Gonna TRY and get the Foofarah out today, but I’m fighting the clock, lack of ideas, and soul-crushing depression (Seriously, gang, it’s getting kinda dark over here…I need major reinvention or else!).  Still, the coffee is sorta helping,not to mention that there’s lots of STUFF going on these days!!  And ya know I like me some stuff.

– IN THEATRES THIS WEEK:

GLACE BAY MINERS’ MUSEUM at the National Arts Centre. The mining, bagpiping epic continues all week!

THE HOLLOW at Ottawa Little Theatre.  Get some (Agatha) Christie Love, courtesy of the OLT gang.

JULIUS CAESER at Centrepointe Studio, from Ottawa Shakespeare Company.  I don’t know if Shakespeare INTENDED the use of an X-Box, but…let’s just assume he did, okay?  Great fun, go see it!

DEATH OF DRACULA at the Gladstone Theatre, from Phoenix Players.  Hard to argue that this is well-timed for Halloween, eh?

YOU NEVER CAN TELL at Elmwood Theatre, from Linden House.  Lovely period fun, in the rich part of town.

IF WE WERE BIRDS at Academic Hall, from the Ottawa U Drama Guild.  I finally get invited to the Ottawa U shows, yay!   Man, it pays to pester Joel Beddows. Gonna be a good show, starts tuesday night and runs this week ONLY!

FLY ME TO THE MOON at Great Canadian Theatre Company.  Premiering on Thursday!  The Marie Jones\John P.Kelly 2-hander that’s NOT Stones in His Pockets.

AGNES OF GOD at GCTC Studio, from 9th Hour.   Starting the same night as MOON, making two all-female cast plays debuting on the same day, in the same building.  Yay Ottawa!

SOUS-SOL A LOUER at Theatre de L’Ile.  Roughly translated as UNDER FLOOR AT RENTING.  That’s pretty accurate, right?  Starts on Halloween!

KASPAR HAUSER at Old Town Hall (61 Main Street) from Anthropos Theatre.  One night only on the 2nd of November, with storyteller Glen Williamson.

Lots going on, yay!  And I didn’t even mention SERIES DANCE #10 – ROAD TRIP from the Ottawa Dance directive, from the 1st to 3rd at Arts Court.  Which I would love to check out.  By the way, here’s how much I love me some theatre…I missed these guys last week to see a play.  THAT is dedication:

REPEATS:  Never did make mention in these pages that I hit up the Gladstone Theatre a few weeks back, to catch a second viewing (on closing night, in fact) of Danny MacIvor’s HOW IT WORKS.  It was an amazing show, from director Stewart Matthews and the spectacular troupe of Michelle leBlanc, Genevieve Sirois, Hannah Kaya and David Whitely.  They’d lost a few performances shortly after I saw it on opening night due to an illness, and I was all too happy to see it return.  I really did love that show, and it did me some good to catch it again.  Remember, you kids, it’s cool to see the same show twice…it means you’re FUCKING HARDCORE when it comes to your theatre, dig?  Also, we need moree MacIvor on stage in this town.  Next time a company starts up, instead of a Shakespeare company, can we just get a MacIvor company instead?  I think that would rock.  You do too.

RETURNS:  Here’s something else I haven’t mentioned yet in the blog, and shame on me for my sloppiness in that regard…THIRD WALL is back!  Yeah, you know Richardson’s gang wasn’t going to stay down and out for long, and now they’re officially back in action, with a shiny new website to go along with it.  They’ve already been hard at work, continuing their Empty Space reading series (next one is Charles Dickens on December 5th), and come February they roar back into mainstage life with Yasmina Reza’s GOD OF CARNAGE at the Irving Greenberg, strring the pretty much incredible lineup of John Koensgen, Mary Ellis, Kristina Watt AND Todd Duckworth.  Bam!

And speaking of John Koensgen (and why not?), his NEW THEATRE OF OTTAWA is back as well, announcing the return of THE EXTREMELY SHORT PLAY FESTIVAL coming next April.  The first one was a big hit, and they’re already looking for new shortie submissions to fill up round two.  This time I’m entering, this time I’m entering, THIS TIME I’M ENTERING!  Always good to hear about new stuff coming up from cool companies…hey EVOLUTION THEATRE, how about you?  I need me some more evolution, you know I do!  I’m starting to devolve over here.  Help me out!  But in the meantime, it’s almost Halloween, so…Halloween song!

IMPROV: So I ended up going to that Ken Godmere Improv workshop a few weeks back, preceeding the last BOUT TIME from Crush Improv.  It was great fun, and much needed, and I think I definitely need to do more along these lines.  Which is why I’ll be doing my darnedest to make it to the NEXT workshop, this coming Monday the 5th and led by the renowned Kirsten Rasmussen!  I’ve heard great things about this lady, and I’m gonna try and get there early because I suspect she’ll pack the joint.  And be sure to stick around at thee Elmdale for the show, featuring seemingly unbeatable returning champs TWO AND A HALF WOMEN taking on GRIMPROV!  Gonna be sweet, yo.

Right, that’s all for me…I need to buy me some dumplings and comfort Pho before the evenings drudgery.  Still, I get the day off tomorrow , so PLEASE HANG OUT WITH ME!  I even have an extra ticket to IF WE WERE BIRDS tomorrow night, so, y’know, be cool and come on along.  Why wouldn’t you wanna be cool? Doesn’t hardly make no sense.  Peace, love and soul, everyone,

The Visitor (and Winston)