Some weekend musings, and remembering Neil Munro

There are plenty of ideas running through my head today, as a busy arts weekend is underway for your humble scribe. I have two shows up at the Shaw Festival today, In Good King Charles's Golden Days and The Devil's Disciple, and one at Stratford tomorrow: Ever Yours, Oscar, the one-man show with Brian Bedford. So I'll likely begin posting reviews next week when I get a break from both Festivals for a couple of weeks.

First off, I must confess I never know who is going to be reading my ramblings on this blog, and a response in any form is always welcome. Earlier this week, I heard from the St.Catharines & Area Arts Council, of which I am a proud member, and they read my earlier entry from June 6th titled A Tale of Two Downtowns, regarding the ongoing revitalization efforts of both downtown Niagara Falls and downtown St. Catharines. I was invited to come into their offices for a short interview today (Saturday) on a series on arts and culture being developed with Cogeco Community Television for airing this fall, hosted by Ted Mouradian. Hopefully I remained lucid through the interview; I don't know if I have the nerve to watch it when it airs in a few months! But thanks to all of the people at the Arts Council for their support and consideration of my views.

The second thing I want to talk about is the untimely passing earlier this week of actor, playwright and director Neil Munro at the relatively young age of 62. It was quite a shock to all of us who have known Neil and admired his challenging productions over the years, most notably for the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, where he was Resident Director for many years. He had been ill for a little while, and resigned his position with Shaw earlier this year when it became obvious things were not getting any better.

I first came to know Neil through his productions at Shaw, of course, and usually enjoyed what he presented, although they usually leaned towards the dark side of the theatrical spectrum. But he did have a sense of humour, too, and some of his lighter offerings were great fun to watch as well. He had started work on An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley last season before giving it up around March, as planning was underway. Although he didn't see the production through - Jim Mezon took over and completed the task - the end result still managed to have the Neil Munro stamp on it nevertheless. It was a most enjoyable show.

I first got to know Neil personally through my association for many years with the music store Downtown Fine Music, located in downtown St. Catharines until early 2003. Neil used to come into the store on occasion, looking for music for both him and a production he was working on at that particular moment. I remember one year he needed something really swinging in a big-band style, and although the store didn't have quite what he wanted, I recommended one of my old treasured albums still in mint condition, performed by Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, if you can believe it. It was - and is - a textbook example of great swing band arrangements of classical tunes, with the charts written by Billy May back around 1961. Sadly, the recording has never made it to CD, but Neil loved the recording and had his production wizards at Shaw transfer the disc and splice it just the way he wanted it, and the music introduced each act of the show he was working on that year. I can't for the life of me remember the show now, although the set design was spectacular and the show was great. He even gave me a small credit in the program that year!

I didn't see too much of Neil after that, but I always admired his probing, challenging work, and all of us will feel the loss of a talented director, actor and playwright for some time to come. I wish I could have known him better; but some is better than none, they way, and I am thankful for the experience I had.

Thanks, Neil, and know you will be missed!

July 18th, 2009.