Arts & Culture

Audition material for Plays, Shows and Musical Theatre at the Toronto Reference Library, 5th Floor

We have audition material for upcoming plays and shows that you can use at the Arts Department of Toronto Reference Library (the list is updated regularly).

 

New Auditions:

• Is He Dead? (Amicus Productions). Auditions June 16, 17, 18. Callbacks the following week. Posted May 1, 2013. Script available at desk
• Mousetrap (Lower Ossington Theatre).  Auditions We are currently looking for understudies to be cast immediately for the following roles:  Christopher Wren & Mr. Paravicini.  Posted May 9, 2013 (Script available at desk).
•  Scotland Road (Amicus Productions). Auditions June 16, 17, 18. Callbacks the following week. Posted May 1, 2013. Script available at desk.
• A Month in the Country (Amicus Productions). Auditions June 16, 17, 18. Callbacks the following week. Posted May 1, 2013.
• Dial 'M' for Murder (Bygone Theatre). Auditions May 24 & 25. Callbacks May 26. Posted May 14, 2013
• The Last Resort (Globe Theatre, Regina). Auditions in Toronto May 19 & 20. Posted May 15, 2013
• Man of La Mancha (Globe Theatre, Regina). Auditions in Toronto May 19 & 20. Posted May 15, 2013
• Spamalot (Scarborough Music Theatre). Auditions June 9, 10, 11. Posted May 17, 2013
• Looking (Scarborough Players) Auditions June 18, 19. Callbacks June 23. Posted May 22, 2013
• The Underpants (Alumnae Theatre) Auditions June 12 & 13. Callbacks June 15. Posted May 24, 2013

 

        
                                                        
                                                           
 

         

Know of an upcoming audition?  Tell us in person, phone us (416-393-7157), or email us at trlarts@torontopubliclibrary.ca. Want to leave your script here so you can refer actors to us?  We do that too.                

 

Toronto Reference Library has an extensive collection of monologues for all your audition needs! Come to the Arts Department on the 5th floor to sample some...

Monologues for Women

Monologues for Men

Canadian Monologues

Multicultural and LGBT gay/lesbian monologues

 

Audition items are for use in the library only and on first come first served basis.  There are sometimes copies at other branches that you can borrow or reserve.  We do have photocopying - but you'll need a copy card or blue library card - remember to add money at the Main 1st floor information desk. We're on the 5th floor - Arts Department desk - Toronto Reference Library -  thank you and knock'm dead.

Why pay $37 Million for a Gerhard Richter painting when you can see them at Toronto Public Library for free?

Gerhard Richter's painting of Milan's Piazza del Duomo (Cathedral Square) just sold for $37.1m on Tuesday, setting a new world auction record for a living artist.  

Visitors take in Gerhard Richter's Domplatz, Mainland during a Sotheby's preview. The large-scale 1968 oil painting set a new auction record when it sold for $37.1 million US. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images).

 

At almost 3 metres by 3 metres, Domplatz, Mailand from 1968 is one of the German artist's biggest works. It has the characteristic smudged slightly out of focus look of his early works - reminding one of a somewhat fuzzy black-and-white photograph.  To those who know his work it's very recognizable as his style.

 

Gerhard Richter's 1968 painting Domplatz, Mailand, considered an outstanding example of the artist's 1960s photo-painting technique. Photo: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

 

The previous record was set in October of 2012 when another large abstract Gerhard Richter painting sold for $34 million (US funds) at a Sotheby's auction in London (it was owned by Eric Clapton!).

My Grandmother used to say of abstract art  "Coco (her pet monkey) could do better" .... but that's just her opinion (in all fairness though Coco was very creative). 

 

 

Clapton is an astute collector as he only paid $3.4 million for it in 2001.

           

 

Richter has surpassed Lucian Freud, who had held the record for the highest price paid for a work of art by a living artist, with the 2008 auction of "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping" which sold for $33.6 million. 

 

But why pay $37 or $34 million when you can come to Toronto Public Library and see his art for free -- well to be completely accurate - books on his art.

