Alan Brodie's Weblog

no rest…

alanbrodie — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:37:52 +0000

(Jim Mezon and David Coomber… photo by Bruce Zinger)

Well… RED is already in my rear-view mirror, for the time being at least. Last night I submitted the Light Plot for RED at Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre, and today I have a rehearsal run-through of JULIUS CAESAR at Studio 58, my next production. It’s been some years since I last worked there (6 MINIATURE TRAGEDIES in 2006), but a job in my hometown, and a chance to work with director Scott Bellis both proved too tempting. So I light JULIUS CAESAR before I head off to Edmonton next month for the final installation of our RED saga.

http://www2.langara.bc.ca/studio58/on-stage-now.html

Red opens in Vancouver

alanbrodie — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:34:30 +0000

Tonight is opening #2 of 3 of the Canstage / Playhouse / Citadel co-production of John Logan’s play about abstract expressionist Mark Rothko.

Technical rehearsals went well and preview audiences seemed to enjoy the show… So cheers, merde and break a leg to Jim and David and Kim and Andrea and AJ all the crew.

Let’s try this again…

alanbrodie — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:02:57 +0000

It’s been many months since my last post. It was my sister’s web blog that inspired me to change the way I approach my own blog.

By emailing my posts, it’s my hope that I can do this more often and be more in the moment in my reflections upon my life in the theatre.

Right now I’m in Vancouver where I’ve spent the last week re-creating my lighting for “Red”. Directed by Kim Collier, it played in Toronto before Christmas, and opens in Vancouver January 19th. I’m also working up Red for its upcoming run at the Citadel in Edmonton. Shortly I’ll shift my concentration over to Julius Caesar, which I’m lighting at Studio 58.

It’s been great working at home again in Vancouver, having spent last fall between Toronto, Victoria and Los Angeles……

More to come, I hope – stayed tuned!

yes, it’s been a while

alanbrodie — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:50:49 +0000

Funny, I’ve almost dreaded returning to where I left off, on this blog. And I don’t know why. Maybe I had some hidden expectation that I would contribute more regularly, and then when that didn’t happen, felt I’d let someone down. Maybe myself? Stupid though. So, I just have to redefine what this forum is all about, for me.

So maybe, it’s simply a place to put my thoughts, when enough of them crop up in the recesses of my mind that I need to put them somewhere. The past 6 weeks or so have been very busy, and I finally feel like I’m back in control – maybe that’s what brought me back to this page.

So, in a nutshell, here’s what been going on…

“Regina” – this is the opera that I lit for Pacific Opera Victoria – the piece opened on April 17th at the Royal Theatre – one of the last remaining fully functional hemp houses in North America – how cool to work in a theatre where they still tie on a bag of counterweight to balance the load hanging on a wooden batten. The show went very well, and it was a pleasure to finally work for this small but ambitious company. The build all their own shows – the theatre is well equipped – and the actually spend more than 3 days in the theatre before opening a show. It felt more like lighting a theatre piece than an opera.

photographer extraordinaire

alanbrodie — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:38:33 +0000

David Cooper has photographed literally dozens of shows that I’ve lit over the years.

Visit www.davidcooperphotography.com

“out of the woods”

alanbrodie — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:10:29 +0000

It’s amazing how quickly a show can pull itself together. We had a pretty “rough” dress rehearsal Thursday night, followed by a preview the next night, followed by a 2nd preview and the opening on Saturday night, March 9th. Hardly perfect – its difficult to get everything just right in so little time – but the show has great heart! The performances are strong and the show completely entertaining and captivating – my first Sondheim, its amazing to sit in the audience and watch and listen, instead of sitting buried behind the monitor in the house adjusting the lighting. And I still have A Little Night Music to look forward to working on later this summer. http://www.shawfest.com/web/content.asp?docid=1_3_5_1

And now I find myself in Niagara-on-the-Lake for 2.5 weeks. I’m out to do the “rep” work for the Royal George and Courthouse theatres. In a strange confluence, the Shaw is presenting Lillian Helman’s The Little Foxes this season, which is the opera that Regina is based on, which I’m lighting next at Pacific Opera Victoria. http://www.shawfest.com/web/content.asp?docid=1_3_8_1

And I’m also lighting After the Dance by Terence Rattigan at the Shaw. We watched a movie at home a couple weeks ago called Bright Young Things – a Stephen Fry movie based on the Evelyn Waugh novel entitled Vile Bodies – a social commentary on the life of young people in the 1930′s, between WW1 and WW2. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0325123/

Interesting how art imitates life sometimes.

“Into the Woods” goes into production… finally

alanbrodie — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:16:10 +0000

Well, I spent a busy day yesterday at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre – it was the lighting hang for “Into the Woods”. We had a no-show on the crew, so I spent much of the day helping coordinate things from the ground – but by the end of the day I also had managed to prep all the gel and gobos for the show – that’s the beauty of a rig that’s less than 100 units!

I spent this morning doing my first pass through the opera “Regina“, which I’m lighting at Pacific Opera Victoria in April. It’s a fantastic opera by Marc Blitzstein, of “The Cradle Will Rock” fame www.pov.bc.ca/season_regina.html The opera is based on “The Little Foxes” by Lillian Helman (which is being produced at the Shaw Festival this season, incidentally!) http://www.shawfest.com/web/content.asp?docid=1_3_8_1

A Brave New World?

alanbrodie — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:28:49 +0000

Welcome. I’ve just finished updating the content on my website, and this seemed like a logical addition to make. I often wished that if you visited www.alanbrodie.ca there would be a place where you could find out where I am, or what I’m working on. Well, I guess this is it. I’m not going to bare my soul here – I’m already uneasy with how much we expose our private lives to an anonymous public. So don’t expect any sassy photos or from-the-heart confessions.

So, I’m in Vancouver – have been for a few months now (mostly). Our neighbours, when they see me in the lane, automatically welcome me home – which is funny if I’ve actually been home for weeks, but I can’t blame them. And then they ask how long I’ll be home for. The answer is, a few weeks. I’m heading to NOTL soon, to do some preliminary work on the rep for the RG and Courthouse theatres. But before that, I’m lighting the Patrick Street Production of “Into the Woods”. It runs in Vancouver at the VECC from March 7 – 29th. Come and check it out. http://www.patrickstreetproductions.com/intothewoods.html