Billy Bishop Goes To War
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Billy Bishop Goes To War
''Billy Bishop Goes to War'' is a Canadian musical, written by John MacLachlan Gray in collaboration with the actor Eric Peterson. One of the most widely produced plays in Canadian theatre, the two-man play dramatizes the life of Canadian World War I fighter pilot Billy Bishop. One member of the cast plays the part of Bishop in word and song, although he is also called upon to dramatize 17 other parts; the second cast member provides all the accompaniment on the piano and also sings. History Gray and Peterson developed the music and storyline of the musical in 1978, when they were both 32. Collaborative rehearsals took place in stage designer Paul Williams' studio in Toronto. Productions with the original cast The play premiered at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre co-produced by Tamahnous Theatre in Vancouver, British Columbia on November 3, 1978. Peterson played 18 different characters, and Gray accompanied on piano and vocals. The original production toured across Canad ...
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John MacLachlan Gray
John MacLachlan Gray, OC (born John Howard Gray; 26 September 1946) is a Canadian writer-composer-performer for stage, TV, film, radio and print. He is best known for his stage musicals and for his two seasons as a satirist on CBC TV's '' The Journal'', as well as an author, speaker and social critic on cultural-political issues. Bio Born in Ottawa, Ontario, and raised in Nova Scotia, Gray obtained a B.A. at Mount Allison University, and an M.A. at the University of British Columbia. While attending the latter, he founded Tamahnous Theatre, and served as its director from 1971 to 1974. He then joined Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto, Ontario, where he began writing and composing for the stage. His first musical was "18 Wheels," about truck drivers. Plays In 1978, with Eric Peterson, he wrote and composed ''Billy Bishop Goes to War'', which appeared on Broadway in New York City in 1980, produced by Mike Nichols, and in London's West End. It has since been performed in over ...
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Edinburgh Festival
__NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe which runs alongside it. The latter is the largest event of its kind in the world. The term ''Edinburgh Festival'' is commonly used, but there is no single festival; the various festivals are put on by separate, unrelated organisations. However they are widely regarded as part of the same event, particularly the various festivals that take place simultaneously in August each year. The term ''Edinburgh Festival'' is often used to refer more specifically to the Fringe, being the largest of the festivals; or sometimes to the International Festival, being the original "official" arts festival. Within the industry, people refer to all the festivals collectively as the ''Edinburgh Festivals'' (plural). The festivals Listed in ...
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Tom Littler
Tom Littler is a British theatre director and the Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London. He was the founder of theatre company Primavera Productions, a former Associate Director of Theatre503 formerly Artistic Director of Jermyn Street Theatre, which he turned into a producing theatre. His West End credits include Stephen Sondheim's '' Saturday Night'' (for Primavera) which starred Helena Blackman, the runner-up of '' How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria''. Littler was also resident director of the 2009 revival of ''A Little Night Music'' at the Garrick Theatre and Menier Chocolate Factory. Littler directed the premiere of ''Dances of Death'' by Howard Brenton, a new version of '' The Dance of Death'' by August Strindberg at the Gate Theatre (London) in 2013, starring Michael Pennington. He also directed the premieres of Brenton's biographical play about August Strindberg, ''The Blinding Light'', at Jermyn Street Theatre, and his new version of ''Miss ...
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Frinton-on-Sea
Frinton-on-Sea is a seaside town and (as just Frinton) a former civil parish, now in the parish of Frinton and Walton, in the Tendring district of Essex, England. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 4,837. In 1931 the parish had a population of 2196. History The place-name 'Frinton' is first attested in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as ''Frientuna''. The name may mean 'fenced-in or enclosed town or settlement'. Until late Victorian times, Frinton-on-Sea was a church, several farms and a handful of cottages. In the 1890s, the original developer of the town, Peter Bruff, was bought out by the industrialist Richard Powell Cooper, who had already laid out the golf course. (Registration required). Powell Cooper rejected Bruff's plans for a pier, stipulated the quality of housing to be built and prohibited boarding houses and pubs. The Sea Defence Act 1903 established a project to stabilise the cliffs, with the Greensward, which separates the Esplanade from the se ...
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Repertory
A repertory theatre is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation. United Kingdom Annie Horniman founded the first modern repertory theatre in Manchester after withdrawing her support from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Horniman's Gaiety Theatre opened its first season in September of 1908. The opening of the Gaiety was followed by the Citizens' Theatre in Glasgow and the Liverpool Repertory Theatre. Previously, regional theatre relied on mostly London touring ensembles. During the time the theatre was being run by Annie Horniman, a wide variety of types of plays were produced. Horniman encouraged local writers who became known as the Manchester School of playwrights. They included Allan Monkhouse, Harold Brighouse, writer of '' Hobson's Choice'', and Stanley Houghton, who wrote '' Hindle Wakes''. Actors who performed at the Gaiety early in their careers included Sybil Thorndike and Basil Dean. From the 1 ...
