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On the road to the ‘Parade’

> Thrasso Petras on the art of directing

Adam Tatelman
Arts Editor

 

hrasso Petras, an instructor
in the Douglas College
theatre program, sat down with
the Other Press to chat about
his work with the student actors
on their upcoming performance
of John Murell’s World War 2
drama Waiting for the Parade.
When asked how he came to
choose Waiting for the Parade,
Petras confided that the program
chooses their plays based on
the students being cast. “We
want strong characters; I was
looking for things in the piece
that the actors need to work on.
Sometimes in plays for student
productions you don’t always get
what you want to do, you have
to find the play that suits the
students. Our class has lots of
women. This one happens to have
all female roles, so that’s good.”
Petras noted that many of
the plays he’s directed at Douglas
over the past few years have had
similar themes. “It occurred to me
that this is a play about women
and war. Looking back at all the
plays I’ve done here, Waiting
for the Parade, Trojan Women,

Unity 1918, Lysistrata, Jehanne
of the Witches, Macbeth—which
is all about Lady MacBeth, to
me—out of the I think 10 plays
I’ve directed here, 6 of the plays
I’ve done in the last 9 years have
been about women and war.”
The set design is one of the
most interesting aspects of the
show, and it’s shaping up to be

Spanish rhythm

> Douglas professor and local musician co-star in Arts at One

Jamal Al-Bayaa
Staff Writer

 

ouise Southwood’s fingers

flew on her guitar as she
recited “Lagrima,” or “Teardrop.”
The song was a perfect harmony
of two separate melodies, with
impressive use of low tones
in support of a high energy
performance. Close your eyes
and you would still be impressed
by the sheer sound quality, but
you would miss the skill and
dexterity happening on stage.
The most amazing part was how,
by her method of plucking the
guitar with her thumb and all
her fingers, she was able to play
both melodies simultaneously.

That was just the opening

to an hour-long concert
featuring Southwood and Barrie
Barrington, a talented piano
player and Douglas College
music teacher. In her opening
remarks, Southwood expressed
how honoured she felt to open
for Barrie, and said that doing

so was a great pleasure for her.
In the past, Southwood
has played in Canada, the USA,
India, Australia, the U.K., and
Bermuda. In 2009, she opened
the Koda Kanal International
Guitar Festival in India. Barrie
Barrington, apart from being a
respected teacher in Douglas, is
also deeply involved in the piano

a very unique visual style. “I
frequently work with Amanda
Larder, our resident set designer,
and we are not fans of the literal,”
Petras said. “I feel that film

and TV does literal really well,
and when I go to the theatre, I
want to see something a little

bit tweaked. Some shows can
stand a great deal of tweaking,

f }
world. Most notably, he was
awarded two doctoral fellowships
from the UBC concerto, and he
works as a performance judge
throughout Western Canada.

The concert was a Spanish-
themed collection of music
centered on a duo piece called

“Espana,” the show’s title piece
and the most dramatic, haunting

 

and others just need a little.
“Amanda came up with this
vivid pastel colour scheme, and
a great many images to do with
the theme,” Petras continued.
“Since it takes place in Calgary,
almost all these images are from
Calgary buildings and posters.
We wanted to have that sense of
nostalgia, but we didn’t want to

 
   

musical performance. The great
thing about Spanish music
is how entertaining it is. It’s
lively, energetic, and nostalgic;
the genre alone is enough to
bring you back to the many
places you’ve probably heard
Spanish ensembles before.
Once Barrington gets on
stage, he displays his lively and

Thrasso Petras via about.me

Barrie Barrington via www.dcms.ca

be literal. We work between the
literal and the representative.”

Having worked as a
professional director fora
number of years, Petras noted
that directing students is a
much different process than
working with professional
actors. “You start out 60 to
80 per cent director,” he said.
“As the process moves on, you
start to balance the roles of
teacher and director so you're
teaching more than directing.
In the best case scenario, the
students successfully integrate
the skills you're teaching into
their performance. In the most
ideal cases, by the end, I’m
collaborating more than leading.

“Working with professional
actors, there’s full collaboration,”
Petras said. “I want to see
what their brains are making,
talk about what’s really
working, reflect it back, and
refine it even further.”

To see Petras’ work live on
stage, catch the free preview
of Waiting for the Parade in
the Douglas College studio
theatre on March 10 at 2:00
p.m. Performances run from
March 1-18 at 7:30 p.m.

energetic style. It is plain to see
just how good he really is at his
craft. Based off information
from the Apple watch he wore
during the performance, one of
the songs he played is the “step
equivalent” of going fora 3km
run, the equivalent of 50 km/h.
That’s because the song, “Quejas
o la Maya y el Ruisenor,” has a
bouncing left hand throughout
the two-and-a-half minute piece.
At one point, Barrie
completely stunned the audience
into silence, stopping his
piece so abruptly after such an
impressive display of multi-
tasking and musical ability
that people weren't sure if they
were even supposed to clap
yet, or if there was more to
come. Within a few seconds, he
shrugged it off and moved on
to his next piece. From there on
out, clapping was a secondary
response to the music, not nearly
as important as the audience
shaking their collective heads
and dropping their jaws in awe.