Stage Door News
Stage Door News
[Mississauga ON, December 2012] It’s almost time for Theatre Erindale’s annual celebration of one-act Independent Student Productions: the Beck Festival. We promise that not a single one of these adventurous plays is about a kid or a dog or Santa Claus, so you can take a break from the relentless holiday cheer to enjoy an entertaining and wildly varied evening of theatre that has nothing to do with the season! The Beck Festival runs at 7:30PM Thursday through Saturday December 13-15 at the MiST Theatre in the CCT Building on the University of Toronto Mississauga campus, so you can even park in the same building!
First on the bill is an original absurdist comedy about a trying day in the life of an unusual young woman. Not only is she struggling to interpret the cryptic results of her pregnancy test, but she’s also coping with her newly moved-in boyfriend, her nosy BFF, the strange man who has arrived to fix her oven, and the fact that her skin is turning to plastic! Starring Megan Janssen, Bailey Green, Josh Wiles and Fraser Woodside and produced and directed by Carolyn Nettleton, Pearl in a Pink Dress is written by Nicholas Potter and Jaime Hernandez Lujan.
Next comes the extraordinarily short, skillful and hilarious Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread, by American playwright David Ives. What happens when acclaimed composer Philip Glass meets a former lover in a bakery? This send-up in spoken dialogue of the distinctively minimalist Glassian musical style will not only delight, but also question what we think we know about theatre and performance. Brian Postalian directs, while Adrian Beattie, Karyn Mcgibbon, Victor Pokinko and Alex Spyropoulos are in the cast.
Cristian Tribuzio’s try at becoming a budding Tennessee Williams is titled The Best for Della. It’s the steamy, Mississippi summer of 1955. A young girl goes into labour while her unstable mother and working-class lover clash outside her room. Accusations are laid while a disturbing family history surfaces in the summer heat. The old and the new South collide in this original script about a woman’s mistakes and a young man’s fight to rectify hers and his own. Tribuzio himself stars with Ali Richardson, and the two are directed by Hailey Gillis and stage managed by the co-author of Pearl in a Pink Dress (!).
Topping off the evening will be Christopher Durang’s wacky and durable 1973 comedy, ‘Dentity Crisis. It is a playful satirical romp through the mental breakdown of a young woman in the face of her incestuous, gender-bent, larger than life family. The witty cast includes Hannah Jack as Edith Fromage, Jonathan Walls as Robert Fromage, Lindsey Middleton as the befuddled Jane, Andrew Di Rosa as Mr. Summers and Lizzie Stuart-Morris as Woman.
Tickets for the Beck Festival are available only at the door of the MiST Theatre, and the price is Pay-What-You-Can (suggested minimum $5.00). Theatre Erindale Members get in FREE! Indoor parking is available right downstairs in the CCT Garage.
THE BECK FESTIVAL FOR 2012:
Pearl in a Pink Dress by Nicholas Potter & Jaime Hernandez Lujan
Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread by David Ives
The Best for Della by Christian Tribuzio
‘Dentity Crisis by Christopher Durang
Thurs-Sat December 13-15 7:30PM
MiST THEATRE
(CCT Building, University of Toronto Mississauga)
Tickets at the door PWYC (suggested minimum $5.00)
www.theatreerindale.com or 905-569-4369
Photo: Theatre Erindale.
2012-12-02
Mississauga: Theatre Erindale’s Beck Festival 2012 runs December 13-15