Preview: Everyday Anthems at World Stage

Opening tomorrow evening down at the Harbourfront Centre is another World Stage piece that sounds and looks absolutely delicious. Look for buoyancy and grace abound c/o choreographer Heidi Strauss. For more info please read the description below and for tickets please CLICK HERE!

Show Description:

Choreographed by rising star Heidi Strauss, along with text from playwright Brendan Gall, this new dance work explores anthems as a metaphor for overcoming obstacles, for things unrequited, for personal strength and belonging. An impassioned performance that poses questions around power, pride and unity in the face of difference.

Strauss’s first creation for Toronto Dance Theatre draws on the embodied histories of her performers to create a richly physical ensemble work.

Suggested age: all ages.

WORLD PREMIERE
Everyday Anthems
Toronto Dance Theatre (Canada)
March 6-9

Fleck Dance Theatre

Harbourfront Centre

Preview: Dachshund UN

Dachshund UN, the live performance installation from Australian artist Bennett Miller, will be taking over the Enwave Theatre Feb. 28 – March 3, 2013. Seeman’s best friend hold a mirror up to the global community, offering a spirited critique of one of its most ambitious social institutions, the United Nations.

Dachshund UN is one of eleven groundbreaking international contemporary performance works in the World Stage 2013 season. This performance installation, which is proudly sponsored by PawsWay restages the UN Commission on Human Rights with the help of a life-sized model of the UN office in Geneva. Featuring dozens of specially recruited dachshunds from over 24 cities across Ontario, Quebec and New York, the show will demonstrate how world leaders play ball when stakes are high.

World Stage Artistic Director Tina Rasmussen comments: "It's a rare thing, a total cast of over 100 humans and 100 animals. This is work that redefines and repositions live action, inside of the theatre, but outside of its purview. The North American premiere of Dachshund UN is truly a maverick production where spectacle and ontology will collide. I'm excited and I might even adopt a Dachshund in the process."

Unique among breeds for their racial diversity, dachshund ambassadors underscore the trials and achievements of the international community by striving for unity and justice in a dog-eat-dog world. During the hour-long performance, opinions will be shared, fetching ideas communicated and strategic plans unleashed in a summit of delightful chaos and pert insight.


Dates / Times / Location

Duration: 50 minutes

Enwave Theatre – 231 Queens Quay West located between Queens Quay Terminal and York Quay Centre, adjacent to The Power Plant

Thu, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m.
Fri, March 1 at 7 p.m.
Sat, March 2 at 2 p.m.
Sun, March 3 at 2 p.m.

Admission is free on a first-come first-served basis.

Urgent: Production Cancelled!

Harbourfront Centre is disappointed to announce the cancellation of the much anticipated World Stage 2013 season opener Othello, c’est qui, scheduled to run Feb. 6-9.

After exhausting all avenues of appeal, lead actor Franck Edmond Yao remains grounded in Abidjan, Ivory Coast as his travel documents were not expedited in time for the production’s opening.

World Stage Artistic Director Tina Rasmussen comments: “This is especially heartbreaking for me because this work was uniquely situated in Black History month along with other Othello works in the city. The themes and ideas around Othello, c’est qui were urgent and timely. My team and I are doing all that we can to ensure that this performance is eventually restaged in Toronto.”

For over 27 years, Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage has welcomed artists, companies, and productions from over 40 countries around the world.  With its rich history of importing international contemporary performance, this unfortunate event is a rare occurrence and Harbourfront Centre extends its deepest apologies to patrons.

All ticket purchasers are advised to call the box office.


Phone: 416-973-4000, press 1
Fax: 416-954-0366
Email: tickets@harbourfrontcentre.com

Preview: Grupo Corpo, Brazilian Dance on at World Stage

Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage presents Sem Mim & Ímã, from world-renowned Brazilian dance company, Grupo Corpo.  Together, they combine classical ballet technique with a contemporary rereading of Brazilian and world dance forms resulting in performances that are virtuosic, athletic, breathtaking and simply spectacular.


In Sem Mim, meaning “without me”, “tattooed” dancers merge the rhythm of the sea with the music of medieval Portuguese-Galician chants.  The original score composed by Carlos Núñez, of Vigo, and José Miguel Wisnik, of Brazil, is based on the celebrated “sea of Vigo song cycle”.  The movement mimics the ebb and flow of waves in constant flux of advances and retreats.  The set represents different landscapes and elements from the sea to the mountains.

