Electra & the Tempest in Toronto

Check out www.canopytheatre.ca! Aug 2 has pay-what-you-can performance. Tempest is of course Shakespeare, and Electra is Sophocles (story includes Hecuba and Cassandra, also seen in the Trojan Women!)

Box Office Help Tonight

We're short one or two people to work the box office for Trojan Women tonight.

If anyone can help out, give Jared a call. He can be reached at the school at extension 24646 until 4:25 PM, or by email at jared_lenover at hotmail dot com.

Big Huge Festival Party

Good Morning Everyone!

I would first like to congratulate everyone in the festival for an amazing job. All the shows are fantastic and we should all be very proud of these accomplishments.

But now, here comes the information that all of you are waiting to hear ... the Big Huge Festival Party announcement.

The party will be held on Sunday, July 31st at 9pm. Location ... 17 Roanoke Rd. Directions are available by clicking here.

The party will be hosted by the Shrew Crew's own Josh Freedman. If you see him, give him a big huge hug.

See you all there

Bryan

ed.jl29.jl

Important Notice: Trojan Women on Saturday

Another promotional flyer glitch was found - this one saying that Trojan Women is supposed to start at 4:00 PM on Saturday instead of 3:00 PM.

As a result, Trojan Women will start at 4:00 PM on Saturday.

Trojan Women
will begin at
4:00 PM
on Saturday.

Review in the View

We got reviewed! And it's a good one!

Click here!

This is a Dress rehearsal

Hey all,
Just letting you know that we are having our final dress rehearsal tomorrow at the Theatre and I am inviting a few people to come out. We need a small audience so if a few people from the other casts want to come out and help us and see a fun show we would ove it. See you all later and Break legs this week!!
Erin Dunnigan
Stage Manager
This Is A Play

p.s. it starts at 4:30

We're front page again on mcmaster.ca...

We're on the front page with a one-paragraph blurb... yay!

HTI Opening Tonight!

Tonight, My Father's House opens in our first ever off-campus show!

Break a leg, folks!

Tanya's B-day!!

A message from Tanya:

Hellooooooo Summer Drama Festival casts and crew members:

For those of you that might not know me very well, I'm one of the Trojan Women. In fact, we have a show at 7pm tonight. You should come watch me cry.

FURTHERMORE!

You should join all of us afterwards, as we travel to Hess, to bar hop and celebrate my birthday! That's right, today is my 21st birthday! If you'd like to join us, (and I KNOW you all like partying,) come to the show to find out where we're heading first. ;) Which, of course, means we're deciding immediately after the show...I mean, wait...

One last thing: bring anyone you'd like! The more the merrier! :)

*Tanya Sitko

The Burning of Troy

A message from Laura...

Dear SDF,

As you may have heard, during Sunday’s evening performance of ‘The Trojan Women’, there was a fire alarm in CNH. The actors handled it like pros, carrying on with the performance without even flinching. Alexa’s mother caught a photo of the Trojan Women exiting the building as the fire fighters clearly made eyes.

Mrs. Holbrook has entitled it "The Firemen are called to the burning of Troy"

http://www.weblogimages.com/v.p?uid=xenologue&pid=359975&sid=rCG89hyBU5

I thought the photo was far too hilarious not to share. Shout outs to the Trojan Women, who not only handled the surprise like professional actors by maintaining iron focus, but who also waited out the alarm to perform the show right from the beginning. I’ve been hearing raves about your dedication already.

Here’s hoping for less eventful, yet no less fantastic, shows.

-Laura, SM extraordinaire

Here's a brief email from one of our Alumni guests -- Dr. Stephen Johnson, who worked with the summer drama festival in the 90's.. he would like to thank and complement all:

Thanks very much for inviting me to the Drama Festival Reunion. I appreciated being there, meeting some good people I hadn't seen in many years, and also seeing a very fine production in one of the greatest venues I've ever worked in.

I enjoyed talking with you. My compliments to everyone involved, and have a successful and enjoyable festival!

Stephen

Break a Leg (x2!)

Hi everyone, hope you all have a great time during this festival run.

Here are some photos from the last week of rehearsals outdoors and build.

http://pacss.ca/rob/sdf/slides.ppt

Break A Leg Everybody!

It's festival time! Here we go!

Congratulations to everyone for all the hard work they've done on the different shows and from the administration and production side.

Have a great 10 days everyone!

Important Notice: Taming of the Shrew Sunday

The early promotional flyers that were sent out accidently said that Taming was supposed to go on at 4:00 PM on Sunday instead of 3:00 PM.

As a result, to prevent patrons from inadvertently arriving halfway through the show, Taming of the Shrew will start at 4:00 PM on Sunday.

Taming of the Shrew
will start at
4:00 PM
on Sunday, July 24

The schedule is otherwise unchanged. Signs will be posted to inform audience members who arrive early.

Added 12:10

The website has been updated to reflect this change.

New Rain Location For Outdoor Shows

The rain location for the outdoor shows has been changed to CNH 104.

If you see Dianne in Conference Services, tell her thanks. She booked us in on really short notice after we found out TSH 118 might not work as well for our purposes.

Website Stats

The festival website has seen an increase in traffic over the last few days.

Hope everyone's getting excited!

Added 4:13

As of 4:10 PM there has been over 100 visits to the festival website today.

Added July 21

The total hit 143 by the end of the day - about double our next highest day this month.

McMaster Daily News Coverage

As Rob predicted, we are being featured on the Daily News part of the McMaster website.

Flyers tonight at 6:30!

Hi everyone,

There will also be a flyer run tonight at 6:30 -- meet at the MUSC Fireplace!

Rob

An Audition Opportunity

A message from Jaclyn:

Hi Everyone,

I am writing to let you all know about two plays I am directing soon. The auditions really crept up on me, so it is a little short notice. Nonetheless, they haven't happened yet.

The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard
Theatre Brantford

Where: Charlotte Villas in Brantford, ON.

When: Sunday July 24th from 12pm to 3pm & Thursday July 28th from 7pm to 10pm

We will have audition pieces there.

The play's rehearsals will begin in August. The play performs in Brantford the first and second weekend in October.

The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie
Dundas Little Theatre

Where: Dundas Little Theatre in Dundas, ON

When: Sunday July 24th starting at 7:30pm & Tuesday July 26th starting at 7:30pm.

We will have audition pieces there.

The play's rehearsals will begin first week in September. The play performs the last weekend in October and the first weekend in November.

For more details on either of these plays (addresses, exact dates) please feel free to email me.

Sincerely,
Jaclyn Scobie

CH "Straight Talk" Show on Sylvia Fraser this weekend..

Great promotional news: Sylvia Fraser is being featured on a live interview show "Straight Talk" on Saturday at 6:30 pm on CHtv. Of course, this means that "My Father's House" will be mentioned and the SDF.. in fact, they will be filming some scenes this week to air on Saturday.

Flyer help badly needed!

Hi folks

Kasia will be headed downtown to do flyers, first meeting at the MUSC fireplace at 9:15 AM. It is important that if you are available that you lend a hand. We have many to give out and have had zero volunteers for several days now. This is the main form of advertising, and in order to get people going to the festival outside of immediate friends and family, methods like this are much needed.

If you are available to do this at another time on your own or with a friend, please let us know and we will get you the appropriate flyers!

And we thought Shakespeare was challenging OUR way...

I found this on the CBC Arts site.

U.K. company tries accents of Shakespeare's time

Maybe next time... :)

Shrew Crew: Call Times Changed

The call times for the tech rehearsals this week have been pushed back to 5:30 PM.

Hopefully this will give everybody a little more time to get to the school, especially if you're working during the day.

The call time for the shows will be 1.5 hours before curtain. (5:30 PM for a 7:00 PM show.)

We're on mcmaster.ca.. and soon to be on Daily News!

Check out mac's homepage -- it has us, front page!

Daily News will have an article up about us soon, too!

Volunteers Needed!!

Tomorrow evening we will be delivering flyers door-to-door in the downtown area (around HTI).
If you can help, please meet in the MUSC by the fireplace at 5:45pm and we will head downtown.
Remember to bring bus fare/a bike to get downtown.

We are also looking for some volunteers to sit at a table in the MUSC on Wednesday.
We need people for 11:30am-1:30pm and 5pm-7pm.

If you can help at all, let me know!

