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The acclaimed puppeteer and theatre artist Ronnie Burkett discusses Wonderful Joe, his new show at The Cultch (04-23 February 2025), with Joseph Planta. Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta: I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.   Ronnie Burkett joins me now. The acclaimed theatre artist and puppeteer is about to open his latest show, Wonderful Joe at The Cultch. In the show, Joe and his dog Mister lose their home, and there’s the possibility of the two of them being separated. I’ll ask Mr. Burkett about the adventures that soon happen for Joe and Mister as they encounter Mother Nature, Santa Claus, Jesus, and the Tooth Fairy. It’s a show about community and empathy, and full of the warmth, imagination and hope that Burkett is known for, alongside a new score by John Alcorn. Ronnie Burkett is a lifelong puppeteer who received the 2009 Siminovitch Prize in Theatre, the Herbert Whittaker Drama Bench Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Theatre, four Citations of Excellence from the American Center of the Union Internationale de la Marionenette, among many other honours. In 2019, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, and last year received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. Wonderful Joe begins its run at the Historic Theatre at The Cultch tomorrow night, and runs until February 23rd. Visit www.thecultch.com for tickets and information. We taped this interview a couple of weeks ago with Ronnie joining me from Toronto. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Ronnie Burkett; Mr. Burkett, good morning.The post Ronnie Burkett first appeared on thecommentary.ca.

The filmmaker Bruce David Klein discusses his new documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, which has its Canadian premiere starting 31 January 2025 in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa, with Joseph Planta. Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta: I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca. Tomorrow, Friday, 31 January 2025, in Toronto, Ottawa, and here in Vancouver, the documentary Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story has its Canadian premiere. The life and times of Liza Minnelli are examined by Minnelli herself, and a collection of family and friends. It’s one of the first times the lifelong entertainer of stage and screen has consented to talk at length and candidly about her work, her life in the public eye and the persona that she’s created. The film looks at certain individuals who helped craft the image, people like Kay Thompson, Fred Ebb, Charles Aznavour, Halston, and Bob Fosse. Their mentorship, as well as professional and personal friendship, guide Minnelli from being just another singer or actress, the daughter of Hollywood royalty Vincente Minnelli and Judy Garland, to the incomparable legend that she’s become. The film features interviews with Minnelli, Michael Feinstein, Chita Rivera, Mia Farrow, Ben Vereen, and Joel Grey. There’s also never-before-seen footage from Minnelli’s home movie collection, some behind-the-scenes videos of touring around the world as well as backstage, whether on a film set, Broadway house, or concert hall. The film is written, produced and directed by Bruce David Klein, who joins me now. I’ll ask him about what it was like to gain Minnelli’s trust in the project, as well as what she’s like. For somebody so much in the public eye, the real Minnelli is revealed. Minnelli talks candidly about life and love, as well as addiction. The film starts tomorrow here at the VIFF Centre, as well as the Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto, and the Mayfair Theatre in Ottawa. There will be further screenings here as well as across Canada. Visit www.zeitgeistfilms.com for more information on tickets, dates and times. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Bruce Klein; Mr. Klein, good morning. The post Bruce David Klein first appeared on thecommentary.ca.

The director John Murphy discusses the Western Canadian premiere of the Will Arbery play Heroes of the Fourth Turning, a Mitch and Murray Production running at Studio 16 (31 January-09 February 2025), with Joseph Planta. Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta: I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca. Starting tomorrow night (31 January 2025) and running until 09 February 2025, is the latest from Mitch and Murray Productions, the Western Canadian premiere of Heroes of the Fourth Turning. The award-winning play, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, takes place just after the 2017 Charlottesville riots. It’s a reunion of four young conservatives, who’ve gathered to toast the newly inducted president of their Catholic college. What’s borne out in the play is a look at generational politics, as well as the conversations that we need to have in our political discourse, even in some of our families, but can’t because of how polarised everything is. Joining me now is John Murphy, the director of the production which stars Elizabeth Barrett, Jennifer Clement, Aaron Craven, Nyiri Karakas, and David Kaye. I’ll ask Mr. Murphy about the Will Arbery play, about Arbery’s own upbringing and background that might be useful to understand from where he writes. Arbery wrote on the HBO series Succession. The production is at Studio 16 at 1551 West 7th Avenue. Visit www.mitchandmurrayproductions.com for tickets and information. We taped this interview December 31st (2024). Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, John Murphy; Mr. Murphy, good morning.The post John Murphy first appeared on thecommentary.ca.

