​The sign of CNE at the front of the exhibition, displayed for the second time this year did not lose its charm. The volunteers who worked tirelessly to make this exhibition a success are shown seated in front ot the CNE sign.

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Athough we went to the exhibition early in the morning a little after it opened , the flow of people with their children entering the exhibition continued with full enthusiasm. 

​​The rides as usual were a big charm for the families with small children, although it did not deter the zeal of the elders.

​The international stage, which showcased the aeriel acrobatics and other the sky skating, which was showcased on demand,  was thronged with people. The show was to start at 2 pm but we thought to grab the seats a liitle earlier and were there at 1 pm but were amazed to see most of the seats being occupied.

Due the large population of the spectators who were either seated, standing on the sides of the seating arrangement, families and children seated on the floor, the CNE staff decided to open the show at 1:30 pm itself.

The aerial acrobatic show's novelty feature this year was the changing faces of the man every 5 seconds. The international hall was full of applause and cheering.

#StratfordFestival, #TheTempest; #MarthaHenry; #Prospero; #WilliamShakespeare; #genderfluidity

Ottawa, May 29 (Canadian-Media): For the first time on the Stratford Festival's main stage, two women will play male lead roles in the performance of The Tempest, media reports said.

In a year with unprecedented attention being paid to gender parity, thanks partly to the #MeToo and Time's Up movements, one of Canada's largest theatre companies — the very traditional Stratford Festival — is exploring new ways to stay relevant.

Unfortunately the opening night performance of The Tempest was cancelled after the festival received a bomb threat.

When the play does open, Martha Henry, one of Canada's most loved theatre actors, will be playing Prospero.

Martha Henry will be Prospero in The Tempest,  the same play that launched her career at Stratford.

Henry's first role at Stratford was in 1962  and it was The Tempest, too. 

She appeared as Miranda opposite William Hutt in the lead as Prospero. 

Now she's come full circle, playing Prospero as a woman, and mother, opposite the young Mamie Zwettler as her daughter Miranda.

Henry says playing a male lead role would "never have entered her head." 

For Henry, now 80, that means that instead of her career being over, she's now performing the role of a lifetime. 

In fact, her first reaction when artistic director Antoni Cimolino suggested it to her was to say no.

She'd played all the major female roles that William Shakespeare had to offer, and none of his major roles were for older women.

"So I kind of thought, well that's it for me," she said. "That's the end of my acting career. And then Antoni came up with this idea."

"I thought, now listen," she said. "This scares you, doesn't it? And I had to admit that yes, this scares me quite a lot. And then I thought, 'Well then if it scares you, well then you have to do it.'"

With freedom as the theme of the festival this year, The Tempest is not the only major play exploring sexual freedom through casting with gender fluidity. 

Seana McKenna plays the role of Julius Caesar as a man during the 2018 Stratford Festival season.

As she says, 'Who doesn't want to be an emperor?'

The only other Shakespearean production on the Festival Theatre stage will see Seana McKenna cast as Julius Caesar, where, in this case, she'll be playing him as a man. 

​The actors playing Cassius and Mark Anthony are also women.

McKenna played Richard II in 2011 on the smaller third stage at Stratford, and also recently played Lear in Toronto — she has been a trailblazer in unlocking male roles for female actors, but this is also her first chance to play a lead male role on Stratford's main stage.

She said it's both a smart way to increase roles for women in a classical repertory theatre company, and an important way to stay relevant.

"Oh I think it's a very lively conversation right now. So many plays are doing this kind of casting and we've just sort of become part of that zeitgeist really," she said.

Seeing women in positions of power on stage, in roles traditionally given to men, also sends an important message, she said.

"We're just blurring the edges of gender. We're saying these are roles and characters first. Maybe gender is secondary," she adds.

Getting audiences to think more openly about gender is a sentiment Cimolino echoes.

"Theatre has to be something that enables us to feel the world differently, see the world differently and maybe the next day, behave a little differently," he said.

The gender bending goes even further with a studio production of The Comedy of Errors. The show features gender fluidity with all of its casting.

Director Keira Loughran cast her two sets of identical twins as a man and a woman, while a man plays the courtesan role.

She drew inspiration in part from the androgynous stylings of 80s musicians Prince and David Bowie for her costumes, with an eye to keeping things of the moment.

Loughran said it's important to her that a wide variety of people be able to see themselve in Stratford's productions, something she wasn't able to do herself as a young actor at the festival, fifteen seasons ago, although she loved performing there.

"I did struggle to find productions that I saw myself in," she said. "But I think we're still pretty early in figuring out ways to let more diverse people see themselves in production."

She says her goal is to open hearts and minds, "and to challenge people in a way that's open and curious." She knows that in a diverse community, some people will be challenged by her approach. 
"That's how culture, I think, grows," she said. "

I think it's more about getting more people excited by that challenge. And I hope we do it in an entertaining way because the show's a lot of fun," she adds.

Shakespeare was the expert at gender fluidity, casting boys in roles as girls, who then disguised themselves as boys.

"After a while the realities blend and you don't care whether it's left or right or up or down," he said.
"There's a truth that's deeper than gender. A truth that's deeper than identity. There's something quite essential about what it means to be human," he adds.

