Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Theatre Passe Muraille (TPM) today announced details about its 2016.17 season. TPM, true to name, continues to push beyond walls to explore an expanding interpretation of what theatre can be. Their priority of putting the less-often heard voices and experiences of our community into the spotlight endures. This year the company has gone all out with artistic collaboration and development at the forefront. They are looking to the theatre’s future with premieres, artistic hybrids and exciting collaborations, while continuing their pre-50th Anniversary celebration with another play from the vault.
The TPM season includes a wide range of theatrical talent. There is the past TPM award-winning hit Alien Creature by Linda Griffiths, directed by Jani Lauzon and starring powerhouse performer Beatriz Pizano; concert/storytelling hybrid John & Waleed, in association with Cahoots Theatre, featuring award-winning performers John Millard and Waleed Abdulhamid, directed by Marjorie Chan; part stand-up comedy, part musical comedy Stupidhead! written and performed by Katherine Cullen and Britta Johnson with original music, directed by Aaron Willis; and TPM Resident emcee Donna-Michelle St. Bernard closes the season with spoken-word/hip-hop/theatre hybrid Sound of The Beast, created and performed by St. Bernard, co-directed and co-dramaturged by TPM Artistic Director Andy McKim and TPM Associate Artistic Producer Jivesh Parasram.
“Theatre Passe Muraille will be full of joyful music next season, with a wide variety of musical styles represented: from African traditional to North American roots, from spoken word to solo violin, from hip-hop to musical theatre, and more. But the driving force that will carry us along from one play to the next is the dominance of human nature; and how it’s capable of guiding us through walls.” Andy McKim, TPM Artistic Director
Kicking off the season, and the second year in TPM’s four-year 50th Anniversary Play Series, is a celebratory revisiting of the award-winning TPM hit Alien Creature: a visitation from Gwendolyn MacEwen, honouring playwright Linda Griffiths, starring powerhouse Dora Award-winning performer Beatriz Pizano, directed by Jani Lauzon. Poetry and magic are at the forefront in Linda Griffith’s Alien Creature as it engages with Gwendolyn MacEwen, the remarkable Canadian poet who was, to many, a mesmerizing presence. In Alien Creature, playwright Linda Griffiths chooses what she calls “a visitation”, to look past the historical figure in order to dramatize the essential spirit of McEwen rather than the corporeal person. Griffiths shows us that Gwendolyn MacEwen’s psyche was indomitable, even if her body was not. Alien Creature: a visitation from Gwendolyn MacEwen was nominated for the 2000 Governor General's Literary Award, and won the 2000 Chalmers Canadian Play Award.
Director Marjorie Chan returns for another TPM and Cahoots Theatre collaboration with the concert /storytelling hybrid John & Waleed, from the Sudan to Southern Ontario, a journey told through music, produced by Theatre Passe Muraille, in association with Cahoots Theatre. John & Waleed features new and traditional songs from Millard and Abdulhamid. Together they explore their musical, cultural and historical background in this remarkable journey from the Sudan to Southern Ontario.
The company is delighted to welcome back Katherine Cullen who performed in their hosted 2014 production of Vitals, a site-specific play produced by Outside the March, in association with TPM, and Aaron Willis who was a performer and co-director on TPM’s 2010 production of Yichud (Seclusion), joined by Britta Johnson in Stupidhead! A Musical Comedy. Part stand-up, part musical comedy, Stupidhead! is Cullen’s personal, chaotic, honest and funny exploration of growing up with dyslexia. It also features original music. Stupidhead!, winner of the Best New Performance Text Award at the 2015 SummerWorks Performance Festival, will be developed and expanded further with TPM through this year’s BUZZ workshop series and, prior to its full run later in the season, the show will be presented in a public workshop during this final leg of development.
