North American Theatre Work
Waller made his directorial debut with the Keith Waterhouse-Willis Hall play Billy Liar in Scarborough, Ontario, in 1964. After singing in Rigoletto, La Boheme, and Turandot with the Canadian Opera in its 1965 season, and while working as a Globe & Mail theatre critic, he was contracted by the Arts Council of Canada to help amateur groups throughout Ontario, Manitoba, and Canada's Maritime Provinces upgrade their work. Some 40 productions followed.
The plays he directed at the Festival were Joseph Kesselring's Arsenic and Old Lace, John Williams' Can You Hear Niagara Falls?, and Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit. Waller's production of this drama was successful, and in 1969 it was seen at the Stratford Festival of Canada, Stratford, Ontario, with the same cast he had used at the DDF.
As his writing career demanded more of his time, Waller turned to what he called "the less arduous task of acting." He appeared in character roles at Montreal's Saidye Bronfman Theatre, Thêatre La Poudrière, and Centaur Theatre, and on CBC radio in Toronto and Halifax, Nova Scotia. At one point he took part in Louis-Honoré Fréchette's historical play Félix Poutré for Radio Canada, in French.
Read more about this topic: Adrian Waller
Famous quotes containing the words north, american, theatre and/or work:
“If I could put my hand on the north star, would it be as beautiful? The sea is lovely, but when we bathe in it the beauty forsakes all the near water. For the imagination and senses cannot be gratified at the same time.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Our fathers and grandfathers who poured over the Midwest were self-reliant, rugged, God-fearing people of indomitable courage.... They asked only for freedom of opportunity and equal chance. In these conceptions lies the real basis of American democracy. They and their fathers give a genius to American institutions that distinguished our people from any other in the world.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“Make them laugh, make them cry, and back to laughter. What do people go to the theatre for? An emotional exercise.... I am a servant of the people. I have never forgotten that.”
—Mary Pickford (1893–1979)
“I have done a great deal of work, as much as a man, but did not get so much pay. I used to work in the field and bind grain, keeping up with the cradler; but men doing no more, got twice as much pay.... We do as much, we eat as much, we want as much.”
—Sojourner Truth (1797–1883)