Theatre majors beware: If you have yet to hear of this amazing television series from Canada please take note and click here to watch! Not to say it does not contain a bit of the dry humor often associated with British comedy, but I have yet to meet a true theatre person who did not appreciate the style. I see it, thus far, as an odd theatre version of House M.D. only more centered on the oddities of life behind the scenes.
There is a great story line that I urge you to check out through viewing the first season with the previous website link provided above and then seeking down the other seasons as quickly as possible (another stage manager has told me netflix has copies for rental). If you have ever lived a theatre life you have met all the characters at some point. My favorite is the poor stage manager (go figure!) who has to deal with everything with nothing more than a hopeless sigh of relenting. There is the aging diva, the sell out artistic director (you learn all about the state of his soul), and the psychotic free spirit who can't quite keep it all together.
Those are the quote-un-quote "main" characters of the series, but it is undeniable the importance of the side stories and just how much they bring to the plot. Rachael McAdams plays the role of a budding new actress, the creepy German security guard from Kingdom Hospital (who does not play German here) is a mortician, and the annoying and lonely sister from Still Standing (Jennifer Irwin) plays a corporate seductress . Although it is much to difficult to describe their exact involvement in the script know that it is worth it to watch.
One of my favorite themes is corporate vs. amateur style theatre. I do not mean amateur in the normalized sense of "not for money" or "unprofessional" theatre, but as it was originally meant to be viewed as "for the love of". Amateur theatre was done not for profit but to bring cultural and the beauty of live theatre to the lives of everyone. It was not always the elitist event many have come to see it as. The stage was meant as a crossroads between the haves and the have nots. For the first episode this is a central theme.
Of the main trio that was broken up (why this happened I am still finding out as I have not gotten far enough into the series as of yet) one went off the deep end and headed in the direction of grunge theatre. He rented out a space he could not afford and put his heart and soul, along with other grunge artists, into the creation of accessible and wonderful theatre works, even if they were not profit making ventures. When he was evicted and arrested for trying to save his space the theatre world considered him a hero of the true ideals of the stage.
On the other hand the other male of the original trio ended up going the corporate route. He caught on with a festival that succeeded in becoming a very famous and popular destination for rich patrons and high priced donors who then began to do their best to run the stage as a business. That is an ugly word to theatre folk. Not to say we do not enjoy making money for what we do because otherwise we would be forced into daily desk jobs and be robbed of our precious moments in the theatre with our companies. Yet there is something vile and detestably about someone who walks into a theatre and reminds the director to think of his production as a business venture. Sure we accept we need to make money by appealing to the masses, but we must also be permitted to do so in an artistic way that appeals to the very creativity that drew us to such a difficult and unsteady profession in the first place.
And even you do not get into all the philosophical and societal depths I have suggested I ask you watch for only one thing: watch the stage manager. Treat them as well as you wish the show to go. Remember: The Stage Manager calls the cues!
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