Caroline Azar is a Canadian director, actor, and playwright of Lebanese Sephardic origin. She was the lead singer, keyboardist and co-lyricist/composer of the band Fifth Column.[1]
This experimental all-women punk band began in the mid 1980s in Toronto, Ontario. The band released three albums, several cassettes, a number of appearances on various compilations, and three singles, the best known being "All Women Are Bitches, Repeat!", released on the independent record label K Records. Despite the controversy surrounding the song, it was reviewed by Everett True and named 'Single of the Week' in the UK music magazine Melody Maker. The song was also included on the bands' last full-length recording, 36-C.[2] Their previous albums were To Sir With Hate and All-Time Queen Of The World, put out by the band themselves. Their most recent release was the song "Imbecile", which appeared on the Fields and Streams compilation in 2002 on the Kill Rock Stars label.
Caroline Azar has also recorded with several other bands including Kickstand from New York , Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Greek Buck, and The Hidden Cameras from Toronto.
Along with G.B. Jones, Jena von Brucker, Johnny Noxzema, Rex, and others, Caroline Azar was one of the editors of Double Bill, a zine that was sometimes referred to as an "anti-zine" and provoked much commentary, including articles in The Village Voice, from its inception in 1991 until 2001, when it ceased publication.[3] The editors of Double Bill also contributed collectively to the seminal Riot Grrrl fanzine, Girl Germs.
Caroline Azar has appeared in a number of films, as well as on television. She stars in the lead role in the films The Troublemakers and The Yo-Yo Gang by G.B. Jones, and appeared in films, videos and performances on television by Fifth Column. She has also played characters in films for noted directors such as Jeremy Podeswa, Midi Onodera and Bruce LaBruce. She has done extensive voiceover work for many productions, including the narration for the feature documentary on the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, Colour Me Free. As well, she has acted in a number of stage productions, such as the performance of Cut by Kevin Killian, The Molly Murders by Anthony Furey, for which she was selected "Outstanding Performer" by Now Magazine,[4] and Phae by Julian Doucet.
Caroline Azar is also a director. She directed the music videos for Sylvia Tyson's Quartette and for Bob Wiseman's song "Airplane On The Highway", which had been originally released in 1989, then re-released on the compilation In Of By in 1994 when the video was made, and then again in 2009. She has directed over 20 plays; most recently, the 2010 production of The Getaway by Bruce Hunter, at the Toronto Fringe Festival.[5] As well as being a director, directorial assistant for the Judith Thompson productions of Perfect Pie, [6], Habitat, Capture Me and Body and Soul, story editor, and dramaturg for other writers, Azar has also written several plays, including Satan's Mistress, The Surreal Detective vs John Nothing and Man-O-Rexic.[7] Man-O-Rexic featured songs written in collaboration with Fifth Column alumni G. B. Jones and Beverly Breckenridge along with Joel Gibb of The Hidden Cameras. Azar is responsible for designing classes that delivers a proactive method for actors and theatre/ film writers called the ARCHIVAL TECHNIQUE.
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(For Fifth Column recordings, see Fifth Column)
Awards
Awards received include:
- Canada Council of The Arts, Professional Development Award, 2000; - Ontario Arts Council Multi Disciplinarian Award, 1998; - Theatre Ontario Professional Development Award, 1999; - Toronto Arts Council Award, 1998; - Laidlaw Foundation Award, 1998; - Buddies and Bad Times Theatre Playwrights' Reserve, 2003; - Factor Recording Grant, CITY TV 1991; - Factor Video Grant, CITY TV 1993;
Raves and recognitions
- New York Times 1993; - Rolling Stone Magazine 1993, - New Musical Express 1993, - Melody Maker 1993, - The Toronto Sun 1992, - C Magazine, - LA Weekly, - LA Times, - Maximum Rock n Roll, - Impact Magazine, - Melody Maker, - Spin Magazine, - Now Magazine, - Toronto Life, - Globe and Mail, - The Eye, - Trouser Press, - The Chart, - Spin Magazine.