Last season, Gray was seen in the Noël Coward triplet Brief Encounters and Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday. His other Shaw credits include Getting Married, The Little Foxes, The Cassilis Engagement and The Circle.

Other recent credits include the Hamlet Project (Necessary Angel Theatre Company); Them & Us (Theatre Passe Muraille); Festen (Company Theatre); The Eleventh David (Summerworks 2006); Duel at Dawn (Lorraine Kimsa Theatre For Young People); St. Christopher (DVxT/Passe Muraille); The Demimonde (Tiny Bird/Fringe 2005); and Spain (Absit Omen). Gray has also worked across Canada with companies such as Soulpepper Theatre Company, Banff Arts Centre, Caravan Farm Theatre, Leaky Heaven Circus and Carousel Players.

For the Shaw Festival: Born Yesterday, Brief Encounters, Getting Married, The Little Foxes, The Cassilis Engagement and The Circle. Other recent credits include: Them & Us (Theatre Passe Muraille); Festen (Company Theatre); The Eleventh David (Summerworks 2006); Duel at Dawn (LKTYP); St. Christopher (DVxT/Passe Muraille); The Demimonde (Tiny Bird/Fringe 2005); and Spain (Absit Omen). Gray has also worked across Canada with companies such as Soulpepper, Banff Arts Centre, Caravan Farm Theatre, Leaky Heaven Circus and Carousel Players. His film and television credits include: Till Death Do Us Part, Fugitive Pieces, Hollywoodland, KAW, Train 48 and Getting Lucky.

Another wonderful Directors Day at the Shaw Festival was held on August 22. The day culminates the 2008 Directors Project with one-act performances directed by this year’s intern directors, Geoffrey Brumlik and Laurel Smith. It is one of our favourite days of the year, and so there was a larger group attending this year from Theatre Ontario: John Goddard and his better half Susan, Brandon Moore, Bill Meaden from our Board of Directors, and myself. There was also a large contingent attending from Sun Life Financial, the corporate sponsor of the Directors Project, led by their long-time Director of Philanthropy, Linda MacKenzie. We were treated to another day of great theatre and great hospitality by The Shaw.
Geoffrey Brumlik and Laurel Smith
Geoffrey Brumlik and Laurel Smith, the 2008 Shaw Festival Directors Project Intern Directors. Photo by David Cooper

Geoffrey Brumlik from Edmonton directed The Man in the Stalls by Alfred Sutro. Alfred who? Sutro (1863-1933) was a British author and dramatist whose fame came as the chief translator of Maeterlinck, the Belgian playwright and poet. Sutro’s plays became extremely popular in their time. The Man in the Stalls was first produced in 1911 at the Palace Theatre in London’s West End. It’s an engaging comedy about a theatre critic’s marriage. Early on in the plot, we learn that the wife is enjoying a torrid affair in the evenings her husband is off seeing theatre. A cast of four adroitly manoeuvres through the ensuing twists in Brumlik’s fine production.
The Man In The Stalls
Martin Happer, Robin Evan Willis and Gray Powell in The Man in the Stalls by Alfred Sutro. Director: Geoffrey Brumlik. Photo by Mark Callan.

The second one-act show, Shaw’s Overruled, directed by Laurel Smith of Toronto, perfectly complements this year’s Directors Day presentations with another four-hander; a farce about the marital hijinks of two couples both holidaying in a seaside hotel. Laurel Smith and the cast have fun with the physical comedy and keep the pace swirling with the to-and-fro of each character’s ever changing predicaments.
Overruled
Esther Maloney, Ken James Stewart, Mark Uhre and Krista Colosimo in Overruled by Bernard Shaw. Director: Laurel Smith. Photo by Mark Callan.

The similarity in subject matter of the two playlets was conveniently coincidental. The intern directors chose the plays themselves within the boundaries of Shaw’s mandate, the guidance of Shaw’s former Associate Director, Neil Munro and their ability to cast, on a voluntary basis, from the Shaw acting company. They do not have to consult with each other at all. It was also noteworthy that apparently this was the first time an intern director chose a play by Shaw himself.

After the performances, The Shaw treated the entire invited audience to a lovely buffet lunch. It was great to see a lot of friends and peers from Ontario’s theatre community, including many past “graduates” from the Directors Project. The theatre was filled to the brim this year. There was time for a local winery visit before we headed off to a barbecue at Jackie Maxwell’s for Laurel and Geoffrey and the crews involved in the Project. Then we were off to an evening show. Brandon and I saw the remount Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Belle Moral. I missed it two years ago although I am old enough that I remember seeing an earlier incarnation of the play—then entitled The Arab’s Mouth—at Factory Theatre in 1990! Another great Directors Day at The Shaw—not even highway construction on the way home could dampen our contentment.


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