Surprise, Surprise, by Michele Tremblay, performed at MTC's TremblayFest, 2005

Also in the cast were Terri Cherniack and Ti Hallas. It was directed by Jessica Burleson and stage managed by Noelani Shore.

CHEAP GOODS: an auction adventure

The 2004 Winnipeg Fringe Festival will feature CHEAP GOODS: an auction adventure, a play written by Talia Pura, directed by Jessica Burleson, and starring Talia Pura and Jeff Skinner. The play was performed at the <SITE> Gallery, 55 Arthur Street, throughout the Fringe Winnipeg Festival (July 14 - 25, 2004).

Cheap Goods is about life in a rural auction house. Jeff and Talia play multiple characters in this one hour comedy. Each performance ends with a live auction. It's the audience's chance to take home the props.

Confessions of an Art school Model

Confessions of an Art school Model: written in 2001, Talia first performed this solo drama in the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. In it, she acts as an artist's model, posing for the Winnipeg artist, Derek Brueckner, who draws her for the duration of the one hour monologue. In 2002, she received an invitation to perform at the New York City Fringe Festival. That same season, she also brought it to the Minnesota Fringe Festival in Minneapolis. The following summer, 2003, she and Derek again staged it at the Toronto Fringe Festival.

Normally, the meditation between the artist and the model occurs in private. The meditation between the finished piece and the audience occurs in public. However, in this piece, all three parties will be engaged simultaneously. The model interacts with the audience and the artist. The audience views both the model and the artist as the work progresses.

Review by Michael Criscuolo (New York performance)

Confessions of an Art School Model is equal parts art history lesson, figure drawing class, and reminiscence. Writer/performer Talia Pura sounds off about her almost thirty years as an art school model while posing for artist Derek Brueckner. This informal, one-person show has many things to say-perhaps too many-but is never less than interesting and engaging throughout.

By performing the show stark naked, Pura makes two points. The first is that studying a naked person in such a clinical fashion takes the titillation out of doing so. Secondly, being physically naked doesn't mean as much as being emotional naked. Since models usually remain silent during a sitting, being nude around strangers means nothing to them because they never reveal anything about themselves. Pura is obviously very comfortable with her body and who she is, and she makes the audience feel equally comfortable about spending an hour with her in her birthday suit. By the time she gets to the more confessional second half-which spotlights a recollection of the great, lost love of her life-she has made both of her points very well. It's to her credit that she's able to get so much out of her words while moving so little.

Confessions is also interactive. Pura interacts with Brueckner, and freely converses with the audience, throughout. Afterwards, you may go on stage to see Brueckner's sketches up close, and you may even buy one if you like.

Bette Davis Eyes

Bette Davis led a very interesting life. She was a Hollywood movie star at a time when actors were on contract with studios. As such, they did the roles given to them by the studios. This had a huge influence on Bette, not only in terms of the movies she made, but also in her attitudes toward her work and her struggles to win the roles she wanted.

This play is a retrospective of her career, as told by her at the age of 43. She reprises some of her movie roles, from Mildred, in Of Human Bondage, 1934, to Margo Channing, in All About Eve, 1950. Along the way, she reveals details about her personal life during those years.