FR Persephone Productions
  • Page d'accueil
  • À Propos
    • Compagnie
    • Histoire
    • Directeur
    • Presse >
      • Lost: A Memoir Press >
        • The Westmount Independent Review for Lost: A Memoir
        • The Gazette Preview for Lost: A Memoir
      • Oroonoko Press >
        • The Gazette Review for Oroonoko
        • The Charlebois Post Review for Oroonoko
        • The Montrealer Interview with Paul Van Dyck for Oroonoko
      • Hamlet Press >
        • First Person Charlebois Post by Christopher for Hamlet
        • CBC Interview with Gabrielle Soskin
        • The McGill Tribune Review for Hamlet
        • The Métropolitain Review for Hamlet
        • The Senior Times Review for Hamlet
      • To Be Press >
        • Mirror Review for To Be
        • Charlebois Post First Person for To Be
      • Far from the Madding Crowd Press >
        • Gazette Review for FFTMC
        • Mirror Review for FFTMC
        • Gazette Preview on Christopher Moore for FFTMC
        • Charlebois Post for FFTMC
      • Mary's Wedding Press >
        • Charlebois Post Interview with Gabrielle Soskin for Mary's Wedding
        • Canadian Jewish News Preview for Mary's Wedding
        • The Mirror Preview for Mary's Wedding
        • Charlebois Post Preview for Mary's Wedding
      • Henry V Press >
        • The Suburban Preview for Henry V
        • The Gazette Review for Henry V
        • Rover Arts Report for Henry V
        • Midnight Poutine Review for Henry V
        • Coolopolis Review for Henry V
        • Rover Arts Review for Henry V
      • Be My Baby Press >
        • Gazette Preview for Be My Baby
        • Gazette Review for Be My Baby
        • The West End Times Preview for Be My Baby
        • The Suburban Review for Be My Baby
      • Cherry Docs Press >
        • The Gazette (Cherry Docs)
        • The Suburban (Cherry Docs)
        • Rover Arts (Cherry Docs)
        • Dee Arr (Cherry Docs)
        • The Canadian Jewish News (Cherry Docs)
        • HOUR (Cherry Docs)
        • The Mirror (Cherry Docs)
        • Stanstead Journal (Cherry Docs)
      • Othello Press >
        • The Gazette (Othello)
        • The Concordian (Othello)
        • The Link (Othello)
        • MicGill Tribune (Othello)
        • The Westmount Independent (Othello)
        • The NDG Monitor (Othello)
      • Unity 1918 Press >
        • The Gazette (Unity 1918)
        • The Mirror (Unity 1918)
        • Invisible Cities Network (Unity 1918)
        • McGill Tribune (Unity 1918)
        • HOUR (Unity 1918)
      • The Love of Shakespeare's Women Press >
        • The Westmount Independent (The Loves of Shakespeare's Women)
        • The Gazette (The Loves of Shakespeare's Women)
      • To The Green Fields Beyond Press >
        • The Gazette (To The Green Fields Beyond)
        • The Mirror (To The Green Fields Beyond)
      • Prodigy Press >
        • The Gazette (Prodigy)
        • La Press (Prodigy)
        • Le Délit (Prodigy)
        • Invisible Cities Network (Prodigy)
        • McGill Tribune (Prodigy)
        • The Surban (Prodigy)
        • The Mirror (Prodigy)
        • McGill Daily (Prodigy)
      • Spring Awakening Press >
        • The Gazette (Spring Awakening)
        • Prince Chameleon Press (Spring Awakening)
        • Délit (Spring Awakening)
        • Mon Theatre (Spring Awakening)
      • A Room of One's Own Press >
        • CBC Radio One (A Room of One's Own)
        • The Gazette (A Room of One's Own)
        • The Westmount Examiner (A Room of One's Own)
        • The Canadian Jewish News (A Room of One's Own)
      • SubUrbia Press >
        • CBC Radio One(SubUrbia)
        • The Gazette (SubUrbia)
        • Montreal Mirror (SubUrbia)
        • HOUR (SubUrbia)
        • The Suburban (SubUrbia)
        • Westmount Times (SubUrbia)
        • The Canadian Jewish News (SubUrbia)
      • Jane Eyre Press >
        • The Canadian Jewish News (Jane Eyre)
        • Orcasound (Jane Eyre)
      • Kindertransport Press >
        • The Gazette (Kindertransport)
        • Montreal Mirror (Kindertransport)
        • The Suburban (Kindertransport)
        • The Chronicle (Kindertransport)
      • Playhouse Creatures Press >
        • Montreal Mirror
        • Westmount Times
      • Anna Karenina Press >
        • Gazette Review
        • Montreal Mirror Review
    • Bulletin
    • Rétroaction
    • Reçus
    • Contact
  • Parrainage
  • Productions Anterieurs
    • oct 2019 Blue Stockings
    • mai, nov 2018: Counting Aloud
    • oct 2018: Abigail/1702
    • Spring Awakening: The Musical
    • Des fraises en janvier
    • Lost: A Memoir
    • Oroonoko
    • Hamlet
    • To Be
    • Far from the Madding Crowd
    • Mary's Wedding
    • Henry V
    • Ten year Anniversary Gala
    • Be My Baby
    • Cherry Docs
    • Othello
    • The Love of Shakespeare's Women (2)
    • Unity 1918
    • The Love of Shakespeare's Women (1)
    • To the Green Fields Beyond
    • Prodigy
    • Spring Awakening
    • A Room of One's Own
    • SubUrbia
    • Jane Eyre
    • West
    • Kindertransport
    • Playhouse Creatures
    • Anna Karenina
  • Blog
  • anciens élèves notables
  • ENGLISH

