Preview: pomme is french for apple

Our favourite show of 2012 and one of our favourite shows ever produced is back and opening this weekend at the Young Centre. In the dead of winter we need this incredibly charming and delicious piece of theatre to inspire some warmth and deep belly laughs. YOU MUST check this out!

Show Description:

First workshopped at the Young Centre before winning Patrons' Pick and Best of Fringe at the 2012 Toronto Fringe Festival, pomme is french for apple is a fresh, funny, and irreverent look at womanhood in all its glory: its perils, its pleasures and all kinds of madness in between. Comprised of a fast-paced series of vignettes, the show is a vaudevillian and distinctly West Indian exploration of the absurdity of women’s lives in settings as diverse as the islands, downtown Toronto and southeast London. pomme is french for apple is created and performed by Liza Paul and Bahia Watson, recipients of the 2012 RBC Footprint Award, presented by Obsidian Theatre, for their contribution to the arts. Mature content.

pomme is french for apple 
Featuring Liza Paul and Bahia Watson
Tickets: $15 - 30
For tickets please CLICK HERE!

Young Centre for the Performing Arts
50 Tank House Lane
Distillery Historic District
Toronto, ON M5A 3C4

Tarragon Double Bill: Little One & Other People's Children

Opening this week at Tarragon is a double bill of mighty weight from predominant Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch. Hannah Moscovitch is one of the most prolific playwrights of her generation and considered one of the strongest voices in the country. Her Governor General-nominated East of Berlin premiered at Tarragon to great acclaim, and toured successfully for two seasons. This prodigious young talent’s most recent play, The Children’s Republic, premiered at Tarragon in 2011 rave reviews. Here are the two pieces that have just begun previews; check out the previews below and for tickets CLICK HERE: 

Show Descriptions: 

Little One

by Hannah Moscovitch
directed by Natasha Mytnowych

PREMIERE | IN CO-PRODUCTION WITH THEATRE CRISIS

Two adopted siblings grow up together in affluent Ottawa. Claire and Aaron love each other with all their hearts. But for some people, loving and destroying are the same thing. A new production of this stylish thriller, reworked since making a splash at SummerWorks 2011.

                                   

Other People’s Children

by Hannah Moscovitch
directed by Paul Lampert

PREMIERE | IN CO-PRODUCTION WITH THEATRE PANIK

When Ilana returns to work, she and her husband Ben hire a live-in nanny to care for their young daughter. At first, Ilana is touched by how well her daughter takes to Sati, but the strength of their bond quickly becomes alarming.

Preview: Shakespeare's Nigga

We here at EAP attended the opening last night at Passe Muraille of Shakespeare's Nigga. Let's just say we found it to be quite strong. It was deliciously poetic and tragic and full of captivating/shocking moments that we found spellbinding. The acting was SUPERB as well. Check out this piece, especially all you theatre lovers! For tickets please CLICK HERE! For more info scroll below...

Show Description:

Shakespeare: Surely I have lost control; but I did love you Aaron. I created you all, loved you all.

Aaron: Then, why was my tongue tied so tight?

Two iconic black characters in Shakespeare's work are brought to life in this visionary play. The piece takes you on a journey into the hearts and minds of Othello and Titus Andronicus' Aaron as they confront their creator. This play is subversive and poetic. It will dare you to see Shakespeare in a whole new light.

SHAKESPEARE'S NIGGA
On until February 23, 2013

Playing at Theatre Passe Muraille in the Main Space
Produced by Obsidian Theatre in association with Theatre Passe Muraille & 3D Atomic
Written by Joseph Jomo Pierre
Directed by Philip Akin
Starring Sascha Cole, David Collins, John Jarvis, Joseph Pierre and Andre Sils

Preview: A Brimful of Asha

Returning to The Extra Space at Tarragon is a season highlight from last year, A Brimful of Asha. We haven't seen the piece yet but we have heard through the community that performances are strong and the humour plentiful. Check below for details or click here for tickets:

Show Description/Press Release:

This acclaimed (and very Canadian) laugh-out-loud true story returns after a sold-out extended run this past season. Real-life mother and son, Asha and Ravi Jain, tell the tale of how Ravi’s parents planned a surprise trip to India to intercept him on his vacation and arrange his marriage. Ravi resents the intrusion but, as far as his parents are concerned, it’s time for him to get a wife.

The title A Brimful of Asha comes from a song written by British alternative rock band Cornershop (www.cornershop.com) in 1997 and is based upon the history of film culture in India. Asha is my mother's name. In Hindi it means Hope. This play is about the challenges that arise out of the hope for happiness that you want for your parents (or for your kids).