The second work, Ímã, meaning “magnet,” takes inspiration from the law of magnetism where dancers passionately come together and separate through solos, duos and smaller groups forming in a game of union and dispersion.  Using seven-color LEDs, Paulo Pederneiras creates an explosion of color that is violent, radical, and exuberant.  The soundtrack composed by Brazilian band + 2, combines influences from bossa nova, ‘70s afro-music and contemporary Japanese music.

Tickets: World Stage tickets are on sale now! Regular ticket packages (three or more productions) offer discounts and exclusive partner offers, discounted parking and more and single tickets are available anytime via our box office by calling 416-973-4000, Tuesday to Saturday, 1-6pm, or online here.


Dates / Times / Location
Duration: 70 minutes
Fleck Dance Theatre - 3rd Floor, Queen's Quay Terminal, 207 Queens Quay West
Tue, February 19 at 8pm
Wed, February 20 at 8pm
Thu, February 21 at 8pm
Fri, February 22 at 8pm
Sat, February 23 at 8pm

World Stage is coming...

The 2013 season of Harbourfront Centre’s signature contemporary performance series, World Stage, is around the corner and the line up has already garnered critical acclaim.  The Toronto Star says it’s "...theatre that will challenge, astonish, and stimulate”.  From February 6 until May 24, the world’s performance leaders are in town for four to five show engagements, so take advantage of this chance to see select works from provocative and cutting-edge international and Canadian contemporary artists.

Tina Rasmussen, World Stage Artistic Director notes "I am proud of continuing the legacy of World Stage for Toronto audiences by programming another inquiring season of leading performance from Canada and around the world. I believe in certain tenants in programming work that asks the audience to evaluate their role as witness, as citizen, and as human. In the contemporary performance programmed in World Stage 2013 we can offer a renewal of  perception and seek new understandings, propose a new hierarchy, introduce chaos and even have a bit of fun."

This season welcomes productions and artists from Canada, Germany, Côte d’Ivoire, Brazil, Australia, China, Norway, Belgium, Portugal and the Netherlands, making it one of the most diverse seasons in its 27 year history.  The work proposes to redefine the act of witnessing, as it chronicles a day in the life in Auschwitz in KAMP (CAMP) and throws us to the dogs in Dachshund UN.

Shakespeare is turned on his head in a triptych of works that make the Bard relevant, immediate and moving with Toronto’s own LEAR, and two German works, She She Pop & Their Fathers: Testament and Othello c’est qui (Othello, who’s that).

Dance is always featured prominently in the series with last years presentation of Wayne McGregor | Random Dance ENTITY making it to number one in NOW Magazine’s Top 5 Dance Shows of 2012. This begs the question, which of the six knockout dance shows featured this season will top the lists in 2013!?  Get ready to rally around Norway’s A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football, witness the physical demands of friendship with Still Standing You, feel the power of contemporary expression from superpower China with TAO Dance Theater, and warmly welcome the return of Brazil’s dance heavyweights Grupo Corpo.

As a pioneering culture port, World Stage’s commitment to developing Toronto artists continues with bold new work from Ame Henderson/Public Recordings in what we are saying, and Heidi Strauss/Toronto Dance Theatre with Everyday Anthems.

World Stage tickets are on sale now! Save up to 50% with a World Stage Flex Pass, when you purchase four tickets to any World Stage shows for only $110 or eight tickets for $180, only until January 23, 2013. Regular ticket packages (three or more productions) offer discounts and exclusive partner offers, discounted parking and more. The CultureBreak programme, designed for 13-25 year-old arts and culture cravers and/or students of all ages offers $15 tickets to any show, any time.  Seniors, groups of 10 or more, arts workers and NextSteps ticket buyers save 20%. Single tickets available anytime via our box office by calling 416-973-4000, Tuesday to Saturday, 1-6pm, or online here.  Click here for information for the entire World Stage season.

Preview: Harbourfront presents World Stage 2013

Two days ago our friends over at Harbourfront and World Stage have just released their 2013 line up and it looks quite delicious. Please scroll below for information on each individual piece and for exact dates and details.

PRESS RELEASE:

Harbourfront Centre Announces

WORLD STAGE 2013

TORONTO, ON (Wednesday, October 24, 2012) – Harbourfront Centre announces the artists, companies and performance dates for World Stage 2013. The series opens in February 2013 and continues until May, offering select works of provocative and cutting-edge international and Canadian contemporary artists.

