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.

June 26 (DaPride x 2) and July 31, 2008

Wow.  Apologies our blog fell into such neglect.  Our main blog demon, Kim, is in Latvia; Eric (far more a technophile than I) was performing in the Toronto Fringe; and I have been involved in putting together a Mother Goose Show for Alderney Landing and directing "Le nozze di Figaro" for HSOW.

Farewell, Good Food Emporium!

We will miss this fine, quirky venue.  We look forward

to being back at the Emporium for an all-day Café on

Sat, Sept 6th for the GO North! festival.

DaPride Café

Back "home" at Mollyz Diner...or rather Menz Bar: remodelled with a traditional stage, a bar and a dance floor with tables set out cabaret-style...

...welcoming three guest performers from the Halifax Summer Opera Workshop -- Ariel Sinclair Chin, Meaghan Zantingh and William Lewans -- 

 -- as well as a drag act danced and lip-synched by our very own Schtev and drag king Oliver Hugh.

At the end of the busy evening, Eric and Amy performed a beautiful, heart-breaking DaBroadway duet for a few tables. We then reprised St. Sebastian'z Secretz, during which we read aloud or burned patrons' secretz, depending on which form of release they chose.

Queer Comedy Night

Amy, Keelin, Schtev, Chris, Eric and I regrouped on Sunday to perform a 20-minute guerilla version of the Café for Queer Comedy Night, hosted by April SHowers, during which we each prepared to perform our funniest sonnetz, 

monologuez, and songz.

Catered theatre events...how do you let people "order" a performance on the spot?  And how can you be sure they want a performance at all?  What kind of performance can you "give away" as snack food?

July Café

We welcomed Rhys Bevan-John as a guest who offered Physical Theatre Antipasta.

The rather small audience allowed us to try out some new material -- Kate & Petruchio as finger puppets in a large wooden frame; Stand-Up Comedy/Sit-Down Tragedy; and a chilling scene from Edward II left over from Pride.

As always, much rehearsed material was not ordered or performed. 

A slow night for DaPoPo, and a quiet, pleasant (if slightly anticlimactic) evening of performance after DaPride with only a few friends and regulars in the audience.

     -  GaRRy

Video: A Café Appetizer

May 29, 2008

Daring, popular, poetic, political, etc. indeed. This event by DaPoPo Theatre certainly completes the task of fulfilling all of the above and more! Freshly out of theatre school, I was lucky enough to be accepted into this group of eager and adventurous performers without question. An enthusiastic smile and a “this is Kristi, she’s cool” from one was enough to let me fly with the flock. Yeehaw!

I had been hearing about this event for sometime now and was continually intrigued by the concept and structure. A menu of performances? People can CHOOSE what they want to see? Brilliant! And that it was.

The apparently ‘quieter than normal’ café at the Good Food Emporium provided a very cosy and intimate environment for all involved. My evening began with an intro to the lay of the land, how to take orders and what to do when something actually was ordered. (Thanks to Bonnie… that gal knows how to run a show!) I was feeling warm, fuzzy with a slight hint of butterfly fluttering by here and there when it happened. A SONG WAS ORDERED AND I HAD TO SING IT. A large musical theatre character piece was requested by an intimate table of two. “Oh what do I do now?” the line from Gooch’s Song (fr. the musical Mame) came to me in an instant. I pondered this for all of two seconds and then walked out in character and sang. 

In that moment I discovered first hand what it is that makes this café so unique and special:

the unpredictable nature and inability to determine what will happen from one moment to the next. There are no barriers here between the performer and the audience. Everything is in the present; the audience is the scene partner. Once I opened up and allowed myself to explore and accept these given circumstances, new discoveries were made in old, tired pieces and much more fun was had.

Some highlights of the evening included a stunning sock puppet singing Cabaret, an emotional

 performance from Einstein’s Gift, comedic scenes from The Importance of Being Earnest (with

 and without cross-dressing), poetry in a dark but enchanting bathroom and the ensemble piece from Black Comedy where shenanigans were unleashed after a power outage. My personal favourite was singing German lieder with the aid of a fuzzy, quacking duck sock puppet and candlelight. *sigh* How romantic.

What I loved most about the café was that it brought together so many talented local performers and gave us the chance to explore, play and create together in new and exciting ways. Thanks to DaPoPo for creating this opportunity and thanks to all involved for sharing their many talents. This is an event one won’t want to miss. See you in June!

April 24, 2008

It was an encore performance for Café DaPoPo a la Bob and Lori's on Thursday evening, and what an evening it was. With many of our Café stalwarts tied up (gloriously) with Biography (great show, go see it), it was a brand new sort of Café experience. Steven Bourque, Andrea Dymond, Chris Ferrilll and myself (Keelin Jack) returned after hiatus of various lengths, teaming up with newcomers Andre Dumont, Meghan Hubley and Annie Valentina to create a pretty successful night of theatrical treats, if I do say so myself. 

Continuing the success of last month's rehearsal process, we focused on the scenes, and the rehearsal and feedback needed to present them effectively.

With no carry over of scenes between last month's and this month's Café, a lot of new material was learned, some was reviewed from months long gone, and some familiar material shown with a different cast. Although the list of material to be learned seemed daunting after the first meeting, almost all was accomplished. Many thanks to the brilliant and dedicated cast. 

Also many thanks to Ann Denny, Nathan Pilon and Garry Williams, who came to the Café as audience, but helped us out with Pretentious and Popular songs. 

