Arts & Culture

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

We have audition material you can use here for upcoming plays and shows.

New Auditions:

• February (Alumnae Theatre) Auditions May 23  --  posted  May 12, 2012
• Mambo Italiano (Alexander Singers and Players) Auditions May 23, 27, 28, June 3 -- posted May 16, 2012
• Murder on the Nile (Bloor West Village Players)  Auditions June 9 and 11  --  posted May 14, 2012
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Hart House Theatre) Auditions June 24-25 -- posted May 22, 2012
• Wrecked (Roseneath Theatre) -- posted May 1, 2012

 

                         

 

Know of an upcoming audition?  Tell us in person or email trlarts@torontopubliclibrary.ca. Want to leave your script here so you can refer actors to us?  We do that too.

Continuing auditions:

• Avenue Q (score) (Lower Ossington Theatre) Auditions May 3,5 -- posted May 2, 2012
• Buddy (score) (Lower Ossington Theatre) Auditions May 7  -- posted May 2, 2012
• The Drowning Girls (Alumnae Theatre -- Director Interviews)  Auditions May 5, 2012 -- posted March 31
• Joyful Noise (Theatre North West) Auditions May 14-15 -- posted April 23, 2012
• Privilege (Theatre North West) Auditions May 14-15  -- posted April 23, 2012
• That Summer (Theatre North West)  Audtions May 14-15 -- posted April 23, 2012
• A Woman of No Importance (Alumnae Theatre -- Director Interviews)  Deadline extended May 21, 2012 -- posted March 31, updated May 11
• Yankee Tavern (Grand Theatre) -- posted April 21

 We do not have:

• Henry and Alice: Into the Wild
• Sundance (Fringe)
• Unspoken (Unspoken theatre)

 

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.

New Music 101: Experience contemporary classical music @ Toronto Reference Library (Part 3 and 4)

New to "New Music"? Curious about "Contemporary"? Joins us for the remaining two free concert programs of the "NEW MUSIC 101" series on Monday May 7 and May 14, 7-8pm - Toronto Reference Library Beeton Auditorium (789 Yonge Str.) - everyone is welcome. 

Our series host - the Globe and Mail's music critic Robert Everett-Green and the members of Toronto New Music Alliance will serve as your personal tour guide to the world of contemporary classical music, combining performance and discussion.

Pushing the boundaries of musical expression...prepare yourself for a sonic adventure! 

 

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Program 3: Monday May 7, 7-8pm - CONTACT CONTEMPORARY MUSIC and CONTINUUM CONTEMPORARY MUSIC  

 

Contact ensemble (pictured above) presents "Strumming" - a work for solo electric guitar, soundtrack and video by Tim Brady. The video was created by Tim Brady and Martin Messier and the piece will be performed by guitarist Rob MacDonald.

 

"Telling a Story". there is a long and lively tradition of using music to convey a story, through many forms.

Continuum presents contemporary expressions of the practice, including "l'Elephant de mer" (from "Contes pour enfants pas sages") by west-coast composer Christopher Butterfield, "Why the parrot repeats human words" by east-coast composer Emily Doolittle, and a much-compressed version of Stravinsky's classic "l'Histoire du soldat".

The works call for clarinet, violin, viola and percussion, as well as narrator. 

 

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Program 4: Monday May 14, 7-8pm - NEW ADVENTURES IN SOUND ART and junctQín KEYBOARD COLLECTIVE

 

New Adventures in Sound Art: Christof Migone (pictured on the right) will give a lecture and perform an excerpt from a new version of his work "Radio Naked". "Radio Naked" was a text created in response to the very strict conventions of speaking on radio and programming content on radio.

Christof is making a sound art realization of this text with the changing context of radio in mind for Toronto's Deep Wireless Festival. Darren Copeland will also be on hand to contextualize this presentation in relation to the Deep Wireless festival.

