Pirate camp a great success

 

A vast array of talent was on show at our wonderful Pirate Summer Theatre Camp in mid July, where young performers were able to combine heaps of fun with learning from professionals. Here is a mini slideshow of the event:



Below: Professional stunt co-ordinator and actor James Binkley brought his expertise to the camp, passing on valuable advice to students.

Press archive

Professional stunt performer brings
Hollywood-like moves to Paris
James Binkley will coordinate sword fight for Pirates take Paris performance at fall fair.

By CASANDRA BELLEFEUILLE
PARIS STAR STAFF
Professional stunt co-ordinator and actor James Binkley is  bringing Hollywood movie tricks to the main stage at the Paris Fall Fair later this month.
Binkley is going to work with the actors of Deano Wilson-Rouse’s upcoming play Pirates Take Paris. He will help direct them to put together a realistic looking sword fight for the audience.
“It’s going to be a big huge fight and it’s going to be fan to perform. To speed up rehearsal time, I’m going to find somebody that is available with sword fighting experience to do the scene,” said Binkley from his Paris residence. Binkley added that by bringing in experienced actors who have had swords in their hands for hundreds of hours, the play will have a ‘big show feel’ but will be done safely. Typically a sword-fighting scene the size of the one Binkley is overlooking, takes 20 hours of rehearsal time. Binkley plans to do it in six hours. Binkley has coordinated sword fight scenes for the television show Highlander: The Raven, Giovanni Unmasked, FX: The Series Season 2 and more.
Wilson-Rouse’s production will be the first of its kind to hit the main Grandstands at the Paris Fall Fair. In the past, the Paris Agricultural Society has brought in out-of-town-talent for the shows at the Grandstands, but this year the performance will feature local actors and actresses. And for the first time in fair history, a live theatre performance will grace the stage.		   In 2005 he starred as the lead villain in Heart Stopper. “I’ve never been given the opportunity to do so much work in a film as an actor. It was great.”
Binkley also said working with Jackie Chan on The Tuxedo was a lot of fun. ‘Working with him and watching him work was pretty enlightening.”
Binkley moved to Paris in 2005 because he was looking for a smaller town to raise his two
small daughters, he said.
Binkley’s stunt co-ordinaring and acting experience is extensive but began in 1993 when he did his first Hollywood gig he recalled. “William Shatner produced four films made for televislon.
Now almost 15 years later, Binkley has plenty of experience in not only co-ordinatrng stunts but performing them as well. Binkley has worked as a stunt actor on such movies as Mutant X, Bulletproof Monk The Tuxedo, Skulls II, Switchblade, Welcome to Mooseport, Resident Evil: Apocalypse and much more, as well as numerous films and television shows.
Hollywood films aren’t all Binkley specializes in. He is also the fight director for Stratford’s theatre productions. Binkley worked under the watchful eye of John Stead, his mentor from 1990-1995. He met Stead as an actor and they still continue a partnership to this day. Binkley credited Stead for getting him into the Hollywood scene.
"I want to support theatre and culture in Paris. I think that it is important that we get a venue that everyone can be a part of. It would be great if there was a facility in town - a viable theatre that is smaller than the Sanderson Centre but important to the whole county.”
     

