Ideas that ‘seem too crazy’? Think Registry
The theatre that was once home to the rather staid business of property registrations just added even more colour to its unique charms.
“We’re continuing to be cutting-edge,” said Cheryl Ewing, president of JM Drama, the organization that runs Kitchener’s Registry Theatre.
Ewing and a number of other local arts leaders were at the Registry on Thursday to officially announce the 2017/18 season. And to say this one is eclectic is a serious understatement.
Starting Sept. 20, there is so much it won’t all fit into the brochure — dance programs, several one-night-only special concerts, a classics series, folk night series, comedy nights, jazz series, a Christmas special with Big Band Theory, a winter jazz series and a “local heroes” series that features local performers who happen to have big careers beyond Kitchener’s borders.
From Sept. 26 to Oct. 1, leading into October, the Registry will be the main venue for Impact 17, MT Space’s international theatre festival.
There is a night of karaoke love and hate songs featuring professional singers, a play about refugees fleeing across the Mediterranean in a raft, the LGBTQ community’s “OUT Fest” and “VOC Plays the Movies,” a group of musicians who perform live soundtracks to classic silent films.
If it has anything to do with being on a stage, the Registry has built it into a performance.
General manager Sam Varteniuk said, “We really like ideas that seem too crazy to work.”
This attitude is what made this theatre so successful and given them the confidence to experiment.
As Ewing said, the Registry is one of three small Ontario theatres trying to survive in an increasingly competitive field and “we’re the only one that has done it successfully.”
Varteniuk said there are many new aspects to this season, including a re-imagining of the “ACTOne Play Festival,” which as the name implies was a series of one act theatrical productions, presented by JM Drama. The one-act festival will now be a nineday festival of performing arts, not just stage plays.
Varteniuk was also responsible for the dance series that includes “Yvonne Ng and Tiger Princess Dance Projects” as well as “3,2,1 Dance!” a solo, duet and trio of some of Canada’s leading dancers. Both performances are all about Canadian talent, he said.
Lawrence McNaught, the pow-
erhouse behind much of the Registry’s programming, noted the new season features K-W Symphony trumpeter Larry Larson and his Jazz Guys as well as “Canada’s world beat ambassadors” the Sultans of String in the jazz series.
He is proud to note that it was the Registry’s jazz series now in its 12th season that inspired the creation of Waterloo’s Jazz Room, which launched its own season Friday night with Larson’s band.
Lynne Sosnowski is the theatre’s director of operations but she’s also in charge of the comedy series. This year they have added more performances, six in total starting on Sept. 20 and wrapping up next May.
“It’s Wednesday nights,” she said. “I know it’s an odd night to go out but we’re training people.”
Often, comics on tour are not working Wednesday night so it was easier to lure them to Kitchener’s intimate little stage. “We focus on Canadians but we will include Americans if we can get them,” she said.
Marc Paré of Nota Bene Baroque Players spoke about his orchestra’s concert series as part of the classics series, which on Oct. 15 will feature the unusual addition of a Scottish harp player, Julia Seager-Scott.
“It’s blurring the lines,” he said of combining harp with baroque. The players, he explains, don’t really have a single artistic director, but rather four orchestra members who fill that role and each one has distinct ideas so you never really know what you are going to hear at a concert.
Introducing Impact 17 festival — which launches Sept 26 — Pam Patel, artistic director of MT Space, said the Registry is a jewel in the community, one that makes it possible for organizations such as hers to bring unique theatre to local audiences.
“There is space for incubation, there is space for exploration,” she said.