Soirée bénéfice 2008
Barb, Deborah and I left our hotel 30 min prior to our appointed meeting time at Au Petit Extra, the location of the pre-Soiree meeting with Roy. We wanted to allow ourselves plenty of time to find a cab, and for noontime traffic. We did arrive a few minutes early, and could easily spot the restaurant as Michel was posted outside, waiting for everyone to arrive. As we stood talking for a few minutes, Carol, Darlene and Karen came around the corner. Neither Deborah or Karen had been at the dinner the previous evening @ Pacini’s, so there were lots of hugs exchanged :D I got my new Canon backpack open, extracted one of the three cameras I brought, (Barb and I photograph the events for the RF) and got a first group picture and a couple of pictures of the front of the building. This group of six ladies following one man attracted some interesting looks as we made our way to the meeting room at the back of the restaurant
Everyone was chatting, and our “newbies” Marcia and Lyn H. were busy meeting those who hadn’t been at the dinner the night before. It was great to see Pat / pjb, Darlene, and Carla, all longtime RF supporters whom I hadn’t seen since the last Soiree.
Barb and I began to pull out camera equipment to check out the lighting and see what we’d be dealing with; what effect the lighting would have on the photos we’d be taking that afternoon. Maxine gave us some very general instructions about the photographs, including the need for photos of Roy and Michel together, since none had been taken for several years. Since I could see right away that the lighting left much to be desired, I mentioned to Maxine that it would be good to take those photos outside, if possible, to make use of the natural light.
Everyone who’d planned to arrive in time to see the video version of “Blaste” was now with us, so Maxine officially welcomed everyone, and officially began the event. Always so gracious, she thanked Michel for his help, all of us for coming to Montreal to support the Foundation and for our support throughout the year. Maxine told us that unfortunately they had been unable to finish the last quarter of the film of the play so we wouldn’t be able to see that :( It was quite interesting to see the film of the play; it was a great opportunity to see interaction between the characters up close. I’ll talk more about the contrast between the film and seeing the play live in a bit! At one particularly shocking point in the play (the character of the Soldier is raping the character of Ian, portrayed by Roy), someone opened the door of the meeting room, looked it to see what the heck was going on, and immediately closed the door again!! Several of us laughed, and I said to those at my table “Just wait till whomever that person sees Roy walk in the door of the restaurant!”
We finished the film of the play, and some of the ladies went out to smoke, while others of us were taking pictures and chatting. I turned around to see Roy entering the room with Michel – it was unexpected, he was just all of the sudden there! I was so surprised, I didn’t even capture a picture! Roy greeted us with a big smile, twinkling eyes, and said “Hi”. After talking with Maxine for a few moments, he sat down at our table first! I have never been at the first table before; that was pretty exciting!
Around this time, Lyn R. joined us after getting stuck in traffic :( She looked gorgeous in a black suit and and frustrations over the traffic I think soon disappeared after seeing Roy :) Everyone really looked wonderful – we all do clean up well, don’t we :):)
Anyway, back at my table…..Maxine had special m’m’s made, some with Roy’s name, some with the word Rivieres on them; they were blue and green in color. All the tables had glass bowls of them, and we each got a small tin of them. Roy loved the m’m’s! He seemed to think it was pretty cool that Maxine had had them made especially for the event, and seemed to think they tasted okay too – as did we all :)
We talked a LOT about Blasté. Roy remembered that Barb and I had seen it performed live, and it was very interested to know what we thought of the film we’d seen. I told Roy that seeing the film made it easier for me to focus more on the story; as I’d told him in June, I was so drawn to both he and Celine on stage, and the power of their live performances, it had been hard for me to focus on the story as a whole. I also told Roy that I felt the live performance gave the characters a sense of humanity that the text of the play did not, and he agreed, and said this was a play that was meant to be experienced; he called it a “happening”. Roy said this was part of why he chose this play. We also talked about Ian’s redemption at the end of the play the reversal Ian and Cate go through. Roy talked about how the actors worked through rehearsals, how exhausting the play was and how glad he was that the run was relatively short. He was very engaged in talking about every aspect of the play from differences from performance to performance, to Sarah Kane’s life and body of work. I’ll reiterate from my June debrief: it is my impression that Roy is very proud of the work he did in this play. Seeing that live performance was an incredible experience for me; he and Celine were both so good, I struggled for words to describe it. Having the chance to talk to Roy about the play – twice – well, I was thrilled :)
We also talked about the recent rafting trip to the Romaine and the status of that project. We then moved on to politics –both Canadian and US. A lot of this discussion centered on the Presidential election, especially candidate energy policies.
We decided then to get busy having our pictures signed. I handed Roy my nametag since he had struggled a little with the spelling of my name in June, and then felt badly when he spelled my name incorrectly (there are a few ways to spell “Mary Anne”(and I think Roy’s written them all for me at one time or another! LOL) Barb, Deborah and Kim all got their photos signed in turn. Then, at Deb’s suggestion, we shared a toast to “Friends and the Rivers Foundation” I believe Maxine even joined it, and I’m so glad she did! Maxine works so hard, mostly behind the scenes, to be sure we all have a really good experience.
After the toast, I asked Roy if we could take individual pictures with him. I said I knew we didn’t usually do that. But it had been some time since any of us had a picture taken with him, so we thought we’d like to do that today. Of course that was just fine with Roy, and I took pictures of Barb, Deborah and Kim. Then I asked Maxine to let me take a picture of her with Roy too. She declined, and said she would like to have a photo with both Roy and Michel. So I stepped in next to Roy and Barb too a few pictures of me with him. After we finished, Roy was ready for a cigarette, so he and Michel went out the back door in our room. Since I’d suggested to Maxine that we take the pictures of Roy & Michel outside, I thought we might as well get them out of the way while Roy was smoking. I asked Maxine about doing the pictures outside now so we could take advantage of the good light, and Barb and I picked up our cameras, and the three of us followed Michel and Roy outside. I got them arranged against a background that didn’t include any garbage cans