This season welcomes productions and artists from Canada, Germany, Côte d’Ivoire, Brazil, Australia, China, Norway, Belgium, Portugal and the Netherlands. The work proposes to redefine the act of witnessing, as it chronicles a day in the life in Auschwitz in KAMP (CAMP), negotiates a thin line between love and brutality in Still Standing You, and throws us to the dogs in Dachshund UN.

Shakespeare is turned on his head in a triptych of works that make the Bard relevant, immediate and moving with Toronto’s own LEAR, and 2 German works, She She Pop & Their Fathers: Testament and Othello c’est qui (Othello, who’s that).

Dance is featured prominently for aficionados and newbies alike, as dance and soccer fans can rally around Norway’s A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football, scratch the surface of contemporary expression from superpower China with TAO Dance Theater, and warmly welcome the return of dance heavyweights Grupo Corpo.

As a pioneering culture port, World Stage’s commitment to developing Toronto artists continues with bold new work from Ame Henderson/Public Recordings in what we are saying, and Heidi Strauss/Toronto Dance Theatre with Everyday Anthems.

Established in 1986, World Stage has presented artists and companies from over 40 countries, bringing the world’s most dynamic performance leaders to share and develop contemporary viewpoints with Toronto audiences while showcasing local artists who have gone on to tour internationally. From the 2012 season, The Dietrich Group’s Paris1994/Gallery has traveled to Singapore and Evan Webber and Frank Cox O’Connell’s Ajax & Little Iliad has been booked across Canada and in Europe. 

Over the past decades, World Stage has granted access to performances and in-depth discussions with the industry’s best including; Christopher Plummer, Laurie Anderson, Robert LePage, Cillian Murphy, Atom Egoyan, Elizabeth LeCompte, Kitt Johnson, Wayne McGregor, and Young Jean Lee to name a few.

World Stage productions have received Dora Award nominations and multiple wins, most recently Outstanding Production, Dance Division for Out of Context - for Pina by Alain Platel (Les Ballets C de la B) and Outstanding Touring Production, General Theatre Division for Mabou Mines DollHouse.

World Stage 2013 Season: Productions and Dates:

Othello, c’est qui (Othello, who’s that)
Gintersdorfer/Klaßen (Germany | Côte d’Ivoire)
Performed in English and French
February 6-9, Enwave Theatre, 70 mins
While Othello may be the single most famous black man on the Western stage, in Africa, hardly anybody has heard of him. In this fearless and radical reinvestigation of one of Shakespeare’s most iconic characters, what begins as a playful conversation about the clichés surrounding Othello and Desdemona quickly evolves into a provocative confrontation between two cultures. A mischievous but hard-hitting exchange, Gintersdorfer/Klaßen’s frank and very human production won first prize at the 2009 Theater Festival Impulse, and has engaged audiences around the world ever since.

Sem Mim & Ímã
Grupo Corpo (Brazil)
February 19-23, Fleck Dance Theatre, 110 mins, including intermission
Two spectacular dance productions from this world-renowned company. In Sem Mim, meaning “without me,” “tattooed” dancers merge the rhythm of the sea with the music of medieval Portuguese-Galician chants. The second work, Ímã, meaning “magnet,” takes inspiration from the law of magnetism where dancers passionately entwine and separate in poetic polarities. Always a hit with World Stage audiences, Grupo Corpo combines classical ballet technique with a contemporary rereading of Brazilian and world dance forms. The end results are performances that are virtuosic, athletic, breathtaking and simply spectacular.

Dachshund UN

Bennett Miller (Australia)
Production Sponsor: PawsWay
February 28-March 3, Enwave Theatre, 50 mins
Shock, delight, cacophony! A meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights is staged with the help of specially recruited dachshunds in this wild performance installation. Joyful and chaotic, spectacular and fascinating, Dachshund UNquestions our capacity to imagine and achieve a universal system of justice. Creator Bennett Miller is a sculptor and installation artist whose aim is to create theatre as a political arena by exploring active viewership and durational performance. Admittance to this show is free on a first-come, first-serve basis. Performances will also be webcast. If you have a dachshund and want to participate, email dogshow@harbourfrontcentre.com.

LEAR
Philip McKee (Canada)
Co-produced by Harbourfront Centre
March 5-10, Studio Theatre, 80 mins
Canadian performance legend Clare Coulter steps into the title role of Shakespeare’s King Lear in this intimate and powerful portrait of passing on a legacy, in a family and in the theatre. A reinvigorated and sensitive overturning of a timeless tragedy. Philip McKee is an emerging performance maker and director within Canada’s theatre scene. In LEAR, he’s assembled an exciting group of collaborators for this surprising staging. LEAR originally appeared as part of Harbourfront Centre’s HATCH performing arts residency programme in 2011. For more information about HATCH, visit harbourfrontcentre.com/hatch.