Paris performer schools swashbucklers
Next time you’re watching a good, old-fashioned butt-kicking, look closer: you could be enjoying the pugilistic choreography of Paris resident James Binkley.
An actor, fight director and stunt performer, Binkley works in movies, TV and theatre. He specializes in the fine art of sword fighting — a skill to be showcased in Friday’s performance of Pirates Take Paris.
At the behest of show creator Deano Wilson Rouse, Binkley has created a spectacular fight to kick off the action in this family musical panto. Brandishing real broadswords — their edges blunted for safety—Binkley will thrust and parry with piratical zeal, playing the good guy beset by a nasty villain. Friend and fellow actor Stephen Bogaert  will take on that role.
“I want to take the audience on a ride,” Binkley promises. “I want the audience on Friday night to think we’re in trouble and that someone could get hurt.
“That’s the joy of a good fight.”
The short, sharp shock of danger will set people up to relax and enjoy the hammy hijinks to follow, says Binkley, adding that the Binkley cast has done a great job with a “fabulous” show.
It’s a fun break for the performer, who moved to Paris with his wife and two children two years ago. Wanting to
escape Toronto, they find Paris a convenient midpoint between that city and his duties at the Stratford Festival.
Binkley has been co-fight director there for 10 years, training actors (including Brantford native Evan Buliung) in staged swordplay.
 		   It’s all about telling a story: introducing a conflict, throwing in some unexpected turns and wrapping things up with a satisfying ending. And all within a couple of minutes.
Though he does some other stunt work —- “I roll down the stairs sometimes or jump off the occasional building” — Binkley specializes in sword fighting.
Because the weapons are genuine, though dulled, there’s always a chance of injury. But so far, he’s escaped harm.
“We try not to get hurt — but we try to make it look like we are.”
A native of Hanover, the performer grew up in southern Ontario, spending
grades 3 through 7 in Brantford before moving out to Vancouver. After graduating from the University of British Columbia with a bachelor of fine arts degree, Binkley joined Stratford as an apprentice in 1990 and acquired an agent in Toronto.
Screen acting roles have been modest so far, he says, joking that he usually plays “the second cop from the right.” The most major billing so far came in the 2006 horror flick, Heartstopper, as a serial killer.
Since relocating to Paris, Binkley has happily joined the community, joining the boards directing the Cobblestone Festival and the Brant Cultural Centre. And he expects to work with the Paris Performers Theatre this season.
“Now that they know I’m here, it’s good to get involved... I love it.”
     

Avast ye audiences: salty humour will fill the Paris Fair when a band of seafaring thespians take over the grandstand on Friday night.
For the first time, the 149-year-old fair will host live theatre when Talk of the Town Productions presents Pirates Take Paris — a comic musical featuring a large crew of dancers, singers and actors.
The show is a panto: a beloved British genre introduced to Brant by Deano Wilson Rouse, a Welsh-born performer who moved to Paris a few years ago. Expect wacky humour, zany action and lots of interaction with the crowd, say those involved.
“It’s a blast,” promises Eric Oleskiw, who plays the daughter of Captain Hook and his wife, the Hookess. “There’s amazing dance sequences, stunt choreographers, over-the-top acting — and we involve the audience.
“It would be very hard not to enjoy the show. It’s really funny.”
And it’s all about Paris, with puns planted by Rouse, who wrote the play. She also produces and directs Pirates, while taking on a starring role as the Hookess.
As usual, the veteran actress — who started her career as a child star in the ‘60s—portrays an evil villainess.
“My husband says rm typecast,” she says with a laugh. “But someone had to be the mean one.
“And we couldn’t seem to find a woman who could act mean and do a decent Cockney accent.”
Rouse is reluctant to reveal plot details for the panto, other than noting the 40-member cast will pillage and plunder their way through the town.
Half of the roles are handled by youngsters from Talk of the Town’s summer drama camps, while another 20 or so are from Brantford’s Academy of Dance.
Oleskiw is a triple threat, who acts, sings and “is a great dancer,” says Rouse. He puts those talents to use portraying Meathook, an ungainly would-be vamp who’s in love with Captain Jack Sparrowlegs.
 		   “Hopefully, she gets a lot of laughs,” says the 19.year-old, who has been acting for about five years.
This is his second show with Talk of the Town, after portraying Dandini in the company’s Christmas panto, Cinderella.
The Brantford resident has also performed with Horsehead Theatre locally as well as theatre companies in Hamilton, Ancaster, Mississauga and elsewhere.
Dancing is a more recent passion, and one the Pauline Johnson Collegiate grad plans to pursue full-time this year. He recently took some dance classes in New York City and may return there to enrol in musical theatre studies.
A showbiz career is also the aim of Clara Eaton. a 12-year-old who plays Meathook's sister, Ima Hook. “I'm the kind of flirty, silly daughter,” says the Brantford girl, who sings a solo to the object of her stage affections, Johnny Dipstick.
Also a veteran of Cinderella and other local productions, Clara has been dancing since age two and now also studies singing and acting at the Academy of Dance and Pro Arts. She has also taken dance workshops in NYC and in Florida.
“I like watching the reactions of the audience,” she says. “I feel very happy after! perform.”
Panto fans who can’t make Pirates on Friday will have another chance to enjoy all the swashbuckling silliness in December, when when Pirates Take Brantford premieres at the Sanderson Centre.
This will be Talk of the Town’s third Christmas production at the Sanderson, following two successful years with several sold-out shows which have raised funds for local charities. The non-profit company is building a big reputation around Brant, says Rouse. “Not only am I local, but we do good shows.”

 
     

 

  
   

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