featured projects

MonaRita a big hit across Canada

Home Town: St. John’s
NLAC Program Funded Under: Professional Project Grants Program
Amount Funded: $6,500

MonaRita is the hilariously surreal story of two close friends at a crossroads.

After Mona becomes a mother, she loses herself, and the greatest friendship of her life is in danger of being lost when best friend Rita breaks it off to make a new life without her. Will Mona let Rita go? Can Rita exist without Mona? Isn’t love supposed to last forever?

Written by Shannon Bramer, directed by Sherry White, featuring Sara Tilley and Ruth Lawrence with Mark White. A White Rooster Theatre co-production with She Said Yes!, MonaRita is part-way through its tour of four Canadian festivals: the Toronto Fringe, the Hamilton Fringe, the Atlantic Fringe (Halifax), and Femfest in Winnipeg. So far the show has received rave reviews and was named Outstanding Ensemble Production, Fringe 2011 by NOW Magazine, Jon Kaplan and Glenn Sumi (Toronto).

Due to audience demand, they will do one more performance on home turf:

Dates: Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Time: 8 p.m.
Venue: LSPU Hall, St. John’s
Admission: $20
Tickets: 753 4531 or order online at www.rca.nf.ca
Artists Contacts:
Ruth Lawrence: ruth.lawrence@nf.sympatico.ca or
Sara Tilley: sara@shesaidyestheatre.ca
Website: http://shesaidyestheatre.ca / http://www.ruthlawrence.com

Other upcoming performances:

Sara Tilley as Mona (L) and Ruth Lawrence as Rita
Photo credit: Victoria Wells

Atlantic Fringe Festival, Halifax
Bus Stop Theatre, Gottingen St.
Thursday September 8, 6:00 p.m.
Friday September 9, 10:30 p.m.
Saturday September 10, 6:45 p.m.
Sunday September 11, 3:45 p.m.
www.atlanticfringe.ca/tickets-tips-tricks.php

FemFest, Winnipeg
Sunday September 18, 9 p.m.
Tuesday September 20, 7 p.m.
http://sarasvati.ca/fem-fest/fem-fest-home/

What the critics are saying:

"Go see this dark comedy about two real women dealing with love, motherhood, self-acceptance ... you will not be disappointed...the most enjoyable experience I have had at a Fringe show in a very long time... simple but stunning...honest, visceral, poignant, sad and funny... flawless acting, 5 out of 5"...
Stephanie Yantsis, Hamilton Fringe Review (Hamilton)

"A fresh look at retaining identity in the face of motherhood and relationships...quirky dialogue...honest observations ... Tilley earns huge applause"...
DF-G, NOW (Toronto)

"Tilley’s performance...is vulnerable and impassioned. Lawrence’s...is likeable, enviable and sad. ...timeless"
Mooney on Theatre (Toronto)

"A so-called ‘chick flick’... will interest, even fascinate males audiences too. Well done in both creation and execution."
Terry Metter, Ontario Arts Review (Toronto)

"A performance that simply has to be seen"...
Ashley Fitzpatrick,The Telegram (St. John’s)

Q and A with Ruth Lawrence and Sara Tilley...

NLAC: Congratulations on the great reviews - they speak for themselves, but tell us a bit more about how people have been responding to the show...

Ruth: Thanks so much. Well, the show had great response here but we were a little nervous about taking it elsewhere. Sometimes humour doesn’t travel as well as drama. But the critical and audience response in Toronto and Hamilton was glowing, which makes us glow a little too. Word about the show really traveled and we had lots of critics coming to check out the buzz. Getting chosen as Outstanding Ensemble by NOW Magazine, from some of the most experienced and discriminating critics in the country, was very special. We’re happy to wear that badge.

NLAC: What is it about this show that resonates with people?

Ruth: You never know what will hit home with people! When we first did the show in St. John’s in March 2010, so many people emailed or spoke to us afterwards about how strongly they identified with the characters. That was uplifting for us because it’s the reason Sara and I were so drawn to the show. Mona in particular, who is played by Sara Tilley, has this vulnerability as a new mother that anyone can empathize with and enjoy. Rita’s perspective, as her friend and as a single and successful career woman becomes the counterpoint to that struggle. No matter where we’ve played it, people come back to us and say, “I’ve been there” or “I know someone just like that”. Shannon’s genius was to let those characters tread the line between reality and absurdity so the audience can laugh and ache with them. And I was kind of surprised at how many men really loved it.