   

 

 

 

Gerhard Richter - images of an era:

This volume presents and describes 50 of the artist's works with essays by leading Richter experts. It also includes personal testimonials in previously unpublished letters as well as a conversation between Gerhard Richter and Richter expert Uwe Schneede. This book provides new insight into the complexity of Richter's imagery in which banality and evil confront one another: the dreams and aspirations of the times, fast cars and new travel possibilities; personal memories; the oppressive past; contemporary politics; and both trivial and meaningful everyday objects. The cycle 18 Oktober 1977 (1988), which deals with the death of members of the Red Army Faction ('Baader-Meinhof gang') plays an important role in our understanding of the evocative power of these pictures from the 1960s. Richter's intense preoccupation with this event concludes this group of paintings from photographs. This cycle, which was loaned to the Bucerius Kunst forum in Hamburg by the New York Museum of Modern Art, has led to a new interpretation and positioning of Richter's work.

 

You may also be interested in this DVD on Gerhard Richter.

 

You may also be interested in this interview with Gerhard Richter:

 

 

 

Drama "Played in Britain", available to read at the Reference Library.

Here is a book available at the Toronto Reference Library, that discusses 100 important, wonderful plays that have been performed on various British stages, between 1945 and 2010.

"And yet, plays, all plays," writes Richard Griffiths in the foreword, "like butterflies, moths and summer morning mists, are classical examples of the ephemeral...(and) exist only to be listened to in living performance." 

Maybe.  We have most, if not all of these plays on our shelves in the Arts Department.  Why not come down and read some of them for yourself?

 

                 

        

                

 

And of course, we can't forget the longest running play of them all!

 

Act 1 of the Mousetrap, so you can listen too!

 

 

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala 1927 to 2013

I was saddened to read that Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, the twice Academy Award-winning
screenwriter, died on April 3.  Ruth Prawer Jhabvala wrote the screenplay for my
favourite film, A Room with a View, based on the novel by E.M. Forster.  The film
is about Lucy Honeychurch, a young Englishwoman, who in the early 1900s finds love
while on holiday in Italy.  In 1987, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala won an Oscar for
A Room with a View for best adapted screenplay.

 

A Room with a View has such an extraordinary cast: Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy;
Maggie Smith as Charlotte Bartlett, Lucy's chaperone; Daniel Day Lewis as Cecil, Lucy's
fiancé; Judi Dench as Eleanor Lavish,  a romance novelist; the incomparable late
Denholm Elliott as Mr. Emerson; and Julian Sands as his son, George, and Lucy's new
love interest in Florence. 

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was an established author before she began her screenwriting
career with producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory.  She received The
Booker Prize for her 1975 novel, Heat and Dust, which tells the story of a married
Englishwoman in 1920s colonial India who falls in love with an Indian prince.
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala also wrote the screenplay of the novel for Ismail Merchant
and James Ivory.

        

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala received her second Oscar in 1993 for Howards End, which
examined Edwardian class consciousness.  Other films which Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
adapted include Mr. and Mrs. Bridge and The Remains of the Day, amongst many others.

              

Truly a citizen of the world, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's background, as well as her writing
talent, made her ideally suited to look at society from the outside in.  Born in 1927 in
Cologne, Germany to Jewish parents, in 1939 she fled with her family to London where
they lived through the Blitz.  Ruth studied English literature at the University of London,
and in 1951 she married Cyrus Jhabvala, an Indian architect.  She moved to Delhi
where she stayed for the next twenty-five years, raising her three daughters and
writing novels.  When she moved to New York in the 1970s, Ruth's life came full
circle when she met people with whom she had gone to school in Cologne, when
she was a child.

 

Toy Piano Composers and junctQin Keyboard Collective: New Music 101 at the Library

 

Join us for "New Music 101 series" at the Beeton Auditorium, Toronto Reference Library with The Toy Piano Composers and The junctQin Keyboard Collective!

 

Our final and free program from this year's contemporary classical music series is on Monday, May 6, 2013 at 7pm.

Our series host and  music critic John Terauds will be with us to guide us through the experience. He writes about classical music and opera at his blog musicaltoronto.org and is a freelance classical music critic for the Toronto Star.

Meet the Toy Piano Composers Collective, www.thetoypianocomposers.com:

 

The Toy Piano Composers [pictured above] is a collective of emerging composers based in Toronto, Canada, who present imaginative new music to curious listeners in a playful and engaging concert series. They will discuss their approach to concert music and performances will feature members of the recently established Toy Piano Composers Ensemble. 