Karl Echaluse, a member of SPIT Manila, the longest running improv group in The Philippines, talks to Joseph Planta about participating in THE HEAT, the Improv Centre’s showcase featuring teams from New Zealand, Zimbabwe and Estonia starting tomorrow, 28 January to Saturday, 01 February 2025. Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta: I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca. The Improv Centre presents their second annual improv comedy festival THE HEAT. The improv comedy showcase, which starts tomorrow, will feature troupes from around the world. The talented teams include: Second Breakfast from New Zealand, Ruutu10 from Estonia, The Impro Show from Zimbabwe, and last year’s festival favourite SPIT Manila, from The Philippines. I spoke to two members of SPIT Manila last year, Aih Mendoza and Karl Echaluse. Aih talked about having Stage 4 cancer, and performing through it all. She died in May of 2024, mere weeks after returning home from Vancouver. Karl joins me now to talk about last year’s experience with THE HEAT, as well as visiting Vancouver for the first time. We’ll talk about improv, as well as performing. There are events at The Improv Centre on Granville Island starting tomorrow, Tuesday, 28 January through to Saturday, 01 February 2025. Visit www.theimprovcentre.ca for tickets and information. You can find information on SPIT Manila at www.thirdworldimprov.com. Their Instagram handle is @spitmanila. We taped this interview earlier this month, with Karl joining me from Manila. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Karl Echaluse; Mr. Echaluse, good morning.The post Karl Echaluse first appeared on thecommentary.ca.

The award-winning musical artist Ari Axelrod discusses his new album A Place For Us: A Celebration of Jewish Broadway (PS Classics, 2025), with Joseph Planta. Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta: I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca. There’s a new album that celebrates the contributions of Jewish songwriters to the sound and ethos of the Broadway musical, A Place For Us: A Celebration of Jewish Broadway. Ari Axelrod, the acclaimed, award-winning musical storyteller joins me now to talk about this album that features his vocals, a thirteen-piece orchestra, and very fine orchestrations by Mike Stapleton of songs by a myriad of composers: Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Mary Rodgers, Bock & Harnick, Jerry Herman, Stephen Schwartz, the Gershwins, Jason Robert Brown, Adam Guettel, among others. The music covered in the album range from memorable showtunes we can all hum to lesser-known works; there are also contemporary works, as well as songs that go back to the earlier parts of the twentieth century, even folk and traditional music. It’s such a rich legacy and Mr. Axelrod, who joined me last week, lauds the source material, as well as notes the Jewish influence in the words and music that’s presented so lovingly on the album, which is available this Friday from PS Classics. There’ll be a release concert this Saturday night at New York’s famed 54 Below. And if you’re not able to make it to Manhattan, the event will be available for streaming. Visit www.54below.org for tickets and information. Ari Axelrod’s award-winning show A Place for Us: A Celebration of Jewish Broadway, which is the basis of this album, has been performed to sold-out audiences around the world. He is the recipient of a 36 to Watch award from Jewish Week, a 2022 Bistro Award, and the Julie Wilson Award from the Mabel Mercer Foundation. Visit www.ariaxelrod.com for more information. We had done a version of interview you’re about to hear in late December, but because of technical issues at my end, the tape was lost. I thank Ari and his publicist Dan Fortune for making the time to do it again as it were. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Ari Axelrod; Mr. Axelrod, good morning.The post Ari Axelrod first appeared on thecommentary.ca.

