge pool of talent. Think again. Many of the children have participated in youth theatre programs (one of them run by Anne Reid, who has been sitting in on the auditions as an advisor). A large percentage have sung in the Theatre Orangeville Youth Singers and some even have professional stage credits. Indeed one of our young auditionees was in RAGTIME at the Ford Centre as a young child. The hardest part is deciding how to choose from so many talented young individuals.
The 15 minute audition slot consists of 4 parts.
First is an interview with the child to get a sense of their personality, why they want to be in the play, how they feel when they are on stage. This is very similar to a job interview.
We want to get a sense of who the person behind the performer is. Some of them come out with the most amazing answers.
The second component is generally their monologue. This allows us to see how well they project sound, support volume and how well they act. Generally each auditionee is asked to try doing a section of their monologue a second time in a slightly different way to see how well they take direction.
The third part of the audition involves having them sing their song. Then the musical director steps in and works with each child to ensure that they have a suitable vocal range for the role and can hold pitch and possibly harmonies.
The final segment is where the director, musical director and advisor decide if the auditionee is suitable for a call-back. If the candidate is a strong actor and strong singer, then they will be given a call-back for a lead. If the candidate is not strong in both acting and singing, it is possible they may not receive a call-back. If they sing well, but are weaker actors, they may get a chance to perform in the back-up vocal chorus of ICICLES.
Those that receive call-backs are given a small segment of music from the show to learn and memorize. If they are called back for CONSTANCE or OSCAR, they also have to take away a section of script and learn it. At their call-back they will be asked to sing the song section and also read from the script opposite a reader to see how well they can embody the character. It is a challenge for even experienced actors.
When a call-back is given, Mom and/or Dad are called into the room and it is explained that their child will move onto the next step of the process. At this stage it is important to make sure that the parents understand the level of commitment a professional show will require. We find that most parents are EXTREMELY supportive. They are so proud of their children, and when someone is given a call-back, they feel like they have done something grand!
Even those who don't get a call-back get an opportunity to work with the director and musical director and are given encouragement to continue pursuing what they love to do. Some may wind up with a line or two if they are already part of the children's chorus that sings in the show. The idea is to provide encouragement, a positive audition experience and at the same time find our CONSTANCE and OSCAR.
What happens after October 10th?
One girl will be offered the role of Constance. One boy will be offered the role of Oscar. 6 others will be offered a chance to work in the Icicle Chorus singing back-ups behind WINTER. Within this chorus will be one boy and one girl who can cover the lead role should there be an emergency situation where the lead can't go on.
It is important to rank all of the audition candidates who get call-backs, as sometimes the first person offered a role is unavailable for reasons that have come up since their audition (perhaps they got another job!). It is a long and careful process to ensure that there is a suitable match for the show and for the young actor!
Upcoming in the next newsletter
We have delayed the launch of our website for one week, but next week, we will reveal the website address where you can get more information on the show, as well as information on the writers, the creative team, snippets of songs and information on casting. Slowly but surely we will reveal the inside secrets of building our show.
Watch next week for information on the director, set designer and choreographer of the show.
We will also focus on one of the characters in the show and reveal more about their story.
Warmest Regards,
Scott White and Peter Fenton
written by Eric Woolfe, directed by David Nairn
Theatre Orangeville, Opera House, Orangeville December 1-23, 2006
Review by Christopher Hoile, Principal Reviewer for Stage Door
‘Twas the Life Before Santa
As Gregory Maguire did for the Wicked Witch of the West, so Eric Woolfe does for Santa Claus. Maguire’s 1995 novel, since turned into the hit musical “Wicked”, tells the story of Elphaba, the Witch of
the West, from her birth until after Dorothy’s departure from Oz.
Woolfe’s play, now receiving its world premiere at Theatre Orangeville, charts the life of little Nicky from when he’s sent to an orphanage until he finds his true love, sets up home at the North Pole and begins the traditions portrayed in Clement Moore’s famous poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (1823). Woolfe’s play has the potential to become a popular seasonal entertainment. It has a clever story line, vivid characters and, when it finally gets going, it is exciting and funny. The main problem is that the show seems to take forever to get going, indeed, almost the entire first act.
