Call for Submissions cont'd

What makes a good play?
Is theatre inherently didactic?
How do read-throughs of early drafts shape and alter the script-writing process;

Come out to the DIY Artists Cabaret on January 19th at the RedSandbox Theatre.

Deadline for playwrights submissions December 10th 2011

Call for Submissions

We are currently accepting submissions for our next event in the Tutto Di Niente (Something from Nothing) series. This night will celebrate the Playwright.

We will be featuring readings of 8-10 short pieces (8-15 minutes each) which can either be a complete work or a scene from a play. We ask that the playwright cast his/her piece and be present to preface the work. The details are:

Thursday, January 19th
8pm
Red Sandcastle Theatre

If you are interested, please submit the following before December 10th:

- the scene/work you wish to have read
- a short summary of the work
- any technical requirements you may have
- resume/bio of the artists involved

We will confirm your participation if your work is selected by the 15th of December. Please feel free to pass this on to friends who may be interested in submitting their work.

If you have any questions, please contact us at:

Theatre.IV.Mimmo@gmail.com

or Ecatroppa@theatre.iv.mimmo.com

Theatre.IV.Mimmo's A View From the Bridge

Thanks to everyone who came out to see our Staged reading on Wednesday and Thursday last week; and to those who didn't make it, well, you missed a great thing-

The Columbus Centre is a bit far for our downtown friends, so I understand why some folks couldn't make the trek north to Lawrence and Dufferin.

I am new to the Italian Community here in Toronto, and don't know very many people at the Columbus Centre... I'm hoping that will change over the next year or so - and that Theatre.IV.Mimmo can become a vibrant part of the Italian-Canadian pulse in the city. I would have loved to see more people from the local community in the audience.

As my friend Ally Fleming said on Facebook: "such a gut-punch play"- it is so true; this show is intense and shocking. At intermission you could have cut the tension with a knife.

If anyone saw the show please post your comments here- Help me to articulate what this experience was like... :)

Many thanks again to all our Supporters,

Eugenia

p.s.

Special thanks to Pal Delulio for donating the space and lending us much-appreciated support.

Also, big thankyou to Outlook Promotions- without your generosity this event would not have been possible.

Tired of TIFF? check out Theatre.IV.Mimmo

Theatre.IV.Mimmo presents a staged reading of Arthur Miller's classic, haunting play, "A View from the Bridge" Come to Red Hook, 1950's Brooklyn, to the home of Eddie Carbone, his wife, Beatrice, and their adopted niece, Catherine. When two Italian "submarines" come to stay in his home, Eddie's world quickly unravels. A tragically beautiful story of love, jealousy, and the intricate subtleties of family that only Miller can tell with such honesty. Featuring: A. FRANK RUFFO...... as Alfieri MARC BONDY........... as Louis DAVID GINGERICH..... as Mike ADRIAN GRIFFIN....... as Eddie Carbone ROSE NAPOLI........... as Catherine ANITA LASELVA......... as Beatrice Carbone STEFANO DI MATTEO.. as Marco RYAN TILLEY............. as Rodolfo Directed by: ROD CEBALLOS Wednesday, September 14th 7pm & Thursday, September 15th 7pm Columbus Centre Art Gallery 901 Lawrence Ave W (West of Dufferin on South Side) (TTC Dufferin Northbound bus) http://tinyurl.com/mimmoMapVIEW http://tinyurl.com//mimmosViewFromtheBridge

Upcoming Show September 14th and 15th 2011

Theatre.IV.Mimmo presents a Staged Reading of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge

September 14th and 15th 2011 7:00 PM

The Columbus Centre

901 Lawrence Ave. West

About Theatre.IV.Mimmo:

“The diversity of Canada is often proudly displayed in varying contexts, including the arts. Theatre.IV.Mimmo is a new theatre company that hopes to expand that to include the Italian-Canadian Experience. Founded by Rose Napoli and named for her late father, Domenico “Mimmo” Napoli, Theatre.IV.Mimmo “celebrates contemporary theatre within the traditions of the Italian culture. Theatre.IV.Mimmo seeks to provide opportunities for multi-disciplinary artists to create new work and explore existing texts.” –Canada Arts Connect http://canadaartsconnect.com/magazine/2011/08/theatre-iv-mimmo

Upcoming Event: Theatre.IV.Mimmo’s first production: A staged reading of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge featuring: Frank Ruffo, Adrian Griffin, Marc Bondy, David Gingerich, Rose Napoli, Anita LaSelva, Ryan Tilley, and Stefano DiMatteo. Directed by Rod Ceballos.

September 14^th and 15^th 7:00 PM at the Columbus Centre 901 Lawrence Ave. West.

Why Bridge? From the beginning of the 19th century onward, a substantial influx of Italians immigrated to Canada searching for better lives for their families. Mimmo Napoli was one of these wide-eyed men looking to raise a family, start a life in Canada. It was not without trial and hardship that Mimmo and the thousands of other Italians immigrated to this Country. But the View was Bright and as of 2006, Italian Canadians account for nearly TEN percent of Toronto’s entire population. “A View From the Bridge” highlights the plight of immigrants, the continuing struggle to make a home out of a foreign land, and out of a new culture. Arthur Miller’s story resonates for its brave and honest look at our trials as foreigners and as humans.

The DIY Artists Cabaret- Eugenia's thoughts and notes on the evening

The DIY Artists Cabaret- Since it is impossible to capture lightning in a bottle, I thought I'd best write down my thoughts while they are still fresh in my mind.

I didn't do the programming so I feel free to express my delight at all the acts.