The night started off at a pretty easy pace...delicious pizzas floating by from the kitchen, some intimate monologues, a only slightly skewed version of the Icarus/Daedalus scene from Apocalypse 2006... the only slight stress of an unexpected demand for Leonard Cohen songs (with puppet!) which I was luckily able to dig out of my bag and fake...with the help of Hubley, as singing, playing piano, turning pages and puppeting requires more hands than one person possesses. 

After that, I may not be the best person to comment on the overall feel of the Café, as I was running back to back scenes and monologues from this point onward. I can say, however, that everyone seemed lively, happy and entertained. There was a steady flow of orders, and a lot of new faces... great to see.  

Highlights include: the interruption of a highbrow Shaw scene by a random off the street looking for the bathroom (it was oddly appropriate... thanks to the ladies who ordered it, for their sense of humour); the Big Ensemble Scene, Everyman, and the audience members participating with their interesting interpretation of "penance"... a.k.a. what to do when you are handed a scourge; a new Happening "3 Monkeys" from returning Master of the Happening - Steven Bourque; delicious food provider and Bob and Loris proprietor Paul Rogers stepping in to provide us with a lovely rendition of "Ich grolle nicht"; and the ever in-the-wings Bonnie making her Café debut as an actor, complete with knitting and Southern accent, in a scene from Crimes of the Heart.

   ---  Keelin Jack

March 27, 2008 Café

And another new venue, Bob & Lori's Food Emporium, plays temporary host to the Café as the Mollyz re-opening date stretches us to edge-of-seat anticipation. Paul Rogers, one of the new Bob & Lori's co-owners hooked us up with this wonderfully cozy location. It was a relatively slow night comparatively, but such a delicate ambiance for patrons with soft yellow lighting diffused over intimate booths and an eclectic arrangement of chairs and tables.

Mike C. presided over the hot cider pot and the Bob & Lori's guys slung out sammies and yummies in the early evening. Our lusty legion of performers carried on valiantly, despite complications of illness running rampant through the cast. Steven Heisler joined us for the first time, jumping headlong into the fray with vigor and amazingly good spirit. Ann Doyle, awesomely, was back again for the second time along with a handful of old-timers and new-timers.

We had given more attention to rehearsal this month, with specific matching up of work with observers and a push on scenes. The new venue gave an extra incentive to pull performances into small spaces, a fun thing for DaBig Scene. This was a remounting of the L'il Caezr Teazr from last month, but with 7 cast members for the 10 roles. Ann Denny, the original Cassius, had to leave early, so when the order came in, Mike Chandler grabbed a script, tied a scarf around his waist, armed himself with a plastic sword and took on the role. This last-minute substitution in itself added to the hilarity of our honestly-acted but decidedly camped-up version of Act V. Unanticipated "mere flesh wounds," missing counterparts for dialogue, huge stage whispers and CPR on the dowel horse... you get the idea.

Highlights: Garry's voice student Najet came with a group of friends; chorale Auld Lang Syne caressing the hushed room; the comment "Now I want to see the play!" after a reading of a section of Biography; Nathan plays an intimate Bowie, amp and all for his folks; Ann Doyle dons the tin-foil cap THREE times; Sher in her hockey helmet and pink sunglasses as Young Cato... there are more.

February 28/08 Café

Then you've got to find a space to rehearse and present your productions,
Or the love is all you've got! What?"

Hours of rehearsals at Kim's house: songs in the dining room, sonnets in the kitchen, scenes in the living room and sax in the hallway. And a peeing puppy underneath. The last Ouro Preto Cafe in all probability: busy from really early on, lots of new faces, a new rhythym in simultaneous performance delivery and the best for last (!) L'il Caezr Teazr with a stellar example of "TROUBLE!" call-answer ensemble support.

More ruminations and photos below from Ann Noël (Garry's mum), who attended her first Café during a visit from Berlin...

This was a new, but temporary venue for the monthly „theatre à la carte“ event staged by this talented and innovative group of actors, vocalists and musicians. I was not at any of the previous evenings at Mollyz Diner, but friends told me that this modern-looking coffee shop is a larger and less intimate space. Nevertheless one was well aware of what was going on at the tables in the vicinity of one’s own and the pace at which orders were being filled was quite extraordinary. Once it a while I was curious enough to get up to go and see what was being served up to the customers in other parts of the room and to take photographs of the interaction between the actors and their audience. People seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.

Some of the things I observed were the following. A tired and dispirited waitress dressed in pink came and sat down at table next to mine to complain about her lot in life.

A guy in a black wig and dark glasses, strumming a guitar and accompanied by a saxophone player, did an Elvis impersonation.

A heartrending ballad was performed by a lanky youth wearing a scarlet sheath dress and a black leather necklace with spikes.

A quintet erected music stands and performed a classic Fluxus score by Emmett Williams, “A Four-Directional Song of Doubt”.

On my way back from visiting the washroom I saw a man hiding behind a tree, with a hand puppet emerging from the leaves, singing an operatic aria.

At one end of the counter a couple were carrying on a dialogue while manoeuvring a Playmobil princess and a prince across a tiny stage.

Another pair, accompanied by a keyboard sang a number from a musical by Stephen Sondheim.

A bearded bard softly recited Shakespeare’s 30th sonnet into my ear.

There were popular song solos, rants and raves, one-act plays, bedtime stories with cuddly toys and lots more to choose from on the menu. In another unforgettable scene involving cross-dressing, a hairy Katherine was wooed with considerable verve and ardour by a smooth-faced Petrucchio. I should have like to have seen and heard everything on the menu that night, but that is why one should attend Café DaPoPo evenings more than one time – it’s constantly changing. I have a bit farther to travel than some, but I’ll certainly try.

Ann Noël, Berlin, Germany