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Lucille Lortel Theatre
The Lucille Lortel Theatre is an off-Broadway playhouse at 121 Christopher Street in Manhattan's West Village. It was built in 1926 as a 590-seat movie theater called the New Hudson, later known as Hudson Playhouse. The interior is largely unchanged to this day. In the early 1950s, the site was converted to an off-Broadway theater as , opening on June 9, 1953, with a production of ''Maya'', a play by Simon Gantillon starring Kay Medford, Vivian Matalon, and Susan Strasberg. It closed after seven performances. Much more successful was ''The Threepenny Opera'' which opened March 10, 1954, with a cast that included Bea Arthur, John Astin, Lotte Lenya, Leon Lishner, Scott Merrill, Gerald Price, Charlotte Rae and Jo Sullivan. Because of an incoming booking, it was forced to close after 96 performances. Re-opening September 20, 1955, with largely the same cast, ''The Threepenny Opera'' this time played until December 17, 1961, a then record-setting run for a musical in New York City ...
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Off-Broadway
An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer than 100. An "off-Broadway production" is a production of a play, musical, or revue that appears in such a venue and adheres to related trade union and other contracts. Some shows that premiere off-Broadway are subsequently produced on Broadway. History The term originally referred to any venue, and its productions, on a street intersecting Broadway in Midtown Manhattan's Theater District, the hub of the American theatre industry. It later became defined by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers as a professional venue in Manhattan with a seating capacity of at least 100, but not more than 499, or a production that appears in such a venue and adheres to related trade union and other contracts. Previously, regardless of the size ...
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Morosco Theatre
The Morosco Theatre was a Broadway theatre near Times Square in New York City from 1917 to 1982. It housed many notable productions and its demolition, along with four adjacent theaters, was controversial. History Located at 217 West 45th Street, the Morosco Theatre was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp for the Shubert family, who constructed it for Oliver Morosco in gratitude for his helping them break the monopoly of the Theatrical Syndicate. It had approximately 955 seats. After an invitation-only preview performance on February 4, 1917, it opened to the public on February 5. The inaugural production was ''Canary Cottage'', a musical with a book by Morosco and a score by Earl Carroll. The Shuberts lost the building in the Great Depression, and City Playhouses, Inc. bought it at auction in 1943. It was sold in 1968 to Bankers Trust Company and, after a massive "Save the Theatres" protest movement led by Joe Papp and supported by various actors and other theatrical fol ...
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Talonbooks
Talonbooks is an independent publisher of Canadian literature based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Its repertoire features authors writing in the literary genres of poetry, fiction and drama, as well as non-fiction books in the fields of ethnography, environmental and social issues, cultural studies, and literary criticism. Notable Talonbooks authors include Michel Tremblay, George Ryga, bpNichol, George Bowering, bill bissett, Daphne Marlatt, George F. Walker, M.A.C. Farrant and Mary Meigs. The company started as a magazine called ''Talon'' in 1963. It was run by David Robinson and some of his high-school friends. It later incorporated Jim Brown, who acted as both a writer and editor for the publication. Talon later joined with a small local press called Very Stone House and published its first string of poetry books in 1967. The association with Very Stone House ended a year later, and the Talonbooks imprint started appearing by itself. In 1969, with the addition of P ...
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Libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as the Mass (liturgy), Mass, requiem and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet. ''Libretto'' (; plural ''libretti'' ), from Italian, is the diminutive of the word ''wiktionary:libro#Italian, libro'' ("book"). Sometimes other-language equivalents are used for libretti in that language, ''livret'' for French works, ''Textbuch'' for German and ''libreto'' for Spanish. A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. Some ballet historians also use the word ''libretto'' to refer to the 15 to 40 page books which were on sale to 19th century ballet audiences in Paris and contained a ve ...
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Ross Douglas
Ross Douglas is a Canadian voice actor with Ocean Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is most well-known for voicing Jean Bison in the '' Sly Cooper'' series, Daniel O'Connell in ''Master Keaton'', and Kageyama in the ''Black Lagoon'' series. Roles Television *''Black Lagoon'' as Kageyama *''Inuyasha'' as Goryomaru (Eps, 166-167) *'' Inuyasha: The Final Act'' as Goryomaru (Ep. 1), Moryomaru *'' MegaMan NT Warrior'' as Torchman *''Mobile Suit Gundam'' as The Narrator *''Master Keaton'' as Daniel O'Connell *'' Project ARMS'' as Keith Blue *'' Smallville'' as Skeets *''The 4400'' as Gregory Kensington *''The Little Prince'' as Bamako (The Planet of the Amicopes) *''The Story of Saiunkoku'' as Shin Sai Video Games *'' Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space'' as Bask Om and Narrator *''Nancy Drew Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, and a TV show as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwritten by a numbe ...
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Cedric Smith (actor)
Cedric Smith (born 21 September 1943) is an English Canadian actor and musician. He played Alec King in the CBC television series '' Road to Avonlea'' and was the voice of Professor X in the ''X-Men'' TV series. Music Born in Bournemouth, Hampshire (now Dorset), England, Smith moved to Canada when he was about 10 years old. In 1961, he dropped out of high school to become a full-time folk singer. He was a member of the folk group Perth County Conspiracy, and wrote several songs that were performed and recorded by the band. Ca. 1963, he performed at the "Lemon Tree" a Dayton, Ohio coffee house for an extended time. Between sets he would read from a giant volume of Shakespeare. As a folk singer he sang at the "Ebony Knight" coffee house on Main Street in Hamilton in the mid '60s; he also had performances at the "Black Swan" coffee house in Stratford, Ontario in 1967 and 1968. He sang on Loreena McKennitt's album "Elemental" in 1985. Acting Smith won a Gemini Award for Best P ...
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