Out of The Fog

Description disponible en anglais seulement

“I am not warm and cuddly with the kids. I want them to know I judge them unrelentingly.” – Georgia Montreal, May 2012 – MOTET is a new company founded by seasoned actors Victoria Barkoff and Jane Gilchrist. Their inaugural production is Jane Gilchrist’s new play Out of the Fog, directed by Jacqueline van de Geer for the Montreal Fringe Festival, Venue 7- Bain St. Michel, from June 15-23.
In Out of the Fog, Georgia Clark (Jane Gilchrist), a stern elementary school teacher, is determined to make her students set aside fantasy and face reality. School Counsellor Diana Adams (Victoria Barkoff) hopes to alter Georgia’s severe methods. The conflict between them is put on hold when Georgia’s student Frank (Matthew Comeau/Alexander Fitchev alternating roles) goes missing. The women unite to try to save him. Out of the Fog springs from an attempt to understand a dour fourth grade teacher who put the author’s own daughter through a bad year by regularly announcing everybody’s marks after tests, shaming those who were not performing well and puffing up the egos of those who were on top. Gilchrist explains, “My daughter took the shaming seriously and worked hard to rise from the middle of the class to fourth place, but it was a joyless effort.” She continues, “And what about the kids who could not do any better?” The unhappy boy in this play is one such tormented child. MOTET’s talented company:Director Jacqueline van de Geer, is an immigrant from Holland who did her theatre training in Holland and Belgium and continues to study and experiment in Montreal at Studio 303. She recently starred in her sold-out solo show The Mermaid, produced by Les Yeux Oranges, and she capped off her fifth year as the Artistic Director of Dramatis Personae by directing The Dining Room at Victoria Hall. Jacqueline choreographed the horses in Village Scene Productions’ Equus at the Rialto Theatre and the plants in VSP’s Suddenly Last Summer at McGill. Her devotion to mastering all aspects of theatre is inspiring.Jane Gilchrist played Ethel Chauvenet in Harvey at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts and Aunt Juliana in Hedda Gabler at Mainline Theatre. She shared a scene with Steve Carel in the Warner Bros. movie Get Smart and appeared in two episodes of CBC’s Sophie. Most memorable to her was playing the unhappy wife in Q-Art Theatre’s production of her own play, Ratamacue. As a playwright, Jane’s The Kitsch Woman won Honorable Mention in the Herman Voaden International Playwriting Competition, Queen’s University, 2003. Tiger Rag Players did Hammer and Tongs at Infinitheatre and at the Montreal Fringe, 1999, and The Huron Festival, Newmarket, Ont. produced it in 2003. Primal Broads ran at Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival, Toronto, 2005, and at the Toronto International Clown Festival, 2006. Pertelote and Elizabeth was produced by the Huron Festival in 2006. Q-Art Theatre mounted Ratamacue at the MAI in 2005 with Gabor Zsigovics directing. Matt Radz called it a “well-shaped, well-paced play” in his Gazette review.Victoria Barkoff played opposite Viggo Mortensen in A Walk on the Moon and Claude Léveillée in the French TV series Tabou, and amused viewers as the technologically challenged woman in a series of Vidéotron commercials. Recent stage roles include Dora in Village Scene Production's Equus at the Rialto Theatre and Lady Bracknell in Lakeshore Players' The Importance of Being Earnest.Matthew Comeau (12 years old) played a spider spinning 15 feet up in a Signal Fire music video. He has appeared in a Sophie episode and the 3-D feature film HIDDEN.Alexander Fitchev (11 years old) played the grandson of the Bishop in The Will: Family Secrets Revealed, episode 6. He studied camera technique with Patrick Huneault, 2009-10.Malcolm McRae is the stage manager and photographer.

Running time: 45 minutes