[Sponsored Article] Dora award winning SPENT is being remounted in Toronto opening October 29, 2010

Sponsored Article

Last September Theatre Smith-Gilmour, Why Not Theatre, and TheatreRUN took the Toronto theatre scene by storm with their smash-hit production Spent. In fact, the production was such a success it garnered 3 Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations (including outstanding production and outstanding new play) and went on to win for best performance by an ensemble in a featured role.

Due to popular demand Spent is returning to the Factory Studio Theatre on Friday, October 29, 2010, on the 81st anniversary of Black Tuesday. Fittingly enough, the piece is an intelligent, hilarious and poetic commentary on greed and the financial crisis of 2008.

The plot revolves around two high-powered executives who wake up on September 26, 2008 to find they have lost everything! They are reduced to carrying signs on Bay Street offering their services to anyone who will hire them, only to end up taking more drastic measures on a high rise office tower ledge. What follows is an imaginative, fantastical journey from heaven to hell.

Spent is a potpourri of physical comedy, traditional clowning, mime, absurdist humour and biting satire. Written by a tour de force team made up of two hot young emerging artists (Ravi Jain and Adam Paolozza) and two seasoned veterans of Canadian Theatre (Michele Smith and Dean Gilmour), Spent is the funniest and most topical show of last year’s theatre season. All four trained at the prestigious École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq.

Regarded as “masters of original creation theatre”, Michele Smith and Dean Gilmour (better known as Theatre Smith-Gilmour) have occupied an essential place in the landscape of Canadian Theatre since 1980. They are known for creating physically bold, hilarious and touching pieces of theatre, which can be seen on the over 34 shows they have produced – 20 of which are original works that have toured across Canada and to 14 countries across Europe. Past productions such as the Chekhov Series, Katherine Mansfield, GRIMM too and Lu Xun Blossoms has earned the Theatre Smith-Gilmour nominations for 39 Dora Mavor Moore Award (they have won 8) and 2 nominations for the Chalmers’ Best Canadian Play Award.

Ravi Jain, Artistic Director of Why Not Theatre, recently named by the Toronto Star one of 2010’s People to Watch, is an award winning actor, director, producer and educator who has worked in five continents. Most recently, he worked as assistant director to Jennifer Traver on the new George F. Walker musical King of Thieves at the Stratford Festival. Previously he was worked with the New-York based International WOW Company, the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC, and as part of the Luminato New Waves Festival. Ravi is actively engaged and an advocate for youth arts and artists effecting positive change in their communities through his work with Schools Without Borders, Manifesto, Beautiful City Alliance, and Arts Vote. He is also the originator and current facilitator of the young company at the Canadian Stage Company.

Award winning actor, Adam Paolozza has created and toured several shows throughout Europe and North America with his company TheatreRUN. He has also worked with Pleiades Theatre, Tiny Bird and TheatreSKAM, The Children’s Peace Theatre and Crate Productions. Adam is a regular collaborator with Theatre Smith-Gilmour, having worked on Chekhov’s Heartache, Katherine Mansfield, Lu Xun Blossoms and GRIMM too. Adam has also directed for Soulpepper Theatre Company (The Sound Plays, Luminato Festival 2008) and for Children’s Peace Theatre. He is currently a member of the Canadian Stage Company’s emerging director’s program BASH!.

Don’t miss the show Paula Citron described as “ first class theatre by powerhouse creators” and Jon Kaplan said will make you “laugh yourself silly”.

Detail:

The show opens on Friday, October 29 and plays until November 28, 2010 at the Factory Studio Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street.

Tuesday – Saturday 8 PM; Sunday 2:30 PM

Tickets: $15 – $28 (Student/Senior discounts are available on all performances) and Sunday is PWYC, available through the Factory Theatre Box Office at 416-504-9971, online at www.factorytheatre.ca or www.totix.ca, in person at the Factory Theatre Box Office and the T.O. TIX booth at Yonge-Dundas Square, or at the door.

 

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