* * * * *

This event is part of the 3rd annual New Music 101 series of educational sessions, combining performance and discussion, featuring an impressive array of new music organizations and performing groups, presented by the Toronto Reference Library and the Toronto New Music Alliance. This is a unique opportunity to experience new music. You will meet some of the most celebrated artists in Toronto, and discover the next generation of musicians and composers who are active in the city.

For a full 2013 program brochure, click here - Download New Music 101 library series brochure 2013.

* * * * *

 

Meet the junctQin Keyboard Collective, http://junctqin.com:

The final presentation will include members of junctQín Keyboard Collective who will present "Inside the Composer's Studio", a musical chat with emerging local composers Alex Eddington, Monica Pearce and Hiroki Tsurumoto.

Toronto-based junctQín (pronounced ‘junction’) consists of pianists Elaine Lau, Joseph Ferretti, and Stephanie Chua. The name of the collective is taken from junctio – the Latin word meaning to join, and from Qín – the Chinese character for keyboard instrument.  Elaine and Joseph began duo piano performances in 2003; Stephanie and Elaine met the same year as graduate students.  The three discovered a mutual love of contemporary music for all kinds of keyboards, so when the trio united for a gig in the spring of 2009, junctQín was born. (Source: http://junctqin.com)

 

You may also be interested in contributing to: 

Cellphonia - presented by New Adventures in Sound Art as part of New Music 101: Toronto SONicGeo - a mobile interactive installation by Steve Bull and Scot Gresham-Lancaster. Continues to May 31, 2013, 24/7. Call 647-694-4607 to add your voice/sounds to the mix! Cellphonia's constantly transforming sound collage will be accessible at www.naisa.ca/ and www.cellphonia.org/Toronto.

 

* * * * *

In 2013 our New Music 101 series at the Library presented eight diverse music groups during four nights, highlighting new directions in music creation and performance: chamber and electronic music, sound art, video game composition, interdisciplinary projects and more.

Our special guests were: Arraymusic and Eve Egoyan, The Music Gallery and New Adventures in Sound Art, The Canadian Electronic Ensemble and New Music Concerts, and coming next: Toy Piano Composers and junctQin Keyboard Collective.

We hope to have informed and inspired you through new perspectives on contemporary classical music and the amazingly rich and creative music scene in our city of Toronto! And would like to thank the Toronto New Music Alliance for introducing such talented musicians to a broader audience.

You can read  more Arts & Culture blog posts about New Music 101 series editions 2011, 2012 and 2013.

 * * * * *

If you are interested in learning more about new music and all music - please visit us on the 5th floor of the Toronto Reference Library at the Arts Department. Some of our resources are:

• Books and journals on all aspects of music
• 45,000 music scores (classical, popular, musical theatre) - many can be borrowed
• Over 20,000 LPs and 21,000 CDs for in-library listening
• Clipping files on Canadian performers and organizations
• Collection of Toronto area concert programs
• Free online access to streaming classical music from Naxos Music Library -thousands of recordings (library card required)
• Arts & Culture blog at torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/arts_culture
• Arts reference desk: 416-393-7157 or trlarts@torontopubliclibrary.ca

 

At the Reference Library you can also read the Musicworks Magazine (3 times per year) - Canada's new music magazine dedicated to experimental music, www.musicworks.ca.

 

If you haven't used Naxos Music Library yet - the Library's streaming music database - why not give it a try. It is  great way to enjoy thousands of recordings at the convenience of your home, by a mobile device (there is a Naxos app that can be easily downloaded) or at any computer with Internet that allows you to login with your valid Toronto Public Library card.

 

And attention jazz lovers! Naxos Jazz is here! We have just added one more Naxos edition to the long list of online resources that the Library is subscribing for its users - listen to a comprehensive collection of jazz legends and contemporary jazz. Includes labels such as Blue Note, EMI, Warner Jazz and Fantasy Jazz. 

CONTACT 2013: May is Photography Month in Toronto

 

The 17th annual CONTACT Photography Festival is bigger than ever, with an overwhelming range of workshops, symposia, films, installations, events and book signings, and of course, photography exhibits.

This year's theme, 'Field of Vision', takes us in many fascinating directions, both photographically and geographically.

 

There are primary exhibitions at MOCCA (The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art), the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ryerson Image Centre and other locations. Smaller venues are all over the city, notably in the Junction, the west end neighbourhood which boasts the highest concentration of shows in the city. That's good news for me, it's close to my house!

