When I heard that Oprah was coming to Ottawa, I just knew I had to get a ticket. Like people who still buy tickets to the Rollings Stones playing live, for me, Oprah is more about nostalgia and a deep respect for what she has accomplished in her life more than any kind of present-day fandom.
She kicked off The Oprah Show in 1986, the same year I started high school. Despite it being a daytime show, I managed to see many episodes during my five years of high school (remember, there used to be a grade 13?). I’m not sure how though because I never, ever skipped class (*cough*cough*).
Oprah circa 1987
And just as I knew I needed to get my hands on a ticket, I knew that my bestie Jacqueline would need to come with me. (She never skipped class either. Pinkie swear.)
The floor level seats were selling at up to $500 a piece! Jacqueline and I, however, revved up the mini-van and headed out to the show with our $150 tickets.
I’m really sorry about there not being a post yesterday The reason why is that I was going to an NAC concert with my best friend! So I had to postpone the blog post to see it, because who wants to hear about my predictions! You want the actual event!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (excessive use of exclamation marks!)
So yesterday afternoon I set out with my friend and her family to go to the NAC to see Green Eggs And Hamadeus.
The traffic was really bad so we spent a large period of time in massive traffic jams. We entertained our selves by looking at the spa bill boards (‘ What on earth are they doing to her!’) , reading How To Train Your Dragon books (‘ Hey, Hiccup and us are in the same boat: in the book Alvin the Treacherous gets the dragon jewel and a large line of evil buses cuts us of’) and listening to Rumor (‘As the song starts the younger siblings break out in a chorus of ‘ooooohhhhh’s from the back seat’) until we finally reached the NAC parking garage, leaving the mobs of canal skaters behind.
We finally found a good parking spot and ran to the foyer. We were very late so we didn’t have any time for Tunetown.(Boo Hoo Hoo). So we hurried to the concert hall and took our seats.
The lights died down and the conductor and the concert master came out. The show started with music by Mozart (which was cool because I could recognize most of it). Then the green eggs and ham part came. There were two actors and they sung everything they said. It was pretty funny because they were very emotional about the ham. Eventually the grown- up tried the ham and decided that it was the best thing she had ever tasted. I think that this is the best concert I have ever seen and I would definitely recommend it to any one from ages 4-12.
Well thank you for taking the time to read this article. Have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(excessive use of exclamation marks!)
*Stella is my 10-year-old daughter and on Saturdays, I let her rent this space from me because she thinks blogs are cool. It is her hope that her writing will appeal to kids her age as well as to the adults who read here too. (For the intro to Saturdays with Stella, click here.)
On several occasions, I’ve overheard Stella say this to someone who’s asked her about me being away on a trip:
When mom is away, my dad gets bored and watches Lord of the Rings or Star Wars movies at night. I don’t like it! The music is so loud that I can hear it in my bedroom — and it can be really scary and eerie!
Not only do I find it sweet that she thinks he’s bored without me (even though I don’t actually believe that for a minute!), but I love imagining him indulging in his favourite sci-fi films. So when I heard that Canada’s NAC Orchestra was going to accompany the film the Lord of the Rings, I knew I had to get us tickets!
Luck had an even better plan and the NAC hosted a “Blogger Night” for us last night. So what’s a “Blogger Night,” you ask? A small group of bloggers are invited by the NAC to come to the opening night with a date, as well as receive a few other thoughtful perks, such as a welcome greeting to the show by Gerald Morris, a communications officer with the NAC. I couldn’t hear anything he was saying over the noise of the crowd, since for some reason we were gathered at the edge of the stairwell, so I decided to snap some photos of him. He’s an interesting-looking guy, and later, Hubby and I bumped into him at intermission, and he’s an interesting guy to talk to as well.
Gerald Morris welcomes bloggers to the Lord of the Rings at the NAC — a first for Ottawa.
In addition to pretending I could actually hear a word Gerald was saying and taking photos of him, I also took a look around the lobby … Wow! It was a-buzzing! Lord of the Rings fans were here in droves — and wearing costumes! I thought that was so awesome! You know you’ve created a cool experience when people come in costume!
I asked two young women if I could take my photo with them. They are in full dress and you’ll note that the blonde has elfin ears poking out of her hair.
Moi and two Lord of the Rings fans
By the end of the night, I wanted some elfin ears for myself! Sure, I probably couldn’t pull them off as well as Liv Tyler, who plays Arwen, an Elf maiden, but whatever.
Despite Hubby’s affection for Tolkein’s work, I had never read the books or seen the films. I generally fall asleep during the inevitable sci-fi plot line of: Good guys have to fight the Bad guys –> a token female gets thrown in –> Good guys win.
