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FROM OUR PRESIDENT, TALIA PURAGreetings to my fellow ACTRA Manitoba Members. Isn’t it fabulous to see that audition notices are again coming our way? Pinkertons is now casting episode 7 of 22. A letter has gone out to the writers of the series, with the blessings of their casting director and producer, suggesting a story line that would need many female actors for multiple episodes. We are doing what we can to increase opportunities for our female members.

It is nice to see a few other smaller productions in town as well. I am also looking forward to this year’s MIP showcase in March, as I know quite a number have been shot already. Look for an announcement soon concerning an iMIP two-night workshop, teaching us to make movies with our smart phones.

I know that any members who attended our second bi-annual Gala Awards Night will agree that it was the party of the year. Congratulations to Best Actor Award winners, Darcy Fehr, Ross McMillian, Brooke Palsson, and Nancy Sorel. All of the nominees looked fabulous up there on the big screen. Thanks also for all of the organizing efforts Rob Macklin and our very capable council members: Claude Dorge, Daryl Dorge, Ti Hallas, Shannon Jacques, Kevin Longfield, Tim Nhlazane, Toni Reimer, Jan Skene, and Gord Tanner. It was a night to remember. Don’t forget that you can get the same ACTRA ring that was given to all of the nominees by visiting Hilary Druxman in the Exchange and ordering one for yourself. Made of Sterling Silver, the cost is $60.00, with $10.00 of that amount going to PAL Manitoba as a donation. Thanks goes to Claude Dorge for suggesting the initial design of the ring.

It was a privilege to acknowledge the work of Carole Vivier, of Manitoba Film and Music, for all of her work to bring productions to Manitoba. She was presented with the Wayne Nicklas Award for extraordinary service to our industry.

Congratulations to two of our members, Fernando Dalayoan and Alan Wong, who make up half of the list of four ACTRA National members to win the ACTRA National Diversity Challenge (see further article for details). They will receive funding to create a short movie on the theme of diversity.

Our fabulous Actors’ Gyms are ongoing. Please take advantage of this training opportunity, in order to present confidently at your next audition.

I am pleased to see that many Members have now joined Casting Workbook, the great on-line tool for submitting for roles in this city and across the country.

I wish you all a productive and satisfying fall and a very late start to winter.

 

Some 300 Members, family, friends and film-industry professionals gathered at The Metropolitan on Friday evening, September 19, for ACTRA Manitoba’s second Performance Awards Gala.  And it was a resounding success! The joyful buzz of the appreciative and impressed crowd echoed from the elegant, domed ceiling of the beautifully restored theatre.  From the moment Members and friends arrived, the atmosphere was charged with excitement and anticipation.  The women were exquisitely stunning; the men were dashingly handsome and, as the emcee in Cabaret says, “Even ze orchestra vas bootiful”.

Our talented hosting duo, Dean Jenkinson and Al Rae, opened the evening and their wit and humour continued to sparkle throughout the presentation.

First on the program was the ACTRA Gala Secret Singers with a performance of a slightly adapted version of the classic “Another Opening, Another Show”.  Choreographed by Brenda Gorlick, the singers were Donna Fletcher, Adam Hurtig, Jeremy Koz, Edward Ledson, Brooke Palsson, Jan Skene and

Stephanie Sousa.

The Honourable Ron Lemieux, Minister of Tourism, Culture, Heritage, Sport and Consumer Protection and responsible for Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation (or the “Minister of Fun”, as he called himself) brought greetings from the provincial government.

Talia Pura, our President and National Councillor, spoke with her usual enthusiasm and introduced our National President, Ferne Downey, who brought greetings from ACTRA National.

Among our several hundred attendees were mayoral candidates Judy Wasylycia-Leis, Brian Bowman and Robert-Falcon Ouellette.

Hot Thespian Action, or, at least, 4/5 of them, performed one of their always-entertaining sketches.  Thanks to Jane Testar, Garth Merkeley, Shannon Guiles and Ryan Miller.

Winnipeg’s international opera star, Tracy Dahl, filled the hall with humour and a full complement of high notes.  She was accompanied by Laura Loewen.

Our thanks go, also, to Stage Manager Michelle Lagasse and her ASM Sandra McEwing; to Craig Guiboche, our DVD editor, and to Greg Lowe and his Mini Ministers who kept the evening hopping.

 

PERFORMANCE AWARD RECIPIENTSCongratulations to this year’s Outstanding Performance Award winners!

For television release, Nancy Sorel and Ross McMillan for their roles in Less Than Kind.

For theatrical release, Brooke Palsson and Darcy Fehr for their performances in Euphoria.

