FRIDAY, I'm in LOVE

We've been getting a TON OF TRAFFIC coming by the tent. Its amazing how comfortable the residents at CAMH feel just waltzing into the TENT. I've noticed that its one of the only places in Toronto where people will actually say hello to you, look you in the eye, and try to carry on a conversation.

Here is one of the various friends we made. Notice her fancy coat!

Today was a really long day, but another great day. We managed to work through half of the show with the choir, and today was really the first time we got a sense as to what the show is really going to feel like. WOW. I sometimes feel like I actually have to pinch myself a bit.

I'm going to take a moment now to introduce you to a few members of the choir.

KAZUMI (AKA: Zoomster)

Kazumi may possibly be the most joyous person I've ever met. His ability to love things (like our new fancy ramp) helps me love things that I didn't even realize I could love (like a ramp!). Kazumi is a tenor.

Frank and Mark


Frank is our resident trouble maker with a mean tenor voice. He is also, possibly, the heart of the choir, as he may be the most outwardly emotional person I've ever met! (and I say that with love). He also likes to show up an hour early for choir rehearsal so that he can nail the harmonies. Amazing devotion. (he also told me that he thinks that I'm cute, which I always a bonus from my perspective!)

Mark is, I would say, the coolest member of the choir. I don't know why I think that, but he just always seems to have everything under control because he's just THAT cool. When I first met Mark, I knew that I really wanted him in the choir. He is an amazingly sturdy energy that is a great glue for the tenors, and is as positive as he is cool. (I mean that with love too, Mark)

More to come! More to come!

I leave you with a couple of videos from some of our PERFECT production team.

This is Andrea (Lighting Designer/Production) and Cam (Tech God)!



BETH and TANYA


ALSO! If you're planning on seeing the show, we could really use some audience early in the run. So if its all the same to you, we'd love you to come the first week.

Book your tickets at: 416.534.9261

xomichael

Still Climbing!

Thursday today. The play OPENS in 5 DAYS! Holy CRAP.

Seriously though, as you can see by the photo above, we are all having so much fun. This show is amazing!

We've also had a lot of great response from Alex's "Hierarchy of Disability" Video, including this from a friend of her's back in the U.K.

"Finally I have been classified. I'm a Walkie Talkie Limpy Semi Blinky with a Coronary Twist. Suddenly it all makes sense."

The Choir is REALLY starting to sound amazing, AND ALSO, our BANNER is up. And it looks fantastic.

CHECK IT OUT:


And I leave you with this last greeting from our BEAUTIFUL CHOIR (and me a bit)!



xoMICHAEL!

TUESDAY!

Today (yesterday now) was another fantastic day. We have decided that I am going to be mic'd for the entire show, which was a great decision, because THAT TENT CAN GET LOUD!!

Andrea Lundy (Production Manager/TENT GODDESS) had the lights working, and its really starting to feel magical in there.

Once the choir got in last night and the music started and the lights turned on, the grin on my face was having a hard time leaving. It felt amazing in that room last night.

The night ended with me doing a reading for the entire Choir. It was the largest amount of people that I've done the show for so far. Wow. Again, I am speechless. It was a really beautiful night. Frank and Kazumi both talked about how emotional it made them, and Liana (aka: Guitar Babe) said that she thought it was a very opportune time for this play to be happening, and that she's going to be inviting some people that she think can really learn a thing or two from the play (Thanks Liana!)

This is Liana and her dog, who just happens to be the BEST DOG IN THE WORLD.

Here is a picture of BETH KATES, or brilliant costume desiginer. Beth is making sure that we all look AMAZING, right BETH? (WINK WINK WINK)

Hey Beth! WHATCHA DOING ON THAT IPHONE?

And here is a picture of THE AMAZING CAM.

Cam is our TECH GOD who will be with us for the run of the show. This is our view of CAM from the stage in the tent. HEY CAM!? OVER HERE CAM! THE SHOW IS OVER HERE CAM!

OH well.

I'll post a better picture of CAM. Maybe even a video.

The video situation today is a bit so so, but I did manage to get a bit of Alex meeting Irena on the stage for the first time, which was a nice moment. The batteries in my camera did though before being able to get some of the great sounds comin' outta the choir.



xo till later.

michael.

YES. YES. YES.

We are in the tent now. My God. Words can't quie describe the excitement. To think that this was all just a dream at one point, and now, we have a tent, with a stage and a choir! Speaking of the choir, they were in the tent tonight for our first official rehearsal.