"Pianissimo" is a collection of outstanding contemporary works written for two emerging keyboard instruments: the toy piano and the kalimba (an African thumb piano).  

junctQin keyboard collective will perform works by Canadian composers Monica Clorey and Adam Sherkin and Austrian composer Karlheinz Essl.

 

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We at Toronto Reference Library Arts Department are very excited to offer "New Music 101: Pushing the Boundaries of Sound and Peformance" for a second year and partner with the wonderful artists from the Toronto New Music Alliance.

For the entire four-part series - Download the New Music 101 folded program brochure 2012.

 

Check out our previous blog post about the first two programs April 23 and April 30, 2012 (finished now). Guest presenters were Arraymusic, New Music Concerts, Soundstreams and the Canadian Music Centre.

If you are curious about the "New Music 101" performers and program in Spring 2011 last year - we had blogged about them as well.

 
 

New Music 101: Experience contemporary classical music @ Toronto Reference Library (Part 1 and 2)

New to "New Music"? Curious about "Contemporary"? The Globe and Mail's music critic Robert Everett-Green and the members of the Toronto New Music Alliance will serve as your personal tour guide to the world of contemporary classical music, combining performance and discussion.

Joins us for this free series of four programs at Toronto Reference Library (789 Yonge Str.), every Monday night from April 23 to May 14, 7-8pm at the Beeton Auditorium, main floor. Everyone is welcome, no registration is required. Each program will showcase performers and composers that are active in Toronto. Prepare yourself for a sonic adventure!

• SERIES HOST: RobertEverett-Green, Music Critic, The Globe and Mail.

1. Monday April 23, 7-8pm ARRAYMUSIC and NEW MUSIC CONCERTS.
2. Monday April 30, 7-8pm SOUNDSTREAMS and THE CANADIAN MUSIC CENTRE.  
   
3. Monday May 7, 7-8pm CONTACT CONTEMPORARY MUSIC and CONTINUUM CONTEMPORARY MUSIC.         
   
4. Monday May 14, 7-8pm NEW ADVENTURES IN SOUND ART and junctQín KEYBOARD COLLECTIVE.

 

 

Joseph Macerollo and Ina Henning perform Andrew Staniland's Pentagrams. Part 1 of 2. (Video Courtesy of Moving Headshots Productions.)

 

Below is the detailed program for the first two evenings in April 2012. We will blog about the third and fourth concerts in another post in May. For the entire four-part series - Download the New Music 101 folded program brochure 2012.

 

Program 1: Monday April 23, 7-8pm, ARRAYMUSIC and NEW MUSIC CONCERTS

Arraymusic's program will reveal works from the Array Ensemble's upcoming April 28th concert at the Music Gallery.

This collaboration between Arraymusic and the Toy Piano Composers will present a compelling in-depth look into the processes and techniques in the preparation and execution of new music. Not only will the performers be on hand, the composers themselves will attend and speak about their material. [Photo credit: Arraymusic ensemble.]

 

New Music Concerts - "Pentagrams" - Five pieces for two accordions by Andrew Staniland.

Like many of Staniland's works, Pentagrams draws inspiration from some of the fascinating cultural aspects of numbers. Each of the five movements explores a specific musical inspiration drawn from the number five.

"Pentagrams" was commissioned by New Music Concerts and is dedicated to Joseph Macerollo and Ina Henning. [Pictured on the right.]

 

 

Program 2: Monday April 30, 7-8pm SOUNDSTREAMS and THE CANADIAN MUSIC CENTRE

Soundstreams will illustrate its approach to programming new music through a combination of audio/video excerpts and live performance.

