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| NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review | |
| Posted by: T.B._Admin. 10:00 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
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| Howard Miller takes a look at Kim's Convenience: As things stand in the U. S. right now, the primary focus on immigrants seems to be on keeping them out of the country altogether. But in Canada, the land of Come From Away, the welcome mat is still rolled out, and immigrant-centric plays like Ins Choi’s Kim’s Convenience, which opened tonight as part of the Soulpepper on 42nd Street festival at the Pershing Square Signature Center, are embraced almost as national treasures. . . . |
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| Link | KIM'S CONVENIENCE Review |
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| Has Howard Miller seen much Canadian theatre? | |
| Posted by: portenopete 11:54 am EDT 07/06/17 | |
| In reply to: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review - T.B._Admin. 10:00 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
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| I've only read the opening paragraph, but I would say that plays about immigrants are hardly a staple of Canadian Theatre. In fact, I'm hard-pressed to isolate a particularly dominant theme in the canon of major Canadian plays since the early 1970's, when the Canadian regional theatre began to flourish and new writing emerged. Because there was so little Canadian playwriting before the advent of "nationalist" theatres like the Tarragon, Theatre Passe Muraille and the Factory Theatre (all Toronto theatres), the early works seen in those institutions did form an image in some people's minds about just what a Canadian play looked and sounded like. I think David French's plays about the Mercer Family- transplanted Newfoundlanders in Toronto- might have seemed quintessentially Canadian to many people. (I recall an SCTV parody which featured a Mercer-like play.) Those plays were basically intergenerational struggles between the rurally-raised, working class parents and their aspirational, stifled offspring (which is not all that different from any number of American plays). I do think that Canadian theatre has focussed on more marginal societies than the average American play. Writers like Judith Thompson, David Freeman and George F. Walker have examined- in both comic and dramatic form- people living lives of not-so-quiet desperation. As have Québecois writers like Michel Tremblay and Michel-Marc Bouchard, with a dollop of French-Canadian political resentment and Catholic guilt thrown in for good measure. So a play like KIM'S CONVENIENCE is very much a new phenomenon in Canada rather than a familiar and beloved trope. Norm Foster has had an extraordinary career writing Neil Simon-ish sitcom plays (and even has an eponymous festival in St. Catharines ON now) and the much-younger Mark Crawford has had a string of successful comedies produced over the past couple of years. But they have been more focussed on (respectively) middle-class/middle-aged straight white people and a younger, gayer world. And their work has been produced more in summer stock venues and some of the smaller regionals, not in a classically-bent company like Soulpepper. Soulpepper has had great success with many Canadian classics (including many if not all of the aforementioned Mercer Family plays and a good chunk of Michel Tremblay's canon) and it's too bad that a bit of this isn't represented in its Signature season. Of the four major productions one is a Canadian adaptation of a British classic (OF HUMAN BONDAGE) and another a Canadian adaptation of an American classic (SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY). Then there are KIM'S CONVENIENCE and CAGE, what sounds like a performance piece inspired partly by American composer John Cage. I'm not certain their offerings in New York are an accurate representation of what they have produced over the last two decades. Their original mandate and arguably their greatest successes have been European classics. They were conceived out of a grievance, when the celebrated Young Company that the late director Robin Phillips had assembled at Stratford (including Soulpepper A.D. Albert Schultz) was summarily dismissed after the 1988 season. First there was an attempted production of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST starring British actress Margaret Tyzack (who was eventually denied a working visa because of protest from Equity) and then, a few years later, the celebrated debut of this oddly-named company ("soul pepper" was credited to Schultz's young children, apparently). Their first two productions were both directed by Phillips, both starred Brent Carver and they were both stunning: THE MISANTHROPE and DON CARLOS. Originally they played a short summer season but Schultz's ambitions have been great and he has made extraordinary strides in growing the company into a year-round, cross-country producer that devotes a huge amount of its resources to education and the development of new writing. (In that sense, the Signature offerings do represent what Soulpepper has become.) |
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| re: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review | |
| Posted by: summertheater 10:26 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
| In reply to: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review - T.B._Admin. 10:00 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
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| This play is actually based on a wildly popular TV series in Canada, that you can currently view on YouTube by typing "Kim's Convenience." I wonder where this theater reviewer got the first paragraph. Was it sourced from other online material? |
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| re: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review | |
| Posted by: portenopete 11:17 am EDT 07/06/17 | |
| In reply to: re: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review - summertheater 10:26 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
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| The play came first. It was a huge success in Toronto and toured across the country to several regional theatres and THEN was adapted for television. | |
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| re: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 11:48 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
| In reply to: re: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review - summertheater 10:26 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
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| What's your issue/skepticism with the first paragraph? | |
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| re: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review | |
| Posted by: summertheater 07:50 am EDT 07/06/17 | |
| In reply to: re: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review - Singapore/Fling 11:48 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
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| If I wrote a paragraph that wasn't based on what I saw at a show, I would give it proper attribution. I.e. according to a press release, according to a NY Times article. Shockingly similar to what I saw in the 2 links below. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/02/theater/canada-day-soulpepper-theater-company.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/theater/soulpepper-theater.html |
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| re: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review | |
| Posted by: Singapore/Fling 10:24 am EDT 07/06/17 | |
| In reply to: re: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review - summertheater 07:50 am EDT 07/06/17 | |
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| It's weird. Nothing in either of those articles states what the TB reviewer wrote in his first paragraph (not even anything close), but they both state quite clearly that "KIm's Convenience" was turned into a TV show after the play premiered, rather than the other way around, which was your first complaint. Did you just decide to call plagiarism and then look for a source to back it up? In any event, reviews are not annotated term papers. If a reviewer wants to glean basic information about the world - such as that Canada likes plays about immigrants or that the US doesn't - they're free to do so if they're sticking to generalizations. You're welcome to question the accuracy of their information, but there's no plagiarism involved. |
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| re: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review | |
| Posted by: AC126748 09:21 am EDT 07/06/17 | |
| In reply to: re: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review - summertheater 07:50 am EDT 07/06/17 | |
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| If I wrote a paragraph that wasn't based on what I saw at a show, I would give it proper attribution. I.e. according to a press release, according to a NY Times article. Shockingly similar to what I saw in the 2 links below. First of all: e.g., not i.e. Second: It's a bit of a leap to essentially accuse a writer of plagiarism because...what? Both his review and another article about the same subject both mention Come From Away? |
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| The TV series (2016) is based on the play (2011), not the other way around. (NM) | |
| Posted by: Seth Christenfeld (tabula-rasa@verizon.net) 10:32 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
| In reply to: re: NEW - KIM'S CONVENIENCE - Talkin' Broadway's Review - summertheater 10:26 pm EDT 07/05/17 | |
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| Seth, easily sourced | |
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