Thanks,
Kasia
niewiakk[at]mcmaster[dot]ca

You guys are troupers...

Thanks to everybody who stuck around on the weekend to help with stage building. You guys were great!

Despite having to take cover every so often because of the rain we got quite a bit done on Saturday. Then on Sunday we were trapped in the alcove in front of the Faculty Club for ages, but then the weather broke and you guys worked like crazy.

Very cool. Good luck to all the volunteers out at the build today.

Car Wash - Postponed

The SDF Car Wash Fundraiser will not go on this Sunday morning, because we do not have enough volunteers.

If people can help out, perhaps it could go on this Tuesday .. it could run from 12-5 or 6pm.

Let me know if you'd be able to help.

-Kasia

OWS - Tonight

Come on out to the final script reading of the Hamilton Original Work Series tonight(Friday).
7pm @ QQ's Tea Shop, $5 cover, 1/2 price for SDF members.
See you there, bring your friends!

Extension Cords!

We're still looking for more extension cords for the build this weekend!

If you have a three prong extension cord we could borrow, please bring it to the hollow tonight between 7:00 and 9:00 or tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM.

We are also looking for a socket set, a manual screw driver set, and extra drills and levels. We don't want to be held back for lack of equipment if possible.

If you might have something that could help, please drop it by the hollow at the above times.

Thank you!

Shrew Crew: Tech Week Schedule

This is a brief rundown of the plan for the shrews during tech week:

Monday
6:00 - 10:30 PM (starting outside Commons B108)
All costumes must be brought to this rehearsal and left at the school. Our costume organizing and parade will start at 6:00. We will have the stage for a run of the play (in costume) starting shortly after 8:00.

Tuesday
5:30 - 9:30 PM
A full run of the play on the festival stage in costume with some focus on technical elements.

Wednesday
5:30 - 9:30 PM
A full run of the play in our rain venue, TSH 118.

Thursday
5:30-9:30 PM
Final dress rehearsal of the entire production on the festival stage.

Friday
5:30 PM Call (Commons B108)
Opening night.

Hope you guys are excited! See ya soon!

ed.jl19,jl

Reunion / Gala Event Registration

Hi all

The registration is done through alumni services -- alumni@mcmaster.ca, or there is a toll free number -- for more info, see the postcard that was sent to alumni here: http://www.mcmaster.ca/ua/alumni/reunions/SDFpostcard.pdf

Stage Building - July 16/17

Come one, Come all!!!

The second annual SDF stage constructing extravaganza begins 9am July 16th (Satruday) and runs until the sun goes down. We start up again Sunday morning at 9am and continues until we run out of light.

Open to one and all, bring friends! Please also remember to bring sunscreen, hats and other fun outdoor wear as well as closed-toe shoes and plenty of water.

If you have tools that would like to get in on the action - bring them! The more the merrier!

I hope to see you all there!
Tori

Urgent: Ad Sales

This is to anyone who has (potentially) sold ad space.

I have heard talk of possible ad sales, but few people have given concrete confirmation.
We would like to have all ads in by THIS Friday July 15th.
Ads can be emailed to the SDF address (mcmaster_sdf[at]yahoo[dot]ca), or I can pick them up from you/your SM.
Any cheques can be made out to: McMaster Summer Drama Festival.

Please Please get back to me ASAP and pass this information onto those who are interested in purchasing space.

We still need to sell about $700 more worth of ads, so we need your help!

-Kasia
niewiakk[at]mcmaster[dot]ca

Flyers Thursday and Important Notice about Reunion/Opening Night

Hi all

Anyone available and willing to help with door-to-door flyering, please meet at MUSC Fireplace 10:30am Thursday morning. We got about half of Westdale done today!

Important!

If you are planning to attend our opening gala/alumni reunion at Faculty Club, please register for the event. It will be $5 for the event (cocktails provided) as long as you mention when registering that you are a student or are part of this year's festival. (Alumni pay $10, in order to also get a ticket to Taming of the Shrew that night, but as an SDF 2005 member, the show is free.) It is a casual social event.. no dressing up required (well, wear clothes at least).

Also feel free to join us at the Phoenix afterwards for an unofficial gathering after the show!

Well.. might be good news.. two more weeks of heat!

