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<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff>Dear
colleagues,</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff>I recently acquired, through a
stroke of luck, a rare eight-page program of what would seem to be a 1949
production of Gratien Gélinas's <EM>Ti-Coq </EM>at the Gesu Theatre in
Montréal. The program notes that the play opened in French in May 1948,
and then re-opened in the autumn of that year at the Gesu, setting a Canadian
record in running for 200 consecutive performances. The program is for a
production in English, for as it somewhat cryptically notes: "The current
occasion is the first in theatrical history that a bi-lingual cast appears [with
one exception] in the identical play in a second language." That cast
includes not only Gélinas, who is twice called 'Fridolin' for he was so firmly
identified with that role, but also Fred Barry as Papa Desilets and Denise
Pelletier as Germaine. The production was co-directed by Gélinas and Barry. The
second page contains the famous 'Karsh of Ottawa' black and white photograph of
Gélinas, looking very dapper. The olive green cover has a
charming articulated image, as though made out of pieces of paper, of
Ti-Coq, with the abstract image of a rooster in red forming his eyebrows, some
of his hair, his nose, and his mouth, contained within the overall 'cut out' of
the rest of his face, his neck, and his right hand which, conspicuously, is
holding a cigarette. I say "conspicuously" because the back page contains
an advertisement asking "Did you notice? . . . ," and then adds, "Ti-Coq smokes
Player's mild," with an image of a Player's package at the bottom. I would
be happy to send you a laser photocopy of the program (or a scanned image) if it
might be relevant to your research or if you would like a copy for your
collection of theatrical memorabilia. It is unusual, these days, to find
Montréal theatrical memorabilia, pre-1950, with the exception, of course, of
material in institutional collections like the Lande, the BNQ, and so
on.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff></FONT></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff>--Denis
Salter.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff>____________________________________<BR>"In 2005, the world . . .
pass[ed] the trillion-dollar mark in the expenditure, annually, on arms. We're
fighting for $50 billion annually for foreign aid for Africa: the military total
outstrips human need by 20 to 1. Can someone please explain to me our
contemporary balance of values?"--Stephen Lewis.
<BR>__________________________________________________________________________________________________________<BR>"To
celebrate this award, and the work it recognizes of those around the world, let
me recall the words of Gandhi: 'My life is my message.' Also, plant a
tree." Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize for
Peace.</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff>__________________________________________________<BR>Denis
Salter<BR>Professor of Theatre<BR>McGill University<BR>853 Sherbrooke St.
West<BR>Montréal, QC<BR>H3A 2T6<BR>Tel (514) 487 7309<BR>Regular Fax (514) 398
8146<BR>Computer Fax (309) 294 0444<BR><A
href="mailto:denis.salter@mcgill.ca">denis.salter@mcgill.ca</A><BR><A
href="mailto:d.salter@videotron.ca">d.salter@videotron.ca</A><BR>__________________</FONT></STRONG></DIV></BODY></HTML>