by JANIS KIRSHNER

When it comes to theatre school, graduates' final work often translates into high-quality shows that give bang for your buck. This week, local aspiring thespians let loose their show-and-tells.

The National Theatre School offers both main-stage numbers and small-program presentations. The school's approach and its line of theatre practitioners - actors, designers, playwrights and directors - are well worth checking out. If you're into process over final production, form over content or vice versa, consider the directors' projects, as they tend to focus on one aspect over the other. Started as a pilot project a few years ago, the directing program has received the needed funding and is here to stay; this year it will spawn its first directing graduates.

Former students Eda Holmes and Masques-award-winning director Chris Abraham paved the way for the project's success. Only two directors are chosen every two years; Anthony Black and Emma Tibaldo are the current program's picks.

Tibaldo chose Irish poet Brendan Kennelly's translation of Medea for her final presentation, coming to it from a perspective of rage. In it she explores "how the story reveals itself to an audience/director who is not overly familiar with productions of Greek tragedy written 2,300 years ago." Tibaldo is enthusiastic about the production. "It's a story that brings up issues of women as heroes or horrors, depending how you view it," she explains. "The answer is evasive but exciting."

Anthony Black's long-term goal is to make collaborative creations that obscure the lines of directing, writing and performing. For his final project he's enlisted the creativity of professional actors Laura Teasdale and Danielle Desormeaux to help him meet his goals. Soul Alone is their end effort.

If you prefer your theatre experience in the form of a polished product, NTS's Beggar's Opera might be more up your alley. Guided by professional director Richard Greenblatt, musical director John Millard and well-known jazz pianist Josh Lebofsky, the graduating class shares their annual rite of passage with this political satire that debuted in London in 1728.

B&B Blues

Here are a few pithy conclusions about shows I recently previewed. Bowser and Blue's Rick Blue said, "We've been in a little bubble as a duo for so long." After seeing B&B's The Paris of America, I think that, despite their great intentions, the show should be sealed in a bubble and launched into the ether. The script is weak and the duo shouldn't have strayed from their traditional two-man format.

Describing En manque, director Stacey Christodoulou remarked how "the visual element this time around is the installation-like setting." The approach they took with the space was fantastic. It was interesting being initially disoriented in a room that I've performed and watched in many times; here it gives plenty of character to the play.

Soul Alone April 24–26, at NTS's Lighting Lab
(360 Laurier E.)
Medea April 30–May 3, André-Pagé Studio
(360 Laurier E.)
The Beggar's Opera April 29–May 3, Monument-National
(1182 St-Laurent), 871-2224
Love for Love until May 4, Dome Theatre
(3990 Notre Dame W.), 931-5000

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