But I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. It felt extremely luxurious to watch a film on a 60-foot screen with a full orchestra and choir. The stage, as Natasha Gauthier of The Ottawa Citizen, describes:
The Southam Hall stage was jam-packed with an army of musicians: a massive adult chorus; a children’s chorus; both a boy and a female soprano soloist; and the NACO, impressively augmented not just with extra string, brass, woodwind and percussion players, but also guitar, mandolin, accordion, hammered dulcimer, prepared piano, Japanese drums and a host of other exotic and unusual instruments.
I snapped a quick photo of the scene while patrons were still coming in to take their seats:
All in all, I have to say how impressed I was that the NAC Orchestra has brought something so appealing to young people to their stage. In fact, over all the years that Hubby and I have been attending NAC events, this is the youngest crowd we’ve ever seen (I’ve commented on the age of the crowds before)!
But this young crowd is different, with different preferences. The NAC has tapped into some of them by encouraging costumes, welcoming people to bring their smartphones for photo-ops in the lobby with a Lord of the Rings set, and sharing its own photos of fans on its facebook page. Now the question is: how to turn these young people into return customers?
Hubby and I agreed that these tactics listed above are indeed the way forward. In addition, we also chatted about the following in the car:
The women’s washrooms! Seriously, it’s utterly embarrassing how long the line is for these inadequate facilities. I know it will cost big money to renovate the washrooms, but this situation is costing the NAC money! Intermission is a prime time to earn some much-needed cash for an arts center via drink sales but we rarely use the bar because I have to spend the entire intermission waiting in a line-up for the ladies room and Hubby can’t be bothered to wait in line for the bar if he’s not going to be able to share a drink with a companion. Also, I never end up being able to buy a show souvenir because — yes, you guessed it — I spend the entire intermission in a line-up! If couples were able to spend some time chatting and sharing a drink during intermission, the experience overall would be more enjoyable and feel more like a “date night.”
I noticed a number of people had snuck cans of pop and bags of chips into the theatre. I was not impressed! But Hubby commented that maybe that’s what the NAC needs to do if it wants to encourage the younger generation to attend. And then I remembered all the shows I’d seen in NYC’s Broadway — they allow food and drink into the theatre. So maybe Hubby was on to something. Here is a photo of a plastic, no-spill cup from the last Broadway show I saw in New York. My red wine was poured into it and I could bring it back to my seat.
No-spill cup from Newsies, The Musical
Sell different food at intermission. The pastries and current selection are, well, old-fashioned.
Create unique keepsakes to purchase. I would imagine that souvenirs are a good money-maker for the arts, but last night’s offering looked like the same stuff I could buy at Chapters. I personally love to collect a mug from each Broadway show I see. Each mug tends to have an interesting quote from a character on it. I know from working in marketing myself that these mugs can be produced, even in very low quantities, for less than $5 and yet I still buy them for $12 to $15 from each show.
The back of my Billy Elliot mug.
Reduce the cost of parking? I’m not sure if this is do-able, but even if the NAC could offer a student rate for parking, that might help. Or perhaps a parking voucher for anyone who spends more than $50 on souvenirs?
Anyhow, I’ve gone way off track here … it’s just that I truly love the arts and want my hometown to have a very successful and lively arts scene!
So, back to the show: It was a really unique experience and I’d recommend it. I checked the online ticket site and there are still some seats left for tonight (Friday, July 6th) and tomorrow (Saturday, July 7th). If you’re a student between the ages of 13 and 29, be sure to take advantage of the NAC’s amazing Live Rush program, which lets a student buy two last-minute tickets to a show for only $12!
To give you an idea of what the experience is like, here is a clip of a similar performance by Radio City Music Hall in 2009:
P.S. In re-reading this, I see that I am rambly and hardly even talk about the performance itself. Gah! You’ll forgive a girl for having just-arrived-back-from-cottage-brain, right?
Edited on July 9th to add: To make up for not writing about the actual performance enough, here are reviews from other “Blogger Night” guests to give you a feel for the performance. Apparently, attendance was fantastic, so I’m hopeful that the NAC will bring it back again next year with the second film in the trilogy! Here is Sterling Lynch over at Ottawa Sneezers and Wayne C from The Many Faces of Wayne. Also, a BIG thank you to the reader who Stumbled this post — it doubled my blog’s traffic today!
At 6pm today, Canada’s National Arts Centre announced the line-up for English Theatre’s upcoming season. I was particularly curious to see what this year would hold because it’s Peter Hinton’s last season. Love’em or hate’em, one thing everyone can agree on is that Peter Hinton, as Director of the English Theatre program since 2005, really shook things up. Sure, I didn’t enjoy all of his choices, but he certainly made a mark and I love that he re-established a resident company of actors. I, for one, will miss him.
Peter Hinton, Director of NAC's English Theatre Program
I took a look at the line-up for the year ahead and there are a number of performances I’ve earmarked as must-squeeze-into-crazy-family-calendar-worthy. (Note: the descriptions below are directly pulled from the NAC news release.)
