April 10th marks the 25th Anniversary of the world premiere of Two Pianos, Four Hands (2P4H). The show by Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt began at the Tarragon Theatre in 1996 and has gone on to become the most produced play in Canadian theatre history. Mirvish presented 2P4H in Toronto three times, in 1998, 2003 and 2001, each time to sold-out houses. Mirvish also presented the show off Broadway in New York and in London’s West End.
A new column by Desiree Proveau, our resident arts and crafts connoisseur, with future contributions from other Mirvish staffers, about what we’re doing offstage while we wait for the theatres to reopen.
It was last year around this time that I was about a month into lockdown 1.0, with two small children, wondering how I was going to survive being cooped up in my house with a small backyard that had seen better days.
“This has been such a very difficult time for live performance and many artists, technicians and craftsmen and women have struggled in a profession that is already fraught with insecurity. Maybe that always present insecurity has made them more able to survive this pandemic with wit and courage.
Linda Griffiths was a Canadian actor, playwright and director. She first came to prominence with Maggie and Pierre (1980), which she co-wrote with director Paul Thompson and performed across the country. Maggie and Pierre played at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in 1981, where it transferred after its enormous success at Theatre Passe Muraille as part of the Toronto International Theatre Festival.
Friday, March 13, 2020 was the day that our theatres had their final shows before the pandemic shuttered them. We asked some Come From Away cast members to share what was going through their minds on that final Friday night performance. At the time, nobody knew that it would be the last one for a long time.
March 20th, the March equinox, which in the northern hemisphere means it’s finally spring. We’ll have earlier sunrises, later sunsets, softer winds and sprouting plants. Which reminds us of the beautiful and hopeful final scene of Calendar Girls in which the stage becomes a field of sunflowers. In the photo are Fiona Reid and Fiona Highet from the production that played at the Royal Alex in spring 2011.