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1991 staged reading of Glenn, Toronto ON

Necessary Angel Theatre Company

presents a staged reading of

Glenn

a new work based on the life and genius of Glenn Gould

Source

by Paul Ledoux and David Young
directed by Richard Rose
musical direction by Don Horsburgh
dramaturgy by D. D. Kugler
costume coordination by Charlotte Dean
stage managed by Susan Monis

featuring Ted Dykstra, Duncan Ollerenshaw,
Gary Reineke, and Albert Schultz

June 20, 21 & 22 at 8:00 p.m.
June 23 at 2:30 p.m.
Berkeley Street (Upstairs)Theatre
Canadian Stage Company
26 Berkeley Street

GLENN
the cast

Duncan Ollerenshaw - The Prodigy
Ted Dykstra - The Performer
Albert Schultz - The Perfectionist
Gary Reineke - The Puritan
there will be one intermission

This is a play about Glenn Gould – his life, his art and his remarkable ideas about the larger harmonies which bind life and art together. The presiding intention has been to enter the Gouldian universe on its own terms using the contrapuntal process he pioneered in his own narrative compositions. The final objective is to find the inner sanctum and have a chat with our illusive Mystery Guest. In fact, we think we might have stumbled on a few of his cooking fires this week. In two cases the coals were still warm. Or maybe that was just Richard being enthusiastic.

The play is obviously still at an early stage. The interpenetration of behaviour, belief and benediction in Gould's life are bound to occupy us for many more months to come. In the short term, the energy and intuition Gary, Ted, Albert and Duncan brought to these workshops inspired all of us to see further into the possibilities of the work. Richard and Kugler have been relentlessly helpful over the months, as has Don 'Dora' Horsburgh, who banked the signal fires inside The Goldberg Variations and directed us toward deep structure. Skim milk and cookies all around!

David Young & Paul Ledoux
June 18, 1991

The authors and Necessary Angel acknowledge the kind co-operation of the Gould Estate represented by Stephen Posen, Ray Roberts and Lucinda Vardey.

Thanks also to John Miller and the Canadian Stage Company

Richard Rose was assisted by Todd Hammond
Properties were coordinated by David Hoekstra
Sound effects were provided by Richard Mendonca

Necessary Angel Theatre Company is an active member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres and the Toronto Theatre Alliance and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of the Canadian Actor's Equity Association.

Glenn Gould once said the key of F minor was the key to his own personality. He explained this choice by saying that F minor was halfway between complex and stable, upright and lascivious, grey and tinted. Indeed, when you recall Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata for piano – written in the key of F minor – a kind of aural portrait of Gould can be made to appear: the passions are profound, but austere – the displays of intellect are dazzling, but carefully controlled; the mystery is absolute; the music folds back into itself and is gone... This was a sign, perhaps, of his native genius: the genius of which the music-loving world is the endless beneficiary – but equally, the genius to which Glenn Gould was forced to submit from the moment he was conscious. His was not the happiest of lives, but it had its moments of laughter and, certainly, it had its moments of wonder.

Timothy Findley
Inside Memory

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Source: Ray Roberts
© Necessary Angel. Reproduced with the permission of the Necessary Angel Theatre Company, the Estate of Glenn Gould and Glenn Gould Limited.
nlc-5473

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