Our Adventure in Masked Theatre

Last fall, Théâtre Wakefield obtained a grant from Canadian Heritage to:

a) expose Wakefielders to a work by George Bernard Shaw, a nobel-prize winning playwright who is considered one of the most influential playwright in the Engish language, second only to Shakespeare. The Shaw Festival is a long way from Wakefield, and we wanted to make his works more accessible to anglophone and bilingual francophones alike.

b) give Wakefielders the opportunity to learn physical comedy skills and mask-making, which are part of a famous Italian theatre tradition called “commedia dell’arte”.

To this end, in the summer we offered mask-making and physical comedy workshops to children and adults, taught by master mask-maker Clelia Scala of Kingston, and University of Ottawa drama professor Attila Clemann, who was trained at the famous École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

All attendees of these workshops were offered roles in George Bernard Shaw’s Androcles and the Lion. A few were Théâtre Wakefield veterans such as co-founder Andrew Rooney, Jim Payette, Greg McKenzie and Stephanie Mullen-Kavanaugh, whom audiences may remember from our spring mainstage production of Your Play or Mine. More than half are new to theatre, and yet are managing to learn the sometimes challenging and complex art of taking on a larger-than-life character acting in a mask, which they had the opportunity to make themselves.

Simultaneously we offered workshops in backstage technical roles to enable us to widen our range of participants:

• costuming by Isabella Redgate of the Stratford Festival
• stage management by Valerie Bogan of the Ottawa Little Theatre
• lighting and sound opertion by Théâtre Wakefield veteran Claude Laroche

Many of the attendees of these workshops are using their new skills on Androcles and the Lion:

• Erik Ewing-Mayer is doing sound design
• Claude Bourgeon is assisting with lighting
• Andrea Rowe, Bianca Healy, and Susan Sinclair are creating costumes
• Jennifer Jackson is stage managing, with backup from Rob Brooks of Aylmer Community Theatre

Also working hard are a set-design, -building and-painting crew that are new to Théâtre Wakefield, including Trevor Comeau and Carole Mongeon of Aylmer Community Theatre, Walter Lyons, and Kevin Sullivan.

Androcles and the Lion opens in 3 short weeks, and we hope that you will join us to see the fruit borne by this newest artistic adventure of your local theatre company.