Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Who are the invisible in Canada? The discussion around excessive police force often focusses on our neighbours to the south; around their racial divide. The deaths of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and Michael Brown elicit public outrage and cries for police reform, even here in Canada. But what about in our own backyard? The deaths of Sammy Yatim, Michael Eligon, and most recently, Andrew Loku do not hold the same public attention or sympathies in our city. With the passing of Bill C-24, effectively creating a two-tiered citizenship system, we have systematically widened the gap in our own racial divide. Do #BlackLivesMatter in Canada? Do #ImmigrantLivesMatter? Do #MentallyIllLivesMatter? In response to the latest schmaltzy social media stunt, #deadracoonTO (dedicated to the candlelit vigil for a deceased racoon found on the sidewalk at Church and Yonge), with Wrecking Ball #18, we decided to continue the conversation with our own provocative hashtag: #deadcoonTO
Wrecking Ball #18 is an intimate evening hosted at the Storefront Theatre with very limited seating.
Over the past year, under a new generation of leadership, the Wrecking Ball has shifted its focus, presenting new work by not only esteemed playwrights from across the country, but also by comedians, dancers, and performance artists of all kinds.
In Wrecking Ball #18, a selection of Toronto’s most relevant and daring performance artists will have one week to create and rehearse their piece.
Wrecking Ball #18 Presents…
#deadracoonTO: Police Brutality
Presented in association with The Storefront Theatre
ONE PERFORMANCE ONLY
MONDAY July 27th, 2015
The Storefront Theatre | 955 Bloor St W, Toronto
Box Office opens at 7:00pm | Show starts at 8:00pm
Pay what you can. No advanced sales.
(Proceeds from this event will go to the Actors' Fund of Canada)
#WB18
Political theatre direct from the zeitgeist to the stage.
Founded by director Ross Manson and playwright Jason Sherman in 2003, The Wrecking Ball has been the premiere event in Canada for showcasing political works for a decade. As the birthplace of new plays by Hannah Moscovitch, Michael Healey, Roland Schimmelpfennig, Erin Shields, Judith Thompson, Colleen Wagner, David Yee, Bea Pizano, Tara Beagan, Nicolas Billon, Donna-Michelle St Bernard, Jordan Tannahill, and Sky Gilbert to name a few - there is no other event like it challenging theatre artists to respond to and address the vox populi.
On the occasion of the previous two Federal elections The Wrecking Ball went National; with ‘Wrecking Balls’ hosted by theatre artists in most major cities across the country. In both 2008 and 2011 these pan-Canadian dramatic responses to our politics garnered widespread national media attention. The Wrecking Ball is no longer a Toronto phenomenon, but an autonomous theatrical movement joined by a desire to explore current political questions, issues, desires and dreams upon the stage.
2015-07-20
Toronto: Wrecking Ball #18 presents "#dead(ra)coonTO: Police Brutality" July 27 only