Dear Friends, of Pleiades, of theatre, of the arts, of life:

In 1971, a Toronto boy still wet behind the ears, I was launching le Théâtre du P’tit Bonheur, later the Théâtre français de Toronto. As luck would have it, I was sent off to Sherbrooke to take part in a big showcase for the performing arts in Québec. Anyone who had a show to sell, a band to promote, a song to sing or a story to tell was there and the rest of us got to watch. It was there that I discovered Michel Tremblay (the play was Forever Yours, Marie-Lou), Robert Charlebois, le Théâtre du Rideau Vert, Claude Léveillée, Dominique Michel, André Gagnon. Indeed, there seemed to be a host of astonishing artists from French Canada.

Among them was this very idiosyncratic Acadian actress, Viola Léger, doing a spell-binding performance of the most unlikely character imaginable, la Sagouine. From the get-go, Viola had the entire audience in the palm of her hand and I have never forgotten her, how she came on stage in her rubber boots and frumpy old clothes, her banged-up wooden bucket and mop, and how she got down on all fours to start scrubbing the worn linoleum. Not long after that, La Sagouine was embarked on a astonishing career: hundreds of performances in Montréal and throughout the Province of Québec; at the newly minted National Arts Centre in Ottawa; command performances before visiting dignitaries; the celebrated French director, Jean-Louis Barrault (who starred in Les Enfants du Paradis) invited the show to Paris where it played to packed houses. Here was a brand new play from a remote corner of Canada in which the character was speaking real, live 17th century French. And it was her natural language! In 1979, La Sagouine was translated into English and Viola, who is perfectly bilingual, learned the play in her second language, thus beginning its parallel life in Canada’s other official language.

Although she has gone on to do all manner of parts, in both English and French, la Sagouine is Viola Léger’s signature role. When I asked her how many performances she’d done, she told me she stopped counting after 2000! Now, as she approaches her four-score years, she is certainly the age of the character, although I must say that both seem absolutely timeless.

La Sagouine, a real person who died in the mid-sixties, and her author, Antonine Maillet, both hail from Bouctouche, New Brunswick, a little Acadian fishing village about forty minutes north of Moncton. Since 1971, the character, the author and the actor have become so deeply engrained in the lives of modern Acadians that, fifteen years ago, a theme park was built in Bouctouche in celebration of them all. There, at “Le Pays de la Sagouine,” Viola performs every summer to some 85,000 people, many of whom travel hundreds of miles to see her. This is, by any measure, astounding.

In 2001, then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appointed Viola as the first woman artist to sit in the Senate. She worked tirelessly there until her mandatory retirement, at age 75, in 2005. Then, she went straight back to the stage, where she swears she will end her days… but not till she’s 130. This woman is remarkable and especially in this unique, iconic, quintessential Canadian play, one has to add: what an actor!

Because we believe in our work, we are always saying things like “not to be missed” and we always hope that it’s true. In this case, knowing that time is not on our side and that Viola may not be coming this way again soon, seeing her in La Sagouine may just be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So I urge you to get out your calendars and book those tickets today!

John Van Burek, Artistic Director

Found in Translation

Thanks to a generous grant from the George Cedric Metcalf Foundation, we have launched a new unit for writers who are interested in translation for the theatre. Found in Translation is designed to give writers an opportunity to hone their skills in this very specific art form. This is an excellent tool for writers and many of the world's best authors have used translation in order to unlock the secrets of a fellow-writer's power with the pen. Artistic Director John Van Burek learned a great deal about playwriting and about what makes dialogue work by translating Michel Tremblay, Marivaux, Goldoni and Molière. Taking a great play from one language to another tells a writer how much (or how little) needs to be said and how much can be understood. And, as those who know us are aware, translation is Pleiades' middle name. Our purpose is to bring you great plays from around the world, plays that are often inaccessible because they weren't written in English, and to present them in new, vibrant, contemporary Canadian translations. Toronto is teeming with cultural ambassadors from every corner of the globe and we want to provide a window onto those worlds. Presently, we are working Lascelle Wingate and playwright David Copelin, on a wonderful German play from 1910. We also have a young Greco-Canadian actor and writer exploring a twentieth century Greek domestic comedy that has never been done in English. In addition, we have several projects on the boil, including a new play for young audiences from Québec, a play from Mexico and a scintillating, deliciously naughty French comedy from the 1920's.

There are many great plays out there, just waiting for Toronto to open its doors. We want to give playwrights the opportunity to bring them to life for us today, thereby honing their skills as writers and expanding our contact with the world through theatre. As Pleiades continues to grow, Found in Translation will become an integral part of our development. For more information please call Andrey Tarasuik at (416) 203-1227.