Everyday Anthems
Toronto Dance Theatre (Canada)
March 6-9, Fleck Dance Theatre, 70 mins
Choreographed by rising star Heidi Strauss, along with text from playwright Brendan Gall, this new dance work explores anthems as a metaphor for overcoming obstacles, for things unrequited, for personal strength and belonging. An impassioned performance that poses questions around power, pride and unity in the face of difference. Strauss’s first creation for Toronto Dance Theatre draws on the embodied histories of her performers to create a richly physical ensemble work. Toronto Dance Theatre, under the artistic direction of Christopher House, is recognized for intelligent choreography and the exceptional artistry of its dancers.

Weight x3 & 2

TAO Dance Theater (China)
Production Sponsor: ManuLife Financial
March 20-23, Fleck Dance Theatre, 90 mins, including intermission
Two incisive works by China’s emerging leaders of contemporary dance that shatter expectations. Weight x3 is a triptych of pieces concerned with stretching the boundaries of physical practice. In 2, the dancers’ bodies fold, collapse, invert and mirror each other to convey the movement (and rigidity) of language. Since its inception in 2008, TAO Dance Theater has established itself as one of the most provocative contemporary dance companies in China. Through rigorous, sincere, and exploratory corporeal research, they are discovering the body’s unknown possibilities and taking Chinese dance in bold new directions.

A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football
Jo Strømgren Kompani (Norway)
Production Sponsor: BMO Financial
April 10-13, Fleck Dance Theatre, 60 mins
A series of comic, tough and tender vignettes celebrating the world’s favourite game in which the form and physical patterns of football (soccer) are deconstructed. This work offers an opportunity to reflect on the similarities and differences between sport and art. Behind slow-motion replays and locker room rituals lurks a sophisticated take on a global obsession that speaks volumes about the human condition. Jo Strømgren Kompani is one of Scandinavia’s most established independent dance theatre companies, combining raw physicality with absurd humour.
Advisory: Contains partial nudity.

She She Pop & Their Fathers: Testament
She She Pop (Germany)
Performed in German with English surtitles
April 17-20, Enwave Theatre, 120 mins
Mirroring the story of King Lear and his daughters, She She Pop members take to the stage with their own aging fathers to enumerate their inheritances and negotiate how power, money, memory and love are passed along across the generations. With the drive of a game show, this heart wrenching and humourous work strives to find the intersections of responsibility and respect between parents and children. She She Pop, based in Berlin and Hamburg, is one of Germany’s most important performance collectives.

Still Standing You
Pieter Ampe & Guilherme Garrido/CAMPO (Belgium/Portugal)
April 23-24 & 26-27, Enwave Theatre, 45 mins
Unadorned, hilarious, moving and disturbing. With the instruments of their bodies, this Belgian Portuguese duo offers a mischievous glimpse into the kaleidoscope of friendship. From slaps on the back to violent strokes of a leather belt, the pair tests the strength of their relationship. The artists invite the audience to consider associations of touch, tenderness, violence and struggle between the bodies of men. CAMPO, which brought That Night Follows Day to World Stage audiences in 2009, is a Ghent-based art centre that creates and presents work at all stages of development on a national and international scale.
Advisory: contains full frontal nudity

what we are saying (Canada)
Ame Henderson/Public Recordings
Presented in association with The Power Plant
May 23-26, The Power Plant, 60 mins
Expanding upon findings from 300 Tapes and relay, Public Recordings asks: "What can we say about our future and how do we say it together?" Using language and movement to explore new perspectives of our world and each other, an assembly of performers responds to uncertainty, potential danger, and possibility in an unobstructed performance space. Since 2003, widely-acclaimed Public Recordings has been supporting and promoting the works of dancemaker Ame Henderson and her collaborators. The Power Plant, part of Harbourfront Centre, is Canada’s leading public gallery devoted exclusively to contemporary visual art.

