Canadope 2015: Battlestar Canadica

Hey! I saw that the other night on opening night! Other than the lead losing his voice about 10% of the way in, and wonky sound (ah, the joys of live theatre), we loved it. We’re talking about going again.

I’ve actually heard him twice, in two different performances here in Regina, before he started posting on the Dope. In one of them, Piper Dad was in the chorus while he was one of the soloists (a performance of Messiah).

You were in the chorus of Messiah when our own Le Ministre was a soloist? Wish I could have been there, to hear you both!

I sang Messiah many times as a member of my church choir. I think I can still remember the bass chorus part of “The Hallelujah Chorus” off the top of my head. Good times, and what a great oratorio to sing!

ETA: I did have the privilege of meeting Le Ministre while I was in Toronto a few years ago. Great guy! I do miss his contributions here on the SDMB, but I understand if work demands mean that he cannot post. Still, his hosting of the short fiction contests–well, I miss those too. Hope that he can return here soon.

No, it was Piper Dad (my father) who was singing in the chorus, while I was watching.

Did you realise that Le Ministre was one of the performers?

And did you want to sing along? I know that, as a child at church, I knew the hymns and anthems the choir was singng. I’d hum away with the choir, as they were singing–my mother told me to shut up, but I knew the music, and wanted to be a part of it. But I was too young. Eventually, I did join a church choir, and got to sing the traditional hymns, and so much more.

NP, I would welcome the chance to sing alongside you in a choir. Perhaps someday we can.

I remember meeting Le Ministre this summer and he was telling me he’d be in a show in Vancouver. :slight_smile: We met up at a cafe in Toronto and talked about music. He’s so nice.

No, I had no idea. We thought he was one of the better performers. (Sweeney was not good, but having your voice give out a few minutes into opening night has to put you off your stride: he lip-synched the performance. He did what he could. Mrs. Lovett was also less than ideal, again probably because of all the duets. Otherwise, we thought the Judge & Beadle were excellent, as were Toby, Pirelli, and Johanna.)

Hey, everyone, how are you all doing?

I did not actually mean to be away from The Dope this long - I just kinda got out of the habit of dropping by. So much so that I had to look up my password to be able to post this. Who am I anyway?!?

Dr. Drake, many thanks for your kind words. It has been a wild few weeks here; it took quite a bit of imagining in the rehearsal hall to picture what the director was talking about when she said ‘…and then the bridge will turn, and you’ll be in this position.’ Umm, what? We spent a lot of extra rehearsal time in the theatre, sorting out moves and cutting a lot of extra movement. We also added a ‘minion’ to the pit for Act II - I don’t think he had much to do, but in case any of the bodies don’t make it all the way on to the gurneys, he’s there to spot us and tell us to twitch down. This after the Beadle had his head still on the slide before a bridge revolve, which shut that whole rehearsal down for 5 minutes while they sorted him out. If it had turned with his head still on it but his body on the gurney, well - it would have been ugly.

For those of you not in Vancouver, here’s a trailer they put together for the show. It looks very cool, if I do say so myself, but my goodness me, is some of it scary to do!!

Yes, I really do graphically rape a woman onstage; then in a later scene, I masturbate to climax while peeking through a keyhole and whipping myself. Judge Turpin is by far the worst bad guy I’ve ever had to play. “Zangeef, you are bad guy, but this does not mean you are bad guy.”

Four more shows, and then back home to Toronto. I like Vancouver, it’s a great place, but it will have been five weeks since I last saw my wife and kids.

So what’s going on? What’s everybody up to these days?

Going to court, riding herd on the Cub, and occasionally practicing my pipes.

Nice to see you here again, Ministre. :smiley:
As for me, I’ve been working on music arrangements and going to many of my friends’ recitals at McGill. I feel lucky to live in a city with so much good music. :slight_smile:

Working.

Fretting about family issues.

Fretting about selling my house.

Fretting about finances.

Fretting about life in general.

Hey, you asked.

While I would enjoy it, I’m not sure the others in the choir or the audience would. :wink:

Just play the pipes then. :wink:

My dad was a piper. Unfortunately he never had any inclination to pass the skill down to us. I recall after immigrating to Canada that he gave the pipes up for a number of years.

At some point, maybe 6 or 8 years after we were here he broke them out again and played right up till he died in 2006. In fact he was the pipe-major of the band in Sarnia, Ontario. I think the pipe band disbanded after his death.

I love hearing the pipes, but for obvious reasons it’s a little bittersweet, even to this day.

Dad used to fire the damned things up on new year’s eve and play them in the house. In later years we marched through the neighbourhood a bit. Absolutely everyone loved hearing him play.

Well, that enough random rambling for now!

I love bagpipes. Maybe because I’m 1/4 Scottish (my grandfather is from Scotland, he came to Canada and met my grandmother, they eventually ended up living in Belleville, Ontario, and I had many nice visits to their beautiful old house on the lake there. My grandma died and the house has now been sold, and my grandfather lives in a seniors’ home in Belleville now.)

What I like to say about myself is I’m 1/4 Scottish, 1/8 Irish, 100% Canadian, and bad at math.

Le Ministre! Great to see you again, and hope you can pop in more often!

Not much new here. Looking forward to playing golf though–we’ve had some nice weather, and I hope that it continues.

We’re just hanging about, raping, peeping, masturbating and flagellating.

Good to see you back in the thread. :slight_smile:

Le Ministre, I may be able to schedule a trip to Toronto in early September. It’s only a possibility at this point, but would you be in Toronto at that time; and if so, could we arrange a meeting?

I wore shorts today for the first time this year.

I was wearing my lighter jacket this morning, but it soon came off. Spent much of the day outside at an event in Montreal, a “Porchfest” where a bunch of local musicians played music on their porches. Good times! I love my city. :slight_smile: