Sarah Polley’s feature-length directorial debut, Away from Her, has been nominated for five Directors Guild of Canada awards, including one for Sarah herself in the Best Direction for a Feature Film category and one for Best Feature Film.
Other RTA connections to this year’s nominees include four nominations for the miniseries October 1970 (which featured RH Thomson in the cast and was directed by Don McBrearty (recipient of one of the four nods), who had directed several episodes of Avonlea), as well as three nominations for the TV series Slings and Arrows (Sarah had a recurring role in the third season; Jonathan Crombie guested in episodes in the first two seasons).
The awards, untelevised, will be handed out on September 29 at the Carlu Event Theatre in Toronto.
CBC.ca Arts
Directors Guild of Canada: Complete List of Nominees
After the touring version of The Drowsy Chaperone launches in Toronto, Jonathan Crombie will once again portray the “Man in Chair”, after doing so back in the spring for five weeks on Broadway, once again taking over for Bob Martin–who will be in the Chair for the Toronto launch.
The tour starts in Toronto on September 19 and is slated to end in Los Angeles next July. Jon will take his “seat” in the Chair when the musical goes to Cleveland on October 16.
Playbill News
Drowsy Chaperone tour schedule
I have a new essay up in the Writings section entitled A New Anne for a New Millennium where I list my favourites among the girls who have submitted auditions for the Anne prequel online.
Soulpepper’s production of Top Girls–featuring Megan Follows and RTA season seven alum Cara Pifko–has been extended until August 18, after receiving much acclaim from Toronto’s press.
Megan portrays Marlene, the head of the Top Girls Employment Agency; Cara is Griselda, whose life is a dream and a nightmare all in one.
Canoe.ca/Toronto Sun
Toronto Star
Eye Weekly
NOW Toronto
Soulpepper
The third Avonlea Convention–AvCon 2007–was held last weekend in Toronto.
Friday, July 27: Nearly 50 fans took part in a filming sights tour that included the Sullivan Entertainment backlot, the harbourfront, the Distillery District, and Spadina House.
Saturday, July 28: Fans gathered at Black Creek Pioneer Village to hear our various guests speak. This year, the Convention welcomed author Kevin McCabe (author/compiler of The L.M. Montgomery Album as well as another one regarding her poetry); composer John Welsman; and cast members Ian Clark (Simon Tremayne), Michael Mahonen (Gus Pike), and James O’Regan (Constable Jeffries). They were also able to screen a DVD featuring some of the various dance sequences from throughout the series.
Sunday, July 29: The Convention moved downtown to the Royal Ontario Museum. In the morning was the charity auction, where $4700 was raised for the ROM, which was the selected beneficiary for the year. The afternoon was emceed by Mag Ruffman (Olivia King/Dale) and Kevin Sullivan–the latter discussing various aspects of making the series. For example, the third season episode, “A Dark and Stormy Night” was meant to be a parody of 19th century melodrama. Also in the afternoon, fans got to see a DVD of series outtakes.
In words and pictures…
Corey’s Flickr set
Bobby’s Flickr set
Toronto Star
A more detailed report by Sonya (PDF file; hosted at Avonlea.hu)
avonleaconvention.org
