Harbourfront Centre’s performing arts residency programme, HATCH 2012, continues with Paper Laced With Gold on Saturday, April 28 at 8 pm in the Studio Theatre. Paper Laced Productions, the creative team behind the Rat King Rock Opera, unite in the creation of a new musical. Paper Laced With Gold features writer/co-director Maggie MacDonald and producer/co-director Stephanie Markowitz, with music composed and performed by Stevie Jackson of Belle and Sebastian.
Paper Laced with Gold is a new musical about two of these lost characters, living on the banks of the once thriving St. Lawrence Seaway. For 10 years, Betty has been waiting tables at a truck stop, day-dreaming her life away. One night, Kevin, a young thug with a familiar face, tries to steal her car. While awaiting the police, Kevin recognizes Betty as his old babysitter, and she recognizes him as a frightened, closeted teen. Slowly they reveal their mutual recognition, and Kevin tells the story of what brought him to the truck stop. Paper Laced with Gold is a folk-rock musical that pays tribute to the storytelling style of forgotten dramas of the silver screen, and the golden sound of the AM radio waves that drew Glenn Gould to the North Shore of Lake Superior, in “The Search for Petula Clark.”
Paper Laced Productions is writer/co-director Maggie MacDonald and producer/co-director Stephanie Markowitz. They focus on themes of gender, physical difference, class, and environmental issues, pursuing social justice through art that communicates passionately, and without irony. Their choice to work with artists from a mix of disciplines as performers is one of the ways they achieve a raw and innocent performance style that minimizes the feeling of separation between audience and performer.
Maggie MacDonald is a novelist (Kill the Robot), musician (Betty Burke, The Hidden Cameras, Barcelona Pavilion, Republic of Safety) and environmental campaigner. MacDonald grew up along the banks of the mighty St. Lawrence River, a stone’s throw from the now defunct Domtar paper mill.
Stephanie Markowitz is a filmmaker, theatre artist, producer and musician (The Phonemes, Vag Halen). She recently produced a series of ten short films titled Little Films About Big Moments. Stephanie has produced a number of other short films and is currently developing a film adaptation of Zoe Whittall’s novel Bottle Rocket Hearts.
The original music for the show is performed by Scottish guitarist and songwriter Stevie Jackson, acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter Lisa Bozikovic (named one of the CBC’s “10 Artists to Watch” in 2010). The show features a cast that includes members of The Organ (Katie Ritchie), The Bicycles (Drew Smith), and all-lesbian, all-classic rock, cover band Vag Halen (Vanessa Dunn, Ritchie). Installation artist Bojana Stancic makes her musical theatre debut as the owner of the truck stop, and performance artist Liz Peterson (Express Yourself) plays Betty, a waitress from Cornwall who stopped for coffee, and stayed for ten years. Amy Siegal is stage managing the production, and performer Stancic doubles as set designer.
For ticket information click here.
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