Fringe for Free: Waiting for Dad, Saturday July 11, 1:45pm

contest-web-graphic This was a late addition to this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival, which means it’s not in the program, and therefore is in danger of being overlooked.

So, I’m thinkin’ we need to show this Cape Breton guy that Toronto can offer some ol’ support and hospitality.  So, check out his show playing at the Royal St George Auditorium, (120 Howland Avenue) on Saturday at 1:45pm.

Need more motivation?  Okay, well, how do free tickets grab you?

To be entered to win a pair of free tickets to Saturday’s 1:45pm showing of Waiting for Dad at the Royal St. George Auditorium all you need to do is leave a comment* sometime before 11:30am Saturday.

More information on the show:

Cape Breton One Man Improv Show Puts The Ball In The Fringe Audience’s Hands

Aaron Corbett, a veteran of many Nova Scotian stages, brings his hit one man improvisational play, Waiting For Dad, to The Fringe of Toronto Theatre Festival as a last minute entry for seven performances.

“I was excited to receive the call to bring my show to the Toronto Fringe, “ Corbett says from his home in Sydney, Nova Scotia, “Because Waiting For Dad, with no set and no fixed script, drawing all of its material directly from its audience, is a very portable show and a great choice to fill an empty slot at the Fringe.”

Corbett is an old hand at improv theatre: he was a founding member of the popular Cape Breton improv group, Almost Improv, whose members included Toronto actor Steven Arbuckle and comedian Nick Beaton.

He also has performed in dozens of theatre productions in Sydney and Halifax and has worked with the Halifax Feast Theatre, and 50 and The Bells Touring Company. The original production of Waiting For Dad was produced by The Cape Breton Stage Company.

As a solo artist and with the group Airport, he has also been a popular draw on the Cape Breton indie music scene, with three self-produced CD albums released.

“I drew on my improv experience in creating Waiting For Dad when I had put together a show on the spot when another production suddenly was unable to go on,” Corbett recalls, “That first workshop version eventually evolved into the present show I’m bringing to Toronto.”

The premise of the show is simple: Timmy, a young boy, arrives at his father’s house in the suburbs but finds the door locked and no reply to his frantic knocking. A stray dog becomes his audience for hilariously painful tales of his parents’ bitter marriage and divorce. Corbett’s innovation is that occasionally he tosses a ball into the audience and who ever catches it gets to offer a line Corbett must use to build the next scene of the play on.

“It literally is never the same show twice,” Corbett says, “One night I might be suffering the pangs of first love and the next night I might be getting a haircut from aliens. I think Toronto audiences will find themselves coming back again to enjoy the total randomness of the experience.”

Waiting For Dad has seven performances at the Toronto Fringe Festival, all at the Royal St George Auditorium, 120 Howland Avenue: Friday, July 3, 1:15 pm; Saturday, July 4, 9:15 pm; Monday, July 6, 10:45 pm; Tuesday, July 7, 4:45 pm; Thursday, July 9, 9:30 pm; Friday, July 10, 5:15 pm,; and Saturday, July 11, 1:45 pm.

“I’m looking forward to this run at the Fringe being just as much fun as it will be terrifying,” Corbett says, “And I’m looking forward to what bizarre ideas are in the heads of Toronto audiences.”

*be sure to include your email address in the email address field so I can reach you – it won’t show up to people coming to the site.  If you won’t be near your email, please send me an email at info@mooneyontheatre.com to let me know an alternative way to reach you – please include “Waiting Contest” in the subject line.