Everyone seemed so excited and pleased to be there tonight, even though it was so freezing. What a gift. The choir is beautiful.

Here is a little clip at the choir's first pass at "Let Go". If you listen closely, you can hear me singing along. (I sang BASS tonight with GEOFF)






And just for kicks, here's a great photo of Sarah and Andrew!

Sarah - Uh, Andrew, how do you write such great music?

Andrew - Uh, I don't know.

Sarah - Cool. Nice Tambourine.

Andrew - Thanks.

abidee abidee abidee, that's all folks.

MORE VIDEOS TOMORROW

AND TOMORROW WE ARE BACK IN THE TENT STARTING AT 2:00.

xoxoxo michael

TENT!!!!!!!!!

THE TENT! THE TENT! THE TENT! THE TENT! THE TENT! THE TENT! THE TENT!

The tent was pitched today at approximately 2:00 pm at CAMH! After a mother's day dinner, and a brief stop over to witness the Tamil protest (humbling and overwhelming) I zipped up to Queen and Ossington to bear witness to OUR TENT. IT'S THERE!!!

I met Shema (sp?) who was the SECURITY GUARD and he let me go inside.



HOLY CRAP. HOLY CRAP. HOLY CRAP.

I got inside and I just walked around and giggled with glee.

I couldn't believe it. It's a tent. ITS A TENT. WE ARE DOING OUR SHOW IN A TENT!

I'm not sure why, but it hadn't occured to me that being in a tent is NOTHING LIKE BEING IN A THEATRE. It was so incredible to get to go in there before the stage and lighting rigs went up. Amazing to feel the power of a tent.

Tomorrow, myself and the entire choir will be in the tent in the evening, and starting Tuesday morning, we will be rehearsing there all day every day all the time yes. yes. yes.

THE BOOK OF JUDITH IS COMING, AND THERE'S NOTHING THAT WILL GET IN ITS WAY! (knock on wood!)

Alex Bulmer on THE HIERARCHY OF DISABILITY

Alex takes a break from rehearsal to teach us.







Genius

The Whelming Begins!

We are KNEE deep in rehearsals, almost at the end of WEEK ONE. Its been pretty remarkable so far. Alex Bulmer has arrived from England and Nick Carpenter is here from Montreal working with Andrew on music. Tanya Greve, our Stage Manager and Beth Kates, our Costume Designer, have also been in rehearsal, and things are really starting to move.

THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am filled with so much emotion right now. I can't quite believe we are actually putting this up on its feet. We did a work through of the entire show with all the music with Andrew and Alex and Nick and the only word I can use to describe the experience is: AMAZING.

There is no doubt in any of our minds that this is going to be quite spectacular. Now all we must do is MAKE THIS PLAY.

Here is a pretty wonderful little video of us all singing "DEAR SIN" from the show. We are still learning, but still, pretty NICE.

Enjoy.

MORE VIDEOS TOMORROW.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Did someone say VIDEO CLIP PLEASE?!?!?!

Yesterday I promised you a bit of video.

Today I have come through.

Please enjoy this very rough (but great!) video of a tiny section of the play. The singing will all be backed up by my 16 person choir and sound amazing.

But here's a taste .............. !

In the clip, I am talking about our original production of Suck and Blow that we performed at the Rhubarb! Festival and the kind of response we got from the play.

ENJOY!

REHEARSAL HAS BEGUN

!HI ALL!

We started rehearsals on Monday. Putting finishing touches on the script and yesterday Andrew brought in the final song and holy crap oh my god yes please thank-you very much!

If you are walking down the street at Queen and Ossington near CAMH starting SUNDAY, you may notice a little thing called:

A TENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(note: this is not our tent. but this IS a tent!)

Yes. Our tent is being PITCHED this SUNDAY right on QUEEN STREET. The mere thought of it takes my breath away.

I am going to take same video tonight in rehearsal and post it for you all.

And keep a look out for coverage of the play in NOW, EYE, and the GLOBE and more.

In the meantime, I will simply include this very handsome photograph of our very handsome (AND TALENTED) composer: ANDREW PENNER, whose album, WAVE NORTH (SUNPARLOUR PLAYERS) comes out on the same day that Book of Judith OPENS!!! MAY 19th. I've heard this album, oh, let's say, about 20 times already, and it just may be the ALBUM OF THE YEAR. What a blessing it has been to have Andrew work on this with us. And you will also get to see him perform for some of the shows!!!!!!!!!!!