A BRIMFUL OF ASHA

A Why Not Theatre Production

Written and performed by Ravi Jain and Asha Jain
Directed by Ravi Jain
Set Design by Julie Fox
Lighting and Video Design by Beth Kates (Playground Studios)
Production Manager Joey Morin
Interview Videos by Kate Fraser and Nabil Shash (Heartist Productions)

Preview: Speaking In Tongues arrives this evening!

Starting previews this evening is the exciting new piece from The Company Theatre, SPEAKING IN TONGUES at the Berkeley Street Theatre. A thrilling play from Australia, Speaking In Tongues is a multi-faceted adventure that reveals the mysterious side of human nature. 

For tickets visit: www.companytheatre.ca

Preview: The Normal Heart 2012

THE NORMAL HEART

LARRY KRAMER’S MASTERWORK OF LOVE, RAGE AND PRIDE

The story of a society in denial between 1981 and 1984, THE NORMAL HEART unfolds like a real-life political thriller—as a tight-knit group of friends refuses to let doctors, politicians and the press bury the truth of an unspoken epidemic behind a wall of silence.


A quarter-century after it was written, this outrageous, unflinching, and totally unforgettable look at the sexual politics during the beginning of the AIDS crisis remains one of the theatre’s most powerful evenings ever.


THE NORMAL HEART won three 2011 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Play, and was one of the biggest hit son Broadway this past season. Now it is produced by the acclaimed Studio 180 Theatre, in association with Buddies in Bad Times, with a star-studded, all-Canadian cast under the guidance of the distinguished director Joel Greenberg.


Playing for a strictly limited run, THE NORMAL HEART is performed until November 18, 2011 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander Street, Toronto. Box Office -- 416-872-1212 or 1-800-416-3333 .

More info: www.studio180theatre.com

Preview: This Must Be the Place: The CN Tower Show

Press Release from Passe Muraille:

This Must Be the Place: The CN Tower Show

Your City, Your Stage.

Using music and theatre, maps and media, the CN Tower Project is a love letter to Toronto, onstage. At the middle of a scramble intersection the stories of Toronto are played out. Where have we come from? Where are we going? This Must Be the Place.

This next project in Theatre Passe Muraille’s Fall Season is a play that puts Toronto onto our stage. Based on interviews and research done across the city, This Must Be The Place: The CN Tower Show is showing us snapshots of Toronto as we hoped it would be and as it is now.

The company is comprised of the Architect Theatre Collective—the artistic team behind Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show. Artistic Director Andy McKim is thrilled to have the voice of so many young Torontonians on the stage. “All of these artists are relatively new to Toronto so they have a unique take on our city. Their view has also been informed by speaking to a lot of people over the last year- famous and not so famous people. They are young artists embracing the Passe Muraille tradition of talking to people in a community and then bringing those stories back to our stage in a play.”

This Must Be The Place: The CN Tower Show marks the 6th initiative of TPM’s Theatre Beyond Walls Season. The fall at TPM has already seen a hugely successful Street Fest; the inspiring and intimate dance piece Queen West Project; The ToyBox a touring wonderland that had its first two stops- in our Mainspace and at City Hall where the Councilors turned out; the out-of-the-box radio drama The Four Corners which has a free live performance at Bathurst and Queen on September 29 and the launch of our Bring The Buzz Festival.

Bring the Buzz is our audience dramaturgy initiative for the 2012 fall season. Typically TPM hosts 2-3 Buzz Festivals a year where we invite artists to showcase fifteen minutes to an hour of a piece in development and invite audiences to give feed back and discuss what they have seen. To further this ideal, TPM has invited 5 companies to be in residence and bring the Buzz! The project provides meaningful support to the artistic community by providing theatre space to emerging and independent artists to develop their art through the engagement of TPM’s core audience.

The first company The Quickening Theatre is in residence in the Mainspace from September 17-30 with public presentations of their production Mister Baxter on September 20-22 and September 16-29. The second company is comprised of Julie Tepperman and Shira Leuchter and they are in residence in the backspace from September 24-October 14 with public presentations of Uninvited on October 4-6 and October 11-13.

