Announcements
Eye-catching Toronto live theatre for the week of April 26, 2010
by George Perry
Shows that Caught Our Eye This Week
Here are all of the shows we wish we could get out and see this week! Take your pick from our list of great theatre escapes for the week of April 26, 2010:
** Shows marked with the double asterisks are the ones that make Megan, our editor, wish she could clone herself so she could check them all out.
LKTYP Announces Toronto Theatre Season for 2010-2011
by Leanne Milech
The Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People just announced their 2010-2011 lineup, and we haven’t been this excited about theatre for young people in a long time. The upcoming season features nine diverse shows ranging in topic from The Invisible Girl, which deals with contemporary society’s pressure on young girls to be popular and fashionable, to As You Puppet, a puppeted adaptation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It.
The keys that tie each show together are the themes of the 2010-2011 season: friendship, belonging and peer pressure. I definitely could have used some guidance on those issues when I was a kid, so I think LKTYP nailed it with this year’s lineup. Click here for the full press release, including descriptions of each scheduled show and details on ticket prices (which are very affordable!). Enjoy!
Toronto’s Factory Theatre announces it’s 2010-2011 Season
By Leanne Milech
It’s here! Factory Theatre‘s 41st season was announced this week. Factory has always been focused on presenting the Canadian experience in all of its elaborate, diverse wonder through its productions, and the upcoming season of shows not only provides imaginative Canadian entertainment, but it does so by stepping outside the box.
Billie Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy, the season opener, is the perfect example. We are off-the-wall excited about this tale of a middle-aged cruise ship puppeteer who re-discovers his passion for his trade. Created and performed by the award-winning Ronnie Burkett, who is largely responsible for the contemporary adult love of marionette theatre, Factory is kicking off the season with a glowing, ambitious start.
Other shows you can look forward to:
Ali and Ali 7: Hey Brother (or Sister), Can You Spare Some Hope and Change? by Camyar Chai, Guillermo Verdecchia and Marcus Youssef;
Bethune Imagined by Ken Gass; Eternal Hydra by Anton Piatigorsky;
Brothel #9 by Anusree Roy;
Performance Spring 2011; and
Zadie’s Shoes by Adam Pettle.
The season runs September 24, 2010 to June 5, 2011, and subscriptions and tickets are available online at www.factorytheatre.ca or by phone at (416) 504-9971. Read the full press release below for more info on all of the upcoming shows.
Canadian Stage (CanStage) announces a new season – 2010-2011 – and a new vision
By Sam Mooney
Artistic & General Director Matthew Jocelyn announced the Canadian Stage 2010-2011 season yesterday to an audience of about 400 people in the Bluma Appel theatre. It’s fascinating that so many people would take the time on a Tuesday morning.
He unveiled the change from The Canadian Stage Company to Canadian Stage yesterday before he announced the new season. Canadian Stage is less cumbersome than the old name but I suspect people will still refer to it as CanStage.
The Canadian Stage 2010-2011 season is definitely not the same old same old. It doesn’t sound easy but it does sound interesting and exciting. “Jocelyn seeks to redefine Canadian Stage as a centre for national and international multi-disciplinary theatre that pushes boundaries, adopts a 21st-century perspective and reflects Toronto’s cultural diversity.” – from the Canadian Stage press release.
All the details are in the press release.
Toronto March Break 2010- Theatre Arts Activities for Grandparents and Kids
By Sam Mooney
As I started looking at what’s on in theatre for Toronto kids this March break, I found myself wishing that I was a kid – or that my grandson was older so I could do some of these things with him. You don’t actually have to be a grandparent to enjoy the various activities and performances.
We’re looking at activities that fall into two broad categories – day camps and workshops, and performances. Some are free, some are cheap and some aren’t.
Wanna learn how to make fun cartoon voices? Here’s a workshop to teach you just that…
Although not strictly theatre, I think this is a kinda cool thing. I also suspect it could be very useful in a theatre way if you were doing puppet shows and stuff. And, well, honestly, I’m always interested in stuff that gives you a peek behind how things work. If you are too, you might want to check this workshop out.
From press release
With over 15 years working in the professional voice industry, Melissa Altro is now offering a cartoon voice workshop for actors who are new to the voice biz and want to book roles in cartoons.
Melissa has played the voice of Muffy on the 4-time-Emmy award winning show Arthur (PBS) since it started in 1995. She is about to begin recording her 13th season!
The contests they are a comin’ – Free Toronto Theatre
So, stay tuned to Mooney on Theatre for tickets to free theatre in Toronto. We’re going to start a feature where we give away tickets to a different show each week. Contest will be posted on Monday, for a show on the Thursday of the same week.
If all goes according to plans, it will start tomorrow.
Spread the word!
And, if you have a show that you’d like to be included in the contest give-aways then just email contests@mooneyontheatre.com.
I’m helping to teach a publicity seminar at Second City in Toronto this weekend!
By Megan Mooney
Exciting news! I’m joining forces with Sweat Equity Productions to teach a one-day seminar at Second City in Toronto this weekend. It’s on how to effectively publicize yourself and your events.
I’m able to offer a discounted price for folks who book through Mooney on Theatre today (Thursday) and Friday, and would love to get lots of takers on the offer. So, I’m looking for your help, hoping you might be willing to spread the word to folks you think might be interested in the seminar.
The teaser blurb is:
The Second City presents a revolutionary new seminar from the award-winning publicists of the 2008 SCTV reunion and the Canadian Comedy Awards… Personal Publicity
The Shehori Brothers teach everything you’ll need to know about promoting your shows, events,– and most of all, your career – like a professional publicist. Full money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the value of this seminar.
Canadian Comedy Awards – Nominees announced, let the voting begin…
By Megan Mooney (and a Press Release after the break)
The Canadian Comedy Awards are in a different place every year. This year, their 10th anniversary the awards are in Saint John, NB. So, guess where I’m heading in October?
All the nominees have been announced (the ‘public’ nominees, the ones anyone can vote on, were announced a week later than the ‘industry’ nominees) and voting has begun.
General public can vote in the Radio, Internet and Canadian Comedy Person of the Year awards. You can register as a member of the public and vote on these categories until 5pm (not sure which time zone) on Friday July 31, 2009.
Voting for the other awards is limited to industry folks, and the registering to vote for industry folks has closed. So, if you didn’t know about this before, well, it’s not going to help you just now. Oh, and in these other categories, Young People Fucking would seem to be a big favourite, it got 8 nominations. Which is just fine with me, it was a great movie – I highly recommend seeing it.
Something else that’s worth noting is that One Woman Show – one of my favourite (and most surprising) Fringe shows ever, has been nominated.
Two other shows that were nominated have been positively reviewed on Mooney on Theatre – Barack To The Future and It’s Just a Phase.
The press release with the list of nominees is below:
2009 Dora Mavor Moore Award Recipients
In case you missed my *ahem* scintillating live twitter coverage of the Dora’s last night through @mooneyontheatre (complete with spelling mistakes and incomplete names – apparently it’s hard to type quickly on a blackberry) you can find the full list of recipients below.