The live performance will focus on contemporary repertoire for voice including a discussion about extended vocal techniques. [Photo credit: mezzo soprano Krisztina Szabo]

 

The Canadian Music Centre - "Shi" (poetry) - a new music/dance composition for solo dancer and electronic tape by Toronto composer Alice Ping Yee Ho, commissioned by Little Pear Garden Collective with the assistance of the Toronto Arts Council. "Shi" was choreographed by Emily Cheung, artistic director of Little Pear Garden, and will be performed by Bridgett Tsang. [Photo credits below: Left: composer Alice Ho; Right: choreographer Emily Cheung]

             


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We at the Arts Department of Toronto Reference Library are very excited to offer New Music 101: Pushing the Boundaries of Sound and Performance for a second year and partner with the wonderful artists from the New Music Alliance. It was a very successful and enthusiastically received program series last year and we have invited them again with different performances and discussions of contemporary classical music. (If you are curious about the "New Music 101" performers and program in Spring 2011 - we blogged about them.)

Toronto has a rich and diverse "new music" scene. The members of the New Music Aliance are unique organizations collaborating to promote and share the art of contemporary music with broad audiences. They are bold and creative, multi-disciplinary and experimental, they push the boundaries of musical expression. COME AND SEE FOR YOURSELF!

 

Origami and Design

Origami is a centuries old art form beginning at the latest in the 1600s.

If you would like to pursue origami as a craft, these books may interest you.

 

     

                                                 
    
                                                 

Check out the Origami Society of Toronto website for some additional inspiration.

The wonder of creating with paper.

 

YAOGUN 101 - A Taste of Chinese Rock Music @ Toronto Reference Library

YAOGUN 搖滾 is the Chinese word for "rock and roll", but it is much more that than, according to Torontonian Jonathan Campbell. He is a drummer, music agent and promoter who has spent the last ten years living in Beijing, China and has recently published a book about it all.

Please join us on Tuesday, February 14, 2pm, at Toronto Reference Library, the Beeton Auditoruim, to hear the insider's story and sounds of Chinese rock music during a multimedia discussion with Canadian author and musician Jonathan Campbell. He will present "Red Rock: The Long Strange March of Chinese Rock and Roll" (his first book published in October 2011) and will share from his own involvement in the local yaogun scene.

Curious about China's musical revolution? Everyone is welcome, no registration required.

 

 

“Rock and roll – rebellious, individualistic, explosive – seems incongruent with modern Chinese society. But as the music has evolved from a Western import into something uniquely Chinese, it has shaped and been shaped by China’s unique system and its relationship with the outside world. Red Rock looks at the people and events that have created Chinese rock’s unique identity, and tracks the music’s long journey from the Mao years to present. After boiling below the surface for over twenty years and now emerging from a thriving underground scene, Chinese rock may be ready to smash its guitars on the global stage." (Earnshaw Books)

 

 

"Yaogun’s story is not just that of the awakening and rise of the world’s newest superpower, but of the power of the music. The future of the nation will determine yaogun’s path, just as it defined its past. But if yaogun lives up to its potential, it just might change the nation --- and rock the world." (J. Campbell)

 

 

  [Midi Festival, Beijing, 2010, by Su Dong via Midi Festival website]

 

For more information about Red Rock: The Long, Strange March of Chinese Rock & Roll please visit:

• Open book Toronto recent interview with Jon Campbell.
• Earnshaw Books website - publishers of Red Rock.
• The author's website: www.jonathanWcampbell.com and blog - rich resource of information about "yaogun" with additional bonus songs, photographs, videos, research that is not in the book.
• YAOGUN: Chinese Rock N Roll in Ten (FULL) Songs (Jonathan Campbell's Yaogun Megamix, 40 min. of music), CBC Radio Day 6, Dec 31, 2011.
• China's Great Wall of Canadian Sound - Maclean's magazine talks with J. Campbell about Canadian musical impact in China, November 2, 2011.
• Yaogun 101: A Chinese Rock Primer (from J. Campbell's book website)
• Canadian TV network Fairchild interviews Campbell, Nov. 2011(conversation is in Chinese)

 

Listen to the following two songs suggested by Jonathan Campbell to illustrate yaogun from its early days 25 years ago to the latest bands:

 

A video for the title track from from Cui Jian's 1989 album "Rock and Roll on the New Long March" - considered the first Chinese rock album. Cui Jian is the first Chinese rocker.