This Must Be The Place: The CN Tower Show

A Theatre Passe Muraille Production
Created by The Architect Theatre Collective—Jonathan Seinen, Georgina Beaty, Charlotte Corbeil Coleman, Greg Gale, Ingrid Hansen, and Thomas Olajide, with Layne Coleman
Directed by Jonathan Seinen
Set & Costume Design by Lindsay Anne Black
Lighting Design by Rebecca Picherack
Sound Design by Thomas Ryder Payne
Dramaturgy by Charlotte Corbeil Coleman
Stage Manager Sandy Plunkett
Performed by Georgina Beaty, Greg Gale, Ingrid Hansen and Thomas Olajide

Previews October 4, Opens Ocotber 9, runs to October 27
In the Theatre Passe Muraille Main Space, 16 Ryerson Avenue

Performances:
Tuesday-Saturday @ 7:30pm with Saturday Matinees at 2:00pm

Ticket Prices:
Tuesday-Thursday $30
Friday & Saturday $35
Previews $15
Under 30 $15

Tickets:

Arts Box Office 416.504.7529 or at The Arts Box Office located at 16 Ryerson Avenue is open Tuesday-Saturday from 12:00pm -6:00pm and one hour before the show.

Preview: No Great Mischief at Tarragon

Opening last night at midtown's Tarragon Theatre...

Haunted by the stories and songs of their Scottish ancestry, two brothers seek to reconcile their past in this sweeping saga of familial loss and love. A bittersweet rumination on the ties that bind, this evocative memory play takes us from a squalid Kensington Market rooming house in Toronto to Cape Breton’s stormy shores and the deep mines of Elliot Lake.

No Great Mischief premiered at Tarragon Theatre in 2004 and subsequently was presented in Ottawa, Vancouver and Halifax.

No Great Mischief
by David S. Young
adapted from the novel by Alistair MacLeod
directed by Richard Rose

On until October 21st on the Mainstage
TARRAGON THEATRE
30 BRIDGMAN AVENUE

For more info please click here!

PROUD hits the Berkeley Street Theatre

A Canadian Prime Minister attempts to move the country slightly right of centre …. Will he succeed? At what cost?

The third in a trilogy of award-winning plays (Generous, Courageous) about Canadian values by award-winning playwright Michael Healey. Proud is about what we actually want out of our politics, and our politicians. Set in the Prime Minister’s office in the Centre Block of Parliament, it is just after the spring 2011 election but the reality of the play is different from ours. In the play, all the seats won by the NDP in Quebec have gone to the Conservatives. This gives them not only an overwhelming majority in Parliament, but a lot of rookie MPs in the Tory caucus.

One such MP is Jisbella Lyth, from the fictional Quebec riding of Cormier-Lac Poule. A single mother who, up until getting elected was the manager at a St-Hubert franchise, Jisbella nonetheless displays traits that indicate to the Prime Minister that she will be a useful asset to his government. He and his Chief of Staff, Cary Baines, begin to train Jisbella in the various methods and strategies that have made the Conservatives so successful. Their lessons unleash an emotional component that none of them anticipate.

Starts: Sep 20, 2012 Ends: Oct 6, 2012 

Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs, 26 Berkeley Street, Toronto
Monday - Saturday
Times: 2 pm matinee Saturday, evening perfs 8 pm
Cost: $25 - $40 -Monday PWYC
Ticket purchase URL: www.canadianstage.com

Preview: InspiraTO Festival

Every minute counts! InspiraTO is back and it’s bigger and better than ever. Canada’s largest ten-minute play festival launches its 7th successful season June 1-10, 2012 at Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre. InspiraTO 2012 is primed to produce its largest collection of plays to date: 24 fascinating and provocative ten-minute plays, created and brought to life by an incredibly talented slate of up-and-coming emerging artists. Tickets are only $12 each ($38 for the 4-show Festival Pass) available via TicketPeak or at the Alumnae Theatre Box Office one hour before each show.
InspiraTO’s theme this year is VISION – explored through a series of 4 shows (6 ten-minute plays per show) each with their own unique perspective. The redEye show: Visions with passion - plays that deal with our deep longings, and push our idea of obsession and desire. The yellowEye show: Visions that alert - plays that challenge the status quo, re-examine the way we live, and challenge our world view. The blueEye show: Visions with mystery - plays that make you think, and don't give you black and white answers. The whiteEye show: New voices - showcasing plays from InspiraTO's Playwrights' Mentoring Project. InspiraTO 2012 also features a series of fascinating after-show Talkbacks for all four series.
Each year, the InspiraTO Festival showcases the best ten-minute plays, as selected by a jury of experienced actors, directors, producers and other members of the theatrical community. For the 2012 Festival there were 311 submissions from Canada and around the world. Once the plays are on stage, your opinions become a key element of the InspiraTO Festival – audiences vote for their favourite plays and the top two from each colour group are showcased at the final Sunday matinee performance (June 10).
 Returning to InspiraTO this year is the Ten Day Playwriting Contest, which offers audience members the opportunity to write their own ten-minute play over the ten days of the Festival. The play must be on the theme of Vision, along with two elements that will be only be revealed when the contest opens at the start of the Festival. The winning audience playwright will receive a $250 prize plus a staged reading of their work during the final performance on June 10.
Dedicated to producing high quality short plays and making theatre more accessible for both artists and audiences, the InspiraTO Festival was launched in 2006 by founding Artistic Director Dominik Loncar. In 2008, Lumir Hladik joined the Festival as Associate Artistic Director to create a unified set design and lend his visual arts expertise. Since 2010 InspiraTO has been proud to partner with Pat the Dog, Ontario's playwright centre, helping emerging and established playwrights across the province. The InspiraTO Festival has produced 82 original ten-minute plays, showcasing over 190 actors and 80 directors. For more information about InspiraTO and this year’s plays, please visit www.inspiratofestival.ca!

