Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Daniel Defoe's 18th Century literary classic Moll Flanders gets a contemporary makeover in Moll, a new musical with music and lyrics by Leslie Arden and book by Leslie Arden and the late Cathy Elliott with Anna Theresa Cascio. Directed by Randolph College Artistic Director Tamara Bernier Evans, Moll makes it world premiere on November 28 and runs through December 2 at Toronto's Annex Theatre. Moll is produced and presented by the Randolph College for the Performing Arts (formerly the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts).
Says director Tamara Bernier Evans, "Moll is a play about the ones we forget--about the marginalized members of our society who have slipped through the cracks, who've been neglected, who've been abused and under-protected, and who, despite that, rise against the odds to try to get to a place, beyond mere survival, where they can even contemplate an idea of family and what it means to be truly happy."
Originally workshopped with a 40-minute presentation at the Canadian Musical Theatre Project, Moll marks the Randolph College for the Performing Arts' first foray into creating and presenting fully staged productions of new Canadian musical theatre works. Randolph College students, along with the creative team, have played a role in helping to shape the script and score with Leslie Arden and Cathy Elliott over the past year in preparation for its world premiere. This production features students in their final year of professional training in the Randolph College's post-secondary program. Moll is one of the last completed works of celebrated Mi'kmaq actor, playwright, and composer Cathy Elliott, who passed away in October 2017.
Very loosely based on Moll Flanders, this story of an orphan's struggle to rise above her station resonates as much today as it did in Defoe's time. Born in a contemporary city to a suicidal drug addict, raised in foster care, abused and desperate, Sarah adopts the name Moll when she becomes a sex worker at the age of 17. Her effort to leave the sex trade and further her education is thwarted by her employer Dahlia's machinations to maintain Sarah's high track hooker status. She finds salvation through caring for her young foster sister Katie, and with the help of her lovers James and Jenny, she tries to navigate her way out of the "Life" and into a future with a family, a home and a hope in hell. NOTE: Moll contains mature themes, including drug use/overdose, rape, sexual situations and profanity.
New Canadian Musical Moll
from Leslie Arden and Cathy Elliott
Nov 28 - Dec 2, 2017 at 8 p.m. and Dec 2, 2017 at 2 p.m.
Annex Theatre, 730 Bathurst Street, Toronto
Tickets: $22 at ticketmaster.ca/1.855.985.5000
ABOUT THE RANDOLPH COLLEGE
Randolph College for the Performing Arts (formerly Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts) was founded in 1992 by Canadian Screen Award winner George C. Randolph Jr., an arts pioneer with over 35 years of experience as a principal dancer (Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal), choreographer, director, producer, entrepreneur (co-founder, Show Choir Canada) and educator.
With a faculty of leading industry professionals, the non-profit school has provided world-class performing arts training to over a thousand aspiring artists through its professional College Program (registered as a private career college under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005) and recreational Kids Program.
More information: randolphcollege.ca
2017-11-16
Toronto: Randolph College presents the new Canadian musical "Moll" November 28-December 2