By the end the question seemed to be why the second act was so good and the first frequently bordered on tedium. The most obvious answer is that by Act 2 all the exposition is over and Woolfe can focus on the action. The second answer is that in Act 2 Woolfe makes far less use of a narrator than in Act 1. While the narrator himself is a problem so is the narrator’s voice. The play begins with Knecht Ruprecht (played by Mike Nadajewski) entering dressed in Victorian garb but speaking in the colourful slang of American gangsters in 1930s and ‘40s pulp novels and Hollywood films. Immediately we are disoriented concerning the play’s time and place. Woolfe may have intended this effect but for a play meant for parents and children it starts the play off on the wrong foot. Much as I, too, am a fan of Hollywood gangster lingo, it has now become so archaic that few adults in the audience and none of the children are likely to know precisely what Ruprecht is talking about--rather a liability in a narrator. Since Act 2 shows that Woolfe doesn’t really need a narrator, it would be a help if he managed to do without one in Act 1.
After Ruprecht’s introduction, when Nicky and the girl Lucy are handed over to orphanage of St. John the Dwarf, we are treated to a long scene of the orphans singing Christmas carols. While it is nice for the community to incorporate the Theatre Orangeville Youth Singers directed by Joy Bell and Joan Borden into the production, the interlude means the show comes to a halt just when it should be building momentum. Before we have a chance to applaud the fine singers, Woolfe has the presiding nun Sister Pomeranski enter and berate the young people for their poor singing. This completely spoils the mood and it takes time for the show to recover. Woolfe obviously enjoys the figure of a misanthropic nun, but he dwells too long on a character unimportant in the overall story. Only when we move ten years ahead to see what has happened to Nicky and Lucy does it seem the action is finally under way.
Lucy has been adopted by a kindly old toymaker, Pop Hoffman, who has magical book, the Arthuricon, that holds the secrets of how to make all toys ever made or to be made. Nicky, meanwhile has taken up a life of crime and is now the world’s greatest cat burglar, Crimson Nick. Nick plans to steal Hofmann’s latest creation and the Arthuricon. In flashbacks we learn that at the orphanage Nick became acquainted with the Julenisser, the elves that live in the walls of buildings and steal anything that lies unattended. Nick learns their magic although the dying Julenisser queen thinks that her folk should give things to people rather than take them. Back in the present, the evil Ice Queen, who lives in a castle at the North Pole, has just learned of the Arthuricon and also plans to steal it and kidnap Hoffman in hopes that at least one of his toys can shake her out of her misery.
Eventually, Nick, Lucy and Ruprecht set out on a quest to the North Pole rescue Hoffman and the book. Along the way they meet such creatures as the Ice Queen’s minions, the squawking Gargravens, a set of argumentative conjoined trolls, a Dogman and the Bodach that guards chimneys. This highly entertaining quest takes up all of Act 2. If only Woolfe could tighten up Act 1, we could meet Act 2 with high hopes instead of apprehension.
The cast is uniformly strong and cleverly deployed in multiple roles. Darren Keay makes a dashing Crimson Nick, a suave 1940s-style criminal mastermind and poles apart from the repellant Dr. Kraus he plays at the start of the action. Douglas Chamberlain plays two endearing, elderly characters but manages to make them quite distinct. His Pop Hoffman is kindly and filled with enthusiasm. His Julebukk, the King of the Elves has a majesty tinged with melancholy. Mike Nadajewski is good as Knecht Ruprecht despite the accent and is very funny as one half of the conjoined trolls even though he confusingly uses the same accent. He is best as the strange Dogman the travellers encounter in the Mistletoe Forest through his hilariously accurate mimicry of our canine friends’
habits and ways of paying attention.
Among the women Janet Porter is an engaging Lucy, a plucky old- fashioned girl and such an extreme contrast with the child-hating
Sister Pomeranki you’d never guess the same actor played both roles.
Burgandy Code sharply differentiates her five roles lending grace to the dying elf queen Rikkenisser, making the evil Ice Queen into a comical cross between the young Judi Dench and Cruella De Vil. She uses an entirely different voice as the Bodach, a puppet creation so effective one wishes there were more of them in the show.
Among the young people Cameron Kennedy is quite remarkable as Rupie (the young Knecht Ruprecht). He speaks the convoluted 1940s gangster slang with understanding and has real presence as an actor. Aidan O’Brien and Hannah Manzi are well matched as the Young Nicky and Young Lucy, among other roles, and Elisabeth DuBois and Carleigh Knudson lend fine support in many small parts.