According to CBC, two more weeks of the heatwave.. this hopefully means less rain during the festival!

ed.jl13.jl

Need actors

Tanya Sitko is seeking some male readers for the original works reading this coming Friday, and is having a readthrough tonight at 6PM in MUSC 220. Please emai her at soniccentric[at]hotmail[dot]com if you can help!!

Money money money

Ladies and gentlemen, it's crunch time, at least money wise. Next week, I'm going to be pretty much unreachable since the Royal Abingdon Faire opens that weekend and I won't be able to get at my lovely lovely spreadsheets. So get your money stuff done NOW.

If you need to buy anything for the festival, LET ME KNOW NOW. I've only had two plays and two admins ask for money. Therefore, it seems like only two plays and two admins will be getting money.

Remember, my goal in life is to NOT give you lovely people money. If you don't ask for the money before you spend, I'm not going to be nice and say "oh, have $300 anyway." My greatest desire is to do the entire festival for free. Don't give me an excuse to not give me money. Ask for it.

If you need to get in contact with me, I'm on campus every day from about 9-4(CNH B119) and I regularly check my e-mail (rosa.draconum@gmail.com, which is also my MSN).

-Chris

Westdale Flyer Distribution - This Wednesday

Anyone and everyone,

come out distribute Westdale invitation flyers this Wednesday.
We will be meeting at the fireplace in the MUSC at 10am (this is what I have heard from Steve... so I am assuming it's still at this time!).
Come out, even if it is for just a little while, we have lots of houses to cover, and the more the merrier :D

-Kasia

Shrew Crew: Costumes

Message from Steph:

Hey all!

I have finished a brief outline of what is expected of your costumes: click here. If you have any questions please feel free to email Jared or I (syantsis [at] hotmail [dot] com) or talk to us at rehearsal.

Please start looking for and finding your costume while keeping in mind the colour scheme: Minolas, Tranio, Lucentio, Hortensio, Gremio all duller colours, i.e. beiges, greys and very dull pastels. Chorus has bright flowing colours, while servants have pieces of black clothing, i.e. vests and Biondello a darkly coloured dress.

Also if you find other pieces you think would work for your costume please bring them to rehearsal any time this week.

We would like to have all costumes ready so that we can do a "fashion show" by next Monday at the latest.

Thanks to everyone for their hard work!

-----------------------------------------------------------

P.S. from Jared:

If you're having problems finding something for your costume, please let us know as soon as possible so we can give you a hand. We also don't expect you to go out and buy anything expensive for your costume.

Westdale Flyer Distribution -- 1 PM today (Monday)

To all with free time at 1 PM today: Please help us distribute Westdale invitation flyers! Even if you only have a half-hour free, that would be awesome! We have several routes to cover over the week, and need all the help we can get.

We'll meet at the fireplace in MUSC, and go from there doing the closest neighbourhoods to Mac.

Blatant Misuse of Blog: Centre for Dance Swing Lessons begin

Ignore freely...


Kris (from Trojan Women) and me (Rob) are teaching swing dance lessons at the Centre for Dance starting tonight.. $25 for the entire set of lessons for students (until the end of August). No experience necessary, no partner required... they are held at the Dance Studio in Ivor Wynne, 6 PM Mondays.

That is all :)

Shrew - Set Pieces Inquiry

Good Evening Everybody

The reason for this post on the blog is a request for you...the blog reading public.

I have tracked down almost all the needed props and set pieces, but am still missing 4 wooden kitchen-style chairs.

If anyone can spare a chair or two, your assistence would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Bryan
Stage Manager for "Taming of the Shrew"

Stratford Trip Postponed

Not enough people responded to the Stratford invitation, so we're going to postpone the trip.

We'll try after the festival to see if more people are interested.

Banner Making

Hello All,

If anyone out there has some spare time this Saturday July 9th around 1pm, head over to Julie Ella's house to help make an SDF banner that will hang in the MUSC off the second floor.

Address: 29 Thorndale road NORTH. It's the 2nd street over Coots from campus (red Door).

Material's will already be there, so just bring your creative selves :)

-Kasia

Emergency First Aid Course opportunity

For those interested, there are several spots remaining in the Emergency First Aid Course arrange for July 9th (this Saturday). It runs from 9am to 6pm.