Congratulations are also in order for all the other nominees who made up a roster of terrific performances:  Arden Alfonso, Marina Stephenson Kerr, Ali Tataryn, Kassidy Love Brown, Doreen Brownstone, Sarah Constible, Cruise Brown, Paul Esiembre, Tom Keenan, Mike O’Brien, Adam Hurtig, John B. Lowe, Stephen McIntyre and Lee Major.

A special thanks to the award presenters—Rebecca Gibson, Mike Bell, Rea and

Sean Kavanagh, Sharon Bajer, Rick Skene, Kristen Harris and Fred Penner.

 

FROM NATIONAL PRESIDENT, FERNE DOWNEYACTRA Manitoba members, I love spending time with you. As an actor who studied and started my professional life in Halifax, NS, my heart pounds in recognition of the many gifts you bring to your work. So many also write, direct, produce, sing, dance and/or play a musical instrument. Triple or even quadruple threats! I love it. And participating in the ACTRA Manitoba Awards 2014 was a lucky night for me. Great performance work was celebrated and the lively political debate around the bar at The Metropolitan kept me captivated til closing time. That famous Friday September 19 - opening of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, dust-up with Netflix on the final day of the CRTC’s “ Let’s Talk TV” Hearings

The ACTRA Gala was a wonderful opportunity to honour the work our Manitoba actors have done, and to look good while doing it!

Kevin P. Gabel

The ACTRA Gala was in a word........Exhilarating!

Manny Sylvester

I attended the ACTRA Manitoba Awards Gala on September 19 ! Wow! I feel so lucky to be a part of this amazing organization! The professionalism and content was outstanding !

Congratulations to the organizers for putting on such a well run and entertaining event and to all the amazing actors both winners and attendees!   Can't wait till the next one!

Susan Loewen

My daughters Maxine Gibson Bruce (age 14) and Annika Elyse Irving (age 8) very recently joined ACTRA, and the Gala was a wonderful welcome

and the fabulous awards gala  - will stay a Red Letter Day in my presidential diary.

Thank you all for welcoming me. You are great hosts – it had been a continuing privilege to work with ACTRA Manitoba President Talia Pura. It is not every National President who has the good fortune to have a Branch President perform on her silks at the CLC Convention in Montreal and bring the House of Labour to its feet. Unity-building ACTRA-style. Thank you Talia for all you do.

for them, a great opportunity to see our community's pride and passion. We all also enjoyed the opportunity to get really dressed up!

Rebecca Gibson

I was very glad that Stephen Harper attended.

Ross Macmillan

The Gala venue was quite elegant and the event was well organized by the Local group here (good on you!) Good to see a variety of Industry professionals participate in the event. Looking forward to 2016

Jenny Ng-Turner

Fun, exciting night!  Wonderful entertainment!

Judy Arnason

What a great evening organized by ACTRA Manitoba! The glitz, the glamour, the food, the drinks, the music and to top it all off, I got a chance to meet and chat with the co-MC of the show, the multi-talented and always hilarious, Al Rae!

Pierre Bohémier

Attending the ACTRA gala was a

very exciting event for me! Since becoming a member this year, I find the gatherings to be exhilarating and most inspiring. I look up to not only the winners of the awards that night but to everyone in the ACTRA family. Having the chance to meet new members at the gala was a wonderful experience and something I look forward to again.

Lorrie Papadopoulos

The MB ACTRA Awards Gala is a great opportunity to celebrate & recognize the efforts within our community. My hope is this event continues to grow.

 Terry Ray

 

 

TRAINING REPORTby Jan Skene

Over the past 4 months, ACTRA Manitoba Members have participated in 2 actor-oriented Film Training Manitoba workshops: Stillness for the Camera, the Art of Non-Acting with Brent Fidler and Meisner on Film with Christiane Hirt.

The Meisner workshop was sold out and received excellent participant feedback.  Thank you to ACTRA Members Nancy Sorel for suggesting Brent Fidler, and Alicia Johnston for recommending Christiane Hirt.  FTM is bringing Ms. Hirt back November 22nd and 23rd to teach a two-day workshop for directors on directing actors. Through gaining deeper insight into an actor's process, the director participants will discover simple, dynamic and efficient tools that will accelerate their skills in working with actors.

