Oct 18/08: A Nocturne-al Café

Theatre in a diner, then a coffee shop, now a bar... how do you follow that up? On a bus, of course!

A bus? Yes, folks, it can be done! We had the great pleasure of participating in Halifax's first Nocturne festival (http://www.nocturnehalifax.ca/). Nocturne: Art at Night was planned to showcase and celebrate the arts scene in this city. There was an awesome program guide with maps highlighting all sorts of galleries, exhibitions and special performances. And there was a free bus from 6 pm to midnight that took people along a route dotted with the galleries and exhibitions. The people on the bus - besides going up and down - were also entertained by a roster of performers that changed hourly.

Which is where we came in. Danielle, the coordinator for the bus performers, contacted Garry about performing and then Garry passed along the invitation for the DaPoPoli to jump on board.

As it turned out, Garry did a loop himself (Nocturne Bus 2, Trip 4) digging into his purple bag of wonderfulness for - among many things - finger puppets to do sonnets, his Canadian maple leaf politician tie to deliver Steve Cloutier's satirical anti-arts speech, his pipe to do an existential monologue from "Biography: A Game" as Hannes. He had an involved audience who asked questions and responded so well to the performances. He says it was incredibly joyful to do.

Sher and Kim teamed up for still a different time slot (Nocturne Bus 1, Trip 4) and entertained both themselves and their ever-changing ridership with a massive cross-section of typical Café fare, passing out cards with Café dates and talking up DaPoPo to boot. There was a wonderful reading of a one-act play staged in the seats amidst the passengers. The play had the "audience" in stitches and even kept some people on the bus past their stop. We also had the opportunity to dig out some children's items... Creepy Crawly Caterpillar and James and the Giant Peach, when we two young art lovers joined us. Kim's waitresses made their appearances and at the request "...do something from My Fair Lady!" there was an impromptu, unrehearsed rendition of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" - with choreography! Lamb puppets whispering in people's ears. Dinosaurs separated by the chasm of an aisle snorting and singing "I Get Along Without You Very Well" Brutus and Cassius soliloquizing and being interrupted by a bit of an argument at one of the stops. Clutching at seat backs and overhead poles to avoid being tossed to the ground during an exuberant excerpt from Good Night Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet. Good times!

Eric was on still another trip. He got on one of the last buses with merely a music stand and Shakespeare's sonnets. He read them in sequence with the encouragement of the four final riders and got all the way up into the 60's before the bus returned to the origin at the Saint Mary's University Art Gallery.

Ah... merrily we rolled along, and in such different ways. I wish I had pictures, but I was too busy enjoying the moments to take out the camera. It should always be like that!

If you missed Nocturne this year, fear not. They were already talking about next year's festival at the after-party that same night! So keep an ear to the ground and as always, read the arts and entertainment listings in the papers, wherever you can online and stay tuned to the radio. And pass the word along...

September 25/08 Café

If you're visiting for the first time and you want a good sampler introduction of the Café experience, check out our video in the July 30, 2008 post: A Café Appetizer. Otherwise, read on...

I don't like blogging for Cafés I didn't attend. But I will give it a go because we are now almost at the next Café and... well, there is a hole in our blog wall!

The late September Café ended up being an all-girl cast with Bonnie Archibald-Awalt (hostess and poetry goddess) Joanna Caplan (café debut)Keelin Jack (DaPoPo/café veteran)Amy Reitsma (DaPoPo/café veteran)Ariel Sinclair-Chin (operatic diva - in a good way)Gina Thornhill (patron-turned-performer) Annie Valentina (café veteran)Lynette Whalstrom (ivory-tinkler).

This particular cast faced several of the challenges which have been dogging the Café recently: how to adapt the usual intimate performances to the larger bar space in Menz; how to get adequate rehearsal time together considering everyone's busy schedules; sourcing ideas, approaches and material to make it fresh and interesting for everyone; dealing with a high rate of cast turnover from month-to-month; and handling a growing ennui and burn-out.

Nonetheless, the performers showed up. Alas, our audience did not. With the exception of a large posse of Joanna's friends who dropped in and out through the evening to see her performing in a new way, our Café patrons just didn't come. Another challenge. When you do something on a monthly basis, it seems the tendency is for people to let the dates go by in anticipation of catching it some other time.

Well, folks, that time is now. We have had a serious rethink of the Café - has it run its course, can we continue to innovate and keep both performers and patrons enthusiastic, excited and eager? Or is it time to close the show, move on to something else?

Happily, we are regrouping and the October Café is just a week away, with a veteran cast a recapturing of oldies but goodies from the original menu, plus and lots of new items and a new energy. We just need our patrons. It is going to be fun!

September 6/08: Go North! Festival Café Buffet

As part of the Go North! Festival celebrating the North End and the amazing community of artists and small businesses there, DaPoPo put on an all-day Café buffet at The Good Food Emporium.

We seemed to work in bursts. A few tables scattered throughout the day but then larger groups arriving with the organized festival tours and only staying for about 10 minutes. This was a challenge to get orders and fill them for the quick turnaround, but we hit our stride soon enough.

One particular tour was greeted with the beautiful chorus of "Sunday" from our production of "Sunday in the Park with George" Then a rapid fire sonnet, a monologue from "Apocalypse 2006" and a scene from our adaptation of "RUR" and they were out the door to the next stop on the tour.

Lynette was on hand with amazing accompaniament and Ariel sang even when no one was there. Keelin answered a special song request from a patron who had been at one of the very first Cafés in the original Mollyz.

Eric, as Harry, demonstrated the perfect artificial skin of the robot Sulla, played by Kristi. Mike had a go at the keyboard for a few singalong popular songs. Meg dropped by on her way to the last performance of her show "Honey & Jupiter" but we couldn't entice her to perform. Bonnie organized us all and jumped into the fray when the big groups came.

A lovely conversation with some people who stayed for a bit... they wanted to know more about the company, if we ever did the Cafe for special events... oh! My kingdom for a business card! And yes, we certainly could and probably would.