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Studio Theatre’s David Parry must make difficult choices Arts – This year, Perth’s Studio Theatre opens its 2013-14 season with a sure-fire audience pleaser: Norm Foster’s Old Love, directed by the company’s artistic director, David Parry. There is a bit of a love-hate relationship in this combination because Parry has always been outspoken on his views of Foster’s plays. “For a number of years, it was well known I was not a big fan of Norm Foster,� he admits. Then he qualifies his statement. “Well, that’s not entirely true. I liked his plays, just not the number of them being done.� He chuckles and adds, “A steady diet of either chocolate or roast beef will soon make you turn to the other.� Yet in spite of his ambivalence about Foster plays, Old Love will be Parry’s second production by this popular Canadian playwright. Last year, Studio Theatre appropriately opened its season with Foster’s Opening Night, a smash hit directed by Parry. It was his first Foster play, and he says, “I directed it in my own mind despite the fact it was a Norm Foster. But I had seen it and felt it was one of his best plays.� Why does he persist in again starting off with a playwright about whom he feels only lukewarm? As artistic director, Parry is mainly responsible for putting together the season of plays the Studio Theatre will present. Choice of plays is one of the main conundrums facing an artistic director. Parry heads up a committee of directors and other interested people who read and suggest plays for a season. He himself comes to the table having read over a dozen plays that he feels would be suitable. He says, “I think we need a season that is not all comedies, although they are popular. I think we have a duty to bring other types of plays to the audience. It sounds horribly sort of elitist in some ways, but I think it’s important. I’m looking for a play that
Submitted photo
Studio Theatre’s artistic director, David Parry, is getting set to direct Studio Theatre’s 2013-14 season opener, Norm Foster’s Old Love, this September.
$22 at the door or at Tickets Please (credit cards accepted). Season tickets for our entire season – Old Love, our EODL One Act Festival play, a pantomime, a Canadian play, a box office smash hit, and a musical – are now available for a special rate until Labour Day, Sept 2. All six plays are available for just $99 at the theatre box office (cash or cheque only) or at Tickets Please (credit cards accepted; a convenience fee applies.). After Labour Day, you are still saving! All six plays are available for $110 at the theatre box office (cash or cheque only) or at Tickets Please (credit cards accepted; a convenience fee applies). Don’t miss a single play of this fabulous season. Joan Sonnenburg is in charge of promotions at the Studio Theatre.
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entertains, but not only the laughs. It holds your attention, makes you think. It’s wonderful to have an audience go out of the theatre talking about the play they’ve just seen. Things they like, or didn’t like or didn’t understand.� So why open with Norm Foster? He laughs and says wryly, “I succumbed to the ‘Well, it makes a good season starter.’ philosophy. It’s a very funny play by a playwright whose name our audience will certainly recognize. Still, I would not have considered directing it unless I found the play entertaining and with something to say about the human condition.� But with only four actors playing the eight characters that appear on stage, Old Love is a difficult play as well as an entertaining one, presenting a challenge for both actors and director. Parry, how-
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ever, is experienced in both disciplines. He spent a number of years with Tara Players in Ottawa as both actor and director, and since he came to Perth five years ago, he has performed in A Month of Sundays, You Say Tomatoes and The Christmas Express, and he has directed The Importance of Being Earnest, The Mousetrap, I’ll be Back Before Midnight, An Inspector Calls, and Opening Night. And he is of course, like all members of Studio Theatre, thrilled with the renovations to the physical theatre, particularly the installation of an elevator. Now, all entertainment here is accessible to everyone, whether mobility challenged or not. Old Love runs Sept. 12, 13, 14, 20 and 21 at 8 p.m. with matinees Sept. 15 and 22 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance, from the Book Nook in Perth,
By JOAN SONNENBURG
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THE EMC - 29 - Thursday, August 15, 2013