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2000-2001Hockey and disco score in Jane Miller’s
funny play
Jane Miller’s wild and funny show about how she used
hockey and disco to navigate her teen years is coming to Artword
Theatre in January. Produced by splode (Jane’s
production company) and Artword Theatre, Disco
Goalie will be heating up the theatre from January 12,
2001 to January 28, Tuesday to Saturday at 8 pm and Sundays at
2:30 pm.
In
Disco Goalie Jane Miller is a one-woman a capella
band, whose unique vocal style delivers melody and lyrics using a
technique called "vocal percussion". Jane calls it "drumming with
the voice". Jane keeps the groove going as she tells the story of
her evolution from a girl goalie striving to "keep them out" to a
young woman ready and willing to "get it on".
Between
the ages of eleven and sixteen, Jane played hockey in a
girl’s house league in North York. "Goalies are like nice
girls", Jane explains. "Every self-respecting goalie strives to
get a shutout (i.e. maintain her virginity). But what happens when
a goalie becomes an initiator, an aggressor even? Roles get
confusing, priorities get altered, and scores get into the double
digits."
The
idea for Disco Goalie came about when Jane was
rolling around on the floor during a warmup for the Theatre
Centre’s production Book of Thoht. The musicians began
"Play That Funky Music, White Boy", and Jane did her best Solid
Gold Dancer impression. Somebody who knew that Jane had been a
goaltender in her teens said, "Can you imagine doing that with
goalie equipment?"
Two
weeks later, the Theatre Centre’s artistic director David
Duclos said, "Jane, you have to write Disco Goalie." He backed it
up with an R&D grant, and the services of dramaturge Brian
Quirt. Originally Jane thought it was little more than a Kids in
the Hall-type sketch, but "as I began writing, it became clear
that this was the most resonant image I was ever going to find for
my own conflicted masculine/feminine sexual identity."
Jane
is well established in the Toronto theatre and music scenes. She
sang lead vocals and composed songs for two albums by the popular
indie band Wind May Do Damage. Her 1999 appearance in the cabaret
production of Carole Pope songs, Shaking the Foundations,
won her a Dora nomination for Best Performance in a Musical.
"In
Disco Goalie, I bring my music performance and vocal
percussion style together with my interest in movement-based
theatre to create a work that tells a good story."
A
member of the audience at the Ottawa Fringe in 1998 summed it up:
"It’s about how hockey is really about sex, and how girls are
really about hockey, and how disco is about everything, and how
your mother is everywhere! Great show!"
For more information call Josée Duranleau, Duranleau Publicity at 416-652-7672.
Disco Goalie
Written and performed
by: Jane Miller
Director/dramaturge Brian Quirt; designer Steve Lucas;
choreographer Viv Moore
Produced by: splode and Artword Theatre
Dates: previews Jan 10 & 11, opens Friday Jan. 12, runs to Jan
28, 2001
Times: Tuesday to Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 2:30 pm
Tickets: Regular $15, students and seniors $12, Sundays pwyc
Where: Artword Theatre, 75 Portland Street, Toronto
(one block east of
Bathurst, south of King)
Call: Box Office: 416-408-ARTD (416-408-2783)
Jane Miller, writer and performer: Jane’s work in 1999 included Muscle Memory for Theatre Viscera at Theatre Passe Muraille, and Shaking the Foundations, a cabaret of Carole Pope's songs at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Dora Nomination, Best Performance in a Musical). For Theatre 2.0’s Breath[e] at the Theatre Centre, Jane provided the continuous 25 minute breathing track around which the piece is centered. She has appeared in the two Toronto productions of David Duclos' multi-disciplinary The Book of Thoht which also toured to London and Oxford, England. Other acting credits include Acme Theatre Company, Muskoka Festival and Kawartha Festival. As a performer and composer, Jane has released two albums with indie pop band Wind May Do Damage and two albums for children. She is currently composing a Capella songs for a theatre adaptation of Michael Redhill's book of poetry Lake Nora Arms commissioned by theatre company Nightswimming. Jane was short-listed for the 1999 K.M. Hunter Foundation Award for Emerging Artists in Dance.