Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Toronto, Ontario - Seventh Stage and Nightwood Theatre is thrilled to present the North American premiere of Bryony Lavery’s STOCKHOLM at the Tarragon Theatre Extra Space from May 11th to June 3rd 2012. Passionate,poetic, raw and physical, Stockholm was a critical success in London England and Sydney Australia, and is now making its exciting North American debut for Canadian audiences this spring.
STOCKHOLM DETAILS
DATES: May 11 to June 3, 2012
MEDIA/VIP: Tuesday May 15, 2012
SHOWTIMES: Tuesday to Saturday at 8:00 pm, Wednesday at 1:30pm,
Saturday and Sunday at 2:30pm
LOCATION: Tarragon Theatre Extra Space, 30 Bridgman Street
TICKETS: Tickets are available by calling (416) 531.1827 or www.tarragontheatre.com
Prices range from $15.00 to $30.00
INFORMATION: www.seventhstageproductions.com/theatre or www.nightwoodtheatre.net
“Lavery’s needle-sharp script toys with the audience like a horror movie…this is a terrifyingly erotic and haunting 70 minutes.”- Guardian, UK
“Thrilling exploration of form, Stockholm is provocative and unsettling, leaving you with questions buzzing in your head.” - Sunday Telegraph, UK
Winner of the Wolff Whiting Award, Stockholm invites us in on an evening with Todd and Kali, the perfect self-styled couple. They’re beautiful, have a fabulous sex life and live in a designer home. But under the surface is distrust and desire so potent that even a much-anticipated holiday to Stockholm is threatened. Probing into the psychology of Stockholm Syndrome, Lavery transports us into a lovers’ dance that is at once destructive and euphoric. Stockholm leaves us questioning the fine lines betweenlove and lust, aggressor and victim.
British dramatist Bryony Lavery has written more than 20 plays and began playwriting with the goal of creating better parts for women. Her play Frozen was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play and won the TMA Best New Play Award.
Written in verse and intensely physical, Stockholm is an extraordinary fusion of dance and text, unraveling into a 70 minute thriller. Playing the role of Todd is Jonathon Young (multiple Jessie Awards, Electric Theatre Company co-founder, Nikola in SyFy show Sanctuary) and playing Kali is Melissa-Jane Shaw (9 Parts of Desire, Melancholy Play, Resident Choreographer Rose Theatre Brampton). At the helm is Seventh Stage Artistic Director Kelly Straughan (Director of Dora Award nominated 9 Parts of Desire and Red Queen Effect, shortlisted for the Gina Wilkinson Prize for directing) and choreographer Susie Burpee (Dancemakers, Le Groupe Dance Lab, Dora Awards for Outstanding Choreography and Performance). Shaping up the rest of the team is Kimberly Purtell (Lighting Design), Lindsay C. Walker (Set & Costume Design) and Verne Good (Sound Design and Original Music).
Kelly Straughan, Artistic Director of Seventh Stage and director of Stockholm says, "I am thrilled to be directing the North American premiere of Stockholm. It's an exciting piece of dance theatre that pushes the boundaries of form and style by weaving choreography and dialogue to stunning effect; the words are powerful and the movement matches that power."
Bryony Lavery, PLAYWRIGHT
Bryony Lavery’s plays include Her Aching Heart (Pink Paper play of the year 1992, Last Easter and A WeddingStory (2000). Her play Frozen,commissioned by Birmingham Rep, won the TMA Best Play Award, the Eileen Anderson Central Television Award and was produced on Broadway where it was nominated for 4 Tony awards. Her Frantic Assembly piece, Stockholm, won the Wolff-Whiting award for Best Play of 2008. Beautiful Burnout received a Fringe at Edinburgh.
Her recent work includes Beautiful Burnout for the National Theatre of Scotland/FranticAssembly; Kursk with Sound and Fury at The Young Vic UK and Sydney Opera House; A Christmas Carol at West Yorkshire Playhouse and an adaptation of The £1000000bank note for BBC Radio 4. Future plans: Because for ETT/Brink; Cesario for The National Theatre and an opera 57Hours in The House Of Culture, with John Keane, Peter Wyer and Phyllida Lloyd. Bryony is an honorary doctor of Arts at De Montfort University and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.