In the 'Open Exhibitions', over 1500 artists can be seen at over 124 venues. So much to see, so little time! I realized that I needed to plan my viewing.

I looked through this year's CONTACT catalogue and started to choose some exhibits to visit.  Many of the photographers' names were unfamiliar, but there were also some of my favourites. I've always admired the work of the late Arnaud Maggs, the winner of the 2012 Scotiabank Photography Award.

According to the Globe and Mail, I'm not the only one needing some guidance for navigating the Festival. Here's an article which helps narrow things down.

To help me decide what to see, I also thought I'd look at some of the photography books we have here at the library. Here are a few beautiful books about the photographers in this year's show.  

 

         

 

          

Don't forget that you can check out Museum and Arts Passes (MAP) with your library card, for free admission to the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum. If you're interested in creating your own images, the Digital Design Studio at the Toronto Reference Library can help.

So start planning your CONTACT 2013 experience! Visit their website online, or pick up  this year's CONTACT catalogue or come to the Arts Department on the 5th floor of the Toronto Reference Library to browse through our copy. Enjoy the show!

 

Prom : the Corsage Project at the Toronto Reference Library

Prom - the word can either fill you with joy and excitement or angst and depression.   Years afterwards you can sometimes make fun of yourself and your fashion sense like Ellen DeGeneres. 

 

But for those who can't afford to buy an outfit this can be a sad and isolating experience.

The Corsage Project helps young women break through the financial barriers by providing new free formal attire and accessories that have been donated by sponsors or the public to enure they have the opportunity to celebrate with their peers.

 

The Boutique Ball is being held for the third year in the Appel Salon in the Toronto Reference Library on Sunday April 21 where hundreds of students, already identified through confidential referrals, will be outfitted for prom free of charge.  

 

 

And, as any well dressed prom going young woman will tell you, prom is not just about the dresses but it's also about the shoes.  And what would shoes and dress be without matching purse and jewellery? All of these are available.

 

The Corsage Project is a local community based organization run by a committee of volunteers and associated with Children's Aid Foundation.  It helps young women attend their prom with a new dress, accessories and mini makeover - all free of charge.

 

If you are interested in the sociology of Prom - then you may like some of these books:

 

                    

 

And if you're old like me, and can't remember the angst of Prom, then you may want to read some of these prom novels.

         


 

Ray Bradbury Theater celebrating 2013 One Book "Fahrenheit 451"

When I was young, a long time ago, all science fiction books were skinny. They were 60s/70s reprints, fewer than 200 pages and with funky covers. They could write then. They were full of aliens, dead civilizations, space travel, war, sometimes magic and sorcery. Just as often though, they were packed with avant-garde intellectually stimulating ideas far too adult for a 10 year old to fully grasp.

I remember reading Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man - the cover is below - and even now when I see it at a book store I get shivers.  One short story in it is the "The Veldt", a very scary thought-provoking psychological "The Turn of the Screw" thriller. Funnily enough, it's technological premise is more relevant now than ever. 

There's been a great blog post already written about Bradbury's other books: Beyond Fahrenheit 451: 5 Other Ray Bradbury Books You Should Read. And in case you thought I was the only one affected by him you might also enjoy  Beyond Literature: Ray Bradbury's Influence on Popular Culture.

 

 

 

Many are drawn to Ray Bradbury including Stephen Colbert and Canadian musican Deadmau5 who has a video based on "The Veldt".

  

 

So, after reading Ray Bradbury in the 1970s, including the Martian Chronicles (a much more realistic view of Mars than say Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter and Barsoom), imagine my pleasure as an adult at finding Ray Bradbury Theater on television in the mid 1980s. 

Here was Bradbury himself introducing his own work. They began with Bradbury entering a office library and his voice over "People ask - where do you get your ideas - well right here":

 

 

Toronto Public Library still has 12 videos of this series that you can borrow!  What I did not know was the TV series was Canadian produced - see the IMDb for further details. There were 65 episodes in total featuring a variety of well known actors including Drew Barrymore. 

Fahrenheit 451 is the 2013 One Book community read - part of the wider Keep Toronto Reading program offered by Toronto Public Library.  Join us in April as we discuss Fahrenheit 451 on Book Buzz: Toronto Public Library's Online Bookclub. 

