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  • 5 weeks ago
From PBS - With unprecedented access, The Shaw Festival: Behind the Curtain captures the unique creative process of one of North America's longest running, most distinctive and exciting theatre experiences. Each year between April and October, the Shaw Festival--which began in 1962 with the mandate on works by George Bernard Shaw--presents around 10 plays on four stages that attract patrons from all over the world. Located in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada--the Shaw's one-of-a-kind schedule has actors and directors working on several plays at once. Over eight months, crews design and build sets on a finely honed schedule that is both frenetic, creative, and amazingly well planned and executed. Follow the process of getting the play from the page to the stage as The Shaw Festival: Behind the Curtain provides insight into every aspect of production at a summer theatre festival.
Transcript
00:20The Shaw Festival is a place where you get to do scripts that are not done almost anywhere
00:27else in the country. The Shaw Festival Theatre is one of the most ambitious theatre companies
00:33in North America. My mother didn't buy this for whores to eat on. It is a place where we
00:43engage people's minds and hearts. The theatre is named for Irish playwright George Bernard
00:51Shaw. Shaw was a great playwright. He was the ultimate provocateur, challenged all types
00:58of assumptions and conventional ideas. Yes. You told me that you were jealous of him. Oh
01:03God, I didn't mean literally. He doesn't mean. The Festival Theatre presents plays by Bernard
01:08Shaw and other playwrights who carry on Shaw's provocative exploration of society. Just bring
01:15in your paper. And I guarantee you, you will find four or five or six articles in that
01:20newspaper pertinent to that day's news which directly relate to the play we're doing.
01:26The Shaw Festival Theatre is home to one of the largest ensemble acting companies in North
01:31America. So in that sense then, I think let's just see how far we can kind of push it. It
01:37was very scary. I thought I have to kind of prove myself with this.
01:44The Shaw Festival is located in historic and picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.
01:52The theatre season runs from April through October with ten plays staged in four different venues.
01:59Our main function today is to unload the trucks and put the set on stage for tomorrow.
02:06You see so much of the theatre at the front and you think that's all of it, but it's like
02:10an iceberg, you know. Eighty percent of the stuff is below the water.
02:15You must tell anyone, Hedda.
02:18This is a quick change from that costume to this costume. One minute. That's shoes, pantyhose, dress.
02:27Yes. All the departments are coming together to create magic. That's what theatre is in
02:34its pure form. All artists collaborating together to make the whole.
02:39For more information, Hedda, is in www.eatda.com, Hedda.com, Hedda.com.
02:56T
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