By Rosie Shaw
Theatre companies from across the city will compete March 26 in a contest of creation to celebrate World Theatre Day.
The fifth annual Ottawa Theatre Challenge will be held at the National Arts Centre’s Fourth Stage. It is organized by A Company of Fools, Ottawa’s only professional Shakespeare company. This year’s participants will include Third Wall Theatre Company, Orpheus Theatre, New Ottawa Repertory Theatre, Vintage Stock Theatre, Ottawa Serbian Theatre and Lazzi Lazzi, Odyssey Theatre’s touring company.
Each group must come up with a short play using three assigned “inspiration items” and present it in front of a live audience just two days later.
“All of the inspiration items are meant to invoke something and inspire something new,” says Scott Florence, A Company of Fools’ artistic director. “There is no definition as to how you use the inspiration.”
This year, the three items are a newspaper headline, the title of a play by John Patrick Stanley, and something edible. The specifics will be revealed at a meeting with all the participants 48 hours before the event, and then the competition will begin.
“The inspiration items are the criteria people use to create the new piece of theatre,” says Florence.
There are a few rules. Each group must use all three items, and there will be a performance time limit. The limit has traditionally been five minutes, but it varies depending on the number of participants.
Groups can bring in outside items, such as costumes, props and sets. But because of the time constraint, minimalism is crucial.
“Keeping it simple is the best way to go,” says James Richardson, artistic director of Third Wall Theatre Company.
“You don’t want to go in with nothing, but you want it to be effective. It’s not so much about what props and costumes you bring, but how inspired and creative you are.”
There will be a panel of three judges including Lorne Pardy, artistic director of the Great Canadian Theatre Company.
Each judge will decide how well each play uses the inspiration items and rate its theatrical value. The judges also accept bribes, so groups can score points there as well. Past bribes have included alcohol, cake and donations to charity in the judges’ names.
“It’s not meant to be a serious competition at all. It’s meant to be fun,” says Florence.
Judges will award a prize to every group that participates. For example, the year Florence shaved his head on stage, his group won the “Greatest Sacrifice Award.”
The big winners of the night will take home the coveted Rubber Chicken Award, an actual trophy with rubber chickens attached.
The competition is co-hosted each year by the previous year’s winning troupe. The co-host chooses the inspiration items and which charity will benefit from the fundraiser.
This year, 2004 champions Black Sheep Theatre have chosen to support the 910 Project. It joins a group of theatre professionals who are working together to maintain 910 Gladstone Ave., the Great Canadian Theatre Company’s current home, as a community theatre space when GCTC moves in 2006.
“The real winners are the charities,” says Florence.
The contest is also an important networking and showcasing event for the local theatre community. This is the first year Lazzi Lazzi will compete. Their plays use stock characters, movement and masks.
“It will be interesting to see how we take what they give us and find out what our 16th-century mask characters do with it,” says Alix Sideris, who will lead the team.
“I’m expecting a lot of insanity,” she says. “I’ve always heard such fabulous things about it. Everyone who’s anyone in theatre in Ottawa is involved.”
The Ottawa Theatre Challenge will take place at 7:30 p.m. on March 26 at the NAC’s Fourth Stage. Tickets are $15 each and available through Ticketmaster at 755-1111 or Ticketmaster.ca.