Tess Degenstein, gets on stage and immediately throws everyone off with her disarming charm and matter-of-fact comedy style. She tosses out seemingly random comments and then ties them neatly into the acts and the themes of the evening- “So the Internet. Have you heard of it? You should check it out- there aren’t enough people there yet.” “So the Cameron House, It’s got something for everyone, if you like plants, we have plants on the ceiling, if you like textured walls, we’ve got one right here…” Tess added a feeling to the event that made the audience feel like they were about to see something really special, and that they were lucky to have found out about it and to have arrived on the scene. This is a difficult sensibility to achieve – underground, indie, and yet important and big.

Amanda Rose Moscar was our opening act- I get a little nervous, admittedly, when a singer songwriter gets on the stage- what if the songs are long and emo? What if the singer isn’t quite on key? The first note that came from her mouth caused a stillness in the room, and grabbed a rapt attention. I was shocked and awed at the talent oozing from this woman. She sang a life-anthem which is still in my head 2 days later, angry, tough, varied, finger-snappy, and full of unexpected lyrics. A song she wrote for her brother about rain and a broken umbrella, not only does it match the event poster, but she busts through around and against clichés to achieve real humanism- she dodges the overly-emotional-thing that so many artists mistakenly iterate, and captures synesthesiastically captures the atmospheric impression of rain-days and broken art hearts. Friday night she performed a piece: “Bella, Bella, Nice Nice,” I feel that I would like to start every single Theatre.IV.Mimmo event (from now until the end of time) with this song. “I was going through a tough time in my life… sitting in a café, eating baci chocolates (my favourite chocolates) … and there were two elderly Italian women sitting nearby, drinking cappuccino, and after every sip they would hold up their cups and say “bella bella, nice-ah nice-ah.” The song was short, and oh so so very sweet. I could feel Rose begin to bawl halfway across the room, and sure enough when she got on stage she confessed it- I was too aware of the bright lights and my seat at the front to let the tears fall freely, but I was feeling it. Again, what an amazing job Amanda does at capturing the sensory impressions of a moment in time, an atmosphere, a feeling , a taste, and state of being.

Rose Napoli- What can I say, I helped write this play so its hard to comment unbiased-ly. Rose is full-time hilarious; there is something going on with that Nonna – its hard to communicate in a 5 minute piece, but she is a many-layered and complicated woman. I love the way she can rant – she jumps from a complaint about a cockroach to the modern problems of divorce at a speed of 0-50 and Rose delivers it with comedic-timing genius. You go girl-

Megan Marie Gates- So pleased to have Megan read poetry for the first time on our stage- her voice came out strong and confident. There is a deep root here in smarts and hard-thinking about art. Looking forward to seeing more from Megan over the years to come.

Jessica Moss – Cleverly did NOT tell the host precisely what her piece would be. Tess presented “ Jessica Moss- will do something for you.” The surprise of the thing once it began was attention-grabbing to say the least. Jessica revealed (through several different characters and a variety of physically represented media formats) that she was doing a performance piece about creation. The quick switches from one character to the next – was amazing to watch, she can completely transform her face body and voice in an instant. Many of the characters criticized Jessica, demonstrated their own art projects, showed self-awareness through their own lack-of.

It’s a hard piece to explain – you just need to see it – it will enrich your life-experience. Guaranteed. Check out her upcoming show – similar style/format- at Next Stage Festival in January!

Dayle McLeod- She broke my heart with the Jewel cover, and surprised and delighted me with her original song: “I’m beginning to feel, its not just my fault, I can blame it all on the sugar and salt; and love is just chemicals in your brain.” We are all alienated from our own humanism. Here, Dayle shows us this alienation and brings us back around to the very comfort and core of the lyric. Lastly, her cover of Cee Lo Green’s “fuck you” song, translated into the sweetness of her voice and acoustic tones was ridiculously charming and compelling- the audience couldn’t help but join in and sing along- and I found it particularly delightful to hear Rose and Marc in the back corner of the room piping in as back-up singers with “aint that some shit!”

Bain & Bernard- What a great act to have in our show- it added a real variety and feeling to the evening that made it seem like a “real” cabaret event. The Clown noses and costumes were spot-on and the old-timey crackly-radio music was fantastic. SO CUTE! SO FUN!

Physical Theatre trio:

Chelsea Ferando

Josh Brown

Victoria Velinosi

What a great way to end the show! Audience and performers alike were excited and awkward, entertained and horny. I’ve seen many a sexy-quasi nude contemporary dance piece, often they err on the side of extreme abjection- this piece avoided that slippery slope by injecting it with comedy and sexual mishaps. The dancing itself was really interesting, privileging the theatrical while maintaining good form and pointed toes.

It also gave Tess an opportunity to end the night by cyclically bringing it back around to the beginning again with some quality crotch comedy: “at the beginning of the evening, Amanda made me wet from my eyes; this made me wet from eye.”

In any case- at the risk of bigging-up my own show I wanted to write down my thoughts and make some notes so that I can remember this lovely experience in the future- Thankyou so much to all the performers who came out and shared their work with us- the fundraiser did well and brought us closer to our goals for producing an Equity staged reading of Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge.

The DIY Artists Cabaret

Theatre.IV.Mimmo is a new theatre company that highlights the Italian-Canadian Experience. We are holding a two day event THE DIY ARTISTS' CABARET/ Fatto Tutto Di Niente: August 25th and 26th 8PM-10PM at the Cameron House: Tickets are $10.

Featured at the Cabaret will be singer/songwriters, comedy acts, and a scene from the new play YIW:Young Italian Witch by Eugenia Catroppa and Rose Napoli.

Proceeds will go to pay professional actors to do a dramatic reading of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge at the Columbus Centre 7:00 PM September 14th and 15th.

Consider becoming an official sponsor by donating at www.tinyurl.com/donatemimmo