The first person to fill out and return the Adult Registration form from here has the opportunity to attend the course for only $20. The cost is otherwise $55.

Please e-mail me if you are interested, but only those who get me the paperwork before 3:00pm Friday have the chance at the rock-bottom pricing!

~That is All~
Tori

SDF Table in MUSC -Today

Come by and visit us in the Student Centre today. We will be there from about 12-7pm.

-Kasia

Stratford Trip - As You Like It

This message is for everyone involved with the festival.

We're seeing if there is enough interest to run a trip to Stratford this Thursday, July 14.

We'd be leaving the school at 5:30 PM in order to get to the theatre in time to see the 8:00 PM performance of As You Like It. It would cost each person about $30 including the ticket and transportation.

The trick to this is that - to get the best deal on tickets - we have to buy student tickets, 2 at a time, on different people's credit cards. That just means that we have to have volunteers get together one afternoon to order tickets for themselves and one other person on their credit card.

If you're interested in going, send an email to Jenn and Jared at jared_lenover@hotmail.com with the following info:

1. Your name.
2. Your phone number.
3. Your email address.
   
4. Do you have a credit card and are you willing to help buy tickets on Saturday, July 9 in the early afternoon?

Please get back to us before Friday at 4:30 PM and we'll update you after that.

Hope to hear from you soon. It's supposed to be a great show!

Online Ticket Reservation Form

Please pass this message on to your family and friends.

You can reserve festival passes and tickets for individual performances online:
www.summerdramafestival.com/ticketreservations.html

No credit card is required.

Shrew Crew: Schedule For Next Week (July 10 - July 15)

Hey shrews. Here's the deal for next week.

Starting on Sunday, we'll be practising full runs of the show. All practices will be in the hollow unless it's pouring rain. In that case, meet in the student centre.

Everyone is expected at each rehearsal. This includes chorus members.

Sunday, June 10
1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Monday, June 11
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Tuesday, June 12
chorus - 5:30 PM - 10:00 PM (we'll give you a break at some point)
everyone - 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Wednesday, June 13
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Thursday, June 14
chorus - 5:30 PM - 10:00 PM (we'll give you a break at some point)
everyone - 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Friday, June 15
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Saturday, June 16 & Sunday, June 17
Stage building days.
Please clear these days if at all possible to help with construction.

Please try to make all rehearsals, but if you absolutely won't be able to attend, please email Bryan at shrewcrew2005@hotmail.com so that we won't worry about you or start calling your house.

Hope you're getting excited! You guys are doing really well and we're getting really close to showtime!

Reminder: Please do your best to clear your schedule for tech week (July 18 - 21). Our dress and technical rehearsals will be then and it will be very important for everyone to attend. Tori is working on a more specific schedule for the stage, but please try to clear all of the evenings.

And: Don't forget to double-check to make sure you have all the performance dates off! Call time will be 2 hours before showtime.

ed.jl7.jl

If ANYONE has a table we could borrow....

Hey all!!
Amit and I were just wondering if anyone at all has in their possestion a smallish kitchen sized table we could borrow for the duration of our show and asap. We have been looking everywhere and have come up with nothing so far. If anyone could help us out please we would be forever in your debt. Thanx a lot!!!
Erin Dunnigan
This Is A Play

Peace Festival seeks potential directors/collectives...

So, some of you might know that my actual paying-job is to co-ordinate *another* festival. Well, here is something about that festival you all might have interest in: theatre, of course! This year, the Gandhi Peace Festival is hoping to have some theatrical performances, and we need proposals for productions! Read on if interested:

---

This year's Gandhi Peace Festival & Mac Peace Week seeks to include events from multiple disciplines, including the arts. One goal this year is to include theatre as part of the programme.

We are seeking ambitious students and community members to submit proposals for the inclusion of theatre within the festival.

The proposal can be a theatre production of full or short length, or be in an alternative format. Plays proposed should include themes related the the Gandhi Peace Festival or Mac Peace Week, for example, potential subjects that could be included:

-conflict resolution/transformation
-nonviolence
-Gandhi, or another 'champion of peace' (need not be famous)
-social (in)justice
-effects of war/armed conflict/militarization
-human rights/wrongs
-other social issues

Proposals may be submitted by a single director/facilitator or an entire collective. Please be prepared to provide a copy of any script(s) to be used. Works in progress or collective works will be considered, but must be accompanied by a draft plan and schedule of milestones, assuming a pre-production period of 7 weeks and a detailed outline of the ultimate goals of the piece such as, length, cast size, and any other important goals.