The next actor workshop will be held mid November – Process and Character Development: Individual Coaching Sessions with Jim Heber.  For full details on the Jim Heber and the Christiane Hirt workshops see:

http://www.filmtraining.mb.ca/calendar/directing-actors-christiane-hirt/

http://www.filmtraining.mb.ca/calendar/process-character-development-individual-coaching-sessions-jim-heber/

 Toni Reimer has generously shared some notes and thoughts from the Meisner workshop:

Christiane Hirt's Meisner workshop taught us it's better to receivethan to give. Sounds selfish but it reminds us to get lost in whatothers are feeding us rather than focusing on ourselves. By listeningand receiving, our bodies will respond truthfully. By allowing our natural impulses to happen, rich performances will be born out of our behaviour. It's all about living in the truth of the moment. She says the brain takes what is being said but the body takes how it's said. Listen. Receive. Respond.

 Each day started with Meisner's word repetition exercise. Two actors sat across from each other and were asked to simply notice their partner. After a brief silence

one person would make an observation of the other; "You are wearing a blue shirt", to which the correct response was "I am wearing a blue shirt." This was repeated over and over until a significant shift took place at which point the one noticing the shift would comment on it; "You find that funny". And the correct response was "I find that find funny."  And repeat.

 “The word repetition exercise is rooted in truth and observation. It immediately connects you to your partner. We then translated this to text work, taking cold read scenes and prepped scenes, and stayed in the moment with our partners, letting go of what we may have predetermined the scene to be. The work of each participant was dynamic and connected.”

 ACTRA will be advising on one more actor based workshop to be held prior to March 31st, so please send any instructor recommendations or workshop ideas you have to the office or to janskene@shaw.ca.  Member input is very much appreciated.

 

TWO OF FOUR WINNERS SELECTED  ARE MANITOBA MEMBERS!ACTRA National’s Diversity Committee is pleased to announce the winners of the short film competition.

ACTRA Manitoba member Fernando Dalayoan

ACTRA Manitoba member Alan Wong

ACTRA Toronto member Kristina Esposito

ACTRA Saskatchewan member Dawn Bird

“The Diversity Committee received many great submissions from ACTRA members across Canada,” says Diversity Committee Chair, Jani Lauzon. “Tough decisions

were made by the jury as it came down to the quality of script, feasibility of the project and the strength of the messaging.”

The projects will be completed by January 2015, and will be used by our union to spread a strong message to our members and our industry partners that “Diversity is our Strength”.

ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) is the national union of professional performers working in the English-language recorded media in Canada. ACTRA represents the interests of 22,000 members across Canada – the foundation of Canada’s highly acclaimed professional performing community.

 

MANITOBA MEMBERS@WORKJudy Arnason, Sunnyside, background; Pinkerton, background.  John Bluethner, Pinkerton, principal.  Robert Borges, A Warden’s Ransom, stunt; Exorcism of Molly Hartley, principal; Sunnyside, actor.  Alice Dano, Steel, background; Stunnyside, background; Borealis, background.  Melissa Elias, A Wardend’s Ransom, principal; Exorcism of Molly Hartley, principal; Heaven Is For Real, principal.  Len Gerelus, Pinkerton, background.  Muriel Hogue, Sunnyside, actor.  Dana Horrox, Sunnyside, stand-in; Steel, background.  Teresa Howell, The Last Druid, principal.  Keith S. James, Pinkerton, principal.  Scott Johnson, Sunnyside, actor; Exorcism of Molly Hartley, actor; Steel and Stilettos, actor, Be Undrunk, MLCC, actor.  John C. MacDonald, Pinkerton, principal.  Stephen McIntyre, Gangland (series), principal.  Garth Merkeley, Borealis, principal.  Kevin Newman, Sunnyside, background.  Talia Pura, Dad, principal.  Can I Buy You A Drink? Director.  Jenny Pudavick, Pinkerton, principal; Sunnyside, principal; Hyena Road, principal.  Nancy Sorel, Cashing In (season 4) principal; Bunks, principal; Heaven Is For Real, principal; St. Vital Center, voice.  Debbie Styles, Heaven Is  For Real, principal.

 

WELCOME

Full Members

Mitch Ainley,  Kevin  Anderson, Paul Andrich , Charles Edwards, Ferron Guerreiro, Abigail Pniowsky, Maxine Sanders, Turk Scatliff , Tom Soares,  Ray Strachan

Apprentices

Eric Athavale,  Aidan Batzel ,  Ian Bawa, Sean Berndsen , Trisha Blair, Jacob Brown, Matthew Fletcher, Maxine Gibson Bruce, Annika Elysa Irving, Kirsten Klueckmann, Callie Lane, John C. MacDonald, Solmund MacPherson, Cheryl Maendel, Jesse Nobess, Anna Pniowsky, Mandeep Sodhi, Ron Verwymeren, Matt Webber,

