“[A] hilarious look at the world of touring children’s theatre.”

From press release:

Solo performance sensation Jeff Leard is coming back to the Toronto
Fringe Festival (July 3-14) with a hilarious new autobiographical tale about the travails of a children’s theatre company touring through northern Rocky Mountains.

In The Show Must Go On, Leard relates war stories of the six months he spent in a van with a hot young ingénue and a grizzled veteran of the school circuit, bringing a production of Rumplestiltskin to
schools in BC’s isolated mountain communities. Over more than 5,000 kilometers travelled, Leard performed for incontinent children, was nearly stampeded to death by a herd of caribou, and was robbed
at gunpoint of all his belongings – all in the name of bringing art to kids.

Leard is best-known to Fringers for his hit solo show Gametes & Gonads, a high-energy physical comedy that turned the human reproductive system into a multi-character sci-fi epic in the vein of Star Wars, which toured Canada and played at the Toronto Fringe in 2011. The Show Must Go On sees Leard once again display his mastery of athletic physical comedy, mime, character voices, and brutally funny observations to tell a personal story about the power of art to transform both the artist and the audience.

Leard, a Victoria native who now calls Toronto home, created the show with direction from his father James Leard, a fixture of the Victoria theatre company and owner of Story Theatre Company, which creates
children’s shows to tour to elementary schools in British Columbia.

The Toronto Fringe is just the beginning for The Show Must Go On, which is touring the Fringe Circuit across Canada this summer, playing festivals in London, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, and Victoria.

The Show Must Go On, presented by the Random Samples Collective
 (in association with the Toronto Fringe Festival) plays the following dates at the George Ignatieff Theatre (15 Devonshire Place):

• July 5, 7 PM
• July 6, 11 PM
• July 8, 2:45 PM
• July 9, 7 PM
• July 11, 9:45 PM
• July 12, 1:45 PM
• July 13, 11:30 PM

Tickets are$10 and can be bought at the door, or purchased in advance at fringetix.ca or by phone at 416-966-1062, extension 1. Additional fees apply to advance purchases.

Please note that latecomers are never seated at Fringe performances.

Photograph of Jeff Leard by Dahlia Katz.

“You are not going to believe what happened at The Oak Room.”

From press release:

Inspired by the playwright’s own experience of being stranded in a snowcovered small town, The Oak Room (“Best New Play” – Toronto Fringe 2013) is a genre-defying slice of Canadiana: a sort of “Northern Gothic” tale, streaked with sardonic humour, cryptic plotting, and shocking violence. Written for a cast of five men and set in a single room, this play examines notions of memory, masculinity, and the power of storytelling.

Hot off his success directing Red One Theatre’s Geography of a Horse Dreamer (“a non-stop roller coaster ride of laughs and chills” – Now Magazine), Amos Crawley brings focus and energy to this thrilling project. His powerhouse cast features some of Toronto’s best established and emerging talent, including Daniel Roberts, Nigel Hamer, Ari Millen, Carlos González-Vio, and Sandy Crawley.

Continue reading The Oak Room – Toronto Fringe 2013 Press Release →

“A cross between Dame Edna and Billy Connolly with a dollop of Eddie Izzard.”

From press release:

From critically acclaimed comedian Mike Delamont comes the hit one
man show GOD IS A SCOTTISH DRAG QUEEN. A 2012 Just For Laughs Best Comedy Award Nominee, this show has sold out Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal, and Orlando and will finally make it’s Toronto debut as part of the 2013 Toronto Fringe Festival.

Based on a character created by comedian Mike Delamont and Ride The Cyclone crator Jacob Richmond, God, dressed in a floral power suit, comes down to skewer everything from Justin Bieber and the Mayans to Monkeys and the Pope in an unforgettable hour of hilarity.

Continue reading God is a Scottish Drag Queen – Toronto Fringe 2013 Press Release →

“[F]or whom and where does it get better?”

From press release:

A dark and dramatic exploration of growing up queer in rural Ontario, Fort Isabel combines childhood imagination with critical issues and forces us to re-examine how our memories shape who we are.

Two children find a dead body in rural Ontario. Their town flies into a queer panic, but the children stay silent. Eight years later, one of the friends disappears without warning. Fort Isabel is a play that explores the childhood experiences that shape us as adults, and how sometimes the deepest secrets are the ones we keep from ourselves.

Continue reading Fort Isabel – Toronto Fringe 2013 Press Release →

“Everyone’s either busy or dead.”

From press release:

A dark comedy about the foibles of old age. With a forest fire threatening their home, John and Iris are put on evacuation alert and must prepare to leave at a moment’s notice. However, as the fire looms dangerously closer, the couple learns that even in a marriage of over fifty years there are still some secrets that could destroy their lives.

Writer and director Katie Alguire hails from Kelowna; the forest fire capital of British Columbia. Alguire has cleverly dramatised personal experiences to create a uniquely Canadian play. Work-shopped at the Paprika Festival under dramaturge Anna Chatterton the play is premiering at the 2013 Toronto Fringe Festival.  Continue reading Evacuate – Toronto Fringe 2013 Press Release →