The writer and journalist Craig Custance, Head of Creative Development at The Athletic, discusses his new book The Franchise: The Business of Building Winning Teams (Simon & Schuster, 2024), with Joseph Planta. The Franchise: The Business of Building Winning Teams by Craig Custance (Simon & Schuster, 2024). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Franchise Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta: I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca. One of the more readable books of this past fall is the latest by Craig Custance. In The Franchise: The Business of Building Winning Teams, he talks to several notable general managers, a couple of owners, and an Olympic medalist (Meghan Duggan), who all play senior roles in various NHL franchises. What Mr. Custance, who joins me now, gleans from his frank, personal conversations is how each one dealt with the various problems that teams encounter on the road to winning the Stanley Cup. Whether it’s juggling a salary cap, or trading a player, or how to deal with the interpersonal issues of professional athletes, the book is full of great stories. In his conversations with Jim Rutherford, currently the Canucks President of Hockey Operations, who for many years headed up the Pittsburgh NHL team leading it to back-to-back Stanley Cup wins, Rutherford is revealed to be successful at listening to everybody he encounters, especially a team’s ownership. In conversations with Tampa Bay’s Julian BriseBois or the Penguins’s Kyle Dubas, we learn about how the path to managing in the NHL may not have come from having played the game. Brad Treliving, Jim Nill, and Lou Lamoriello, among others, each provide great insights in their interviews with Craig for this book. All have principles that have guided them to success and sustained them through losses. There’s no one formula to get to a winning team, but taken as a whole the book provides an appreciation on how to manage an operation as complex as a professional hockey team, or anything else for that matter. And all of them read a lot. It’s fun seeing all the various books that people in the book recommend as necessary reading. If you go to Craig’s website at www.CraigCustance.com you can get a PDF checklist. Craig Custance is an acclaimed writer, who has covered hockey at ESPN and The Athletic. His previous book is Behind the Bench: Inside the Minds of Hockey’s Greatest Coaches. He also hosted the interview podcast The Full 60. Currently he is the head of creative development at The Athletic, a New York Times company. The book is published by Simon and Schuster. Craig joined me from Detroit earlier this week. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Craig Custance; Mr. Custance, good morning.The post Craig Custance first appeared on thecommentary.ca.

The writer Susan Grundy discusses her memoir Mad Sisters (Ronsdale Press, 2024), with Joseph Planta. Mad Sisters by Susan Grundy (Ronsdale Press, 2024). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Mad Sisters Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta: I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca. Mad Sisters is one of those books that will make you laugh, break your heart, as well as frustrate and fascinate, sometimes all at the same time. Its author Susan Grundy joins me now. She’s written a book that captures her journey as a sister and caregiver to a sibling who has mental illness. It’s honest, raw, as well as heart-wrenching in some parts. Susan’s sister Nancy is often funny, but her circumstances often make it challenging for those around her, like Susan who has had to bear the brunt of it since they were children. What’s frustrating in the book is where we see how difficult it might be for a family contending with mental illness. The Grundys are not without some privilege, which makes it all the more frustrating to think of other families who might be less fortunate, or when considering there are a lot people with mental health challenges who have no family, no advocates. Susan is a great storyteller and somebody who talks candidly about having to be there for her sister and her mother and father. She talks about the challenges of being one’s advocate, while at the same time, offers a lot of insight in how to make giving care a little easier. Susan Grundy veered from a 30-year career in marketing to write. Her short fiction has appeared in the Danforth Review and Montreal Writes. She has completed a second novel. Visit www.susanfgrundy.com for more. This new book is published by Ronsdale Press. We spoke earlier this week. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Susan Grundy; Ms. Grundy, good morning.The post Susan Grundy first appeared on thecommentary.ca.

The writer and editor Stephen Osborne discusses his new collection of essays The Coincidence Problem: Selected Dispatches 1999-2022 (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2024), with Joseph Planta. The Coincidence Problem: Selected Dispatches 1999-2022 by Stephen Osborne (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2024). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Coincidence Problem Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta: I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca. One of the great collections this year has been the latest from Stephen Osborne, The Coincidence Problem: Selected Dispatches 1999-2022. In the book he’s collected a variety of essays and pieces from the last quarter century that reflect what’s been on his mind. He’s by no means an expert on coincidence, but throughout the collection are essays that look at how coincidence touches on a variety of issues: world politics, the changing city, and family history, among many others. There are forays into history like the lynching of Indigenous youth Louie Sam, as well as the death of C.F. Keiss, who was struck down and killed by the first ambulance in the City of Vancouver in 1909. We get marvelous insight into what interests Mr. Osborne, who joins me now, and how his interesting and interested mind works. We’ll talk about photographs, memory, and the collective memory of a city, and the future of where we live. The founder of Arsenal Pulp Press, who publishes this new collection, and co-founder of Geist magazine, Stephen Osborne is an award-winning writer. Among his many awards include: the CBC Literary Award, the Vancouver Arts Award for Writing and Publishing, the National Magazine Foundation Special Achievement Award, and the Event Creative Non-fiction Prize. We spoke earlier this week. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program Stephen Osborne; Mr. Osborne, good morning.The post Stephen Osborne first appeared on thecommentary.ca.

