Preview: Pantheon

Harbourfront Centre’s unique performing arts residency programme HATCH, concludes its 2012 programme with Pantheon by Toronto cult queer band, Kids On TV. Pantheon takes place Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 8 pm in the Studio Theatre.

Combining bouncy house music, old-school hip hop, Liberace piano drama, mutant super-hero roller-disco battles, love songs between closeted 20th-century artists and epic choral arrangements, Pantheon celebrates the historical and fictional figures of Kids on TV’s personal and collective mythologies. This brand new work explores inspiring, strange and obscure figures of resistance and sexual revolution. Pantheon is a new focus on performance with reference to queer history, struggle and culture through music, dance, film, performance and politics.

Kids On TV emerged from the Toronto party Vaseline in the spring of 2003.  John Caffery, Minus Smile, and Roxanne Luchak are the core artists and together they have collaborated with musicians such as Boy George, Man Parrish, Shunda K, Julie Faught, Gentleman Reg, Katie Stelmanis of Austra, Diamond Rings and Bruce Benderson. Kids on TV transform environments with projections of their film and video work.  Over the years the party starting band has played in clubs, warehouses, schools, festivals, and bathhouses.

Pantheon aims to conceptualize and foster new material including choreography, photography, music and video and integrate the elements within their performance. “HATCH gives us the opportunity to further explore the mythology we’ve created,” says Kids On TV band member, Caffery, “And to develop innovative ways in which to bring the stories of those personalities within their myths to our audiences.” Since inception the group has focused on personalities that exist and thrive within the intersections of queer/trans, arts, academic, and activist communities.

Check out a snippet of the band below:

And click here for ticket information.

Fringe Needs You

Hello Friends,

We here at EAP love celebrating theatre in "The Big Smoke" and we know you do too.  That's why we are bringing you this very important message from the Toronto Fringe Festival's Gideon Arthurs.
The Fringe needs your loose change to continue bringing new theatre to the local public.  Check out how you can get involved below:

If you want to make a donation click here.  See you at the theatre!

The Block Party is Tonight

Last we heard there are still tickets available to THE spring theatre event TONIGHT!  Studio 180 and Canadian Stage's much anticipated Block Party and production of Clybourne Park.

Here is what Director Joel Greenberg has to say about the production.

The show runs until April 28th, so even if you can't make it for the party tonight click here for tickets.   

Preview: The Game of Love and Chance

Justin and I are super excited to see the official opening night performance of The Game of Love and Chance at CanStage this evening. This super fun boy-meets-girl romp has been thrilling audiences in Montreal, and now it has arrived in Toronto.  The play, in a new translation by award winning playwright Nicolas Billon and directed by Canadian Stage Artistic & General Director, Matthew Jocelyn runs at the Bluma Appel Theatre until May 12th.

The Game of Love and Chance follows Silvia (Trish Lindström) whose aristocratic father, Monsieur Orgon (William Webster), has arranged for her to marry a nobleman named Dorante (Harry Judge). Skeptical about love and marriage, and having never met Dorante, Silvia decides to trade places with her maid, Lisette (Gemma James-Smith), to get a sense of his true self. Her father agrees to play along but doesn’t tell her that Dorante has the same idea and plans to meet Silvia disguised as his servant, Arlequino (Gil Garratt). Monsieur Orgon tells his son Mario (Zach Fraser) of the plan
and they both delight in the ensuing hilarity. An abstract, mirrored set designed by Anick La Bissonnière enhances the illusions created by each of the characters, and magnifies the farce and confusion surrounding love, identity and intentions.

 Marivaux’s Le jeu de l’amour et du hasard (The Game of Love and Chance) was first performed close to 300 years ago in Paris. It was originally written for the troupe of Italian actors known as “les comédiens-italiens”, whose theatrical tradition was based largely on commedia dell’arte techniques of Italy in the 17th century. Jocelyn’s contemporary retelling of this builds on the gymnastic and exceptionally theatrical performance style of this group of actors, peppered with comedic moments highlighted through the witty banter and emotion of the text and Billon’s translation.

Check out this video below for a sneak peak.  And click here for ticket information.  See you at the theatre!


VIDEO: The Centaur Theatre presents The Game of Love and Chance

Preview: Paris 1994/Gallery

World Stage continues at Harbourfront Centre with the mesmerizing dance installation Paris1994/Gallery by Toronto’s The Dietrich Group. This show is Choreographed by D.A. Hoskins.
"Intellectual rigour with emotional wallop, resulting in works that engage hearts and minds." - Toronto Life

“[Hoskins’ choreography is] hugely scenic, sculptural and forcefully pictorial.” – Toronto Star

This triple Dora-Award-nominated show takes the physicality of dance into a space of interactive play where two lovers move from the lull of their shared history to the immediacy of the present in a rumination of longing, desire and our reconstructed pasts. Paris1994/Gallery explores memory through the reflection of time, looking at how memory is a constantly changing perspective through highlighted moments between lovers. Set in an arena similar to an art gallery, the players become extensions in this installation that explores time and space. Directed/ choreographed by D.A. Hoskins, starring Danielle Baskerville and Tyler Glendhill, spoken word by Jill Battson, and film by Nico Stagias.

