Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Toronto) Artistic Director Ken Gass is proud to announce the launch of a major professional training and mentorship program for a new generation of emerging theatre artists - ENSEMBLE Canadian Youth Theatre/Théåtre Jeunesse Canadien.
The inaugural ENSEMBLE Canadian Youth Theatre/Théâtre Jeunesse Canadien season will include the Toronto English Language premiere of Wajdi Mouawad’s DREAMS (RÊVES) translated by Linda Gaboriau and an ensemble adaptation of George F. Walker’s classic play TOUGHI,. Both productions are directed by Ken Gass and will play in repertory at The Citadel on Parliament Street in Regent Park from August 9 – 20th. The ENSEMBLE project is produced by Canadian Rep Theatre with generous sponsorship support from BMO Financial Group. Additional production support is also provided through Canada Summer Jobs.
Subsequently, Gass will direct Wajdi Mouawad’s first Governor General Award-winning play, TIDELINE (LITTORAL) translated by Shelley Tepperman at Hart House Theatre at the University of Toronto. The opening show in the Hart House 2016/17 season, Tideline is produced by Hart House in association with Canadian Rep Theatre & ENSEMBLE Canadian Youth Theatre/Théâtre Jeunesse Canadien. Tideline opens on September 16 and runs until October 2nd.
ENSEMBLE Canadian Youth Theatre/Théåtre Jeunesse will focus on advanced training through producing works from the Canadian theatrical canon with emerging theatre artists who have recently graduated from professional training programs, and through workshops under the mentorship of established professional artists associated with Canadian Rep Theatre.
Artistic Director Ken Gass states, “In many ways, ENSEMBLE Canadian Youth Theatre reflects the larger ambitions of Canadian Rep itself, an opportunity to explore diverse approaches to the extraordinary body of contemporary Canadian dramatic works with a committed ensemble of talented performers. We hope this summer’s pilot project will not only continue but expand in the years to come.”
Gass’s adaptation of George F. Walker’s TOUGH!, is a dynamic, multi-racial, 12-performer ensemble driven exploration that leads both performers and audiences to a deeper experience of the play’s thematic possibilities. Characteristically full of Walker humour and edge, TOUGH! tackles gender roles and identity, teen pregnancy and alienation, taking a hard look at youth at the edge of adult responsibility, including the spectre of poverty for single young mothers on the lower edge of the social spectrum.
Wajdi Mouawad’s DREAMS (Réves), also with a cast of 12, explores the obsessive creative processes of the writer, faced with the complexities of loss and loneliness, and the pain that ensues from a disjointed, war-torn universe. In Dreams (Rêves), a young man enters a hotel room and spends the night wrestling with characters-in-the-making, who often appear to have a stark will of their own, pouring out contradictory associations in an often stream of consciousness flow. Haunted by his imagination, the writer begins to recognize someone who will complete his world: the Hotelkeeper who suddenly becomes part of the creative fabric with a heart-breaking story of her own. Written just prior to Mouawad’s celebrated Scorched (Incendies), Dreams (Rêves) is an astonishing work of the imagination.
DREAMS (RÊVES) and TOUGH! will perform in repertory at The Citadel at 304 Parliament St. (south of Dundas) from Aug. 9 – 20. All tickets $15 for each production, or two productions for $20. Preview performances are Pay-What-You-Can at the door, or $15 in advance. www.canadianrep.ca
2016-07-29
Toronto: ENSEMBLE Canadian Youth Theatre launches with productions of Walker and Mouawad August 9