Stage Door News
Stage Door News
undercurrents is Ottawa’s festival of contemporary theatre, produced by the Ottawa Fringe Festival and taking place at Arts Court Theatre and Studio from February 8–18, 2017.
NEW PLAY TUESDAY LINE-UP ANNOUNCED
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 7:00 - 9:00pm at Arts Court Studio
New Play Tuesday offers an exclusive first look at Ottawa's latest work in its early stages. Admission is free.
Endlings, written by Vishesh Abeyratne
Griot!/ Obruni, written by Sarah Waisvisz
Shorelines, written by Mishka Lavigne
The Assassination of King Hamlet I, written by Curtis Gough
Visit www.undercurrentsfestival.ca for tickets, the full line-up and 2017 festival schedule.
ENDLINGS
Written by Vishesh Abeyratne
Readers: Vishesh Abeyratne, Laura Sosnow
Project Description: In the future, we live underground. The Earth’s surface is uninhabitable due to a massive catastrophe. Most survivors are infertile. Only a select group of “Potentials” can reproduce. One man and one woman have three days to mate. As they grow closer and dangerous secrets are revealed, they struggle to hold onto their humanity as the last of their kind…
Playwright’s Bio: Vishesh Abeyratne is a playwright, actor and director. His work has been performed for audiences in Canada, the United States, and Australia. Though he was born and raised in Montreal, Vishesh has recently made Ottawa his home. He writes with a keen focus on black comedy and satire, with occasional dips into the speculative genres of science-fiction, fantasy, and horror.
GRIOT!/ OBRUNI
Written by Sarah Waisvisz
Readers: To be announced
Project Description: A follow up to Monstrous with multiple characters, Griot!/Obruni is the newest work from interdisciplinary creator Sarah Waisvisz. The play is being supported by the GCTC through a Playwright Residency funded by the OAC.
Playwright’s Bio: Sarah Waisvisz is a playwright, director, and multi-disciplinary performer with training in dance and physical theatre (classical ballet, puppetry, acrobatics, stilts). Sarah was the first participant in the under development program, with her solo show Monstrous, or, the Miscegenation Advantage premiering at undercurrents in 2016. Sarah is currently in Guinea, West Africa for a 6-week research/professional development trip to study traditional dance and music for her new play.
SHORELINES
Written by Mishka Lavigne
Readers: Élise Gauthier, Victoria Luloff, Margo MacDonald, and Mitchel Rose.
Project Description: Shorelines takes place in a not too distant future, where sea levels have risen to critical. Entire shorelines are being redefined as levees and containments breach. Crumbling cities are abandoned by the rich, leaving only the disenfranchised behind. In one of these dying cities, friends Alix, Shay and Evan find refuge in an abandoned swimming pool. With nothing else to lose, they decide to make someone pay for what happened to the world, holding Portia, a government official, hostage.
Playwright’s Bio: Mishka Lavigne is a playwright and theatre translator. She wrote Cinéma, produced by the Théâtre la Catapulte and Théâtre Belvédère (April 2015) and Murs, geared for production in 2018. Mishka’s short monologue Vigile is part of Projet D with Ottawa’s Théâtre Rouge Écarlate (March 2017).
She also wrote Havre as playwright-in-residence at Théâtre la Catapulte and Albumen, her first English-language play. With Albumen, Mishka took part in the 2016 Banff Playwrights’ Colony and will soon take part in a development workshop with Orlando Shakespeare Theatre’s New Play Development Program under the direction of Cynthia White.
Mishka is currently working on two new projects: Copeaux, a movement-based poetic creation piece with director Éric Perron, and Shorelines, a new play for adolescent audiences with dramaturg and director Emily Pearlman.
THE ASSASSINATION OF KING HAMLET I
Written by Curtis Gough
Readers: Darcy Smith, Nicolas Alain, Katie MacNeill, Carly Billings, Sam Dietrich, and Nick Wade.
Project Description: The Assassination of King Hamlet I by Curtis Gough chronicles King Hamlet I's tyrannical rise to power and his duel against Fortinbras as his brother, Lord Claudius, struggles with a treacherous plot against him. What is fair in Love and War? The script, now in its tenth iteration after a 2 year dramaturgical process with Kathryn Prince and several UOttawa students, is written in Elizabethan English and Shakespearean Verse and would like to pay tribute to the Bard's famous style and greatest work.
Playwright’s Bio: Curtis Gough recently graduated from the University of Ottawa in Acting and Theatre. Though writing poetry, plays, and screenplays has been a long time passion, he also spends much of his time acting, practicing martial arts and film stunts, and performing music. Currently enrolled in an Honours Bachelor of Psychology, he also aspires to be a clinical psychologist.
Photo: Sarah Waisvisz in Monstrous. ©2016 Chris Snow.
2017-01-25
Ottawa: 2017 undercurrents New Play Tuesday Line-up announced