A Canadian Play Debut at Toronto Fringe Festival

Written by Mark Webber Adapted and story edited by Lindsay Ellis

Performed by: Drea Burck, Lindsay Ellis, Alex Franks, Julie Mahendran, Brian Russell, Harold Tausch

Direction and dramaturgy by Joel Haszard Produced by Haven Theatre & Lindsay Ellis Photography by Lindsay Ellis

Haven Theatre is proud to produce its premiere production Plum Crazy at the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival. Plum Crazy is a new Canadian play by writer Mark Webber. The play was adapted and story edited by Lindsay Ellis who condensed the story so that it would fit into the 60 minute time frame.

Part of the story editing was done after a workshop production in February that garnered audience feedback to ensure that the edits would appeal to the public. Plum Crazy examines the themes of loyalty and betrayal under the setting of the Plum Crazy Fashion Shoppe.

The story is a who-dun-it, with the second act featuring a series of flashbacks before the final reveal in act 3. The play has an ensemble cast of store employees featuring Drea Burck, Lindsay Ellis, Alex Franks, Julie Mahendran, Brian Russell, and Harold Tausch. Everyone is excited to be part of the Toronto Fringe Festival as it is a debut performance at the Fringe for all of the cast, except Alex Franks who had a play in the Toronto Fringe Festival last year.

Lindsay Ellis has a background in comedy and has trained at the Second City, both in Toronto and Chicago, as well as the Atlantic Acting School (part of the NYU Tisch School of Drama) in NYC. This is her first dramatic play that she has adapted and produced. Her career started working with Sherrie Johnson and da da kamera on its finale season of A Beautiful View. Her previous writing credits include the web series Clambake, sketches with the online comedy group Cackle Comedy, and satirical articles published on Robot Butt, Belladonna and McSweeneys.”Taking the words that Mark wrote and honing them to condense the story and make the action move has been a labour of love,” says Lindsay, “I’m so honoured that Joel trusted me with adapting the script.”

Haven Theatre was created by Joel and John Haszard as a father-son project after John experienced health problems that lead to a permanent disability. This is their first production and they are beyond excited to have their premiere production debut at the Toronto Fringe Festival. “We started this company as a fun way to spend time together and as a way to bring together new and experienced performers to bring to life new Canadian works,” explains Joel Haszard, “When our lottery number was picked, we couldn’t believe our luck and have been working tirelessly to make this debut a success.”

Plum Crazy will run July 5-13, 2019 as part of the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival at the Streetcar Crowsnest Theatre Tickets for Plum Crazy are now on sale on the Fringe website. For more information on the press release contact: Lindsay Ellis email: lellis.p@gmail.com

Dates:

Show times are:
July 5 7:45pm
July 6 10:15pm
July 7 5:00pm
July 8 6:00pm
July 9 4:00pm
July 12 6:45pm
July 13 2:45pm