Stage Door News
Stage Door News
[Mississauga ON, December 2015] 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 7:00PM Thursday through Saturday December 10-12 at the MiST Theatre in the CCT Building on the University of Toronto Mississauga campus – so you can even park right in the same building!
These productions are driven entirely by the student actors of the Sheridan-UTM Theatre and Drama Studies Program (though they do have company support and a little faculty advice), so expect the unexpected. Five thoughtful short plays average 30 minutes each, and they run the gamut from Tennessee Williams and upside-down Shakespeare to something dark and totally original.
In Overtones by Alice Gerstenberg, two society ladies sit down for a polite afternoon tea. But their primitive inner selves reveal – unseen – the full viciousness of what they're really thinking! This proto-feminist work from the turn of the last century is often hilarious and decades ahead of its time. Directed by Bryn Kennedy with a third- and fourth-year cast.
Shakespeare's Othello is a train-wreck – an unstoppable narrative force that runs out of control. This adaptation by Nathaniel Kinghan stages it in reverse – focusing exclusively on Othello, Desdemona, and Iago – to highlight the tragic power of hindsight and the recklessness of young love. Cameron Grant, Dominique Corsino, and Isaac Giles play the legendary characters.
Talk to Me Like the Rain … and Let Me Listen is a rarely seen short work by Tennessee Williams. He is a drunk and she is wasting away, but between them there is still intimacy – a claustrophobic intimacy of passion and desperation. And beyond them is only the rain. Directed by John Wamsley with Jake Settle and Emily Thorne.
Shaquille Pottinger is the author of the evening's only totally original world première, Broken China Tea Party. Starring Soykan Karayol and Caleb Harwood and directed by Jack Comerford, the play is the disturbingly dark and sometimes surreal tale of David and Theodora, two damaged people living on the fringes and bound together by a shared vice. When this bond weakens, does everything shatter? And, more importantly, do they?
To end the evening, Nathaniel Voll directs a poetic monologue collage by Oscar-nominated Puerto Rican playwright and screenwriter José Rivera. Sonnets for an Old Century grants eight of the recently departed a final opportunity to make a statement about their life. Some want forgiveness, others want closure; some celebrate their joys, others defend their sins. Actors from all four years are charged with creating this fascinating microcosm of humanity.
THE BECK FESTIVAL FOR 2015:
Overtones by Alice Gerstenberg
Othello adapted by Nathan Kinghan
Talk to me Like the Rain … and Let Me Listen by Tennessee Williams
Broken China Tea Party by Shaquille Pottinger
Sonnets for an Old Century by José Rivera
Thurs-Sat December 10-12 2015
Starting at 7:00PM
MiST THEATRE
(CCT Building, University of Toronto Mississauga)
Tickets at the door PWYC (suggested minimum $5.00)
www.theatreerindale.com or 905-569-4369
These adventures in drama run for just three nights. Tickets are available only at the door, and the price is Pay-What-You-Can, with a suggested minimum of $5.00. Parking in the CCT Garage right downstairs (accessed through Lot 9) is just $6.00, and Mississauga Transit Routes 44 and 110 will also get you to the UTM campus. For further information, call 905-569-4369 or visit www.theatreerindale.com
Photo: Scene from Jaime Juhan’s Sundry at the Beck Festival 2014.
2015-12-01
Mississauga: Theatre Erindale's "Beck Festival" runs December 10-12