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#DoorsOpenToronto; #Ontario, #Canada; #VoyageofTime:TheIMAXExperience; #GraemeFerguson 

Toronto, May 24 (Canadian-Media): The 19th annual Doors Open Toronto presented by Great Gulf would kick off on Friday, May 25 with a free film screening of Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience, at Cinesphere, Ontario Place, 955 Lake Shore Blvd. W. at  7:30 pm, followed by panel discussion at 8:30 pm, media reports said.

The panel discussion would feature the evolution of IMAX, its history and its global impact.

Also featuring in the panel discussion would be Canadian filmmaker and IMAX co-inventor Graeme Ferguson, senior IMAX executives Patricia Keighley and David B. Keighley, York University Professor of Cinema and Media Studies Janine Marchessaul and Toronto Star film critic Peter Howell. 

The acclaimed filmmaker Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life)  was reportedly the creator of the film Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience.

​More than two million visits to 800 unique locations across the city have been made to Doors Open Toronto, since its inception in 2000.

It is Canada's largest Doors Open event and one of the three largest Doors Open events in the world.

Members of the media and the public, would get a rare chance through this event to explore the newly reopened Cinesphere at Ontario Place. 

Doors Open Toronto celebrates built heritage, architecture and design and is produced by the City of Toronto in partnership with the broader community.

Media can arrange for the opening night event and interviews with spokespeople can be arranged by contacting Justine Palinska at Justine.Palinska@toronto.ca or 416-395-7318.  

Information about Doors Open Toronto, including the OpenInsights Speaker Series and a complete list of participating buildings, is available at http://www.toronto.ca/doorsopen. ​


​(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

​

Toronto, Apr 13 (Canadian-Media): City of Toronto Media Relations has issued the following news release:

In 2017, domestic and foreign film, television, digital and commercials production investments in Toronto achieved their second highest level ever at $1.8 billion, the third consecutive year that this important sector has contributed more than $1.5 billion to Toronto’s economy. These numbers and others were part of an annual report of this sector presented today to the Economic Development Committee. 

"We're proud of Toronto's film and television industry and we want it to continue to grow,” said Mayor John Tory. “We will keep working with our industry partners so they have what they need to create jobs, attract talent and contribute to the economy. Whether the final product will be on the big screen, the small screen or streamed online, we want that production to be a made-in-Toronto production." 

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​Last year was outstanding for Toronto-based productions. The film The Shape of Water, shot in and around Toronto, received the most nominations for the Oscars and Golden Globes while The Handmaid’s Tale series was prominently acknowledged at the Primetime Emmy’s. The Toronto screen-based industry was also involved in the film productions of Molly’s Game, Downsizing and The Breadwinner, which also received international award nominations and acclaim. This year, anticipated productions such as the eighth season of Suits, Umbrella Academy and It: Chapter 2 will shoot across the city. 

Some of the major highlights for 2017: 
• Domestic and international screen-based production investments exceeded the $1-billion mark for a seventh consecutive year. 
• The number of projects shooting in Toronto achieved the highest ever level, with 1,432 projects shooting in the city over 6,804 days of production. 
• Investment in commercials production continued to rise to record levels, growing to $392 million in 2017. Investment in this area has nearly doubled in the last four years from the $197 million recorded in 2014. 
• Domestic productions showed solid growth in 2017 after decreasing in 2016, moving from $429 million in 2016 to $477 million in 2017. 
• Television series, both foreign and domestic, continue to be the dominant type of production occurring in the city, accounting for 73 per cent of all major production investments. 
• Investment in animation and visual effects remains strong at $381 million in 2017. Since 2014, investment in this area has increased by 338 per cent (from $87.1 million). 

“The film and television industry is an important economic driver for Toronto, employing over 30,000 people. We have tremendous Toronto talent in front of and behind the camera,” said Councillor Michael Thompson (Ward 37 Scarborough Centre), Chair of the Economic Development Committee. 

“Toronto is ready for more investment in this key economic driver for our city,” said Councillor Paula Fletcher (Ward 30 Toronto-Danforth), Chair of the Toronto Film, Television and Digital Media Board. “We are doing everything we can to address all the infrastructure issues that will unlock growth potential for our film industry including identifying City land that will be put out on the market with the specific intent of building more studio space.” ​

​Catherine Tait/Facebook page

​Tait was introduced by Federal Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly at a media briefing in Ottawa on Tuesday and added she was champion for Canadian content who had "successfully navigated the sea of change from traditional media and communications through to today's digital world."

Tait, 60, has worked in the film and television business in Canada and the U.S. for more than 30 years
and  will replace Hubert Lacroix, 62, who was selected by then Prime Minister Stephen Harper's heritage minister, Josée Verner, in 2008.

Tait had also helped provide business strategy services, as president of Duopoly, an independent film, television and digital content company based in Brooklyn, New York. 

She said that she wanted to create partnerships with "all Canadian stakeholders: private broadcasters, press organizations, networks such as APTN — not to forget provincial broadcasters, representatives of the music industry, as well as our own firms that are digital, and other platforms."

Tait also said CBC/Radio Canada's stories should cover women and new Canadians, as well as people from the Indigenous and LGBTQ communities.

Tait's appointment is the latest in a series of moves the federal Liberals have made at the public broadcaster that began in 2016, when it boosted CBC funding by $675 million over five years.
 
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)


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