Grounded in dynamic and intimate physicality, The Dietrich Group challenges the viewer’s perceptions of live performance, bringing dance in Canada into the realm of contemporary art. Launched in January 2008 as a platform for the creation and production of multidisciplinary dance works, The Dietrich Group is designed specifically to facilitate exchanges in art. Other works created by The Dietrich Group include THE LAND OF FUCK (a fable), LADY: Images in a Melodramatic Setting and PORTRAIT.

D.A. Hoskins is artistic director of The Dietrich Group and a visual artist working in dance. Hoskins moved to Toronto in the early 80's to pursue a career as a dance artist, soon after focusing his attention on choreography. Since the beginning of his career has joined  forces with a variety artists, including composer Gilles Goyette, spoken word poet Jill Battson and the filmmaker Nico Stagias, to name a few. Hoskins founded The Dietrich Group in 2008 as a platform focused on exploring a non-conformist aesthetic and a forum for interactive exchange. Hoskins has created commissions for theatre, opera, symphony and multiple professional dance training programs, as well as independently producing a series of his own projects. Hoskins has drawn inspiration from new media, conceptual art, as well as film and video, and he incorporates visual projections, text and voice into his dance performances.

Danielle Baskerville performs and teaches across Canada and on occasion in France, Austria and Belgium. Founding member and artistic associate of The Dietrich Group, Danielle has worked with many of Canada’s finest creators as both an independent and company member. Danielle has played a pivotal role in the performance of new work and revisal of past repertoire for Dancetheatre David Earle from its inception, recently returning from the premiere of Earle’s Ode To Michelange in Burgundy, France. Particularly formative creative periods include working with Roxanne Huimand, Thierry Bae and David Hernandez in Brussels and Jan Burkhardt and Renate Graziadel in Berlin. Along side The Dietrich Group Danielle continues to explore with artists Toronto Heidi Strauss, Michael Sean Marye and Jonathan Osborne.

Tyler Gledhill trained at The National Ballet School, Het National Balletacademie in Amsterdam, and The Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Seattle. Gledhill’s professional career began in The Netherlands with Intordans, touring throughout Europe and Asia. He danced with The Göteborg Ballet and Cullberg Ballet in Sweden. As an independent artist, Gledhill has worked with Hit & Run Productions, Opera Atelier, The Chimera Project, ProArte Danza and The Dietrich Group. For his role Paris1994/Gallery in 2010, he was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for outstanding performance in a dance production. Gledhill has also starred in two short films by director Rocco Barriuso, The Providential Lack of Anything and Swimming.

 Paris1994/Gallery runs April 25-28, 2012 at the Enwave Theatre, 231 Queens Quay West, Toronto.
 Performance details:

Wednesday, April 25, 2012: 8pm
Thursday, April 26, 2012: 8pm
Friday, April 27, 2012: 8pm
Saturday, April 28, 2012: 8pm


Tickets: $35, $28 (seniors and artsworkers), $15 (CultureBreak – 13 to 25 years-old) available at Harbourfront Centre’s Box Office. Call 416-973-4000, or click here to order online.

Preview: Paper Laced with Gold

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.

Preview: Oil and Water

Opening this evening in Toronto is show that has us at EAP very intrigued. It is being described as "a story told with incredible skills and soaring gospel music…” - CBC Radio. Let's just say Liza and I have a thing for gospel music and we love a good Canadian piece so this piece, Oil and Water is on our radar. For more info see below and for tickets please click the header!

Show Description:

Oil and Water is a theatrical retelling of the incredible true story of Lanier Phillips. Shipwrecked in 1942, Mr. Phillips was the only African-American survivor. He was saved and openly embraced by the “people of St. Lawrence” and his life was forever altered. This legendary story still resonates with relevance and power. A ten-person cast sings an a cappella score that blends the Newfoundland folk tradition with African-American gospel.

Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland’s Oil and Water is another superb creative collaboration by Siminovitch Award-winning director Jillian Keiley and Governor General Award-winning playwright Robert Chafe. Their work has played across the country and abroad to critical and audience acclaim, and includes Fear of Flight, Afterimage and Under Wraps. Founded in 1995 and based in St. John’s Newfoundland, Artistic Fraud specializes in large-scale chorus-based work, where spectacle meets story.

Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland
OIL AND WATER
BY ROBERT CHAFE
April 18 – May 6, 2012
Mainspace Theatre
Directed by Jillian Keiley
Written by Robert Chafe
Music Written/Arranged by Andrew Craig
Additional arrangements by Kellie Walsh
Musical Direction by Kellie Walsh