Stage Door News
Stage Door News
TORONTO, ON (*Jan 24, 2012) – Over four consecutive weeks, four groups of Toronto performing artists will take up residency as part of Harbourfront Centre’s HATCH 2012 to explore, experiment and develop their artistic process. From April 14 – May 5, 2012 audience members are invited to witness the creation of some of the most original, exciting and fresh voices our city has to offer. The audience plays a vital role in the creative process, assisting artists in bringing these new visions to life. Following each HATCH presentation, there is a Q&A and opportunity to engage and interact with the artists.
This year’s HATCH guest curator is performance artist, Jess Dobkin, a past participant in HATCH’s 2010 residency with her one-woman-show, Everything I’ve Got. “HATCH provides a precious space where questions are as equally valued as answers, risk and inquiry are encouraged, and where resident artists are in conversation with each other and also with their audience,” says Dobkin. “Watch and celebrate Toronto artists at work – our courageous makers of beautiful things.”
HATCH has produced and nurtured numerous projects which have gone onto to presentations around the world, including Hannah Moscovitch’s The Russian Play, Aluna Theatre’s Nohayquiensepa and Small Wooden Shoe's Dedicated to the Revolutions.
This year’s HATCH includes: Mortified, a conceptual “concert” featuring tap dancing, cheerleading and drumming; THE SHEETS, THE… where modern intimacy is explored on, under, and around hotel bed sheets through revealing duets and unsparing solos; Paper Laced with Gold, a new musical about a daydreaming waitress stuck in a truck stop who has a fateful run-in with a juvenile delinquent with a familiar face; and Pantheon, the new work by Kids on TV, exploring inspiring, strange and obscure figures of resistance and sexual revolution.
Patrons can purchase a HATCH pass (includes tickets to all four productions) for $40, individual tickets for $15, or students/seniors/arts professionals $12. Visit harbourfrontcentre.com/hatch or call the box office at 416-973-4000 for more information.
HATCH 2012
Mortified by Jenn Goodwin and Camilla Singh
Saturday, April 14, 8 pm (Studio Theatre)
Jenn Goodwin and Camilla Singh are Mortified. Adopting the format of a band to encompass a range of activities, Mortified creates a sonic experience through movement and mayhem. This performance results in a “concert” that explores aggression and enthusiasm, kindness and range, pride and regret, through tap dancing, cheerleading and drumming.
THE SHEETS, THE… by The Empty Whole Group
Saturday, April 21, 8 pm (Studio Theatre)
From Governor General Award-nominated playwright and actor Salvatore Antonio comes a new performance creation exploring the expression – or lack thereof – of intimacy in all its banality, disconnectedness and solitude. THE SHEETS, THE… links together several strangers who share the same bed in the same hotel room at different times. While the sheets may be washed, and the surface stains removed, nothing that has made contact with the sheets can ever be fully bleached away.
Paper Laced with Gold by Paper-Laced Productions
Saturday, April 28, 8 pm (Studio Theatre)
From the artistic team behind 2005’s post-apocalyptic musical, The Rat King, Paper Laced with Gold is a new musical set in the truck stop of a small Ontario town along the St. Lawrence Seaway. For 10 years, Betty has been waiting tables, 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. The group chooses to work with artists from various disciplines. This year Stevie Jackson, Scottish musician and member of Belle and Sebastian joins them as collaborator.
Pantheon by Kids on TV
Saturday, May 5, 8 pm (Studio Theatre)
Kids on TV have been rocking the club world since 2003. Their musical collaborations, short films and video projections have taken them across Canada, the U.S. and Europe. 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.
ABOUT HATCH
Now in its ninth year, HATCH is a key initiative in Harbourfront Centre’s mission to develop local artists and their unique practices. HATCH mentorship provides resources and professional assistance to contemporary artists looking to explore a new element of their practice. By giving the space and time for this to happen, Harbourfront Centre hopes to develop and grow the best new work coming out of Toronto.
ABOUT HARBOURFRONT CENTRE
Harbourfront Centre is an innovative, non-profit cultural organization which provides internationally renowned programming in the arts, culture, education and recreation, all within a collection of distinctive venues on a 10-acre site it operates in the heart of Toronto’s downtown waterfront.
2012-01-24
Toronto: Experience the creative process at Harbourfront’s HATCH 2012 April 14-May 5