Stage Door News
Stage Door News
(Toronto)—Nightwood Theatre launches its 2014/15 season with the return of our popular festival of new works, the New Groundswell Festival, in The Historic Distillery District from September 8 to 14, 2014. Featuring workshop productions of Obeah Opera by Nicole Brooks and With Individual Desire by Susanna Fournier from an original idea by Kelli Fox and Sarah Kitz, the festival also features a National Play Reading Series, and late-night Saloon Salons on topical themes. The talents of more than 50 women artists will be showcased over the seven days of the festival.
Obeah Opera, directed by Weyni Mengesha with music direction by Andrew Craig, was commissioned by PANAMANIA presented by CIBC, the arts culture program of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am and Parapan AmGames, and is presented by Nightwood Theatre and Culchahworks Arts Collective. In this unprecedented a cappella theatrical epic, an all-female cast animates the story of the legendary Salem Witch Trials from the unique perspective of enslaved African women. Following the play’s successful outing in 2012 (produced by bcurrent and Theatre Archipelago), Brooks went back to the drawing board, developing a deeper narrative as well as new music. The New Groundswell Festival marks the first opportunity for audiences to get apeek at the show’s brand new libretto, music, and staging.
Directed by Kelli Fox, and presented by LadyParts Theatre, With Individual Desire is a lush theatrical imagining of the relationship between famed bad-girl American poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and her mother Cora. Fournier’s play centres around the two months they spent together in a secluded farmhouse near Dorset after Millay fled Paris with asecret. The two workshop productions are presented in the Dancemakers and Nightwood studios, respectively.
The National Play Reading Series in the Michael J. Baker Studio features plays from coast to coast on topics ranging from technology and violence, to the politics behind ‘Mammy’ culture, to the powerful experiences of the children of the Japanese internment. The seriesincludes Well Born by Celeste Percy-Beauregard (Toronto), The Tashme Project by Julie Tamiko Manning (Montreal) and Matt Miwa (Ottawa), LeavingWonderland by Shelley Thompson (Dartmouth), Calpurnia by Audrey Dwyer (Toronto), The Mothers by Nicole Moeller (Edmonton), and Centurions by Sally Stubbs (Vancouver).
A late-night post-show bar, also in the Michael J. Baker Studio, will be on hand to continue the festivities. The Saloon Salons feature a series of impromptu discussions led by a different special guest every night. Salons include Actors in the Driver’s Seat, The Rise of the Indie Producers, and A Debate: Disparity for Female Practitioners in Canadian Theatre is a Myth.
Says Artistic Director Kelly Thornton, “Nightwood is extremely proud to unleash our 35th season’s celebrations with this bevy of hot new work by the uncompromising women of the New Groundswell Festival. Sometimesshocking, often hilarious, and always fearless, the Festival promises to be an action-packed week of great theatre!”
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
WORKSHOP PRODUCTIONS
Tickets to the workshop productions are $22.60 including HST, general admission, and are available at nightwoodtheatre.net
For more information about the festival please contact the Nightwood office at 416-944-1740.
Obeah Opera
a Nicole Brooks vision
Produced by Nightwood Theatre and Culchahworks Arts Collective
Directed by Weyni Mengesha
Music Direction by Andrew Craig
Choreography by Anthony “Prime” Guerra
Starring Amina Alfred, Cynthia Ashperger, Neema Bickersteth, Alana Bridgewater, Nicole Brooks, Saphire Demitro, Starr Domingue, Macomere Fifi, Michelle Fisk, Nickeshia Garrick, Alexis Gordon, Angelique Lazarus, Abena Malika, Lisa Michelle, Jane Miller, DJ Phoenix, Michelle Polak, Laurel Tubman, Sacha Williamson, and Meredith Zwicker.
Dancemakers Studio, The Historic Distillery District, 9 Trinity St, studio 313
Sept 11 8pm, Sept 12 8pm, Sept 13 2pm & 8pm, Sept 14 2pm
Obeah Opera synthesizes the breadth of Black music into an unprecedented a cappella theatrical epic. An all-female cast animates the story of the legendary Salem Witch Trials, from the unique perspective of enslaved African women.
With Individual Desire
by Susanna Fournier
From an original idea by Kelli Fox and Sarah Kitz
Produced by Lady Parts Theatre
Directed by Kelli Fox
Starring Sarah Kitz, Steven McCarthy and Jane Spidell
Nightwood Studio, The Historic Distillery District, 9 Trinity St, studio 315
Sept 10 8pm, Sept 11 8pm, Sept 13 2pm & 8pm, Sept 14 4pm
In the summer of 1922 famed “bad-girl” American poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, left Paris with a secret. She spent the next two months with her mother, Cora, in a secluded farmhouse near Dorset. Filled with fantasy and humour, With Individual Desire is a lush theatrical imagining of the complexities between a mother and daughter.
