Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Column 13 Actors Company, a feisty independent theatre ensemble, is to remount its successful production of the Canadian premiere of SONNETS FOR AN OLD CENTURY by José Rivera at the Palmerston Library Theatre. Column 13 first presented this acclaimed production at the 2011 Toronto International Fringe Festival. This expanded version of the project will run for just 8 performances from February 14th-25th, 2012.
This work by Obie-winning, Academy Award-nominated playwright and screenwriter José Rivera asks the question, “Where do we go when we die?”, and if you were offered the chance to comment on your life, “What would you say about the life you’ve lived?”. In a waiting room for the afterlife, a crowd of ordinary souls are en route to their final resting place and are given one last chance to share with the universe their parting thoughts.
Part poetry, part magical realism, this dreamscape play offers profound insights and revelations. SONNETS FOR AN OLD CENTURY is a dreamscape filled with poignant, funny, lyrical and haunting monologues from recently deceased individuals.
Playwright José Rivera’s plays have been translated into seven languages and seen at New York’s Public Theater, South Coast Rep, Circle Rep Theater, the Goodman Theater, the La Jolla Playhouse, the Berkeley Rep, and the Lee Strasberg Theater, among others. Honors include Obie Awards in Playwrighting for MARISOL and REFERENCES TO SALVADOR DALI MAKE ME HOT, as well as a Fullbright Arts Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Grant. He studied writing with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and was writer-in-residence at London’s Royal Court Theater. He co-created and produced the NBC series Eerie, Indiana and wrote the Academy Award nominated screenplay for The Motorcycle Diaries. Other plays include CLOUD TECTONICS, MASSACRE (SING TO YOUR CHILDREN), and SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS. He is a member of the LAByrinth Theater Company in New York City.
Column 13 is thrilled to remount an expanded version of this exciting production, which ran to critical acclaim and sold out performances at the 2011 Toronto International Fringe Festival in July. The play will run at the Palmerston Library Theatre from February 14-25th, with performances on February 14, 15, 17, 18, 21, 22, 24 and 25th at 8:00pm night. (Please note that there are no performances on Thursday nights).
This production features a large diverse cast, and is directed by Jonah Allison, with stage management by Marvin Araneta. Column 13 is a diverse, actor based company who wish to tell relevant stories using a raw and honest approach. The ensemble believes in THEATRE NOW; that our work should be immediate to the society in which we live. Through the creation of new, as well as existing works, Column 13 strives to use theatre as a means to challenge and incite the human spirit.
Column 13 Actors Company has been gaining a reputation as a gritty, tenacious, actor-based ensemble since its official inception in 2004, and has been consistently bringing audiences the Toronto premieres of both American and Canadian plays ever since. In a recent review of THE LONG RED ROAD, Eye Weekly Critic Christopher Hoile wrote: “Again, Toronto owes Column 13 a debt of gratitude for daring to stage plays of such complexity and emotional force and to do so with such focus and passion.”
DETAILS
WHAT: Remount of the Canadian Premiere of SONNETS FOR AN OLD CENTURY by José Rivera
WHO: Column 13 Actors Company
WHERE: Palmerston Library Theatre, 560 Palmerston Ave Toronto, ON M6G 2P7
WHEN: Opens February 14th, running February 14th-25th with shows Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays (no Thursday shows) at 8:00pm.
Schedule: Tues, February 14th 8:00 PM
Wed, Feb 15th 8:00 PM
Fri, Feb 17th 8:00 PM
Sat, Feb 18th 8:00 PM
Tues, Feb 21st 8:00 PM
Wed, Feb 22nd 8:00 PM
Fri, Feb 24th 8:00 PM
Sat, Feb 25th 8:00 PM
PRICE: $12 FOR TICKETS: 416.536.0048 or email info@column13.org.
FOR INFORMATION: Call 416.732.7786, visit our website at www.column13.org or email info@column13.org.
Praise for Column 13:
“Column 13 is not a theatre company that shies away from risks...Column 13 must be praised for bringing an eerily relevant but too often forgotten corner of American history and of American drama to light.” -Christopher Hoile, Eye Weekly
“Column 13 is an actor-driven ensemble under Jonah Allison and Angela Hanes that puts on provocative plays...By introducing new playwrights and bringing back classics, Column 13 plays a significant role in the Toronto theatre scene.” -Paula Citron
“The two productions reveal a company with a grasp of powerful ensemble acting equal with the best in the city...director Jonah Allison again proves his ability to galvanize his entire cast to deliver strong, vibrant performances.” -Christopher Hoile, Eye Weekly
Praise for SONNETS FOR AN OLD CENTURY:
“Now we have a SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY to call our own, a work whose scope and insights begin to suggest an OUR TOWN for our generation. The only question left involves what we do with the information. It is a fearsome enough thing. Its name is SONNETS FOR AN OLD CENTURY. Much as Edgar Masters did nearly ninety years before—with a much larger sample from a much smaller town—playwright Jose Rivera gives eighteen characters from present-day Los Angeles and environs one final chance in this collection of dramatic monologues to speak their peace about their lives, apparently from just the other side of the grave.” -Byron Woods, The Independent
“This is a deceptively simple work. Yet it builds in its intensity as each storyteller brings his or her own story to life. These are people that we would meet on the street; they are ordinary souls. But their stories are not. They focus power center-stage with their individual stories and what they learned from them. There is not a plot here; there are sixteen individual plots. And each story, small as it might be in and of itself, fills the space, and our ears and our minds, with feeling; joy, fear, rage, love, sorrow; and makes each one expand to fill this void. We as listeners are forced to face these ravaging emotions, even as we contemplate the death of the storyteller. This work is simple, and simply potent in its impact. And while it seems to do without the trappings of stagework, set, plot, scenes, etc, it is powerfully theatrical.” -Alan R Hall, Front Row Center
2012-01-20
Toronto: Column 13 to remount José Rivera ‘s “Sonnets for an Old Century” February 14-25