KAMP (CAMP)
Hotel Modern (Netherlands)
May 23-26, Enwave Theatre, 60 mins
With an enormous scale model of Auschwitz filling the stage, thousands of eight-centimetre-tall handmade puppets represent the prisoners and their executioners. The performers move through the set like giant war reporters, or silent gods, filming the horrific events with miniature cameras. The audience becomes witness. Hotel Modern attempts to imagine the unimaginable: the greatest mass murder in history, committed in a purpose-built city. Established in 1997, Hotel Modern blends visual arts, puppetry, music and film in evocative productions by representing harsh reality in a refined poetic manner.

World Stage Tickets: Help deliver world-renowned programming like World Stage by becoming a Harbourfront Centre donor. Donors receive advance World Stage 2013 ticket purchasing opportunities, starting October 24, before the public on sale date of November 7. Regular ticket buyers can save up to 50% with a World Stage Flex Pass. Purchase four tickets to any World Stage shows for only $110 or eight tickets for $180. The Flex Pass is only on sale until January 23, 2013. Regular ticket packages (three or more productions) offer discounts and exclusive partner offers, discounted parking and more. The CultureBreak programme, designed for 13-25 year-old arts and culture cravers and/or students of all ages offers $15 tickets to any show, any time. Seniors, groups of 10 or more, arts workers and NextSteps ticket buyers save 20%. Single tickets available anytime via our box office by calling 416-973-4000 , Tuesday to Saturday, 1-6pm, or online atharbourfrontcentre.com.

Extras: World Stage goes deeper to deliver a more textured performance experience for audiences by offering post-performance talkshows on the second night of the run with guest hosts and cast members, opening night receptions and artist development workshops.

Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage 2013 gratefully acknowledges the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council and Westin Harbour Castle, the official host hotel of World Stage.

ABOUT HARBOURFRONT CENTRE
Harbourfront Centre is a Canadian charity operating the 10 prime acres of Toronto's central waterfront as a free and open public site. We celebrate the multiplicities of cultures that comprise Canada and enliven the city through the creative imaginations of artists from across the country and around the globe. Harbourfront Centre attracts more than 17 million visits to its site each year to experience 4,000 diverse public events and activities. Harbourfront Centre receives operational support from the Government of Canada and the City of Toronto and program funding from all levels of government, the private sector and individual donors.

For more information and unparalleled access to interviews, videos and commentary on the World Stage 2013 season visitwww.harbourfrontcentre.com/worldstage

Follow us on Twitter @WorldStageTO #WSTO
Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/WorldStageTO

Preview: The Shipment

Award-winning Young Jean Lee’s Theatre Company (U.S.) comes to Harbourfront Centre with THE SHIPMENT, as part of World Stage from May 9-12, 2012 at the Enwave Theatre. Young Jean Lee, a rising star of American theatre, dissects what it means to be black in America in this hilarious and shocking play.

“Ingenious . . . radical.” - New Yorker

“A fiendishly funny piece of neominstrelsy.” – Time Out New York

Brazenly theatrical and transcendentally lyrical, THE SHIPMENT starts with a stand up comedy act and moves from the urban dreams of would-be rappers to the sitcom realism of yuppie domesticity, proving that nothing is ever as it seems. With an ending guaranteed to leave jaws hanging, this is contemporary theatre at its biggest, boldest and most daring.

Young Jean Lee, a Korean-American playwright raises questions about race in an entertaining and unique way.  Referred to as “the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation” by New York Times, Lee has a unique approach to playwriting: she starts a play by asking herself, “What’s the last play in the world I would ever want to write?” THE SHIPMENT stars a cast of five black actors, who developed this provocative play in collaboration with Lee.

The playwright was also a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for THE SHIPMENT in 2010 and recently named as one of the inaugural Doris Duke Artists. Young Jean Lee is a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow, and was named by American Theatre magazine as one of the 25 artists who will shape the American theatre over the next 25 years.

Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company is an Obie Award-winning New York-based company that has creates and produces performances written and directed by Lee in collaboration with company members from diverse backgrounds, since 2003. Their work challenges audiences to think, rather than reaffirm their pre-existing beliefs. Lee has written and directed nine shows in New York with Young Jean Lee's Theater Company and toured her work to over twenty cities around the world.  The company’s most recent work is the hugely successful THE UNTITLED FEMINIST SHOW, which The New Yorker described as, “one of the more moving and imaginative works I have ever seen on the American stage.”

Performance details:

Wednesday, May 9, 2012: 8pm
Thursday, May 10, 2012: 8pm
Friday, May 11, 2012: 8pm
Saturday, May 12, 2012: 8pm

Enwave Theatre, 231 Queens Quay West, Toronto

Performance is 90 minutes with no intermission.
THE SHIPMENT contains strong language and content some may find offensive.
Click here for ticket info or call 416.973.4000.