INDUSTRY SERIES
Michael J. Baker Studio, The Historic Distillery District, 9 Trinity St, studio 314
These events are PWYC at the door, no need to reserve in advance.
The National Play Reading Series
This curated series of play readings from across Canada will showcase six provocative new plays from some of the country’s most interesting writers.
September 8, 8pm: Well Born by Celeste Percy-Beauregard (Toronto, ON)
Receiving inconclusive prenatal test results, an expectant mother sets out to make peace with her past in
order to find the strength to embrace her future. What she uncovers about her birth mother however, does nothing to put her fears about her own pregnancy to rest. A play about abandoning perfection and accepting our “otherness.”
September 9, 8pm: The TashmeProject by Julie Tamiko Manning and Matt Miwa (Montreal, QC & Ottawa, ON)
The Tashme Project is a one-act verbatim theatre piece that traces the history and common experience of the Nisei (2nd Generation Japanese Canadians) through childhood, WW2 internment, repatriation and post-war resettlement east of the Rockies. The piece is made up of 20 interwoven interviews with Niseifrom Toronto, Hamilton, Kingston, Vancouver and Montreal, punctuated by commentary by the two performers who, as younger generation Japanese Canadians, offer perspectives on how the internment experience still resonates both with the Japanese-Canadian community at large, and with them personally.
September 10, 5pm: Leaving Wonderland by Shelley Thompson (Dartmouth, NS)
Two years ago, Jane, a respected poet, novelist, and university professor, lost her only son in a binge-drinking incident during his frosh week at a distant university. Joey’s death has taken its toll on Jane’s drive, talent and marriage, leaving her fragile and brittle. When an unlikely relationship develops with Rob, a gifted student, Jane’s decisions propel her from the prolonged numbness of despair to a new, unimagined life. However, what rises in the wake of Jane’s decisions will change the lives of her colleagues, her husband, and the young man who’s been the catalyst.
September 11, 5pm: Calpurnia by Audrey Dwyer (Toronto, ON)
Calpurnia features Julie Fairbanks, a young Black Canadian writer who is in the middle stages of adapting Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird into a screenplay from the perspective of Calpurnia, the Finch family servant. Her brother informs her that she has no right to write about an African American maid because she isn’t Black enough. Julie decides to “do the work”. As Julie embodies Calpurnia, she discovers the explosive politics behind Mammy Culture. She tackles race, classism, and privilege while threatening the fabric thatkeeps her family intact.
September 12, 5pm: The Mothers by Nicole Moeller (Edmonton, AB)
A woman whose teenager has committed an unthinkable crime spends yet another sleepless night secluded in her son’s now vacant bedroom, confronting her demons and wondering what happened to the special boy she had loved so much. As she confesses her sins and reveals her secrets, the audience learns of her frayed marriage, her struggles with motherhood, her inability to extricate herselffrom the web of guilt and shame and move forward, as the rest of her familyhas.
September 13, 5pm: Centurions by Sally Stubbs (Vancouver, BC)
Mark is held in a police station and interrogated about a violent crime. Heholds his story close. Meanwhile, his secrets are unearthed and illuminated for the audience via Mark’s mind and his movies, and it becomes clear that the crime he’s accused of committing is inexorably intertwined with another violent act and his obsession with making films. Mark lives most comfortably behind the camera, watching, always watching, and recording.
Late Night Saloon Salons
A late-night post-show bar will be on hand to continue the festivities. The Saloon Salons feature a series of impromptu discussions led by a different special guest every night:
September 11, 10pm – Actors in the Driver’s Seat
September 12, 10pm – The Golden Ticket: Rise of the Indie Producers
September 13, noon – A Debate: Be it Resolved that Disparity for Female Practitioners in Canadian Theatre is a Myth (ADs vs Playwrights)
ABOUT NIGHTWOOD THEATRE
Led by Artistic Director Kelly Thornton and Managing Director Beth Brown, Nightwood Theatre forges creative alliances among women artists from diverse backgrounds in order todevelop and produce innovative Canadian theatre. We produce original Canadian plays and works from the contemporary international repertoire, advocate for women, provide a training ground for emerging talent and engage artists in play development and theatre production. We strive to make theatre that is relevant, awakens a new perspective, and promotes empathy and a deeper connection to our humanity.
NIGHTWOOD THEATRE SUPPORTERS
Nightwood Theatre acknowledges the support of: Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council and NOW Magazine.
For more information about Nightwood Theatre productions and artist development activities, visit nightwoodtheatre.net
Please visit facebook.com/nightwoodtheatre and follow @nightwoodtheat on Twitter for behind-the-scenes news, special offers, and advance notice of events.
Photo: Nicole Brooks.
2014-07-29
Toronto: Tickets are now on sale to Nightwood Theatre's New Groundswell Festival September 8-14