The award-winning journalist and staff reporter at The Tyee Christopher Cheung discusses his new book Under the White Gaze: Solving the Problem of Race and Representation in Canadian Journalism (Purich Books, 2024), with Joseph Planta. Under the White Gaze: Solving the Problem of Race and Representation in Canadian Journalism by Christopher Cheung (Purich Press, 2024). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Under the White Gaze Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta: I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca. One of the best books of the year is the new book from Christopher Cheung: Under the White Gaze: Solving the Problem of Race and Representation in Canadian Journalism. A lot of us would like to think that the newsrooms in Canada are reflective of the country’s multiculturalism, or at the very least hip to representing the country’s population in the news that the media covers. Mr. Cheung, who joins me now, points out that a lot of the journalism in this country seems to present people of colour as clichés, and rarely as complex individuals. There’s the painting with broad brushes as to what communities there are in this country, what they look like, what they eat, what they celebrate, and what concerns them. Chris dismantles a lot of that thinking, and provides great examples of recent, as well as some local stories that perhaps missed the mark. There are some stories he cites that I thought were reflective of a group or community, but got me thinking about how they weren’t necessarily accurate, and how some might have been done better. Chris is not immune from his critical and probing eye. He looks at stories he’s framed in the past and looked back at how different they might be with the skills he also shares in the book. One will find ways in which we, who consume the media, might read, watch and listen to the journalism around us better, and even critically. The idea that intersectionality is critical to combatting stereotypes is one of the important aspects of the book. And whether you’re an aspiring or seasoned journalist, you’ll want to read this book for perhaps a new perspective. I’ll also ask Chris about how he’s handled criticism he’s received for his work, some of it not so constructive, even nasty. Christopher Cheung is a staff reporter at The Tyee, who previously wrote for Metro and the Vancouver Courier. He is highly acclaimed for his reporting on urban culture, inequality, and life in Metro Vancouver’s diasporas. He’s received two Jack Webster Awards, and holds as Master of Journalism from the University of British Columbia. This new book is published by Purich Books, which is an imprint of UBC Press. We spoke last week. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Chris Cheung; Mr. Cheung, good morning.The post Christopher Cheung first appeared on thecommentary.ca.

Professor Adam Dodek (University of Ottawa Law), discusses his new book Heenan Blaikie: The Making and Unmaking of a Great Canadian Law Firm (UBC Press, 2024), with Joseph Planta. Heenan Blaikie: The Making and Unmaking of a Great Canadian Law Firm by Adam Dodek (UBC Press, 2024). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Heenan Blaikie Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta: I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca. One of the fall’s highly readable books is Heenan Blaikie: The Making and Unmaking of a Great Canadian Law Firm. It tells the story of how three idealistic young lawyers in Montreal established the firm that would become Heenan Blaikie: Donald Johnston, Roy Heenan, and Peter Blaikie. Eventually Johnston leaves the firm for a career in politics, but from 1973 through to the firm’s demise in 2014, the firm attracts a high profile with former prime ministers, premiers, cabinet ministers, and Supreme Court justices in its ranks. The book features great research, and telling interviews with the firm’s lawyers, as well as legal industry insiders, providing an often-gripping account of law firm culture, not just in Heenan Blaikie’s lifespan, but even today. We get insights into the work-life culture at the firm, as well as the stories of workplace bullying, and the challenges for women and visible minority lawyers. What’s also fascinating is how the growth of the firm mirrors the changes of Canada, and how often history intersects with the firm’s life: the 1970’s oil shock, Quebec nationalism, the flight of business from Montreal to Toronto, the growth of film production, economic expansion in the 1980’s and 1990’s, as well as the financial crisis of 2008. We see colourful characters amongst the firm, like its first big star, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, as he joins the firm once he leaves federal politics in 1984. Norman Bacal is another notable name in the firm’s history, as are some other larger than life figures like Joe Groia, Bob Donaldson, and Marcel Aubut. The book’s author Adam Dodek joins me now. And I’ll ask him about the book and more. He is a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa, and among his numerous publications include In Search of the Ethical Lawyer, The Canadian Constitution, Third Edition, and Solicitor-Client Privilege. He is the recipient of many awards including the Mundell Medal for excellence in legal writing, and the Law Society Medal from the Law Society of Ontario. Visit www.adamdodek.ca for more. This new book is published by UBC Press. He joined me last week from Ottawa. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Adam Dodek; Professor Dodek, good morning.The post Adam Dodek first appeared on thecommentary.ca.