Andrey Tarasiuk, our new Producer

We are very excited to tell you that Andrey Tarasiuk has taken on the role of Producer for Pleiades Theatre. Andrey brings a wealth of experience to the company, having spent some thirty years working in theatre in this country. Andrey took the Moscow Circus on tour, he developed and inaugurated the Dream in High Park, he worked closely with the great Bill Glassco in the early years of Tarragon Theatre and again at Canadian Stage, and he was the Artistic Director and Producer at Theatre Direct Canada, a company devoted to plays for adolescents. From there he went on to become the Associate Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival of Canada. Andrey is one of the most respected and knowledgeable theatre arts practitioners in Canada; how lucky we are to have him with us at Pleiades.

We hope you will drop by to visit us and our team if you are ever in the Distillery District! And we know you will be excited with the fabulous year to come!

Recognizing Shakuntala: In conversation with director Charles Roy

Pleiades Theatre's upcoming production of Shakuntala by 5th Century Indian playwright Kalidasa, will be brought to life in February 2009 at Harbourfront Centre's Fleck Dance Theatre (formerly the Premiere Dance Theatre) as part of their World Stage Festival. We caught up with the director Charles Roy at his home in Toronto and asked him to tell us about the artistic journey as he prepares for this very exciting production.

What was your first experience with Shakuntala?
I discovered Shakuntala in my early twenties when my Father - a big fan of Indian Classical drama - handed me a translation of the play and dared me to direct it. I mounted my first production when I was completing my MFA at York when I was 25.

What compelled you to do a Canadian translation of the 5th century classic and was it difficult to do since the original is in Sanskrit?
Calling it a Canadian translation is a bit of a misnomer, as there's nothing especially Canadian, or at least, stereotypically Canadian about it. No mention of hockey pucks or Molson beer, say. It's Canadian and contemporary, merely because the translation reflects its translator, myself, who is Canadian and living today.

I translated the play as an exercise when I was studying drama in India. When I came back to Canada, I was given the opportunity to direct it, so I reviewed mine and many other translations. I found that most of them got certain aspects right - some the high poetry, some the humour, some the court language, etc., but none were ideal. So, I cobbled together many translations, including my own, to make a script that I thought best reflected the original. Since then, I've further adapted most of what I initially stole, so the script is a combination of my words (though, not all my ideas) and another translator's - P. Lal.

The difficulty was in bridging the highly formal and archaic language of Sanskrit court poetry with linguistic elements rooted in today's speech, which has really been divested of formal courtly idioms.

How did you and Pleiades Theatre come together for this project?
John saw my production at York, had always wanted to produce the play and thought he'd found an appropriate collaborator in me.

For the 2009 production, what will be your main focus as the director- what elements will be implemented to make this a fresh take on an old classic?

It's funny to think of it as an 'old' classic, because despite its age (about 1600 years old) nobody over here knows about it. It's almost a 'new' classic. First and foremost, the task will be to effectively communicate the style of story-telling at work in the piece. It's quite non-literal; time and cause-and-effect (famously rigid constructs in Western drama) are very liquid; and many common structural elements of Western drama aren't present. This is a play where emotional impact and beauty are given priority over plotting and character coherence, which can disorient an audience unused to such things. In other words, the play is meant to be 'felt' not 'followed'.

My job, as I see it, is to provide - even impose - structural cohesion to the piece in a manner palatable to our audiences, without sacrificing the unique features of the play. For Indian audiences, the plot of Shakuntala is so well-known, the story itself is almost a minor obstacle to the 'sensation' of the play. For us, we'll need to go through the story first. It'll be our entry-point into a new theatrical world, which, once understood and accepted, will invite us to allow a succession of images and sensations to wash over us, leading to the kind of experience that has made this play so beloved for so long.

Any inciting words for playwrights wanting to delve into translation?
For me, successful translations capture the music of the original, or at least in drama's case, the music of the people in the story. Most translators can communicate literal meaning of text, but few have the ear for cadence, rhythm and pitch that can translate the impact of an idiom from one language to another.

What inspires you as a director and what words of advice would you give to emerging South Asian theatre artists?
Still trying to work that stuff out myself.

Andrey Tarasiuk to cover for Marilo Nuñez

Our fantastic General Manager, Marilo Nuñez, will soon do her bit to repopulate Canada by giving birth to her second child. The hard part is that she will be leaving us for a year in order to do the job properly! But, there is a God! That loss is counter balanced by the fact that we are blessed with the arrival of Andrey Tarasiuk, as our Associate Producer for the year to come. Andrey comes to us after having served as Associate Artistic Director and Director of New Play Development at the Stratford Festival for seven years, and before that as Artistic Producer of Theatre Direct Canada. Prior to that, he worked as a stage manager and production manager at Tarragon, under the great Bill Glassco, and at various theatres across the country. He brings a wealth of knowledge about Canadian theatre and our artists of many disciplines and most of all, an exciting new energy that promises to keep all of us here at Pleiades on our toes and with our noses to the grindstone. In other words, we will be happily crippled by the end of the year. Then Marilo will come back to straighten us out!

We hope you will drop by to visit us and our team if you are ever in the Distillery District! And we know you will be excited with the fabulous year to come!