As the fourth and final production of the 2016.17 Season, Theatre Passe Muraille is pleased to premiere Sound of The Beast, the latest creation of TPM Resident emcee Donna-Michelle St. Bernard’s (AKA “Belladonna the Blest”.) Sound of the Beast is a long-form narrative spoken word/hip-hop hybrid performance. In Sound of the Beast, we follow rising emcee “iali” as her rhymes are first applauded and used by those in power, and then the shift when she turns her critical lens on the police. To quote KRS-One “Whoop! Whoop! Is da sound of da police. Whoop! Whoop! Is da sound of da beast!” Sound of the Beast explores censorship, brutality, and the artist’s ego vs social responsibility. Sound of the Beast is a part of the ambitious 54ology: St. Bernard’s commitment to create one performance work for each country in Africa, and in this case it is inspired by Tunisian hip hop emcee Weld-El 15, who was jailed for his song, Boulicia Kleb (The Police Are Dogs.)
The Within Our Walls: Guest Company Series, returns for a third year as Theatre Passe Muraille welcomes Litmus Theatre, one of their Resident Companies, to kick the series off with the premiere of their theatrical adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. After a successful development through TPM’s 2015 BUZZ Series, Brave New World will be presented in TPM’s Mainspace. Fresh from the minds of this Dora Award-winning indie company, their show will transform the TPM Mainspace into a future as imagined by one of the twentieth century’s leading visionaries.
As the second guest company in the Within Our Walls Series, PLAYINGwithCRAYONS is a young indie company producing with the support of Theatre Passe Muraille. Their production, Secrets of a Black Boy, created and written by Darren Anthony, has been performed for audiences in both Canada and the U.S., and presents an uncensored look into the human experiences of five young black men from Toronto. Delivered with authenticity and grit, no subject is taboo as the Secrets of a Black Boy are candidly revealed and unpacked.
Theatre Passe Muraille is pleased to be supporting these companies, these artists and their work.
Theatre Passe Muraille will also be featuring a series of workshops this season through their BUZZ Series. BUZZ is their play development initiative that allows for audience dramaturgy – the creation of new work with ongoing direct audience feedback. These presentations are at all different stages of development. This season BUZZ begins mid-November 2016 with a workshop presentation of Sound of the Beast by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard as it builds to its Spring production. Next, director Brendan Healey will workshop TPM resident artist Bilal Baig’s new piece Acha Bacha in early December, followed by Katherine Cullen and Britta Johnson’s Stupidhead! in mid December before its debut professional run with Theatre Passe Muraille in the winter.
Nationally, Theatre Passe Muraille will launch the Canadian tour of last season’s Dora Award-nominated world premiere of ELLE adapted for the stage by Severn Thompson from the Governor General’s Award-winning novel by Douglas Glover, with its first dates set in the new year for Waterford, Ontario, the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver and Winnipeg’s Prairie Theatre Exchange.
The upcoming 2016.17 season features four original plays and a third year for their “Within Our Walls: Guest Company Series” carefully chosen by McKim to reaffirm TPM’s mandate to produce great Canadian theatre that is socially relevant and features budding as well as renowned artists, marginal voices and inventive, multi-disciplinary work.
“The new plays in our 2016-2017 season dramatize the invincibility of the human spirit; whether it is in the face of oppression or when encountering other obstacles. I love that they are also full of passionate views, humorous writing and live music. My idea of a good time in the theatre.” Andy McKim, TPM Artistic Director
Theatre Passe Muraille gratefully acknowledges and celebrates the ongoing support of their annual Season Sponsor BMO Financial Group.
Full 2016.2017 season playbill and show details continued below
Facebook: TheatrePasseMuraille
Twitter: beyondwallsTPM
Hashtags: #tpm1617 #AlienCreatureTO #tpm50th #JohnAndWaleedTO #StupidheadTO #SoundOfTheBeastTO
Theatre Passe Muraille 2016.17 Season
Alien Creature: a visitation from Gwendolyn MacEwen
January 12 – February 5, 2017
TPM Backspace
Written by Linda Griffiths
Directed by Jani Lauzon
Starring Beatriz Pizano
Music & Sound Design by Deanna Choi
Lighting & Set Design by Trevor Schwellnus
Projection Design by Melissa Joakim
Magician Consultant: Ray Chance
A Theatre Passe Muraille Production
“I have a sense of humour. The dark doesn’t.”
