A poster of Artword Theatre’s projects in Hamilton since 2008. We closed our most recent live project (“Walter” starring Sean Emberley) on March 14, 2020, due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile we continue to add videos of our shows on the Artword Theatre Youtube Channel.
Scroogissimo for Christmas:
Free YouTube Premiere, December 11, 7:00 pm. Scroogissimo launches on the Artword Theatre Channel on YouTube on December 11 at 7:00 pm.
Ron has finally finished editing the video of Scroogissimo, shot and recorded by Gabe Etele at Artword Artbar on December 13, 2018. It was a great performance, and the video version is really good (Ron says modestly).
Here’s the link: https://youtu.be/EQF0Oo15FOQ
Click on the link on December 11 at 7 pm (Hamilton time). There will be a half hour of live chat. Judith and Ron will be there, chatting from Rome (1:00 am). Charly will be there and other Artword people.
Then at 7:30, the movie starts and we’ll watch it together. It runs about 1 hour 40 minutes.
If you like it (and you will) please click the Like button. And Subscribe to the Artword Theatre Channel. (It helps us a lot with YouTube.)
After the premiere, Scroogissimo will be permanently available on the Artword Theatre Channel, along with other full Artword plays and performances, trailers and samplers.
And everything on the channel is free to watch.
Scroogissimo
Scroogissimo is Artword Theatre’s hit show based on “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. Written by Ryan Sero and Charly Chiarelli. Directed by Ronald Weihs, produced and designed by Judith Sandiford.
Charly plays “Ebenezu Scroogie”, a Sicilian Hamiltonian who hates Christmas (bah, umbago) and terrorizes his clerk, Bob Cratchit, played by Jon-Gordon Odegaard. His nephew Fred is played by Jay Shand.
The Ghost of Christmas Past is played by Pamela Gardner.
The Ghost of Christmas Present is played by Paula Grove.
Val Kay plays the Ghost of Christmas Future, as well as Mrs. Cratchit.
See the full story of this production in the 2018 Scroogissimo post.
Artword Theatre’s production of Charly’s Piano, performed by Charly Chiarelli is now up on the Artword Theatre Youtube channel. This 60-minute version was performed in the 2019 Hamilton Fringe Festival, and videoed on July 25, 2019. Watch Charly’s Piano on Artword Theatre Youtube channel
Charly’s Piano is written by Charly Chiarelli and Ronald Weihs, directed by Ronald Weihs, with songs by Charly Chiarelli. Ronald Weihs accompanies on guitar. Charly’s Piano tells the true tale of Charly as a young hippie looking for work in Toronto in 1972. He gets a job in a psychiatric hospital, and organizes a fundraising concert by patients and doctors to buy a piano.
See the reviews and background here in the show post: https://artword.net/artwordtheatre/?p=801
Artword Theatre has completed editing the full-length performance video of “Walter” recorded on March 12, 2020, starring Sean Emberley as Walter. The YouTube premiere release was Thursday July 30, 2020 at 7:30 pm. The video is now available to watch any time. Runs 70 minutes.
Watch the Walter video on Artword Theatre YouTube channel
Some advance comments for the video: “Wonderful.” “Moving.” “Incredible actor.” “So powerful.” “Absolutely wonderful!” “A powerful film.”
#1 Review Mar 11, 2020 by Jeff Mahoney, The Hamilton Spectator
“Walter is a moving look at schizophrenia. … Sean Emberley, in the title role, is engrossing, so completely does he inhabit this complex, confusing but ultimately compelling character. You feel not so much that you’re seeing him onstage but passing him on the street. Emberley’s remarkable achievement is that he lifts our engagement with Walter beyond the stare of curiosity, albeit sympathetic, into a trance in which we begin to identify with the struggle of his being. It’s partly the play of his eyes and the mobile features of his face and his movements across the stage, by turns agitated and sedate. It’s also his voice, wounded but also strangely hypnotic. And aside from his own, there are the voices “in his head,” as the expression goes, which we get to hear along with him, thanks to the soundscape by Dave Gould. …
…We get a vivid sense of the immense difficulties of Walter’s life but also of his humanity and his uneasy truce with life, …. The play is informed by playwright Dawson’s 50 years in psychiatry, treating schizophrenia. And the words are lit with both knowledge and compassion, which comes through as Walter soliloquizes himself over the barriers we put up against the ‘different.’ This very powerful production is directed by Ronald Weihs.”
“… In the central role, [Sean Emberley] is captivating as he embodies the many ages of Walter. As a young man, we see his angst and then terror upon realizing is trajectory into the mental health system, then, as he ages, his new struggles with the system and the balance of medication. Emberley never once over sentimentalizes; instead, he allows the emotional reaction to resonate with the audience member. He simply tells the story as a grippingly real person. He leaves the richness and the ironies to his audience to ruminate. …
His performance is like a poem. It’s presented with simplicity but has as many meanings as there are seats in the audience. He’s like the face of everyman with a mental illness. … It’s impossible not be emotionally touched by his presentation and each and every audience member will be remembering their own Walter as the stage lights go down.”