issue 1 // volume 43

Genre constipation

> From superheroes to soap operas

Adam Tatelman
Arts Editor

 

[ not unusual to call yourself
a comic fan, especially since
comic heroes have become the
biggest Hollywood properties in
history. What is unusual is that,
having been a comic fan for most
of my own childhood, I am sick
to death of Hollywood comic
book films. Perhaps that seems as
absurd as a Roy Rogers fan getting
sick of 50s John Wayne westerns,
but hey—at least westerns could
tell a self-contained story.
Perhaps that’s unfair. We’ve
had plenty of good comic films,
especially when the X-Men and
Spider-Man movies hit their
stride, or when then-unknown
Tron Man claimed the spotlight
for the first time. Those movies
were made for the purpose of
franchising, but they did not
sacrifice their own narratives
for the sake of promoting future
films. In a post-Avengers world,
that’s exclusively what each of
these films do, since the only
remaining goal is to repeat the
crossover formula ad nauseum.
Marvel Studios has films
planned all the way into 2020,
and they’re really scraping the

bottom of the barrel when it
comes to recognizable characters.
I know who Doctor Strange is,
for instance, but I don’t know
anyone who’s dying to see his on-
screen debut. So it isn’t Avengers
3 that will benefit from Doctor
Strange’s addition to the Marvel
Universe, but rather Strange’s
movie that will benefit from

the assumption that its plot is
essential setup for Avengers 3.

Spoiler alert: It’s not.

Comic book movies are not
made for comic book fans. The
numbers make that clear. In
July of 2016, DC comics’ number
one hot property was the new
Justice League series, selling an
earnest 209,187 copies for $2.99
apiece. That’s $625,469 total.

Compare Batman v
Superman: Dawn of Justice’s
opening weekend. The film
cost $250 million to make, and
grossed $422.5 million worldwide
on its opening weekend. Despite
its steep box office decline in the
following weeks, the film still
made a total of $872.7 million
dollars. Compare the annual
operating budget of Douglas
College; $126.3 million to run
both campuses, $42.7 million
of which comes from student
tuition. Perhaps that tells us

Fringe benefits

> Douglas Theatre alums perform at Fringe Fest

Adam Tatelman
Arts Editor

 

he Fringe Festival is a time

of great opportunity for
performers and directors based
in college and community theatre
to finally get some larger scale
public exposure. This year, the
lineup includes Kara Nolte and
Julia Siedlanowska, graduates
of the Douglas College theatre
program and co-founders of local
production company Shakespeare
Unchained. In anticipation of
their new Fringe production,
aux.la.more, they agreed to
interview for the Other Press.

According to Siedlanowska,
Shakespeare Unchained was
actually the result of a chance
meeting, despite her history
with Nolte. “We ran into each
other on the SkyTrain and made
a date for coffee,” she explained.
“That’s when the idea came
up to create a piece of theatre
that was highly movement
based, based off of some of
our favourite Shakespeare
monologues and duologues.
We worked well together and
the ideas kept flowing, so we
made ‘Chivalry is Dead, a two-
woman adaptation of Don

Quixote the following year.”

Aux.la.more has been a pet
project of Nolte’s for the last
two years, and she is excited to
finally present it. “It bounced
back and forth between text
and movement creation to find
a blend of the two,” she said. “It
began with a piece of poetry and
evolved to include singing. It has
been a challenge to keep true to
the original poetry and to allow
the story to evolve naturally.”

Having been a major focus
for the duration of its production,
the rehearsal process seems to
have been quite introspective
for Nolte. “What has made
this process unique has been
that I’ve had to be alone in the
room a lot, that it has been
created and worked on in a few
different cities and locations,
and the length at which it has
been allowed to develop.”

“T think that it is fast
evolving,” Siedlanowska said
of Shakespeare Unchained’s
particular brand of performance.
“The things that remain area
dedication to examining classic
texts such as Shakespeare,
Cervantes, and Whitman, and
a highly physical, humorous
approach to the work.”

where our society’s interests lie.

WB Studios didn’t get those
fat stacks from the comic fans
who complained bitterly about
Batman v Superman. The general
population is the main consumer
for these movies, and that’s the
only reason they get made at the
rate they do. That’s not a bad
thing for Marvel and DC; thanks
to the movies, more people
like these characters than ever
before. Therefore, script writers
fill the movies with pandering
comic references and Stan
Lee cameos, not because this
maintains the total viewership,
but because it secures comic fans
as a faithful niche audience.

So, comic book films have
nothing to thank the source
material for. In fact, without the
media attention the films provide,
comic books might have lost their
readership entirely over the last
two decades. Marvel Comics went
bankrupt in the ’90s when fans
lost interest en masse after the
death of the newsstand market.
The only thing that saved them
was leasing their IP’s movie rights
to studios like Fox. DC Comics
was already safe under the Time
Warner umbrella, having long
since broken into the world of
film with Superman in 1978.

Siedlanowska credits her
history with Douglas College as
a major influence on her work,
and a big part of the reason
she and Nolte do the kind of
work they do. “It is at the core
of my training as an actor, and
therefore informs how I create,”
Siedlanowska said. “It’s a balance
for me to try to create from the
fantastic foundation I received
based on the knowledge of so
many incredible theatre makers,
but also to reach out to different
art forms and ways of storytelling
to re-examine what we define
as ‘good’ or ‘valid’ It’s important
for me as an artist to always
feel like ’m growing, gaining
knowledge, expanding my toolkit.
Douglas gave me a great way to
start a life of learning as an artist.”

If you're interested in—as
Nolte put it— “the freedom, the
broad spectrum of ideas and
aesthetics, and being around
some wild artists,” then aux.
la.more may be what you're
looking for. The show runs
from September 9-13 in the
False Creek Gym. For tickets
to this and other live events at
this year’s Fringe Festival, visit
tickets. vancouverfringe.com.

Between their lowest
common denominator focus,
massive budgets, and incessant,
plot-mangling cross-promotion,
it is hard to see these films as
anything other than two-hour
commercials for other two hour
commercials for tired crossover
films. I, for one, have grown
tired of these billions-grossing

LP CO A Ore Um Costa ee)
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arts // no. 7

 

Image via hittix.com

Hollywood soap operas. The only

reason I give a fluid ounce of shit

is because there is practically

nothing else to watch, and

wont be for a good long while.
Guess I'll see you all at

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.

a Poe) a