 

 

The band Lonely China Day and their instrumental song "Rise Up" from the 2010 album "This Readily Assimilative People". Note the TTC playing a major role in this video that was produced by Stephen Imwalle and made in Toronto.

 

 

Do you listen to yaogun?  What other Chinese rock bands do you know?

Drawing Lessons

Would you like to learn to draw?  These books may interest you.

 

                      

 

                                  


Some books that I find inspiring include

 

                                  

 

Enthralling!

 

Death and Rebirth in the Motor City

In 2010 two oversize photography books were published on the same subject. Detroit Disassembled: Photographs by Andrew Moore and The Ruins of Detroit by two French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. Looked at together they provide a much more vivid and comprehensive portrait than either could on its own.

Accounts vary, but it seems that by the middle of the last century, Detroit, founded in 1701, had reached the height of its development and fell into a decline as it's successful citizens relocated elsewhere. Moore, Marchand and Meffre have captured unforgettable and humbling images of urban decay. The message of these images is sobering.

As I delved into the 300 year history of this city I was interested to find Frontier Metropolis: Picturing Early Detroit, 1701-1838. It too is an oversize book and is filled with maps, drawings, watercolours, and vintage photographs.

Could there be a greater contrast between the book covers above and this image of Detroit's modest beginnings?

Let's go on a little tour of the city known affectionately as Motown, and The Motor City, with Johnny Knoxville as our host. Guided by Detroit locals he visits and explores inside some of the most picturesque ruins. Here is a link to Part One of a three part documentary. All three parts make for fascinating viewing.

But even more fascinating in this documentary is the message of hope. Young people are moving back into the abandoned areas and reclaiming them for clubs, bars, restaurants and those harbingers of urban renewal: artist's studios.

 

Official City of Detroit motto? Speramus Meliora, Resurget Cineribus (We hope for better things, It shall rise from the ashes).

Michael Ondaatje, "Divisadero" and Daniel Brooks @ Toronto Reference Library from Page to Stage

Please join as David Young interviews  Michael Ondaatje and Daniel Brooks (Necessary Angel Theatre) on the adaptation of Ondaatje's "Divisadero" (the novel) into "Divisadero: A Performance" (the play).

This special fusion evening of Canadian literature and theatre is free and will take place on Monday January 9, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in the Atrium at the Toronto Reference Library.  Necessary Angel is giving everyone who attends the event at Toronto Reference Library a $5 discount coupon on tickets.

 

 

Michael Ondaatje - author of the novel Divisadero (Governor General's Literary Award, 2007) - set partly in the gambling parlours of California and Nevada, and partly in a village in south-central France.

Daniel Brooks - artistic director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company and director of "Divisadero: A Performance".

David Young - host, Toronto Reference Library Playwright-in-Residence Oct-Dec 2011. You can borrow some of the plays written by David Young.

 

         



"Michael Ondaatje collaborates with Daniel Brooks to adapt his novel Divisadero - a violent and passionate story exploring themes of memory, identity, love and the grip of the past on the present. An examination of the intimate relationship between the speaker and the listener, and of language's ability to weave a magical spell." (Necessary Angel Theatre Company)

Divisadero: A Performance by Michael Ondaatje and directed by Daniel Brooks is produced by Necessary Angel Theatre Company, Toronto.  It will run at Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Ave.), February 8th - 26th 2012.

  

 

 

A Creative Space of One's Own

For the artist in everyone, some books to browse

 

                    
  

                                    

 

Delightful!

Audition for Trojan Women @ Alumnae Theatre

Alumnae Theatre is in rehearsals for The Trojan Women - adapted by Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen - and they need two more women for the Chorus.  Auditions are this coming Wednesday December 7 between 1 and 6 pm.  They are seeking two non-union female actors of any age/any ethnicity to be part of the Chorus.  You'll need a short, 2-3 minute, classical monologue and one song to sing a capella.  For more details see their blog - good luck !