The musical The Nine Lives of L.M. Montgomery now has a premiere date: June 20, 2008 — 100 years to the day that Anne of Green Gables was first published/released — at the Kings Playhouse in Georgetown, PEI.
Auditions are being held now up to April 5 with the help of YouTube, though DVDs and videotapes may be sent in as well (see the main Nine Lives website for more information).
The Nine Lives of L.M. Montgomery
YouTube Group: Auditions for Nine Lives
The website annesdiary.com, which came under fire by the Anne Authority for using Anne’s image without a license, has applied for one.
“They just send you an invitation to see if you would like to utilize their logo, and then they’ll just have to work with us on pricing and revenue sharing,” said company CEO Pino Baldassarre.
“We just have to come to a quick agreement and move on. It would be great for us, it would be great for Prince Edward Island, it would be great. I hope they would consider it great, for the family as well.”
If he doesn’t get a licensing agreement, there is a back-up plan. He’s talking to licensing authorities like Little House on the Prairie and Anne Frank.
Discounting the previously-announced Claude Jutra Award that Sarah Polley won for her achievements as a first-time feature film director, her film Away from Her took home six of the seven Genies it was nominated for.
* Best Picture
* Best Director (Sarah)
* Best Actor (Gordon Pinsent)
* Best Actress (Julie Christie)
* Best Supporting Actress (Kristen Thompson)
* Best Adapted Screenplay (Sarah)
There was also a bit of a political bent to the ceremony. Many winners and presenters, including Sarah, spoke out against the proposed “Bill C-10″, which would allow the Canadian government to deny tax credits to films and TV series that it considers “offensive or not in the public interest”. It is currently before the Senate.
Polley described the proposed bill as “terrifying” and said it “flies in the face of what we should be looking toward in a civilized nation.”
“Sex and violence are part of the world we live in,” she said after the ceremony. “It’s the job of an artist to talk about the world we live in.”
Lally Cadeau is back on-stage in the Canadian debut production of Rose for the new Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company.
Rose is the story of an eighty-something Jewish woman who has witnessed first-hand many of the twentieth century’s tumultuous events. From the Russian shtetl to the Warsaw ghetto, to the doomed refugee ship “Exodus” and the fading glitz of postwar Atlantic City Rose has been tossed about like debris. But she is the ultimate survivor, looking back with a sense of detached wonder and an admirable lack of bitterness. It is both a sharply drawn portrait of a feisty Jewish woman, and a moving reminder of some of the tumultuous events that shaped the twentieth century.
Lally will be joined by fellow Stratford alums Diana Leblanc (director) and Phillip Silver (designer). The play is running now until March 29 at the Jane Mallet theatre at the St. Lawrence Centre in Toronto.
Toronto Star: This Rose still in bloom
Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company
(hat-tip to Brian)