Background Players

Judy Arnason, Terry Laurin-Gardner, Jerry Olenko, Lorrie Papadopoulos, Dale

MEMORABLE MOMENT ON SETLESS THAN KIND, Season 2 "Acting, Is Giving"

We had recently learned of Maury's (Chaykin) illness. As a result, the entire season of LTK had to be rewritten very quickly to incorporate his illness into the plot. You have to understand: Maury was very, very ill during this shoot. He travelled from Toronto, away from his family and his Drs. to give us this gift. I could see that it was very difficult for him. We shot one of our funniest scenes EVER that season: In the hospital with Dave Foley. Sam "dies" over and over then comes back to life. There were so many powerful moments for all of us shooting these scenes.. as we could feel Maury's illness and we were being given this enormous gift of comedy from him through the sadness. Every tear you see from each character, each take, was real. Very, very real. I will never forget that day. I will never forget Maury Chaykin and all that he taught me.                                                              Nancy Sorel

Stanley, Chris Thompson,

 

MEMORABLE MOMENT ON SETTHE PINKERTONS

I love being on set. I love the creativity, the collaboration and the companionship. (And I love alliteration.) Many factors effect the working environment on a TV set. The quality of the writing, the tone of the show, the skill of the production teams and even the weather can make or break the experience.

Well, I had a blast working on The Pinkertons, in an episode, called HAMLET.  The script was well written. Our director, Paul Fox, was very collaborative and easy to work with.  The show has a great Manitoba crew and my scenes were shot in a pretty aspen forest during a spell of gorgeous fall weather.  It was the kind of gig that reminds you how lucky you are to be a working actor.

If you haven’t seen The Pinkertons yet, there’s a trailer on the show’s website, www.pinkertonstheseries.com.  Take a look. You get to see several ACTRA Manitoba members rob a steam train. Exciting stuff.

The website describes the show as “…an  action-adventure detective series that follows Allan PInkerton, his son, William, and America’s first female detective, Kate Warne, as they solve crimes throughout the “Wild West” of the 1860s.”

"Based on actual cases from the Pinkerton archives, each hour-long episode follows the Pinkertons as they utilize a mix of burgeoning forensic technology, undercover work, and plain old fisticuffs to get their man – or woman.”

The leads, Martha McIsaac and Jacob Blair are talented actors and great people.  I didn’t get a chance to meet Angus McFayden, but I heard good things.  I really enjoyed working with fellow Manitoba actors, Ian Bastin, John Bleuthner, Andrew Cecon, Marina Stephenson Kerr, and Gord Tanner.

We had a great time chewing up outdoor scenery and regurgitating some

overwrought iambic pentameter as members of a 19th century touring Shakespearian theatre company. Instead of a ruined monastery, our set was an outdoor stage beautifully lit by torches and lanterns with some help from a moon-box on a crane.

The episode’s story revolved around a conflict between Gord Tanner’s and Andrew Cecon’s characters.  Gord played a handsome, leading actor (not a stretch) with a secret and Andrew played a young, brooding, athletic actor with a different secret. I won’t spoil the story, but here’s a hint from an old joke ; “Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the show?”

It was great to see my former PTE School student, Ian Bastin playing the murder victim in the episode.  His death on stage, upstaged Marina’s hilarious melodramatic death scene as Queen Gertrude. No mean feat.

John Bluethner played Marina’s poor cuckolded husband, a gassy, mediocre, utility actor and I bullied him as the bloated, blowhard actor/manager vain enough to miscast himself as Hamlet complete with Danish-blonde wig.  I even got to speak Hamlet’s famous speech and drive a wagon pulled by a team of horses.

Sustaining a career as a Canadian Actor, means working both on stage and on camera. I love working in Television and I love working on stage. This episode of The Pinkertons was a great opportunity to combine my passions and throw in a little comedy too. How lucky was I?

I’m told that there are 22 episodes being shot this year, working right through to March, so I’m sure many more ACTRA Manitoba members will get a chance to play in The Pinkertons. Hope you have as much fun as I did.                                              John B. Lowe

As an actor and TV addict, I must say I am extremely proud of the performances by my fellow Winnipeg actors in the series The Pinkertons  I daresay at times the local talent stole scenes from the leads.  The "myth" that talent must be brought in from other locales and the "locals" can fill in the daily-player roles has been summarily put to rest.  The accents and delightful ability with a turn of phrase are so spot on that one forgets you are watching your friend "kill" it on the small screen in a big way.

I am proud beyond belief and so excited to know that these performances are being enjoyed in many markets.  Hmmmm, might that lead to more opportunity for these brilliant actors.  Here's hoping!Adriana O'Neil

 

 

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