VUNDERBAR

An Artist Contemplates.

I had to share two piece of amazing-ness. The first is that we have a new member on a team named NICK CARPENTER. Nick is coming in town from MONTREAL to be our musical director. WOOP WOOP WOOPEE!!!!!! Nick is someone I worked with way back when I was in theatre school, and he also does work with Sarah and he is just generally, um, A GENIUS. So, one more genius added the our list.

Here is a PIC of Andrew and Nick at their first ever meeting in the world. They are going to be working together to help translate the BRILLIANT music for the BRILLIANT CHOIR.

Also. Here is an email I got from one of our choir members, Irena Kagansky. She has a copy of the play that I gave her to listen to. This was her unbelievable response:

Michael:

I could not help writing to you.

To come at the 'songs' for The Book of Judith from a level of
inexperience is eye-openning. This play tells the story
of what so many of us have felt, seen and heard;
and now others can hear it come to life!

I really have no words Michael...because this is beyond words...I want
to sing it, say it...right along with you...;0)
How different in context is the upcoming version of The Book of Judith going to be?

I am listening to the play now, and I can't help crying!
This project is so amazing, that, I am that much more honored to be a part of it!!
I am excited and moved to the core. Furthermore, as a writer, artist and theatre lover
I understand the tremendous value of the words, art and thought of this play.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

****

PRETTY AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (this is Michael again)

And, I leave you off, just for fun, of my new favourite picture of me and Sarah.

THE POSTER.

Ladies and Gentleman, behold the official poster for THE BOOK OF JUDITH

The Perfect Play

TWO WORDS: CHOIR REHEARSAL!!!!!!!

That's right. Today was our second choir rehearsal, and, as promised, here are some PHOTOS. WHAT? DID YOU THINK I WAS JOKING PEOPLE? WE HAVE A CHOIR!!!!!!

Here is ANDREW working with the Crusaders!




Sarah in the background, looking pensive and smart like always. Kimwun and Gwen focussing hard on the amazing music!


Erin (Andrew's wife. sorry ladies) in the back, with Wanda and Irena looking on.


Jeff and Kazume having a bit too much fun. COME ON GUYS, STAY FOCUSSED! (ha ha)


From Left to Right: Frank, Caleb, Jeff, Kazume, Erin, Wanda, Irena, Gwen's arms and legs, Kimwun' forearms. There were ten of us in total.




I took this "video" today of me singing during choir rehearsal. The video didn't work out, but the song did. Press play to hear a short clip of me singing THE PERFECT PLAY written by the perfect composer, Andrew Penner.

And, if you want to now WATCH me singing this, click below!

Overall, today was a very special day. Everyone is very excited. The night was capped off with Sarah and I going to SONIC BOOM to hear Andrew and his band, The Sunparlour Players, blow the socks off a room full of hipsters (and me and Sarah. but we are hip too, okay?!!!)

Poster coming SOON. Rehearsals starting SOON. Everything starting SOON. OH MY.

xomichael

Theatre Centre and CHOIR Rehearsal

This is me entering the Theatre Centre Party (thanks Becky Johnson for this fun pic!)

Some of you may have seen me at the Theatre Centre Party doing a small little bit from the play. It was only a short little piece, and although I was SUPER nervous, I think it ended up going fairly well, and people felt excited to hear more. I sang a short excerpt from one of the wonderful songs by Andrew.

WHAT A FANTASTIC PARTY.

It is a real honour to be the next big show for The Theatre Centre.

ALSO,

WE HAVE BEGUN SOME CHOIR REHEARSALS!

I wanted to take some video, and maybe I will, but I don't want to freak anybody out! I will DEFINITELY try to take some photos though so I can post them on here. I couldn't stay for the entire last rehearsal but from what I heard it was AMAZING! We had about 9 people there who are going to be singing in the choir, and MORE ARE COMING! Its been such a fantastic response. People are SUPER EXCITED to be in the choir, and everyone loves the music.

OH! THE POSTER IS COMING SOOOOOOOON.

And one last thing. I thought this was hilarious. A few years ago I was in a Bruce Willis movie called LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN and I found this picture online when I was googling myself. Hilarious, don't you think?



SEE YOU SOON

XOXOXO MICHAEL

IT CONTINUES!!!!

Well la dee da da da!

