James Judd at Soulo in Toronto

This weekend, James Judd presented a series of one-person shows organized by Tracey Erin Smith at Soulo Theatre, his Mid-Career Retrospective as a sort of kick off for his upcoming tour in those United States I was a little busy this weekend performing elsewhere and pretending to be Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby (long story!) but I did manage to catch one fabulous and hilarious show Friday night and his storytelling workshop on Sunday afternoon. I now have things to read and stuff to work on.

The workshop was inspiring and informative. The more I do this, the more I realize that the shows I do are a strange hybrid somewhere between solo theatre and a Backstreet Boys concert.

And the shows, by all accounts were wonderfully well received. The social medias are atwitter.

SOULO Theatre Festival Gallery

I wear many hats.* *That's a metaphor. I never wear real hats, they mess up my hair

One such hat is as the general manager for the SOULO Theatre Festival which presents a weekend of exceptional one-person shows and a series of seminars and panel discussions teaching actors how to present their own material. From behind the scenes it's an exhausting four days, but also a very uplifting, inspiring and entertaining four days.

Take a look at what we got up to down at the Red Sandcastle Theatre in Toronto.

Call for Submissions

We are now accepting submissions for the 2015 SOULO Theatre Festival. Now in its third year, the festival is a four-day intensive of performances, panel discussions and workshops where every event is one-performance-only. We are looking for recently-performed finished work, 45-60 minute one-person shows. The festival will be May 21-24, 2015 at the Red Sandcastle Theatre in Toronto. For the full details and the submission form, please visit soulo.ca/submissions

The 2014 festival was a huge success and earned SOULO Theatre the title of Best Small Theatre Company from NOW Magazine's Reader's Choice. Past speakers have included artists and speakers have included Tantoo Cardinal, Linda Griffiths, Sandra Shamas, Chris Gibbs, Daniel Stofi, Sebastien Heins, Shelley Marshall, Rachelle Ellie, Terrence Bryant, Precious Chong, Phil Luzi, Sandra Battaglini, Zabrina Chavannes, Deb Filler, Wanda Caroll, Sage Tyrtle, Adrianna Prosser, Christopher Sawchyn and many others.

As the General Manager of the festival, I have no say in show selection. Even so, I will still be accepting bribes personally including but not limited to chocolate, pastries, cash, traceable securities and rare magic books because I enjoy those things.

And NOW for something completely different

SOULO Theatre - where I plot and scheme away, largely behind the scenes as the general manager - has just won Best Small Theatre Company from NOW Magazine's Best of Toronto Reader's Choice! Massive credit goes to the team that helped organize the 2014 SOULO Theatre Festival and massive thanks to everyone who voted over the past few months. It's a tremendous honour.

I also spent the afternoon earlier this week locked in a room with some wifi, unhealthy amounts of coffee and the Artistic Director, Tracey Erin Smith, planning updates to the soulo.ca website and there will be more interesting news coming out of that work shortly.

Chris Mayhew documents SOULO

The lovely and talented Chris Mayhew just completed a short documentary about the SOULO Theatre Festival at the Red Sandcastle Theatre back in May. In addition to being an extremely amusing and risible addition to the cast of Magic@theCage, he does some extraordinary video work (back in April, we co-hosted the launch party of his feature length film A Series of Unfortunate Effects). You can watch the film below and perhaps take a moment to vote for SOULO in NOW Magazine'sBest of Toronto 2014.

Tracey Erin Smith

The SOULO Theatre Festival, under the direction of Tracey Erin Smith, is an eclectic collection of one person "solo" shows which are often autobiographical, occasionally hilarious and always inspiring. Every show ran for a single performance along with several special workshops and panels for performers who want to develop their own solo work.

The documentary was filmed at the Red Sandcastle Theatre in Leslieville, Toronto and features (in order of appearance) David Harrell, Sebastian Heins, Adrianna Prosser, Rachelle Elie, Tracey Erin Smith, James Alan (whoever that is), Martha Chaves, Caryn Ladovsky, Terrence Bryant, Christopher Sawchyn, France Raymond, Michael Wolk, Linda Griffiths, Zabrina Chevannes, Polly Esther, Joanne Latimer, Sean Towgood, Sage Tyrtle, Tantoo Cardinal, Debra Bennett, Marsha Shandur.

The SOULO Theatre Festival is also nominated for Best Small Theatre Company by NOW Magazine. You can head over to NOW, now and vote.

Or click to Watch on YouTube.

SOULO_2014_POSTER-web

Some Extra Awesomeness

This is what an Award of Awesomeness looks like.

I was recently awarded this Award of Awesomeness from the SOULO Theatre Festival where I spent most of my weekend submerged in one-person theatre. I think I'll hang it next to my Larry Award.

It was a wonderful experience to be part of. I have no doubt that embarrassing and unusual photos will surface in no time. In the meantime, here are mine:

(For the juicier ones, head over to Instagram #soulo)