Natasha - The Artist

Breathing Time Productions

presents

eMOTIONal

…an electrifying soirée of art, music and one-act plays…

Plays:

WOMEN IN MOTION by Donald Margulies
(Starring: Natasha Jetté & Claudia Jurt)

SPECTER by Don Nigro
(Starring: Miles Finlayson & Tommie-Amber Pirie)

BENCH SEAT by Neil LaBute
(Starring: Alan Jeans & Meghanne Kessels)

Director: Claudia Jurt

Tickets: $12.00 (adults), $10.00 (students/seniors)

Location: Arts Court, 2 Daly Ave
(Library, Elevator ‘A’, 2nd Floor)

Opening Night: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 @ 8pm
Show 2: Thursday, November 15, 2007 @ 8pm (Pass-the-Hat)
Show 3: Friday, November 16, 2007 @ 8pm
Closing Night: Saturday, November 17, 2007 @ 8pm
Matinee: Sunday, November 18, 2007 @ 2pm

Tickets can be purchased at:

Arts Court (2 Daly Ave.) front desk 613.564.7240
OZ Kafe (361 Elgin Street) 613.234.0907
At the door

Note: All art on display at the show will be available for purchase!  SOME OF MY PAINTINGS WILL BE FOR SALE!

Info: 613.565.2107

http://www.BreathingTimeProductions.com

Breathing Time Productions‘ presentation of Fat Pig by Neil LaBute just closed this past Saturday August 11 in Ottawa. I was Production Coordinator for the show. I had an amazing time. I worked with a fantastic cast and crew. I had been dreaming for years and years about making this kind of art and here I was doing it. It almost felt surreal to me. And how amazing to work on this particular play.

The first time I read Fat Pig I thought I was bored half way through. Urrgh, not another thing about society’s judgment of what’s different. After attending the first week of rehearsals, I found out I was not bored at all; I had been shutting myself down to not be affected by my strong feelings for the subject matter. You see, what was affecting me the most was that the actress playing the overweight lead character, Helen, is a good friend of mine. I had been listening to her for months make comments about how she felt judged by people because of her weight, how she felt like hiding, how when she would pick-up McDonald’s at 1:00am to keep her weight up for the play she would stop eating at a stop light so the person in the next car would not notice… Not being overweight myself, having never experienced being overweight, I always thought she was just being dramatic and her lack of confidence made her see things in a negative way.

I was resisting writing about this. I am grieving. Deeply. I have been since the first week of the show and have been ignoring it until now. Seeing people’s reactions to the play, reading this particular review (http://www.cityjournal.ca/article-128371-REVIEWFat-Pig-cuts-close-to-the-bone.html – unfortunately, the article is no longer on the cityjournal Web site), seeing how difficult these roles are for the actors, has affected me. It has opened my eyes to this cruel world. This world is CRUEL, hurtful, mean, … Why is this world cruel? Because this world is SCARED. Scared of dying, scared of abandonment, scared of famine, scared of poverty, scared of being alone, scared of not being loved, scared of failure, …  We listen to people who feel the need to control. Why do some people need to control? Because they are scared… of all the same things. It’s a vicious cycle.

I am grieving. Grieving the fact that I have ‘ignored’ this cruelty since my birth. Ignored my friend thinking she was being dramatic, when in reality people are afraid of her, of what she ’as fat’ represents. I am sorry C.

Why hasn’t this hit me before? I already knew about fear and it’s consequences. So why this? Now? Because this realization has reinforced my purpose.  Working on Fat Pig has helped open a handful of audience members’ eyes about fear and cruelty. It means that I can keep working on projects like this, projects that can contribute to changing the world. It means that if I write from the heart, like LaBute, about these kinds of subjects, I can change the world.

Ottawa, July 21 2007 : Cow. Slob. Pig. How many insults can you hear before you have to stand up and defend the woman you love? From August 1-11 at the Studio Léonard Beaulne, Ottawa’s Breathing Time Productions will approach that very quandary with Neil LaBute’s critically acclaimed Fat Pig, which takes an unflinching stab at our public perception of beauty and makes one wonder if love needs society’s blessing to be complete.

Director Michèle Lonsdale Smith (Artistic Director of the Lyric Stage Project in Vancouver and director of A Winter Tale – winner of Outstanding Canadian Feature at the 2007 ReelWorld Film Festival) takes the lead with an all-star cast of talented locals, consisting of Corry Burke, Jared Côté, Claudia Jurt, and Dani Kind. In contrast with the new cinematic hit, Hairspray, Lonsdale Smith believes that LaBute’s play shows the unfortunate realities of not fitting the status quo. “I am fascinated by our universal and debilitating fear of being alone, of being ousted from the tribe and, because of this, how easily we oust the ‘different’ regularly and without conscience, so as not to experience that terrible fate,” says Lonsdale Smith.

In Fat Pig, Tom (Côté) surprises even himself when he falls for Helen (Jurt), a bright, funny, sexy young woman who happens to be plus-sized - and then some. Forced to explain his new relationship to his shallow (although shockingly funny) friends, he finally comes to terms with his own preconceptions of the importance for conventional good looks. Neil LaBute’s sharply drawn play not only critiques our slavish adherence to Hollywood ideals of beauty but also boldly questions our own ability to change what we dislike about ourselves.

Founded by local actor and entrepreneur Jurt, owner of A.C.T. and Ottawa casting, the company is dedicated to rejuvenating today’s audiences by presenting challenging and thought-provoking works by both new and established artists. And it took quite some dedication for Jurt to play the eponymous character in this particular show.

“When I first decided to do this play, I was already statistically ‘overweight’ and have since gained close to 50 lbs. to really ‘fit the ‘role’!” explains Jurt. Breathing Time Productions presents Fat Pig from August 1-4 and again from August 7-11 at the University of Ottawa’s Studio Léonard Beaulne, 135 Séraphin Marion. All shows begin at 8pm. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for students and seniors. There will be a special Pass-the-hat night on August 2 and all tickets on August 7 are 2 for 1. Tickets go on sale at noon Friday, July 20, 2007 at Beaded Dreams (426 Bank St.) and Oz Kafe (6-361 Elgin St.)

For more information, please call 613-565-2107 or visit http://www.breathingtimeproductions.com/