Gwendolyn MacEwen was, to many, a mesmerizing presence. Publishing twenty books, she was one of the most celebrated Canadian poets of her day. Then in 1987, at the age of forty-six, she was dead – many suspected suicide.
In Linda Griffiths’ play, the spirit of MacEwen returns to a modern world one night, bringing a prophetic warning: There has been a death of poetry, of imagination. The city will pay. The world will pay. Then she laughs, opens her hands, pulling brilliant scarves from the air. On this night, MacEwen is torn apart and made invincible by her magic. Revealed as addict, lover, poet, and magician, Gwendolyn MacEwen rises to inspire and incite us.
NNNN “An enchanting, haunting theatrical biography.” – Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine
★★★★“… an engrossing and convincing evocation of a creative spirit.” – Kate Taylor, The Globe and Mail
★★★★ – The Toronto Star
Alien Creature: a visitation from Gwendolyn MacEwen was nominated for the 2000 Governor General's Literary Award, and won the 2000 Chalmers Canadian Play Award.
John & Waleed, from the Sudan to Southern Ontario, a journey told through music
February 16 – March 5, 2017
TPM Mainspace
Created and Performed by John Millard and Waleed Abdulhamid
Directed by Marjorie Chan
Dramaturgy by Marjorie Chan and Andy McKim
Set & Costume Design by Joanna Yu
Projection & Lighting Design by Kaitlin Hickey
Produced by Theatre Passe Muraille in association with Cahoots Theatre
“Come and live with us on sparkling shore”
تعال وعش بيننا علي الساحل ذو المياه المتلألئه.
John & Waleed is the true story of two men, one from Kitchener in Southern Ontario and one from Khartoum in the Sudan. Created and performed by world-class musicians, John Millard (Dora Nominated) and Waleed Abdulhamid (New Pioneer Award), the show explores how their musical traditions from the opposite ends of the earth reveal more likeness between their two worlds than differences. Involving projection design, and original, spiritual and folk music, this documentary-style concert/storytelling hybrid is a multidisciplinary journey down a path of exploration, cultural philosophy, and ultimately kinship.
Stupidhead! A Musical Comedy
March 16 – April 2, 2017
TPM Mainspace
Written & Performed by Katherine Cullen and Britta Johnson
Original Music by Britta Johnson
Original Lyrics by Britta Johnson and Katherine Cullen
Directed & Dramaturged by Aaron Willis
Additional Dramaturgy by Andy McKim and Jivesh Parasram
Set & Costume Design by Anahita Dehbonehie
Lighting Design by Jennifer Lennon
Associate Producer: Colin Doyle
A Theatre Passe Muraille Production
“This is a show about the glamour of failure.”
Stupidhead! is about the glamour of failure and the celebration of futility. About being a kid with a lot of dyslexia and not being able to fit in. It's about how being a human is really embarrassing. All of the time.
Stupidhead! is personal, chaotic, honest and funny. Part stand-up comedy, part musical comedy, it comes complete with original songs by Katherine Cullen and Britta Johnson and most wonderfully, a piñata in the shape of a brain.
“A charismatic celebration of what it means to be human, including what it means to pick yourself up after an epic fail.” – Mooney on Theatre
★★★★ “Katherine Cullen is disarmingly goofy and self-deprecating in Stupidhead!, a semi-musical account of her struggles with dyslexia.” – Torontoist
Stupidhead!, winner of the Best New Performance Text Award at the 2015 SummerWorks Performance Festival, will be developed and expanded further with TPM through this year’s BUZZ workshop series and, prior to its full run later in the season, the show will be presented in a public workshop during this final leg of development.
Sound of the Beast
April 13 - May 7, 2017
TPM Backspace
Written & Performed by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
Direction and Dramaturgy by Andy McKim and Jivesh Parasram
A Theatre Passe Muraille Production
“Hear ye, hear ye let it be known,
No one on my block walks alone.”
An outspoken emcee finds that free speech comes with caveats.