Preview: Agwa/Correria

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This week in the city, Compagnie Käfig (France/Brazil) comes to Harbourfront Centre as part of World Stage with Agwa/Correria from May 2-5, 2012 at the Fleck Dance Theatre. This marks the company’s return to Harboufront since 2004 with their sell-out production of Corps est Graphique.

 Hip hop prodigy Mourad Merzouki brings France and Brazil together to create poetic urban dance with exuberant and explosive power. In 2006, Merzouki invited 11 young dancers from Rio de Janerio to the Lyon Dance Biennial to create Agwa/Correria. These dynamic Brazilian performers demonstrate a passion for dance, mixing complex hip-hop with capoeira, samba, electronic music and bossa nova.

In this inventive double-bill, Agwa takes place between tight corridors of little cups of water. This athletic and acrobatic piece examines the vital resource of water and it’s symbolism of renewal. Correria is a stylized endurance piece that lunges into a whirlwind of the frenzied modern world.

 By avoiding all the social stereotypes, Compagnie Käfig has managed to assert a unique style all its own. While honouring its origins, the company has heralded the hip hop movement, winning over audiences as diverse as those of the dancers. With hip hop dance, the members of the company have, each in their own way, progressively trained themselves and have enriched a vocabulary. Merzouki's endeavor to engage urban youth extends beyond choreographic creations, introducing hip-hop and contemporary dance culture to the public through their performances and in workshops and master classes.

 Born in Lyon, France, Mourad Merzouki is the artistic director of Compagnie Käfig, which he founded in 1996. Merzouki started learning martial and circus arts when he was seven-years-old. As a teenager, his discovery of the hip hop culture led him towards the dance world. He soon decided to develop his hip hop movements with more professional goals. Merzouki blends his experience in circus and martial arts with hip hop dance and culture to create works that have earned him choreographic awards from the International Dance Festival in Wolfsburg, Germany, La Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques and Lyon’s Lumières de la Culture.

 Performance details:
Wednesday, May 2, 2012: 8pm
Thursday, May 3, 2012: 8pm
Friday, May 4, 2012: 8pm
Saturday, May 5, 2012: 8pm

 Fleck Dance Theatre, 207 Queens Quay West.

Tickets: $45, $36 (seniors and artsworkers), $15 (CultureBreak – children and youth 13 to 25 years-old) available at Harbourfront Centre’s Box Office. Call 416-973-4000,email tickets@harbourfrontcentre.com or visit harbourfrontcentre.com/worldstage!

May 3 performance will be followed by a free talkshow for ticket holders. Hosted by The Dance Current's Kathleen Smith, the talkshow is an opportunity for audience members to engage in conversation with Mourad Merzouki and dancers from the company.

Announcing the World Premiere of Ajax and Little Iliad

World Stage at the Harbourfront Centre is proud to present the World Premiere of Ajax and the Little Iliad.  This is an intimate theatrical experience, with only 30 seats available per show.  So act now because once tickets are gone they are gone.  Ajax... runs April 4-8, 2012 at Harbourfront Centre’s Enwave Theatre.

Taking a cue from contemporary military rehabilitation programs, Toronto artists, Evan Webber and Frank Cox-O’Connell set out to define "Theatre of War" expressly for the civilian population. Ajax & Little Iliad is a pair of companion works that explore the ways that storytelling connects the actions of artists and soldiers. The 30 audience members also wear pair of headphones; this is contemporary performance at its most topical, personal, immediate and intimate.

 “Powerful... a tiny treat of a show.” -Irish Times
“A profound and poignant synthesis of art and war.” – Irish Theatre magazine

Staging a lost fragment from the Trojan cycle best known from Sophocles’ adaptations, Little Iliad examines the ever-present reality of war in an intimate Skype-like encounter between childhood friends Evan, a writer, and Thom, a soldier about to be deployed (who appears projected upon a clay puppet). Discussing the methods of the US Army-funded company Theatre of War, Little Iliad subtly draws parallels between the ancient epic and modern context of Canada’s involvement in war. Written by Webber and directed by Cox-O’Connell, it premiered at the Festival de l’Outaouais Émergent in Quebec and the Absolute Fringe in Dublin, Ireland in 2010.

