Pitch your show to Hollywood, but in a tweet:
Independent Aunties: #GertrudeStein and #AliceBToklas show up @yyzbuddies 2016 insisting that we know them. To know is to know is to not take no for an answer.
Guillermo Verdecchia and Marcus Youssef: This show wasn’t written for Hollywood. And only one of us (barely) tweets.
Marty Topps: Modern day Fred Astaire w severe brain injury begz 4 help. Starring Paul Gross.
James Gangl: An awkward Uncle gives his weirdo nephew a sex talk he will never forget! #WomenAreLikeSaladDressing #WeNeedBetterSexEd
It’s five minutes before opening night. What’s going through your mind?
Gangl: Holy shit, I’m about to reveal this huge secret to an audience of complete strangers…. I hope they buy me a beer after.
Independent Aunties: “Would he like it if I told him Would Napoleon Would Napoleon Would he like it If Napoleon If I told him If I told him If Napoleon Would he like it if I told him If I told him If Napoleon… (and repeat)”
Verdecchia and Youssef: We’re wondering about the recent revisions we made, 20 years after first writing the play, how/if they’ll work, and what they mean to this play, which is rooted in very specific events in what is now Canadian history.
Topps: Toilet.
… and five minutes after?
Independent Aunties: “Thank g-d we did it and we managed to not f-ck up “If Napoleon!”
Gangl: Dammit! Who buys a guy Bud Lite?
Topps: Toilet.
Guillermo Verdecchia (left) and Marcus Youssef, writers, (at Factory Theatre until March 27).
Discarded titles for this show?
Verdecchia and Youssef: The Border Project.
Gangl: Look Who’s Talking Sex Go, Go, Gonorrhea! No Ifs, Ands or Buttholes
What great scene didn’t make the version of your show?
Independent Aunties: We cut so many scenes that we made a small book. Seriously. (Please see special “program notes” for full explanation….)
Verdecchia and Youssef: Don’t know if it’s great, but in the original Act 2, which was The Border Project, a slightly aggressive host interrogated “Marcus Youssef” about Disney’s Aladdin and why he co-wrote a drama about the Canadian military set in the first Gulf War.
Topps: I was going to have two minutes of silent prayer (fully nude).
Gangl: I had a scene where I dream I’m flying, but only ever 6 inches above the surface of the earth. It’s exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. In the end I cut it because wirework was more dangerous than in the Spider-Man musical.
James Gangl, writer/actor, (at John Candy Box Theatre until March 26).
Favourite line?
Independent Aunties: “Is there repetition or is there insistence? I am inclined to believe there is no such thing as repetition.” – G. Stein
Gangl: I ask my nephew, “What do you know about sex?” And he says, “Aww, Uncle James, I don’t know why you want to learn about sex from me.”
Verdecchia and Youssef: “We learn about the Canada. We look at picture and laugh. Ig-loo. You cut big bear open climb inside.”
Topps: Blow.
When cellphones go off in the audience I/we will…
Independent Aunties: “be with them, really hear them and really see them inside of the continuous present.”
Gangl: …find you, grab your phone and flirt with whoever answers. Whoever answers.
Topps: Explode.
Verdecchia and Youssef: Worry that we didn’t turn off our cellphones.
, aka Isaac Winter, at (at SiriusXM Stage, Thursday, March 10).
U.S. presidential election predictions?
Verdecchia and Youssef: We’re fighting the urge to pay attention.
Independent Aunties: Clinton.
Gangl: After his stunning performance at the Academy Awards, Chris Rock wins the write-in vote.
How do we encourage more diversity in the performing arts?
Independent Aunties: Persistent and unrelenting insistence on inclusion.
Verdecchia and Youssef: Enough with the encouraging. Let’s simply do it: no more apartheid programming no more all-white casts no more male-dominated seasons, and so on. It’s really simple actually. It just requires a little effort. Make new friends. Go to a TYA show, look at the cast, and the audience. That’s the future.
Topps: Stop hiring Paul Gross.
glenns@nowtoronto.com | @glennsumi
