Last summer, with all the new (then) COVID-19 restrictions, Theatre on the Isle decided to try an outdoor, classic Greek theatre production of Lysistrata. The director, Bronwyn Churcher, wanted to include masks in the performance – another classical theatre tradition. Jackie Minns was in the cast and she knew a master craftsperson who created theatrical masks. Jackie had trained with Gina Bastone many years earlier in the Dell’Arte theatre school and both had become well-versed in the art of working with masks.
Masks add some mysterious essence and strength to a performance that is hard to explain but it is a little like mime: you exaggerate some gestures and the masks provide a visual representation of an emotion or behaviour, like anger, fear, innocence or cunning. Jackie visited with Gina, described the characters in Lysistrata, Gina made suggestions and then a dozen masks were brought to rehearsals and Bronwyn chose eight for the characters in the chorus. Jackie coached a couple of sessions with the chorus in their masks – make the mask face the audience as much as possible, exaggerated movement and voice when you have only the one expression. Then the chorus was to take the masks home and practise their lines in front of a mirror and work with the character they saw in the mask. One of the challenges of performing is convincing the audience of the character of your character. The masks worked their magic and raised the performances of every member of the chorus as well as the other members of the cast. The chorus was suddenly more powerful and supportive of the main characters.
Gina Bastone, was a well known and much loved actor/comedian in Vancouver and Montreal (four Jessie Richardson Theatre awards), a genius as a clown and mime (touring with Cirque du Soleil), a writer and director, a workshop teacher and guest high school instructor, and (we will be forever grateful) also a gifted mask maker. Last summer Gina was not well physically and wanted to sell her masks to fund a move back to Montreal to be with her family. TOTI decided to invest in a small collection of Gina’s genius in the hopes we will get training to work with these masks and create productions where you, our audience, will get to enjoy and wonder at them.
Gina died this past week. There is an incredible memorial page on Facebook (Gina Bastone Memorial Page) to honour her with clips of performances and photos. She had a wonderful group of friends. You can read and see how talented she was, how funny, how infectious her laugh, how so many of her skits still make people laugh out loud when they think of them, how she was generous and caring, dedicated and energetic in all aspects of her art and how she was an irreverent but wonderful friend. A talented, funny, generous woman has passed and we wish to honour and remember her.