The world premiere of Ajax expands on the theme of “theatre of war”, presenting a series of letters addressed to the doomed classical hero. Ajax pushes further into the ideas in Little Iliad but shifts from cinematic naturalism to a richly theatrical imagination of ‘the classical’, complete with helmets and sandals. We are in the golden age of democratic Athens, and we are going to the premiere of Sophocles’ new play: the story of a victorious but conflicted general who acts to oppose the corruption in his own army. The audience and actors all sit together for a dangerous experiment in classical drama: a scripted play in which the actors play the role of the audience and the audience plays a chorus who comment on invisible heroes. Ajax is an unnervingly funny and uncompromising set of questions about theatricality, performance and the authors of history.

Performance makers Evan Webber and Frank Cox-O’Connell have created and performed over a dozen performance works in Canada, the United States and Europe – most frequently, with fellow co-founders, in the group One Reed Theatre and as core collaborators with Small Wooden Shoe. Their work aims to unite the informal and participatory with the precisely rehearsed; it documents their ongoing conversation about reality, performance and change.

Performance details:

Wednesday, April 4, 2012: 8 pm
Thursday, April 5, 2012: 7 pm
Thursday, April 5, 2012: 9 pm
Friday, April 6, 2012: 8 pm
Saturday, April 7, 2012: 4 pm
Saturday, April 7, 2012: 8 pm
Sunday, April 8, 2012: 2 pm
Sunday, April 8, 2012: 4 pm

Enwave Theatre, 231 Queens Quay West.

Tickets: $35, $28 (seniors and arts workers), $15 (CultureBreak – 13 to 25 years-old, or students of any age) available at Harbourfront Centre’s Box Office. Call 416.973.4000, or email tickets@harbourfrontcentre.com or visit you can also get tickets by visiting the Harburfront Centre website here.

There is a talk back show with Evan Webber and Frank Cox-O'Connell following the 9pm performance on Thursday, April 5, and a second talk back show Friday April 6.

World Stage is back at the Harbourfront Centre

Last year, Justin and I had the pleasure to attend a number of shows presented at the Harbourfront Centre's, Wold Stage series.  World Stage always features some of the best contemporary stage shows, including theatre and dance,  from around the world.  This season opens and closes with work developed through the Harbourfront Centre's Fresh Ground new works grant. Everything Under the Moon, is the most recent recipient and kicks World Stage off this year. The season ends with Dance Marathon, which was awarded the Fresh Ground prize in 2007, before travelling the world to rave reviews.

Now for a limited time only you can get World Stage Flex Passes, which significantly reduce the prices for show at the World Stage.  The Flex Pass is good for four tickets to any performance for $110.00.  That is a savings of over $20.00 per ticket!  Get your Flex Pass now, until January 15th by clicking here or calling 416.973.4000.  You can also select packages from a set list, or make your own.  Single tickets for most shows are $45.00.  So don't delay and get your Flex Pass or ticket package now.

And click here to see the full season line up!

Preview: Floating

Floating, the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe award winner, comes to the Harbourfront Centre next week. The first in a series, by Welsh company Hoipolloi, Floating features creator performer Hugh Hughes and Sioned Rowlands. The imaginative story focuses on the Isle of Anglesey, on the day it brakes away from mainland Wales. Amid an eclectic mix of on-stage clutter, the witty Welsh humour of Floating pulls at the heartstrings, and reminds audience of the important of home.

We've been to see a number of shows this season as part of the World Stage. Thus far have been really impressed by the variety. EAP has come to expect the unexpected from every show at the Harbourfront. The World Stage has consistently pushed the boundaries in such a sophisticated and enlightened way. So we are very excited to see Floating, which is the first comedy we'll be seeing at World Stage. This is not the one to miss. Floating has already received raves when it played in Vancouver earlier this month.

Click the header for ticket information.

Floating runs from the 15-19 at the Enwave Theatre.

Preview: Dave St-Pierre's new work

Montreal based Dave St-Pierre has a new work opening this week at the Harbourfront Centre. Un peu de tendresse bordel de merde! (A little tenderness for crying out loud.) This is the second, in a triptych, by Mr. St-Pierre's to come to the World Stage. The first, La pornographie des âmes, was a huge hit when it played to sold out crowds during the 2008-9 World Stage season.

Un peu de tendresse... is an exploration of love and sexuality. "Naked as the truth," as the press release puts it. 20 dancers explore the physical body and our human connections. While some find Mr St-Pierre's work controversial, many critics have applauded his ability to express the most basic of human emotions with his choreography.

