Book Description
Publisher comments
Using his career as a guide, author Vernon Chapman combines biography, theatre history, anecdotes, and commentary to show the development of an indigenous Canadian professional theatre since World War II.
From Timothy Findley's beginnings in theatre to bats occupying the Red Barn Theatre, you'll get a behind-the-scenes peek at how plays were produced, what the critics thought, what went wrong on stage and off, and some "big name" performers, such as William Shatner, Bruno Gerussi, Mickey Rooney, Jackie Coogan, Jackie Burroughs, Joe E. Brown, Zasu Pitts, Tallulah Bankhead, Edward Everett Horton, and Billie Burke. The book also describes the financial struggles of keeping a theatre open, and, through a wide variety of plays shown on the stage of these theatres, what type of play to put on for the public. Do you show new, untried works that are unfamiliar to audiences, or only sure-fire ones that will bring in the most money at the box office?
Not just about the theatre, Vernon Chapman also details his foray into television--working with Wayne & Shuster--radio, and commercials. Valuable to any theatre student and teacher, "Who's in the Goose Tonight?" is also greatly entertaining for the general, theatre-going public.
