Theatre 20 announces inaugural season

Press Release:

TORONTO, ON (Monday, Jan. 23, 2012) -- Theatre 20, Toronto's artist-led musical theatre company, today announced its inaugural season of production at a press conference and exclusive ticketed cocktail affair, "A Taste of 20: Sample the Season". The event launches a season which includes two workshops, two full productions, and a series of other events.

Speeches by Artistic Director and Founding Artist Adam Brazier, Theatre 20 Board Chair David Morris, Michael Rubinoff (Associate Dean Performing Arts, Sheridan College), Raindogs creator Andrew MacBean and Founding Artist Colm Wilkinson (Director of Theatre 20's first production) underlined Theatre 20's mandate to present story-driven musicals by developing new Canadian works and by re-imagining existing repertoire, nurturing the talent of writers and composers and fostering the development of young artists through mentorship and education programs. Preview performances at the event featured Theatre 20 Founding Artists and Emerging Artist Ensemble with guest artists including Jeff Madden, Tim Howar and Donnie Macphee.

First on the season roster is the Toronto premiere of Bloodless: The Trial of Burke and Hare, by Winnipeg playwright Joseph Aragon. Theatre 20 Founding Artist and internationally renowned performer Colm Wilkinson makes his directorial debut with this delightfully dark true story of the 1829 West Port murders in Edinburgh.

Theatre 20 will workshop the show in April-May and the full production will run at the Panasonic Theatre from Oct. 16 through Nov. 11, 2012.

Next, Theatre 20 partners with Sheridan College's Canadian Music Theatre Project on the workshop of Raindogs by Canadian Andrew MacBean. This musical, based on Lanford Wilson's Balm in Gilead, features original music by MacBean, Paul Chant and Boko Suzuki, lyrics by MacBean and book by MacBean, Rose Martula and Wilson himself. The show, which was the last project Wilson worked on before his death in March 2011, centres on a young prostitute who meets a somewhat inept drug dealer. Like Balm in Gilead, Raindogs is a moving and gritty look at the junkies, pushers, prostitutes and other freaks that inhabit an upper West Side greasy spoon.

Raindogs was first workshopped as a full-length musical as part of the MAD Fringe Festival at Trafalgar Studios, London, England. It went on to have its first U.S. workshop at Sag Harbour, NY's Bay Street Theatre in October 2010.

The workshop will take place during the late spring at Sheridan in conjunction with a comprehensive mentorship program between Theatre 20 Founding Artists and Sheridan Music Theatre Performance Program students. Public performances of the workshop will take place in both Oakville and Toronto. The full production of Raindogs will follow in Theatre 20's 2013-2014 season.

The season wraps up with Company at Harbourfront Centre's Enwave Theatre considered by many the show that inaugurated the era of the modern musical. Theatre 20 Artistic Director Adam Brazier re-imagines this beloved show from the international musical theatre canon with Gary Griffin as Creative Consultant. Company, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth, centres on Robert, a single man unable to commit to a steady relationship, the married couples who are his best friends, and his three on-again off-again girlfriends. Set in early-1970s, upper-middle-class Manhattan and told through a series of vignettes in no particular chronological order, each character and scene is linked by the celebration of Bobby's 35th birthday. It has been 25 years since a professional production of Company has been seen in Toronto.

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