In Sound of the Beast, ialli spits rhymes from the underground, relentlessly challenging poverty, oppression and bad dancing. When her attacks become more specific, inspired by rising tensions in the community, she learns that the powers-that-be have been listening, and that the police do not take kindly to criticism.
Sound of the Beast is a long-form narrative spoken word performance inspired by Tunisian hip-hop emcee Weld-El 15, who was jailed for his song, Boulicia Kleb (The Police Are Dogs). From this impetus, TPM Resident emcee Donna-Michelle St. Bernard digs down into “the need to speak” vs “the fear of hearing”. Through the lens of her own personal experiences with police and performance, Sound of the Beast explores censorship, brutality, the artist’s social responsibility, and abuse of authority.
Sound of the Beast is a part of the 54ology: Donna-Michelle’s commitment to create one performance work drawn from each country in Africa.
Within Our Walls: The Guest Company Series
Theatre Passe Muraille values collaboration in all its forms.
As well as producing our own plays, we also host other companies Within Our Walls. In this season’s Guest Company Series we have both chosen, and invited, two independent companies to produce at TPM, with institutional support coming from us. We believe in these artists and are hosting them in order to help increase their profile and support the advancement of their plays, while introducing their work to TPM audiences.
The first piece is TPM resident company Litmus Theatre’s world premiere production of Brave New World. The second is Secrets of a Black Boy, a production presented by PLAYINGwithCRAYONS. Both productions are presented with the support of Theatre Passe Muraille.
Brave New World
September 27 – October 16, 2016
TPM Mainspace
Produced by Litmus Theatre and KABIN
With the support of Theatre Passe Muraille
Directed & Adapted by Matthew Thomas Walker
Starring Nehassaiu deGannes, Jesse Dwyre, Sophia Fabiilli, Carlos González-Vio, Eli Ham, Ryan Hollyman, Adriano Sobretodo Jr., Zoë Sweet
Set & Lighting Design by Patrick Lavender
Costume Design by Lindsay Woods
Sound Design by Nick Storring
Dramaturgy by Claire Wynveen
Consulting Dramaturgy by Andy McKim
Stage Management by Sarah O’Brien
“Never put off till tomorrow the fun you can have today.”
In a world where truth is drowned in a sea of irrelevance, Lenina searches for meaning.
In an era of unrestricted impulses, Bernard experiments with restraining his desire.
In a society of infinite distractions, John focuses on what it means to be human.
Welcome to our brave new world. #thefutureisnow
Experience the World Premiere of a new Canadian adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s masterpiece. Fresh from the minds of Dora Award-winning indie company, Litmus Theatre, this show will transform the Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace into a future as imagined by Huxley, one of the twentieth century’s leading visionaries.
Secrets of a Black Boy
November 10 – 20, 2016
TPM Mainspace
Presented by PLAYINGwithCRAYONS
With the support of Theatre Passe Muraille
Created & written by Darren Anthony
Directed by Kimahli Powell
Dramaturgy by trey anthony & Kimahli Powell
Starring Samson Brown, Troy Crossfield, Shomari Downer, Ronnie Rowe Jr., Al St. Louis, DJ O-nonymous
Stage Manager – Kimberley Miller-Pryce
Production Designer – Glenn Davidson
Lighting Designer – Bonnie Beecher
Music Composer & Sound Designer – Gavin Bradley
Creative Direction by Wolf J. McFarlane
Executive Producer – Shaka Licorish
“We all have secrets… but some secrets are darker than others.”
An uncensored look into the human experiences of five black men, no subject is taboo in this gritty production that unpacks the revealing Secrets of a Black Boy.
Secrets of a Black Boy is a brutally honest dramedy that gives voice to five young black men from Toronto as they come together for one last domino game at their local community centre, which is on the verge of being shut down - a devastating result of the neighbourhood's revitalization project. With thousands of people already displaced from their homes, the buildings that continue to be dismantled in front of children’s eyes serve as a constant reminder that the only community many youth have ever known has literally been ripped apart, with questionable explanation and rationale. Through a series of compelling monologues and authentic narratives mixed with rhythmic musical interludes, Secrets of a Black Boy critically explores the underlying effects of common stereotypes faced by racialized men and delves into several controversial issues including police brutality and injustice, mental health, domestic abuse, infidelity, inter-racial dating, and sexuality.