Un peu de tendresse... plays at Harbourfront Centre's Fleck Theatre until the 5th. Click the header for more ticket information.

Preview: Questo Buio Feroce

Opening tomorrow at the Harbourfront Centre, as part of World Stage 2010-11, is Questo Buio Feroce, or (The Wild Darkness.) The show, by performer/creator Pippo Delbono is being hailed as a theatrical spectacle combining dance, theatre and carnival. Questo Buio Feroce is inspired by the autobiographical essays, The Wild Darkness: The Story of My Life, by American Harold Brodkey.

Brodkey, was writing about his life as he neared death from AIDS. The Wild Darkness was published in 1996. For this stage adaption, Delbono, worked with actors and non-actors alike, including former homeless performers, and even one individual who lived for over 40 years in a Naples asylum for the insane. It is sure to be a gripping evening.

EAP is going to see the show on Thursday, to take part in the Q and A after the performance. Questo Buio Feroce runs January 26th - 29th. Click the header for box office information. (Image courtesy of World Stage and photographer Gianluigi di Napoli)

Preview: Voice-Box

World Stage, at the Harbourfront Centre, is proudly presenting urbanvessel's World Premire production of Voice-Box. The show sounds amazing , EAP is happy to say that we will be attending the opening, next Wednesday.

"Voice-Box brings together the sweet science of boxing and the power of the singing voice to create a knock-out performance, uniting the talents of choreographer Julia Aplin, writer Anna Chatterton and composer Juliet Palmer. The creators step into the ring with the feisty quartet of Vilma Vitols (opera, cabaret, new music singer and accomplished boxer), Neema Bickersteth (actor and opera singer), Savoy Howe (comedian and boxing coach) and Christine Duncan (improviser, jazz and gospel singer)."

The show sounds like an amazing and eclectic mix, and we are really looking forward to the music, and the fighting. The show deals with issues of gender and aggression and even hints at audience participation. Ladies, wear comfortable shoes cause I have got a feeling that everyone will be able to get in the ring at this one.

Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage 2010-11
Voice-Box
urbanvessel (Canada)
Part of Fresh Ground new works
November 10-13, 8 p.m. & November 14, 2 p.m.
York Quay Centre,
Brigantine Room 235, Queens's Quay West
Tickets $15-$35
Box Office: 416 973 4000 or click the header

World Stage 2010-11 Opener!

Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage 2010-11 is kicking off it's season next week with the renowned artist Alain Platel, artistic director of les ballets C de la B (Ghent, BE), and the Toronto premiere of Out of Context – for Pina.

This new work which debuted in Brussels in January of this year has since toured Europe and Asia to strong reviews and is now taking to the stage at Harbourfront Centre’s Fleck Dance Theatre. EAP will be there next week and we are very thrilled to be invited. As many of you know Liza went to school for dance so the addition of regular Dance previews is exciting for EAP!!!

World Stage and the Harbourfront Centre declare that; "The foremost dance company in Belgium, les ballets C de la B and Platel have been at the forefront of leading edge dance and dance-theatre for over 20 years. As a choreographer and director, Platel employs a language of movement connected to the unconscious. Through a cast of virtuoso dancers he explores the tension between a wide range of uncontrolled movements and the traditional building blocks of choreography, such as the simultaneous execution of actions in Out of Context – for Pina.

As the title suggests, Out of Context – for Pina is dedicated to the late modern dance legend Pina Bausch, whose vast body of work has not only heavily influenced Platel and les ballets C de la B, but the work of innumerable international artists across genres. The piece is both a reflection on Bausch and a consideration of ritual. Platel also draws inspiration from his past role as a special needs instructor working with children afflicted with various disabilities. It was there he discovered the unexpected beauty of the misshapen that frames so much of his work. Platel and les ballets C de la B last dazzled Toronto audiences with Foi and La Tristessa Complice"(The Harbourfront Centre, World Stage Press Release).

We are really excited about the show and the photos are really interesting so make sure to check this out if you are into Dance!

Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage 2010-11
Out of Context – for Pina
Alain Platel/les ballets C de la B
October 13-16, 8 p.m.
Fleck Dance Theatre, 207 Queens Quay West, 3rd Floor Queens Quay Terminal
Tickets: $15-$49
Box Office: 416-973-4000, www.harbourfrontcentre.com/worldstage1011
Complete information about performance times and tickets is available through the Harbourfront Centre box office by phone at 416-973-4000, or online at harbourfrontcentre.com

(photos courtesy of Chris Van der Burght)