Please also consider where your piece should ideally be performed. No theatre venues have been booked as of yet. Special consideration may be given to pieces that are:

-able to be adjusted for non-theatre venues, such as outdoors, in a lecture hall, etc
-low budget (no guarantee of funding, so fund raising & sponsorship should be considered)
-include subjects that may be of particular interest or relevance in Hamilton or at McMaster University

Proposals are due on July 22, and may be submitted by email to gandhi.peace.festival@gmail.com, or dropped off at the drop-box at Togo Salmon Hall Room 726 at the McMaster Campus.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Robert Porter, Coordinator of the Gandhi Peace Festival 2005 at gandhi.peace.festival@gmail.com or (905) 920-3148.

Poster Posers Wanted!

Hmm.. maybe "models" is a better term, eh?

Anyhow, the lovely Lyanne from the ACT office is seeking some willing student candidates to pose for a poster for promotion of Carpooling!

If interested, email act[at]mcmaster[dot]ca!

Rob

Question of the Day....

How are ad sales going?

I hope people are going out and trying to bring in some ad sales :) I have not heard much from people and really hope I do soon.

If you have a business in mind and have not approached them yet, now is the time to do so, because we want them to have sufficient time to reply.
Letters are available from myself and your SMs.

FYI - I spent yesterday afternoon visiting most of the shops in Westdale and dropping off letters, so in case you were thinking of approaching them, its already been done.

Happy Ad Selling :)

-Kasia

ed.jl5.jl

Shrew Crew: Chorus Rehearsals This Week

Sorry for the delay getting this information out to you guys. Here is the shrew crew chorus schedule for this week:

Tuesday
5:30 - 7:00 PM

Thursday
5:30 - 7:00 PM

Saturday
Noon to 4 PM (note change)

All rehearsals will start at the rock garden beside faculty hollow. If it's raining, please meet at the fireplace in the student centre.

ed.jl7.jl

Face Actors Wanted

I was contacted last week by Geoff Hall, an Assistant Professor from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience here at McMaster. For an upcoming study, he is looking to generate a battery of face images, pictures of faces that depict specific emotions.

As such, I am asking if there are people interested in trying out to be a 'face actor' for these pictures. If you are interested, please e-mail me.

~That is all~
T!

Kareoke tonight!

Just a quickie reminder that y'all are invited to kareoke at Snooty Fox, in Westdale tonight.. festival folks should be arriving between 9 and 10!

Rob

OWS - Need some audio equipment

Hey hey again wonderful festival people!

For OWS, we still need some equipment to borrow: a powered mixer OR amp & board, and we need a couple extra microphones.

If you have a lead on any of this eqipment, email Jeff at jsantab5[at]xplornet[dot]com!

Shrew: Rehearsal Schedule Change

Hello to Everyone in the Shrew crew.

This is just a heads up about 2 changes that have occured with the schedule posted below.

Monday 7-830 = IV,ii
Wednesday 7-830 = II,i (Tranio excused)

Thanks for your time

Bryan

Looking for actors for Original Works Series (script reading)

Hi folks

We need some actors for the Original Works Series. Please email me if you are interested, there are three dates of readings: July 8, 10, and 15 (Fri, Sun, Fri). You will be reading from scripts, and likely be microphoned.

Please let me know if you are interested in helping, and which dates you are available. Each show would likely entail one rehearsal readthrough. Email me at porterrg[at]mcmaster[dot]ca.

SDF Table in MUSC - Rescheduled

I have rescheduled the date for having the SDF table in the MUSC.
The new date will be Thursday July 7th.
In order to catch the lunch and evening class crowds we will need people to help out in 1-2 hour blocks from 12-7pm .
All people will be required to do is promote the festival :) Something I'm sure everyone does anyway.

If you can help out, please tell me!

Thanks,

Kasia

niewiakk[at]mcmaster[dot]ca