BUZZ: New Play Development Series
The BUZZ Program is focused on putting the development process in front of an audience. This is designed to give the creative artists some audience feedback. BUZZ also provides the theatre with a way to give that audience the tools they need to participate, with confidence, in a discussion of new work. Before the presentation of each piece, Andy McKim invites the Artist to speak about the show. This is their chance to give the Audience some insight into the Artist’s creative process and to elaborate on the current stage of development for the work. This is followed by a specific question period, a mix-and-mingle with artist and audience and a BUZZ Debrief between Andy and the artists to follow-up on the audience feedback.
Theatre Passe Muraille’s BUZZ program recognizes that theatre is no longer created by one person writing a script – a “play” can no longer be separated from the notion of showing the work, since artists are not creating literary scripts, but developing performances. And developing performances that deal very directly and concretely with a relationship with an audience - a relationship that cannot be rehearsed, only tested. This program separates itself from others and can fill a missing link in the ecology of new work creation in Toronto.
- Jacob Zimmer, Artistic Director, Small Wooden Shoe
BUZZ is a revolutionary idea to bring in an engaged audience to watch a new show on its feet, rather than a reading, which gives them a much clearer taste of the work. Many audience members said to me over beer afterwards that they can't wait to see what comes next, which is not only inspiring for a creator to hear but signifies that they will be back to see the next step of the work, and will feel invested as they put their two cents in comment wise. A very smart, forward-thinking program.
- Anna Chatterton, playwright/performer
Sound of the Beast
Written & Performed by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
Direction and Dramaturgy by Andy McKim and Jivesh Parasram
A Theatre Passe Muraille Workshop as part of the 2016 BUZZ Series
Public BUZZ Presentation: mid-November, 2016 in the TPM Backspace
There will be a week-long workshop to focus on the play in greater detail and with an eye to how the music, the design and the staging affects the narrative. It then will be staged as part of Theatre Passe Muraille’s 2016.17 Season in that same venue from April 13 - May 7, 2017.
Acha Bacha
By TPM Resident Playwright Bilal Baig
Directed by Brendan Healey
Performed by Kawa Ada, Ali Kazmi, Qasim Khan, Owais Lightwala, Ellora Patnaik, Sugith Varughese
A Theatre Passe Muraille Workshop as part of the 2016 BUZZ Series
Public BUZZ Presentation: December 10, 2016
In Acha Bacha, two Muslim men endure abuse in their childhood. The play follows their lives over twenty years as they deal with trauma from their adolescence, and search for peace, healing, justice and/or revenge in their adulthood. It is a story about confrontation and resilience within the queer South Asian community. The story challenges certain notions around maleness, sex work and child prostitution, and how our fathers raise our sons.
In the workshop they will be exploring the form of this narrative. Since it switches between three time frames, they will need to have the actors up on their feet in order to experiment with different ways to maximize the power of this fluidity.
Stupidhead! A Musical Comedy
Written & Performed by Katherine Cullen and Britta Johnson
Original Music by Britta Johnson
Original Lyrics by Britta Johnson and Katherine Cullen
Directed & Dramaturged by Aaron Willis
Additional Dramaturgy by Andy McKim and Jivesh Parasram
Set & Costume Design by Anahita Dehbonehie
Lighting Design by Jennifer Lennon
Associate Producer: Colin Doyle
A Theatre Passe Muraille Workshop as part of the 2016 BUZZ Series
Public BUZZ Presentation: December 18, 2016 in the TPM Mainspace
There will be a week-long workshop to focus on the play in greater detail and with an eye to how the staging affects the narrative. It then will be staged as part of Theatre Passe Muraille’s 2016.17 Season in that same venue form March 16 - April 2, 2017.
2016-07-25
Toronto: Theatre Passe Muraille annoouces its 2016/17 season