Stage Door News
Stage Door News
TORONTO (May 4, 2016) - We invite you to join us for Tarragon's annual Play Reading Week, an exciting celebration of plays-in-development by the talented playwrights associated with the theatre. See the latest works from Tarragon Playwright-in-Residence Erin Shields (co-written with comedian Rob Baker), RBC Emerging Playwright's Competition winner Cliff Cardinal, celebrated actor and playwright Rick Roberts, and the Tarragon Playwrights Unit: Donald Woo, Jenna Harris, Philip McKee, David S. Craig, and Step Taylor.
This year these plays will be directed by Andrea Donaldson (Associate Artistic Director at Tarragon) and Tamara Bernier-Evans (Assistant Artistic Director at Tarragon).
Among others, they will feature* actors John Cleland, Steve Cochrane, Maria Dinn, Beau Dixon, Sarah Dodd, Jakob Ehman, Greg Gale, Natalia Gracious, David Jansen, Diana Luong, Daniel Maslany, Ali Momen, Thomas Olajide, Emily Piggford, Anand Rajaram, Sabryn Rock, Lisa Rydre-Cohen, Cliff Saunders, and Jenny Young.
Tarragon is home to one of the longest-standing and most acclaimed play development programs in Canada. Many of the plays featured in Play Reading Week evolve into full productions as part of Tarragon's seasons, and on to receive national exposure.
Play Reading Week runs from May 24 - June 4, 2016 in Tarragon's Workspace. Admission is free, and no reservations are taken. Readings begin at 8pm and doors open at 7:30pm. Arrive early to claim your seat!
*Featured actors subject to change.
Schedule of readings:
Tuesday, May 24: Boomers by Erin Shields & Rob Baker
Wednesday, May 25: Le beau deluge (the wonderous reckoning) by Donald Woo
Thursday, May 26: Orestes by Rick Roberts
Tuesday, May 31: Maria Gets a New Life by Cliff Cardinal
Wednesday, June 1: Pose by Jenna Harris
Thursday, June 2: The Pryce Academy by Philip McKee
Friday, June 3: Lysistrata and the Temple of Gaia by David S. Graig
Saturday, June 4: Tibb's Eve by Step Taylor
This schedule is subject to change, and any changes will be updated on Tarragon's website calendar.
Play descriptions:
Tuesday, May 24, 8pm
Boomers by Erin Shields & Rob Baker
We are obsessed with you, Boomers. With your confidence, ambition and ingenuity; with your determination to stay young and your unparalleled nostalgia for your youth; with your unrelenting hope for a better world and your unwavering faith in capitalism. All stories seem to be extensions of your stories, all fictions spring from your fictions, and all accounts are yours. It's all a little much. So we're taking a moment to ponder - if it's okay with you - what our stories may be.
Wednesday, May 25, 8pm
Le beau déluge (the wondrous reckoning) by Donald Woo
When the heir to a respected and long-standing Quebec-based aerospace company attempts to overthrow his domineering mother in order to save the troubled business, he exposes his family and himself to public humiliation and complete ruin, and so he must seek to preserve their honour and legacy at any cost.
Thursday, May 26, 8pm
Orestes by Rick Roberts
Euripide's tragic tale of madness, murder and revenge is wildly re-imagined for the
Internet Age.
Tuesday, May 31, 8pm
Maria Gets a New Life by Cliff Cardinal (RBC Emerging Playwright's Competition winner, 2015/16 season)
Maria Grace, single mom, has perpetrated a terrible crime and is a wanted fugitive. After 3 months of living as a prostitute and evading police, she ducks into an empty house. As the authorities close in, Maria has one hour to give her children a weirdo's guide to living in a fucked up world. If she succeeds, this will be the day "Maria Gets a New Life"
Wednesday, June 1, 8 pm
Pose by Jenna Harris
Joanie's just started high school and is not doing so well.
Joanie's mother Sharon is completely at a loss.
Joanie's new tutor Rachelseems to be okay.
And then there's Carly. Carly has also just started high school and is having the best time ever!
Pose is a play about the power of being liked.
Thursday, June 2, 8pm
The Pryce Academy by Philip McKee
The Pryce Academy is an experimental musical set in an elite private school for privileged boys. A new curriculum, meant to teach the boys about what it means to try to live in the 21st century, spurs the students to decide that the most exciting and ethical way to try to make money is to make a hit musical. This seems like a particularly good idea as there is an exceptionally talented African-Canadian student who has just arrived at the school on scholarship for music. The Pryce Academy embodies and satirizes the tropes of capitalism in the theatre in order to look at the catastrophic effects of structural inequality in local communities and world economies.
Friday, June 3, 8 pm
Lysistrata and the Temple of Gaia by David S. Craig
Lysistrata and the Temple of Gaia re-imagines the classic Greek comedy by Aristophanes as a sex strike, not to stop a war, but to save a planet. Set in a future world where humans have had to adapt to huge climate changes, Lysistrata and her friends desperately invoke the Goddess Gaia, Creator and Mother of Earth. But the Goddess is furious at the destruction of her planet and threatens the entire human race with a watery death at dawn unless the men can be persuaded to become Earth Defenders. The men refuse. Comedy ensues.
Saturday, June 4, 8pm
Tibb's Eve by Step Taylor
After seven years away, Trevor returns to his teensy hometown in rural Newfoundland on what happens to be Tibb's Eve: an old island tradition the night before Christmas Eve that is definitely full of booze, drugs, and distractions, but may also contain traces of otherworldly magic, mischief, and transformation. On this seductively chaotic night, in the middle of nowhere, Trevor will either face the consequences of his choices, or utterly abandon life as he knows it.
2016-05-04
Toronto: Tarragon Theatre announces its annual Play Reading Week May 24-June 4