 

If you're interested in hearing/seeing Ray Bradbury - enjoy this clip below:

 

 

 

"New Music 101" Contemporary Classical Music Arts Series 2013

New to New Music?  Curious about contemporary classical?  Join us for “New Music 101” a four part series that opens new perspectives on the world of contemporary classical music. Discussion and live performance combine to both inform and inspire.

Members of the Toronto New Music Alliance present the third annual New Music 101 series - four interactive presentations that highlight new directions in music creation and performance: chamber and electronic music, sound art, video game composition, interdisciplinary projects and more.

This is a unique opportunity to experience "new music". You will meet some of the most celebrated artists in Toronto, and discover the next generation of musicians and composers. 

They will be hosted by John Terauds. He writes about classical music and opera at musicaltoronto.org and is freelance classical music critic for the Toronto Star

All four programs are free (no tickets required) and will take place in the main floor Beeton Auditorium, Toronto Reference Library.

 

• Program 1: Arraymusic & Eve Egoyan 
• Mon Apr 08, 2013 7:00 - 8:00 p.m.

 

Arraymusic under Artistic Director Rick Sacks will discuss the interaction between music and poetry as four musicians and two poets (Jill Battson, Paul Dutton) elaborate on their collaboration.

The second part of the presentation will feature pianist Eve Egoyan who will discuss her artistic process, collaborations, and curatorial programming, and also perform excerpts from recent and upcoming projects. Watch her peform from Paris 2011 on Youtube at the end of this blog post.

 

 

The other concerts are listed below - feel free to come to one or more:

•  Program 2: The Music Gallery and New Adventures in Sound Art 
•  Mon Apr 15, 2013 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

The Music Gallery, Toronto's centre for creative music, invites journalist Joshua Ostroff and musician Alaska B (Yamantaka/Sonic Titan) to explore the ways that video game designers are creating new approaches to music composition. http://www.musicgallery.org/

The second half of the evening is presented by New Adventures in Sound Art and will include an improvisation by three performers which translates geographical data into sound art.

 

•  Program 3: Canadian Electronic Ensemble and New Music Concerts
•  Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

The Canadian Electronic Ensemble, celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2013, will discuss the difference between studio and live performances, and the collective composition process that they employ. http://www.canadianelectronicensemble.com/

The session concludes with New Music Concerts, the original lynchpin of new music events in Toronto, presenting cellist David Hetherington [pictured left] who will perform and discuss solo works by Gilles Tremblay and Luciano Berio. http://www.newmusicconcerts.com/

 

•  Program 4: Toy Piano Composers and junctQin Keyboard Collective 
•  Mon May 06, 2013 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m

The Toy Piano Composers a collective of Toronto-based emerging composers, will discuss their playful, imaginative approach to concert music - performances will feature members of the recently established Toy Piano Composers Ensemble. http://www.thetoypianocomposers.com

The final presentation will include members of junctQín Keyboard Collective who will present "Inside the Composer's Studio", a musical chat with emerging local composers Alex Eddington, Monica Pearce and Hiroki Tsurumoto.http://junctqin.com/

 

You may also be interested in contributing to:

* Cellphonia - April 8 to May 31, time: 24/7
New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) presents the interactive installation Cellphonia by Steve Bull and Scot Gresham-Lancaster. Add your voice by calling 647-694-4607 to contribute to Cellphonia's constantly transforming sound collage, which will be accessible on http://www.naisa.ca/.

 

 

 

Toronto Reference Library : Arts Department - Music

• Books and journals on all aspects of music
• 45,000 music scores (classical, popular, musical theatre) - many can be borrowed
• Over 20,000 LPs and 21,000 CDs for in-library listening
• Clipping files on Canadian performers and organizations
• Collection of Toronto area concert programs
• Free online access to streaming classical music from Naxos Music Library -thousands of recordings (library card required)
  
• Arts & Culture blog at torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/arts_culture/

• Arts reference desk: 416-393-7157

Roger Ebert Dies : the final cut

Roger Ebert just died.  Famous for his "two thumbs up" reviews he will be missed. 

Ebert was highly active in social media.  He had a lively presence on Twitter with over 840,000 followers (Toronto Public Library has 16,000 followers).  His last tweet linked to his blog and poignant last essay "A Leave of Presence". There he spoke at length about his future plans and in particular about his online footprint, especially his own revamped website.

 

 

 

 

source : http://www.monstersandcritics.com/