NLAC: Obviously you must be having a ball performing this piece - tell us a bit about what it's like doing the show so many times, how you keep it fresh, etc.

Ruth: Oh yes, it’s a fun show for all three of us. (Mark White has a cameo that the audiences love! He’s a lovable guy.) It’s just under an hour in length so it’s pretty easy to perform but it’s a good workout. Most times I feel like the show is just getting started when it’s over. Our usual run, because we are a small company, is about four nights. Traveling it to four other cities means that the show is richer now. We are still making little discoveries about our characters all the time.

Sara: Getting to do the show so many times has been a real blessing. No two performances are exactly alike and the characters both keep evolving. I would encourage people who saw the show when it premiered in 2010 to come back and see it again when we do our performance on Sept. 14 because the show has really evolved...and so has Mark White's amazing 1-minute cameo!

NLAC: Tell us a bit about your character and how you "got into" that character.

Ruth: Rita is Mona’s best friend and anchor but she is longing to pull up her mooring and sail away. She has dreams to fulfill and she’s on the verge of pursuing them. To do that, she has to set Mona free...whether she likes it or not.

I’m a performer who usually works from the inside out, exploring the emotional core of the character before thinking about the appearance. But some roles, like this one, don’t solidify until you have the look and feel for the character. That was the case with this role. Once I have my hair, makeup and shoes, Rita is in the room! Some people may disagree, but Rita and I don’t have much in common. Except that we both love shoes...and support our girlfriends...and deeply value our hair stylist!

Sara: Mona was at once totally familiar to me when I first read the script, and completely alien. I identified with some of her more awkward, goofy, and naive qualities, but her life as a new mother is something I haven't experienced. The rehearsal process felt very intimidating at first as the playwright is a mom, Ruth is a mom, and Sherry, our director, is too...and here I am, the only non-mom, playing the mom! I took a lot of time really conjuring up Sasha, Mona's toddler, and making him real for myself. I also just allowed myself to enjoy inhabiting this character to the fullest. Shannon Bramer's script is not quite realism, and not quite absurdism. It walks a line and we also had to walk a line as actors between emotional realism and an almost clown-like use of direct contact with the audience...there is and there isn't a fourth wall, for both characters, at different times in the play. This makes creating your character more complicated. For me, costume really helps. Mona's clothes fit terribly, she wears glasses and badly applied makeup, pins her bangs back with children's barrettes, and wears athletic sandals with her skirts. Once we had found all of those pieces, in something of a collaboration between myself, the designer, and our director Sherry, then Mona's posture, mannerisms, voice, and most of all her emotional reality began to fall into place for me. When I look in the mirror before the show, it's easy to drop into character and have a wide range of expression and emotion within Mona's world. It's like wearing a mask - her glasses are all I really need to drop into character now.

NLAC: What is it like traveling this show around the country (challenges and rewards?) and "doing the fringe" circuit - fringe festivals have a very special kind of vibe, don't they?

Ruth: Well, the laurels are great and that is a wonderful reward. And the Fringes (three of the four gigs are Fringes; FemFest is a juried festival) are an affordable way to tour this country. The entire registration cost for the Toronto Fringe, for example, would equal a one day rental in the theatre that we actually performed in for two weeks. The support system of box office and publicity comes with it. We also made connections with theatre professionals across the country; those are already leading to other opportunities. But if I put my producer hat on, this kind of touring also comes with some challenges. The heat wave in Hamilton meant that despite those great reviews, very few people went outside that week, especially to a theatre with hot lights. Our budget anticipates a certain amount of box office so that was a shortfall we had to make up. It was hard work but we were met with such incredible generosity. People opened their homes to us, fed us, drove us around, donated money, bought ads, promoted the show to others. Those were the most unexpected moments of gladness. And there were so many.

NLAC: Anything else you'd like to add?

Ruth: Yes, I want to thank everyone in the province. It is SO costly to travel a show from here. Everyone knows that but until you’re faced with making it all happen, it’s difficult to appreciate the effort. We were fortunate to get about a third of our funding from the NLAC, the province’s Cultural Economic Development Program, and the City of St. John’s. That funding gave us the basis to raise the other two-thirds to start taking our work across the country. Our sister theatre companies have supported us too. If the people, and in turn their community and representatives, continue to value and invest in our artists we’ll keep seeing the tremendous success those artists can have across the country and around the world. Thanks for backing us!