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Shaw Festival Directors ProjectGuide to Applicants for Shaw Festival Directors Project 2010The application deadline for the 2010 Shaw Festival Directors Project is June 29, 2009. Since its inception in 1988, the Directors Projects has been sponsored annually by Sun Life Financial and Theatre Ontario.
Each year, the Shaw Festival hires two Intern Directors for a period of about six months. They look for promising professional directors near the beginning of their careers. Applicants should have a fair bit of professional experience, but probably not in a company as large as the Shaw Festival. The contracts run approximately from mid-March to late August, depending on the production schedule for the particular season. These positions are salaried at an apprentice level, which at The Shaw is around $600 per week. The Intern Directors work under the mentorship of the Directors of the Academy, which is the Shaw Festival's professional development and public education wing. Each intern is assigned to two or three successive shows as an Assistant Director. One of these shows is usually in the Festival Theatre (860 seats) and another in a smaller one (330 seats). For the most part, being an Assistant Director involves observing the senior directors at work in rehearsal, doing research as required, acting as a sounding board as required. (Getting them coffee is not required.) The Interns also assist the company in educating audiences about theatre in general and the Shaw's productions and programmes in particular. The Intern positions usually have free time built into some portions of the season, so that Interns are free to take Academy classes and pursue other theatrical projects that interest them provided they are present for all assigned activities. The "Directors Project" is the culmination of the Intern Directors' season, and has become a very important event to the Shaw company as a whole. It consists of a double-bill of two one-acts directed by the two Intern Directors. In consultation with Eda Holmes, the company’s Associate Director, each Intern chooses a play from the period of the Shaw Festival's mandate (1856-1950). These plays are given three performances to invited audiences (artistic directors, sponsors, company members, family and assorted friends of the Festival) in a studio setting. While production resources are limited as to costumes, sets, props, lighting and sound, there are normally apprentice designers, stage managers and other personnel assigned to the project. All casting is done in consultation with Eda Holmes, and Intern Directors may choose from the actors of the Shaw Ensemble, who participate on a voluntary basis. (The project is in excess of actors' contracted workload.) Each one-act has between 50 and 60 hours of rehearsal over 5-6 weeks, scheduled by our Production Stage Manager. Applications for the Intern Director positions are made through Theatre Ontario, with an end of June deadline to begin residency the following March. There is no application form – just submit a resume with a covering letter, explaining why you would like to be an Intern Director at the Shaw Festival. Please do not send supporting material that you wish to have returned. Applicants must be Canadian citizens. Hiring decisions are made exclusively by the Shaw Festival. If you have questions about the application process, please contact Tim Chapman, Professional Theatre Coordinator at Theatre Ontario, 416.408.4556 or email tim@theatreontario.org Submit applications by mail to: NO SUBMISSIONS via FAX or email will be accepted. Past Intern Directors in the Shaw Festival Directors Project are: Paulina Abarca, Conrad Alexandrowicz, Kathryn Allison, Liza Balkan, Richard Beaune, Geoffrey Brumlik, Mark Cassidy, Kelly Daniels, Katrina Dunn, Hans Engel, David Ferry, Andrew Freund, Dennis Garnhum, Todd Hammond, Sally Han, Ann Hodges, Eda Holmes, Heather Inglis, Lise Anne Johnson, Heather Jones-Barker, Paul Lampert, Michel Lefebvre, Nikki Lundmark, Kate Lynch, James MacDonald, Ruth Madoc-Jones, Randy Maertz, Jon Michaelson, Jean Morpurgo, David Oiye, Ian Prinsloo, Gyllian Raby, Karen Rickers, Paul Rivers, Lindsey Robinson, David Savoy, Sandhano Schultze, Laurel Smith, Glenda Stirling, Colin Taylor, Susan Turnbull, Lezlie Wade, Craig Walker, Lee Wilson, and Richard Wolfe. Shaw Festival Directors Project 2009Congratulations to A. Corcoron and Jack Patterson, who were chosen as the two Intern Directors for the 2009 season at the Shaw Festival. Shaw Festival Directors Day 2008by Tim Chapman, Professional Theatre Coordinator Another wonderful Directors Day at the Shaw Festival was held on August 22. The day culminates the 2008 Directors Project with one-act performances directed by this year’s intern directors, Geoffrey Brumlik and Laurel Smith. It is one of our favourite days of the year, and so there was a larger group attending this year from Theatre Ontario: John Goddard and his better half Susan, Brandon Moore, Bill Meaden from our Board of Directors, and myself. There was also a large contingent attending from Sun Life Financial, the corporate sponsor of the Directors Project, led by their long-time Director of Philanthropy, Linda MacKenzie. We were treated to another day of great theatre and great hospitality by The Shaw. Geoffrey Brumlik from Edmonton directed The Man in the Stalls by Alfred Sutro. Alfred who? Sutro (1863-1933) was a British author and dramatist whose fame came as the chief translator of Maeterlinck, the Belgian playwright and poet. Sutro’s plays became extremely popular in their time. The Man in the Stalls was first produced in 1911 at the Palace Theatre in London’s West End. It’s an engaging comedy about a theatre critic’s marriage. Early on in the plot, we learn that the wife is enjoying a torrid affair in the evenings her husband is off seeing theatre. A cast of four adroitly manoeuvres through the ensuing twists in Brumlik’s fine production. The second one-act show, Shaw’s Overruled, directed by Laurel Smith of Toronto, perfectly complements this year’s Directors Day presentations with another four-hander; a farce about the marital hijinks of two couples both holidaying in a seaside hotel. Laurel Smith and the cast have fun with the physical comedy and keep the pace swirling with the to-and-fro of each character’s ever changing predicaments. The similarity in subject matter of the two playlets was conveniently coincidental. The intern directors chose the plays themselves within the boundaries of Shaw’s mandate, the guidance of Shaw’s former Associate Director, Neil Munro and their ability to cast, on a voluntary basis, from the Shaw acting company. They do not have to consult with each other at all. It was also noteworthy that apparently this was the first time an intern director chose a play by Shaw himself. After the performances, The Shaw treated the entire invited audience to a lovely buffet lunch. It was great to see a lot of friends and peers from Ontario’s theatre community, including many past “graduates” from the Directors Project. The theatre was filled to the brim this year. There was time for a local winery visit before we headed off to a barbecue at Jackie Maxwell’s for Laurel and Geoffrey and the crews involved in the Project. Then we were off to an evening show. Brandon and I saw the remount Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Belle Moral. I missed it two years ago although I am old enough that I remember seeing an earlier incarnation of the play—then entitled The Arab’s Mouth—at Factory Theatre in 1990! Another great Directors Day at The Shaw—not even highway construction on the way home could dampen our contentment. |