Steve Lucas’s clever, whimsical set allows for rapid changes of scene among such varied settings as the orphanage, the Mistletoe Forest, Ice Queen’s castle at the North Pole and the World In-Between where the Julenisser live. Vandy Simpson and Nancy Turner’s costumes are like storybook illustrations come to life especially for the more fantastic beings and Simon Day’s lighting enhances the mood of every scene. David Nairn’s pacing seems slow in Act 1 but reaches an exciting clip in Act 2. In one of the most memorable scenes, Nick holding Lucy and Rupie lays a finger aside of his nose and the cast’s miming plus Day’s tumbling lighting effects create an unexpected sensation of the three suddenly shooting upwards in the air.
On the whole, “’Twas” is an imaginative and enjoyable show. It has so much going for it as it is that I hope Woolfe will undertake revisions to tighten the action, make the language more accessible and thus realize the story’s full potential. Then “’Twas” may soon become a regular holiday treat.
©Christopher Hoile
The Giant’s Garden
A Great Big Musical For The Whole Family
PREPARE YOURSELF!
THE GIANT IS GETTING CLOSER!
In just 67 days, audiences will get their first glimpse at the Giant. In this newsletter is a little information about Giants, and a sample of script and lyrics from the show so you can get a sense of our Giant and his familial issues! Also get your first glimpse at the authors of the show and find out about the process of going into studio to record the demo CD for future producers.
GIANTS IN GENERAL
According to the dictionary a GIANT is defined as a man (or woman) of very great height and size. They are known to have superhuman strength and physical proportions, a long lifespan, and thus a great deal of knowledge. Our modern perception of giants often see them as stupid and violent monsters, frequently said to eat humans, and especially children. However not all giants are alike! Indeed some are merely misunderstood creatures who if treated kindly can be helpful and friendly.
The Giant in our tale is indeed a man of large size, but his problems with his relatives (particularly his cousin the Cornish Ogre) could certainly be found in even normal sized families.
The following excerpt from the script has Giant singing his tale of woe. For those of you who have ever had company that overstayed their welcome, you may recognize some of their traits in our loveable, but highly confused giant.
SUMMER
Well then - tell me. How was your vacation?
GIANT
Wonderful. It was wonder … No; wait a minute. Wonderful? Is that the word? No, not wonderful. TERRIBLE. That's it. It was terrible. I went all that way and what do I have to show for it? Hurt feelin's and a BROKEN TEACUP!
GIANT SINGS IN A ROBUST VOICE
You think he'd be happy
That I'd come to see
The damp little cave
Where he'd come to be
After all these years
He'd never come to me.
So …
I wents
To visit
The Ogre.
(While GIANT sings, the children begin to sneak out of the garden behind his back.)
My dear-est cousin
So I thought of he
As I traveled miles
Over hill to sea
Stubbing toe on stone
Scraping shin on tree
I suffered
To gets to
The Ogre.
And what did I find
When I got to he?
A grateful beast
Who was pleased to see
That I'd put me out
Just to visit he?
No!
I found
An Ogre.
He sits in his cave
All littered with bone
With a body gone to rubble
And a heart of stone
So I says to the Ogre
"You sure have grown!"
"Go Away!"
Says
That Ogre.
(Spoken) Go Away! Says that Ogre?
We're flesh and blood
The Ogre and me
So I sats me down
On a stump of tree
And I says to him
"You're family."
"You'll put me up
You Ogre!"
So I stayed for a year
Or maybe it was four
I used his bed
He got to sleep on the floor
But the thing about the Ogre
He's a terrible bore
I started
To hates
The Ogre
He didn't want to take me
To where I'd like to be
High upon the mountain
Or down beside the sea
With my pail and shovel
And my cuppa tea
No, he didn't want to come along with me.
No he didn't want to come along with me.
Because he was my cousin
I stayed a few more years
True I ate up all his jellies
And I drank up all his beers
But it seemed he needed cheering
Cause he was constantly in tears
"Go Back Home!"
Says
The Ogre
Well I ain't no fool
I could see right thru
What the Ogre meant
He wanted me to do
Was to stick around
Another year or two
So I says
"I'll stays with ya
Ogre"
(GIANT now gets up and moves in front of the gate blocking any possible escape by OSCAR and CONSTANCE who are still hidden in the bushes.)
(Spoken) His reverse psycho-whatsits wasn't foolin' me. He was lonely!