Today was a very exciting day. After a brief hiatus that took Andrew Penner to the recording studio to record the new Sunparlour Players Album, Sarah Stanley to Montreal to direct The AGE OF AROUSAL (great title) by Linda Griffiths, and me to focus on the SummerWorks Festival scripts and line-up, we have RE-CONVENED.

Today we sat in my living-room and we watch the recording of the reading that we did way-a-back-a-when, and it is still every bit as wonderful as we remembered it. The music is unbelievable, the play is fantastic, and for just a reading, I think I am doing a pretty bang-up job!

All plans are in place. We have a tent on hold that is going to be pitched on the FRONT LAWN AT CAMH (right next to the WORKMAN THEATRE). You'll see it going up on Sunday, May 10th. Can you believe it? I can't.

And once its up, we'll be in there, preparing the play.

More great updates to come. Sarah and I are meeting next week to do a bit more workshop and start putting this sucker up on its feet. Andrew is going back to work on filling out some of the music--and soon we start assembling the choir.

MAGIC MAGIC MAGIC.

Abilities!

Shalom!

Just wanted to share that we had an INCREDIBLE meeting with Abilities Canada (abilities.ca) about the show and they have agreed to post the blog on their website. They absolutely adored the idea for the show, and want to do whatever they can to bring my play and its message to as many people as possible. Judith Snow (yah!) will also have a blogged housed on the abilities website (and an article in their upcoming magazine! wowowowowow) so she can keep people filled in her on World Tour for Peace for Inclusion. Amazing! Check out Judith current blog: http://www.peaceforinclusion.blogspot.com/

The funniest part of the meeting with Abilities was when Eric Warner (our marketing and publicity guru) told me that I shouldn't chew gum in meetings. Hilarious. I was chewing my favourite gum (Cobalt blue) all throughout the meeting. Thanks Eric!!

We've almost got a LOCK on our tent, and the choir is coming together too. My excitement continues to build for my play. In the next few days I'm going to post an amazing little trailer video with some clips of Judith and me from the years past that I had been working with her. For those who don't know, I worked with Judith for about 4 years creating an incredible piece of theatre with her.

Here as an important video that I'd like to share with you. I made this video myself about a year or so ago to help with our grant proposals (all successful). Some of you may have already seen it, but if you haven't, here it is! And for those who may not also know, this was created back when we were called The Suck and Blow Collective (the good old days).

xox Michael

WORKSHOP COMPLETE!

Hi! We have just finished up a super-intense workshop for The Book of Judith. THREE WEEKS!!

PLEASE ENJOY THIS GREAT VIDEO THAT I MADE!




Don't forget about the choir! Being assembled as I write this. WOWOWOW.

This has truly been a blessed time for all involved, and I am thrilled and beyond excitement to share this play with all of you.

May 19 - 30. GET YOUR TICKETS! (I'm not sure how, but start bugging people at the theatre centre 416-534-9261)

The Beginning (MAKING A PLAY!)

Hello friends,

My name is Michael Rubenfeld.

Welcome to my blog.












This blog has been created primarily to fill you in on the upcoming production of my play, The Book of Judith, written by me, Michael Rubenfeld (w/Sarah Stanley) being performed in a TENT (!) on the ground of CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health), May 19th-30th, 2008. The piece is a musical (all music composed by Andrew Penner of the Sunparlour Players!)

<------- THIS IS ANDREW (intense!)









The play is about a quadriplegic woman named Judith Snow and my experience creating theatre with her.

I met Judith about four years ago. After a very important first meeting, it was determined that together, we needed to create a piece of theatre. My play chronicles this remarkable journey, with music and celebration.

<--- JUDITH SNOW!!!!








All songs are sung by either myself or the 16 piece choir I have assembled.





The show is directed by the renowned, Sarah Stanely. For those of you who don't know her, GOOGLE HER. You won't be sorry.




<--- Sarah (awesome!)










Also joining us from ENGLAND is Alex Bulmer. For those of you who don't know, Alex once lived in Toronto, but moved to England, where she is currently working in theatre and television. She will be leading the choir, made up of members from the disability community and other guests. In fact, Alex, herself, is also blind.



<---- Alex! (cool!)






Please enjoy this first video, featuring me inviting you to my play.



And Also, here is a cool video of Andrew Penner working on one of the amazing songs for my play. Also in the video are Alex Bulmer, Sarah Stanley and Myself. Its a bit choppy because I filmed it on my computer.




Stay tuned for some other videos COMING SOON.

Also, please check out Judith Snow's Blog: http://www.peaceforinclusion.blogspot.com/