Kim's Convenience - Behind the Scenes

Previews have just started for the exciting new piece Kim's Convenience. This is such a relevant play to come from the city that is about the city in our present day. Check out the behind the scenes video below! Preview to come next week. If you would like more info or to purchase tickets please click the header.

Preview: The Next Stage Festival hits Toronto!

Opening this week in the city is one of our favourite festival's in the city! The Next Stage Festival is a brilliant collection of works that have premiered already in the country, but need more love and exposure! What joy we say! Exactly what the city needs this time of year and we say Here, Here! The Festival begins this Wednesday evening and runs until the 15th of the month.

Festival Description:

Theatre lover or arts novice, we hope you’ll join us for the fifth anniversary of Toronto’s fastest growing theatre event. The shows in Next Stage are chosen by a panel of industry experts from an incredibly talented pool of “Fringe artists” from across North America, just about to emerge into the mainstream. These are the most talented, most exciting artists from across the Fringe circuit.

On offer this year is our most diverse line-up ever of productions by independent artists. In the intimate Studio Theatre take a look at relationships – amorous and familial – through 21st century eyes. On the Main Stage, four bold productions harness the power of spectacle to tell their unique stories - these are big shows full of laughter, tears and energy.

Next Stage isn’t a normal night at the theatre. The heated McAuslan Beer Tent in the courtyard at Factory Theatre is buzzing all festival long with little concerts and art installations. This is independent theatre at its finest and your chance
to catch artists at that “I saw them when” moment on their way to stardom.

For tickets or more info on shows (and stay tuned for individual show descriptions this week!) please click the header!!!

Preview: CRUSH

This piece is getting some good reviews folks and there is only 4 more days left to check it out!!!

CRUSH is a story of desire, denial and violence. When Martin moves into Ronny and Sandra’s trailer park on the edge of a small Ontario city, he captivates them both. Their longing for love and need to escape collide with homophobia and desperation as the play accelerates toward its startling conclusion. CRUSH is loosely based on the true story of the Jenny Jones Show "Secret Admirer" murder, in which Scott Amedure was killed by Jonathan Schmitz after they taped an episode of the talk show together.

Optic Heart Theatre is thrilled to present CRUSH by Hume Baugh, from December 1-11 at the Factory Studio Theatre. First premiered at Summerworks in 2008, CRUSH is newly reworked and updated for its Factory debut.

Please click the header for more info and to purchase tickets!

CRUSH
Written by Hume Baugh
Directed by Mark Cassidy
Factory Theatre
Toronto, ON
On until December 11th!

Preview: PARFUMERIE at Soulpepper

Opening tomorrow evening in the Distillery District is the smash hit of 2009 from Soulpepper. Adam Pettle and Brenda Robins' winning adaptation about two clerks in a Budapest perfume shop who feud by day and unknowingly exchange anonymous love letters by night is one of the world's most beloved stories. 2010 Dora Award
(Outstanding Production).

For tickets and scheduling info please click the header!

PARFUMERIE
Written by f Miklós László
Adaptation by Adam Pettle and Brenda Robins

Directed by Morris Panych
Featuring Maev Beaty, Stacey Bulmer, Kevin Bundy, Oliver Dennis, Patricia Fagan, Jeff Lillico, Miranda Mulholland, Brenda Robins, Mike Ross, Michael Simpson, Kristina Uranowski, William Webster, Joseph Ziegler.

Young Centre for the Performing Arts,
55 Mill, Toronto, 416-866-8666
Runs to Dec 31