“If we can’t get a younger crowd to the theatre, then we will bring theatre to the younger crowd,” says Caleb McMullen, Artistic Producer and co-owner of Mnemonic Theatre Productions. “Our events are geared towards a 20’s and 30’s crowd at the places they would be - like the beach, the club or the bar. They are not going to the theatre, the theatre is coming to them and we believe that makes a big difference.”

zeeBigBang interviewed McMullen to understand the thinking behind this innovative approach to theatre that he and business partner, Jordan Dibe, Director of Operations, are spearheading through Vancouver-based Mnemonic Theatre Productions.

“We appeal to the club culture. We take familiar stories, put them on their head, making them edgy and fun,” says McMullen.

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This week zeeBigBang shines the spotlight on The Acting Center, a renown acting school located in Los Angeles, California.

The Acting Center was founded in 2006 by a group of seasoned stage, television and film actors and teachers. Since then it has quickly become one of the most respected places to study acting in Los Angeles.

We spoke with one of the founders of the centre, Tamra Meskimen and her husband, Jim Meskimen who is a seasoned actor as well as student at the Acting Center. We asked them what makes this school so different from other acting schools.

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Hart House Theatre kicked off their 2012/2013 season with a line up that includes Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Romeo & Juliet and Robin Hood: The Legendary Musical Comedy. 

Exterior of Hart House Theatre; Photo courtesy of Rasheed Clarke/Gleaner News.

zeeBigBang spoke with Jeremy Hutton, Hart House Theatre’s first Artistic Director in 30 years. We talked to him about his job, what makes Hart House unique from other theatre companies and what this season has in store for its audience.

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Cirque du Soleil opens in Toronto next week with their newest show, Amaluna.

zeeBigBang spoke with performer, Andreanne Nadeau, about what it’s like to be part of Cique du Soleil and what makes Amaluna so unique to other Cirque du Soleil shows.

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“Stage 32 appeals to writers, screenwriters, actors, pretty much anyone who aspires to get involved with the film industry,” says Curt Blakeney, co-founder and COO.

The idea for the networking website came together when Blakeney and co-founder and CEO Richard Botto, saw how frustrating it was to put together film projects.

“We went out to the American Film Market, a conference in Los Angeles that brings together filmmakers, production companies and others in the industry who are trying to get their projects made. We saw how difficult it was to network with people in the industry. We thought it would be great if we could create an online network of people around the world who can network 24/7, 365 days a year and get their projects done,” says Blakeney.

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A Song for Tomorrow, written by Toronto-based playwright Christina Wong and produced by New Harlem Productions and Eventual Ashes, expresses the differences between Chinese and Canadian culture.  Premiering at the SummerWorks Festival, the play stars May and Ping, a Chinese couple who immigrated to Toronto in 1971, all the while demonstrating the cultural differences in their daily lives.

zeeBigBang talked to Gein Wong, the director of A Song for Tomorrow and Artistic Director of Eventual Ashes. According to Wong, A Song for Tomorrow mirrors the feelings and thoughts of Chinese immigrants as they adapt to a new country, in this case Canada.

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Motor Vehicle Sundown is a live art experience that gives the concept of a car a new dimension. The series, taking place at the Summerworks Festival, gives two audience members an audio recording to listen to while sitting in a parked car by themselves on a busy city street.

The audio recording takes the two audience members on a journey through different constructed memories of experiences that are associated with being in a car.

“We’re so familiar with cars and they’re this incredibly mundane thing that we don’t even notice. In the US especially, the car is identified with this vision of freedom and independence and it’s all about the fact that you’re not constrained by your home anymore, you can go wherever you want,” said Andy Field, the creator behind Motor Vehicle Sundown.

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The play, Aneemah’s Spot  is the story of two friends, Aneemah and Wan, and the conversation that follows after losing their friend, “G”, to violence.

Written by Toronto’s award-winning poet/emcee and playwright, Motion, the play uses a theatrical remix of dialogue, rhyme and spoken word to present the emotions and memories expressed following the aftermath of “G“‘s death.

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Breath in Between is a complex and multifaceted play. Written by Dora Mavor Moore award-winner Anton Piatigorsky and directed by Buddies in Bad Times’ Artistic Director Brendan Healy, it is about the intimacy between people and the wide spaces found between these relationships.

The play, which made its premier at the Summerworks Festival, features Paul Fauteux as Roger, who has placed an ad on Craigslist as a way to find someone to kill. Two people respond to his ad and the plot thickens when Roger falls in love with Amy, played by Amy Rutherford.

“I was really interested in exploring the idea of intimacy, both in a relationship between people and in the theatre, the kind of intimacy that’s experienced between actors and audiences,” said Piatigorsky.

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The Summerworks Theatre Festival kicks off next week and zeeBigBang will be there to bring you insider information from all of the different theatre, live art and music performances.

“The festival is about collaboration and inclusion and exploring the idea of what performance is,” says Michael Rubenfeld, artistic producer of Summerworks.

This year, Summerworks is presenting four artistic collaborations that pair established music artists with artists working in other mediums.

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