Mary's Wedding links love, war and learning

The Canadian Jewish News, April 21, 2011 by Heather Solomon 


Alison Busner is about to prove what Persephone Productions is all about, and Gabrielle Soskin is pointing the way. Soskin is directing Busner in the challenge of her young life, a two-hander where the 21-year-old actor never leaves the stage. 

Busner must also perform the whole thing barefoot, wearing a long nightgown. Not only are there 90 minutes of text to memorize in the play Mary's Wedding, but the West Island native must deliver it all in a British accent. 

"I graduated last spring from Dawson College's professional theatre program, and I'd studied dialects there. One doesn't learn it perfectly. so I'm very lucky to have Gabrielle,' says Busner.

Soskin arrived here from England in 1970, a graduate of the Old Vic Theatre School. For 27 years she taught in the professional theatre program of John Abbott College before leaving it to establish Persephone Productions 11 years ago in a successful effort to give young theatre graduates professional experience. With Persephone, they seed their talents before taking on the greater world of hard-knocks stage. And their products are top-notch, as exemplified by this independent company's past productions such as Kindertransport, subUrbia and Cherrydocs.

Mary's Wedding, by award-winning Alberta playwright Stephen Massicotte, is a condemnation of war seen through the filter of young love. On at the intimate Jean Valcourt Studio theatre of the Conservatoire de musique et d'arts dramatique, 4750 Henri-Julien street, the play runs from April 27 to May 7. The story follows a 17-year-old British girl, newly arrived to the prairie colonies, who falls for Charlie, a local farm boy. She introduces him to polite tea parties and he initiates her to the freedom of horseback riding, but their idyll ends when he enlists in the cavalry and is swallowed up overseas in the horror of the World War I trenches.

The play takes place three years after the fact, and in a time-folding dream sequence, Mary conjures all the memories of her young love, even those seen through the ink of his letters home describing his shock at modern warfare, in which machine guns have relaced the exploits he had envisioned. Busner not only plays Mary but also the sergeant of her beloved, both of whom offer her comfort in the face of destruction. The story is deeply touching and a wonderful exercise of the audience's imagination as it leaps through Mary's sometimes surreal dream. 

Busner says she is currently learning to "paint with my voice." Playing Charlie is Persephone alumnus Dustin Ruck. 

"Dustin has worked for Persephone several times before, and I've watched him develop," says Soskin. "While Persephone is about giving chances to newcomers, I felt with a two-hander, it would be a good balance to have someone I know very well and who is now more experienced, with somebody who has just graduated. Is there chemistry? There jolly well better be!"

Lorne Reienstein, who learned his craft at Concordia University, is designing the lighting, which takes the audience in the blink of an eye from a prairie thunderstorm to a battlefield in France. Set designer Ariel Loraine has similar challenges, as does the sound designer Gordon Allen. 

Busner knew she wanted to act from the age of 12 and took lessons through the years at the Montreal School of Performing Arts. Now that she's embarking on what she hopes will be her long-term career, she is happy to have her parents' support.

"My dad obviously wanted me to become a lawyer. I'm the youngest of five children and he's not enjoying the struggle of me being in the theatre, but he comes to all my shows and cheers me on." 

Following Mary's Wedding, Busner portrays Cinderella's eldest stepsister on Coracole Productions' children's play The Slipper and the Rose, followed by a character in a woman's meditation process in the Off-Fringe show Buddha and the Rock Star.

"I'll stay in Montreal as long as I have enough work," she says. Next season, Persephone will produce an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel Far from the Madding Crowd, as well as a Shakespeare play. Busner has already been invited to audition. 
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.