Another year went by
And suddenly one day
The Ogre he got angry
Slammed his fist upon my tray
And my tea cup it got busted
Nothin' left but bits o' clay
Well, I'd had it
With
That Ogre.
So I packed up my bags
And my shovel and my pail
And I turned my back
And I headed down the trail
Oh I heard him cry
But to no avail
I won'ts
Go back
To see that Ogre.
My finest years
Did I give to he
Then he broke the only teacup
My granny gave to me
So back to my garden
I does flee
Nevermore
To see
The Ogre.
SUMMER
Did it ever occur to you that maybe he didn't want a visitor? And for seven years - don't you think you were being a bit … selfish?
GIANT
Me? Selfish? Ya've missed the whole point, Summer. It's the Ogre who was bein' selfish. I'm certain of it, just as I'm certain that my red bag's sittin' right there. (pause) Wait a minute, I don't have a red bag. That's not my bag. Summer: what's "not-my-bag" doin' in my garden where only "my-bag" - if I had one, which I don't - should be? And where "not-my-bag" is means "not-me" has been here; and by the looks of this pretty red bag, I'd have to say this "not-me" IS A CHILD! SUMMER … has children been in my garden?
About The Authors
Peter Fenton (book and lyrics) is a scientist by day and an artist by night. He has written poetry his entire life. He has always been interested in theatre and wrote his first play Relatively Speaking in 2000. It was produced at the Toronto Fringe Festival.
Peter's full time profession is as a paleontologist at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto (where he has worked for the past 25 years). He completes his work on artistic projects on weekends, evenings and days off. This is Peter's first collaboration on a musical.
Scott White (book, lyrics, music) has been involved in the arts since he was a small child. He began taking popular organ at the age of 10, moved on to piano studies with the Royal Conservatory of Music in high school and continued on to The University Of Calgary where he completed a Bachelor Of Music Degree. Scott moved to Toronto in 1991 and has been working full time in the arts since that time. He has worked as an actor, a musical director and a writer. His work has allowed him to travel all over the world. For full information, check out his website at www.geocities.com/scottwhite40
Recording A Demo CD
A critical part of allowing potential producers to get a sense of the show prior to seeing it live is a developed script, a piano score, vocal charts and a demo CD. Producing a quality CD can take time. Just last week, all of the bed tracks for the demo CD were recorded at Studio '92 in Toronto with head technician Norm Barker at the control panel.
The show is comprised of 16 songs, and some of them have as many as 16 different instrumental tracks.
A good demo CD clearly demonstrates the potential of the music to grow into full orchestrations. Due to time and budget constraints, all of the arrangements were done in a Korg Workstation keyboard which uses recorded samples of live instruments and reproduces their sound through an 88 key keyboard.
Scott spent 6 weeks shopping through the thousands of instrumental banks to create a sound for the demo that matched the tone of the show. Then each track was hand played in to the sequencer in the keyboard. When the tracks are layered over top of one another and mixed in studio it sounds like a full group of musicians playing. It is our secret that in truth, it was all a one man band! Instrumentation includes string sections, piano, xylophones, harps, flute lines, french horns, trumpets and a wide range of percussion instruments.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, vocalists will go in and layer all of the vocal tracks over top of the bed tracks. We look forward to sharing small samples of that work on the website in the near future. but more about that in the next newsletter.
Next week
Next week watch for updates as we launch the first segment of The Giant's Garden website. There will be a section on the first three days of auditions in Orangeville held to find our child leads in the show, and also some further information about the show.
Is there something YOU would like to know about the show? Send us an email by pressing the “contact us” button on this website and your questions will be answered personally.
Ticket sales are going well, so if you plan to attend (particularly on weekends) call sooner than later. It is a terrific opportunity to be the very first to see a new musical in its first production. Tell all your friends. Forward this email on and encourage them to join this behind the scenes newsletter, and remember, if you are attending and want to visit with us after the show, drop us a note, and we will come into the lobby and say hello!
BE A PART OF OUR GIANT ADVENTURE!!!!
Want more information?
If you have questions, feel free to contact us.
If you want to book tickets for the production contact Theatre Orangeville at
1-800-424-1295
If you want to make an afternoon or an evening out of your trip to Orangeville, take
advantage of the many fine restaurants, bed and breakfasts and hotels.
For more information try:
1-800-332-9744
Warmest Regards,