Kelly Straughan, Director
Kelly Straughan is the Artistic Director with Seventh Stage Theatre Productions. She previously held the position of Associate Artistic Director at Nightwood Theatre and was the Assistant Artistic Director at Tarragon Theatre from 2007-2010. Recent directing credits Witches and Bitches at Theatre Erindale, University of Toronto; 9 Parts of Desire for Seventh Stage (Dora Nomination- Best Ensemble); The Red Queen Effect at the Next Stage Theatre Festival (Dora Nomination- Costume Design); This is About the Push at the Toronto Fringe Festival (Now Magazine’s Best Director); OR, at SummerWorks Festival; The Little Prince for Resurgence Theatre and Soulless for 505 Productions. Kelly was recently shortlisted for the Gina Wilkinson Prize and she holds a Masters in Theatre Directing from the University of BritishColumbia.
Melissa Jane-Shaw, Kali
Melissa-Jane (MJ) Shaw is an actor, choreographer and dancer, as well as the Artistic Producer of Seventh Stage. Selected theatre: Choreographed 10 main-stage musicals at The Rose Theatre Brampton including She Loves Me, The Last Resort, Cabaret, Chorus Line, I Love You You’re Perfect. Improv Comedy Show in Bahamas (Dumigod Players), The Red Queen Effect, Or, & 9 Parts of Desire (Seventh Stage), Skin Flick (TNB), Thy Neighbours Wife (TNW), Melancholy Play (Summerworks), Kate in Taming of the Shrew (Rose Theatre Brampton), Raging Dreams (Theatre Gargantua), When The Reaper Calls & Beauty and The Beast (Sudbury Theatre), Gracie Allen in George & Gracie (Maritime & Ontario Tour). Selected Film/TV: Dead Before Dawn 3D (Alliance), Picture Day (Clique Picture/Dan Lyon), recurring improviser on Howie Mandel's This Is Howie Do It (Global/NBC), Sajuica on Erky Perky (YTV), Co-host on What's Cooking (W Network), GravieTrain (Alliance), Triumph Of Dingus McGraw (Indican Pictures), Lost and Found & Grocery Mishap (BRAVO!Fact). Upcoming: choreographing Forever Plaid (Rose Theatre) and playing Beth in Vern Theissen's new play Do Not Disturb at Theatre Collingwood.
Jonathon Young, Todd
Jonathan Young is a three-time Jessie Richardson Award-winning actor as well as a writer, designer and Artistic Director of Electric Company Theatre. Jonathon is a sought-after actor locally and across Canada, having performed with The National Arts Centre, Vancouver Playhouse, The Citadel, The Belfry Theatre, Touchstone, Neworldtheatre, Ruby Slippers, Bard on the Beach and in most Electric Company Productions. Jonathon’s play Palace Grand was commissioned by Vancouver’s PuSh International Performing Arts Festival for production in 2008. He has extensive film and television acting credits, including work on Da Vinci’s Inquest, Taken, Stargate Atlantis, and a recurring role on the acclaimed miniseriesTerminal City (Sundance Channel). Recent film work includes roles in; Nightwatching (written and directed by Peter Greenaway) The Assasination of Jesse James, The Englishman's Boy, The Fog, and
Electric Company's feature film: The Score. He lives and works with actor/director Kim Collier. He is a graduate of Studio 58. d works with actor/director Kim Collier. He is a graduate of Studio 58.
Susie Burpee, Choreographer
SusieBurpee creates ‘fully human characters, struggling for connection’ (The Toronto Star). Her work has received Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Choreography and Performance, and she is a recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Dance. Her performance works have been commended for their skillful use of contemporary movement to showcase human complexity. Susie performs in her own works and choreographs commissions for Canada’s foremost contemporary dance artists and companies. She was a company dancer for Dancemakers, Le Groupe Dance Lab, TRIP dance company, and Ruth Cansfield Dance. Susie teaches technique classes and workshops for professional dancers and students across the country, notably, 10 Gates Dancing La B.A.R.N. Summer XIntensive and Canadian Children’s Dance Theatre. She completed her professional training at the School of Contemporary Dancers (Winnipeg), augmented her studies at theLimon and Cunningham schools in New York, and trained in character and Bouffon at L’Ecole Philippe Gaulier (Paris). susieburpee.com
Kimberly Purtell, Lighting Designer
Kimberly has designed for the Canadian Stage Company, Stratford Festival, World Stage, Luminato Festival, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Theatre Calgary, Vancouver Playhouse, Citadel Theatre, Young People’s Theatre, Soulpepper, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Theatre Centre, Factory Theatre, Necessary Angel, Studio 180, Queen of Puddings, Tapestry New Opera, The Banff Centre, da da kamera, Dancemakers and many others. Selected credits include The Happy Woman, The List, That Face, Wild Dogs, Age of Arousal, Crave (all with Nightwood Theatre); Seussical (YPT); Caroline or Change (Acting Up Stage), Was Spring (Tarragon), Clybourne Park (Studio 180), Beckett: Feck It (Queen of Puddings), La Calisto (Royal Conservatory)The Children's Republic (Tarragon); The Normal Heart (Studio 180); The Barber of Seville (Opera Hamilton); The Maids (Buddies in Bad Times); His Greatness (IART); The Little Years (Stratford Shakespeare Festival). Upcoming: You're a Good Man Charlie Brown (Stratford), Speed The Plow (Soulpepper). Kimberly is a recipient of the Pauline McGibbon Award and has been nominated for 12 Dora Awards, winning twice.