So these are my picks …
Pride and Prejudice (November 21 – December 8, 2012)
The romantic world of Regency England is brought to vivid life in this sparkling new adaptation of Jane Austen’s classical masterpiece about love, family, and the politics of marriage. When the independent minded Elizabeth Bennet meets the enigmatic Mr. Darcy, her opinions on marriage are profoundly tested. Can he overcome his pride and she her prejudice to make an ideal match in a society where social standing outweighs personal feeling? You’ll delight in watching the sparks fly. An enchanting theatre experience leading up to the holidays.
Innocence Lost: A Play About Steven Truscott (February 27 – March 16, 2013)
Clinton, Ontario, 1959. Fourteen-year-old Steven Truscott was sentenced to death for the murder of his 12-year-old classmate Lynne Harper. Maintaining his innocence throughout, his conviction was overturned in 2007. Now, Beverley Cooper re-examines the case, turning it into a theatrical experience with trial transcripts and interviews woven into the fabric of her drama. Ten people from the community are under pressure to arrive at the truth, including Steven’s friend Sarah, a young farm girl who could see his innocence. Many years later, as if in an epiphany, Sarah finally escapes the prison of her doubts and reclaims the innocence lost so long ago.
Big Mama! The Willie Mae Thornton Story (April 24 – May 11, 2013)
Jackie Richardson stars in Big Mama!
Source: NAC. Photo credit: Unknown.
Before Elvis sang “Hound Dog” and Janis Joplin belted out “Ball & Chain”, Willie Mae Thornton had already been there and done that. Her powerful voice, sexy songs, and larger-than-life stage presence made her a blues legend. In this musical, written for and starring Jackie Richardson – “Canada’s first lady of jazz” – you’ll be part of the scene at a ‘70s club in L.A., where Big Mama tells her story and sings the blues – which she once described as “nothing but life, good food, good times, and good sex.” Guaranteed to rock your soul.
The Edward Curtis Project (January 30 – February 20, 2012)
In 1930, photographer Edward Curtis’ landmark series, The North American Indian, recorded for posterity what he termed a “vanishing people”. Decades later, Métis/Dené playwright Marie Clements and Canadian documentary photographer Rita Leistner went in search of those same First Nations people and communities. Their three-year journey has become a visually stunning, thought-provoking drama. Present-day Aboriginal journalist Angelina – traumatized by chronicling the freezing death of three Native children – interacts with Curtis’ photo images and the controversial man himself, questioning the ethics of her work and assessing the collateral damage of being a witness.
The exquisite photographs created during the fieldwork of The Edward Curtis Project will be on display in the Lorraine Fritzi Yale Gallery, upper lobby of the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre.
Family Programming – Tulugak: Inuit Raven Stories (May 4, 2013)
The Raven dances, the Raven sings, the Raven always has something to say. From the time Inuit lived a nomadic life, the Raven has inhabited the imagination and cultures of Nunavut, Nunavik, and Greenland. Exploring Inuit stories from across the Eastern Arctic through dance, music, circus, theatre and storytelling, Tulugak: Inuit Raven Stories is a unique and insightful show for young and old alike. (For ages 6 +)
What do you think? Do any of these performances catch your fancy?
Disclosure: Although the NAC has purchased an ad space on this blog, I am not in any way required to write about the NAC in my content as part of our relationship. I am just a big fan of theatre and enjoy supporting our arts communities.
“Svengali: A person who manipulates or exerts excessive control over another.”
The origin of the word we know commonly know as “svengali” is actually from a novel published in 1894 by George Du Maurier. In it, a singer named Trilby is captured by an unsuccessful musician, Svengali. Svengali manages to live a life of luxury by keeping Trilby under hypnosis, performing concert performances and living as his slave.
- Make sure you’re available to attend the show on this day and time
- Leave a current email address when you comment so that I can reach you if you win
- For one entry: simply leave a comment below
- For one extra entry: tweet the following: “I entered to win tkts to @CanadasNAC with @coffeewithjulie. U can 2! http://bit.ly/uXIG2m #RWBSvengali”
Photo: Amanda Greeen, playing Trilby, in RWB’s Svengali.
Please note that I’ve read this ballet is not intended for children and contains “adult themes.” The draw will take place on Sunday, January 15th at 8 pm. Good luck!
p.s. If you’ve never been to a ballet and you’re not sure if you’d enjoy it, I found this article — “The Body’s Possibilities,” by Alicia Mosier — helped re-spark my own interest in this form of dance.
Edited to add on January 16th: AND THE WINNER IS! memyselfsarah – Congrats! I will email you with the details. Let us know how you enjoy the show!
Here’s where I chat about whatever is percolating in my brain on a given day … silly family anecdotes, travel tips, a new movie or book, or just life in general.