Lindsay C. Walker, Set and Costume Designer
Lindsay C. Walker is a Toronto-based Set and Costume designer. Originally from British Columbia, she completed her BFA in Theatre at the University of Victoria and has been working in film and theatre since 1999. Her recent credits include The Red Queen Effect, Seventh Stage Productions; John A. Macdonald: Back From the Dead Concert Tour, Salon Theatre; The Crackwalker, Staged and Confused Productions, South Of China, George Brown; Les Quatres Mort De Maries, York University; Macbeth, Classical Theatre Projects; The Drawer Boy, Animal Magnetism, The Georgian Theatre Festival; Vote By Ballot, Mouthing Off, The Shaw Festival Directors Project. Lindsay spent two Seasons as Design Assistant at the Shaw Festival and was the Assistant Designer for both Into the Woods and South Pacific at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Lindsay was an inaugural member of the Canadian Stage BASH artist development program. She has also received two Tyrone Guthrie Awards from The Stratford Shakespeare Festival as well as a Dora nomination for Best Production for Macbeth in the Theatre for Young Audiences category.
Verne Good, Sound Design and Original Music
Verne Good is a Toronto-based sound designer and poet. Recent favorites include design and original music for The Normal Heart (Studio 180), The Atomic Weight of Happiness (StandUp Dance), The Red Queen Effect (Seventh Stage Theatre), as well as sound designs for Free As Injuns (Native Earth Performing Arts), Communion (Tarragon Theatre), The Epic of Gilgamesh (Groundwater Productions), Eurydice (The Theatre), Tyumen, Then (October Theatre), Jesus Chrysler (Praxis Theatre), 9 Parts of Desire and Or, (Seventh Stage Theatre), Alphonse (Theaturtle) and Buried (Theatre Awakening.) Upcoming: Sound designs for Studio 180 and Stratford, as well as a Canadian tour of The Atomic Weight of Happiness. Verne will also be returning to Stratford for her third season as the Festival Assistant Sound Designer. Verne is a graduate of Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and of the National Theatre School of Canada.
ABOUT SEVENTH STAGE
Founded in 2007, Seventh Stage Theatre is a professional not-for-profit theatre company producing socially conscious stories by women, about women and for everyone. It also places a particular importance on generating opportunities for female artists both on and off stage. Seventh Stage is delighted to be supported by its ‘big sister’ company Nightwood Theatre, after several years of indie theatre productions, including 9 Parts of Desire (Dora nomination for best Ensemble Performance), The Red Queen Effect (Next Stage & CanStage Festival of Ideas&Creation, Dora Nomination for Outstanding Costume Design), Or, (NOW Best Ensemble - Summerworks 2010), This IsAbout The Push (NOW Best Production, Ensemble & Direction - Fringe 2010), and Whale Music at The Tarragon Theatre directed by Rosemary Dunsmore.
ABOUT NIGHTWOOD THEATRE
Nightwood Theatre – Artistic Director Kelly Thornton, Producer Denyse Karn and Chair Karon Bales
As Canada’s nationalwomen’s theatre since 1979, Nightwood has launched the careers of countless leading theatre artists in the country. We have won Canada’s highest literary and performing arts awards and more than ever our success proves the need for theatre that gives voice to women and celebrates the diversity of Canadian society. We remain actively engaged in mentoring young women and promoting women’s place on the local, national and international stage.
www.seventhstageproductions.com/theatre / www.nightwoodtheatre.net
Photo: M.J. Shaw. ©2012 Tanja-Tiziana.
2012-04-03
Toronto: Seventh Stage Theatre Productions presents the North American premiere of “Stockholm”