From Press Release

Mateo Lewis’ New Musical BOYS DON’T CRY comes to the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival

TORONTO, June 17, 2019 – Award-winning young songwriter Mateo Lewis explores his complicated relationship with gender and toxic masculinity in this semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story, BOYS DON’T CRY.

This original one-act contemporary musical drama is written and performed by Mateo Lewis, directed by Toronto Musical Concerts’ Artistic Producer Christopher Wilson, and also features Carson Betz, Aveleigh Keller, Sara McMillan-Stahmer and Zach Stahmer. Stage management by Maxine Kenneally.

BOYS DON’T CRYplays at the Robert Gill Theatre (214 College Street – 3^rd floor), July 5 to 14, 2019. For tickets and showtimes: www.fringetoronto.com

BOYS DON’T CRY follows Jayden Stone, a popular high school soccer star in his senior year, struggling to live up to the expectations of his peers, his family and his late Father. When he falls in love with the new girl at school – a badass feminist with a passion for poetry and social justice – she encourages him to get in touch with his artistic side, and he is forced to re-evaluate what it means to be a man.

“This is an extremely relevant show about the making of a man and a reminder that we can be better than the men who came before us,” says Lewis. “I believe the vast majority of our world’s challenges today can be attributed to insecure men feeling entitled to do whatever they desire to cover their insecurities. Nothing could be more exemplary than the presence of toxic masculinity resulting in the #MeToo Movement.”

This dramatic exploration is seen through the lens of a young boy turned adolescent. Self-identifying as a Queer man, Lewis’ particular experiences with gender provide a unique and insightful look at gender fluidity and the construct of masculinity.

Mateo Lewis (Book, Music and Lyrics) has been writing songs since a young age. At 14, he wrote and produced a concept album Rob Ford: The Musical, which was featured on Indie 88 and in NOW Magazine. He continues to hone his skills in many workshops including 603 New Musicals where he is developing a new show with Daniel Goldman and the Bravo Academy Writer’s Workshop, where he also contributed two songs to #Hashtag: a new musical. Mateo is going into his third year at Sheridan College for Music Theatre with a focus on writing for the theatre.

BOYS DON’T CRY was previously produced in workshop production last summer (2018) at the Red Sandcastle Theatre.

From Press Release

Theatre Born Between Presents:
Beneath the Bed by Gabe Golin

Running July 4th – 14th at Scadding Court Community Centre (Room 4) As part of this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival

“Beneath the Bed was an extraordinarily creative piece of theatre. It is a both a dark exploration of childhood trauma and also a celebration of the power of imagination as the best defence against the things that threaten us. Truly an impressive feat for a young playwright! I can’t wait to see how this develops!” – David Matheson, Coordinator of the Theatre and Drama Studies Program (Sheridan
College)

Fresh off of their My Entertainment World nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance for Vitals, Theatre Born Between comes to life with Beneath the Bed in this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival! In the aftermath of a trauma, a young child meets a monster living under their bed and together they discover through searching the stars that this too will pass. An exploration of childhood and imagination, grief and loss, Beneath the Bed is a twisted tale exploding with music, wit, heart, and joy. Theatre Born Between first presented a workshop production of Beneath the Bed at the 2016 Beck Festival. Directed by Theatre Born Between co-founder, Bryn Kennedy.

“Returning to the world of Beneath the Bed after our workshop almost three years ago has felt like coming home to an old friend. These characters, in the infinite empathy and compassion they express for one another, have welcomed me back and it has been a joy to explore them again with a powerhouse ensemble of emerging artists. Our understanding of this fantastical world has only deepened and with our shift to a site-specific venue, we are excited to bring audiences closer to the monsters and make-believe than ever before. Imagination and possibility wait around every corner in this play and we hope that you will get wrapped up in the journey with us.”
– Bryn Kennedy, Director and Co-Founder

Show Information:
Beneath the Bed is part of this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival, running July 4th to 14th at Scadding Court Community Centre (Room 4).
Tickets available online at https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/beneathbed
Scadding Court Community Centre (Room 4)
707 Dundas St W,
Toronto, Ontario
M5V 3A8

Show dates/times:
Thursday July 4 – 7:00pm
Friday July 5 – 8:00pm
Saturday July 6 – 2:00pm
Sunday July 7 – 2:00pm
Monday July 8 – 7:00pm
Tuesday July 9 – 8:00pm
Thursday July 11 – 8:00pm
Friday July 12 – 2:00pm
Friday July 12 – 8:00pm
Saturday July 13 – 3:30pm
Sunday July 14 – 2:00pm
Running time of 60 minutes

This show is age-accessible. We welcome audience members of all ages.
Tickets are available through the Toronto Fringe, both online and at their box office.

Featuring:
Graham Conway (Peter Pan, Bad Hats Theatre – Dora Award
Winning for Outstanding Direction, Production and Ensemble Performance) Erin Humphry (Breathing Corpses, Coal Mine Theatre) Keaton Kwok (Marry Me Marry Me Marry Me Marry Me, House + Body) Elizabeth Staples (White Girls in Moccasins, Rhubarb Festival, The Stranger, Summerworks/DopoLavoroTeatrale) John Wamsley (Timothy Findley’s The Wars, The Grand Theatre) Lindsay Wu (Blithe Spirit, Theatre Erindale)

Creative Team:
Directed and produced by Bryn Kennedy
Produced/Marketing/Movement by John Wamsley
Composed by Lucas Penner
Stage Managed by Caitlin Brenneman

Theatre Born Between:
Theatre Born Between is a Toronto-based theatre company interested in creating work that focuses on bringing the inner emotional realities of the play and its characters to the surface – the seen and unseen.

Our mission is to create a platform for diverse emerging artists from all communities to explore the boundaries of theatrical practice through a blending of styles such as movement, verbatim text and
fantastical realism. Co-founded by Bryn Kennedy and John Wamsley. For further information about Theatre Born Between or this production of Vitals, visit theatrebornbetween.com!

From Press Release

A Group of Young Artists Confront Their Grief and Fears around Adulthood in the Darkly Humorous “An Orchid and Other Such Lilies and Lies”

Feeling themselves age and their time shorten, a pair of elderly men drive off into the middle of the desert to do an exorbitant number of drugs and go out with a bang. During their last hurrah, they reminisce on their lives together, filling in the gaps of each other’s memories and creating a colourful tapestry of fact, fiction, light, and loss.

An Orchid and Other Such Lilies and Lies has undergone many transformations, as Daniel Halpern wrote numerous versions of the play to reflect his own tumultuous relationship with aging and grief in different stages of bereavement.

The show is produced by the BodyCube Arts Collective, whose members have produced works in New York, Germany, Toronto, and Nova Scotia.

This genuine and brutally honest piece of theatre kindly requests your attention and attendance during
its run with Toronto Fringe.

BodyCube Arts Collective in association with The Toronto Fringe Festival presents:
An Orchid and Other Such Lilies and Lies
written by Daniel Halpern
directed by David Woroner
stage managed by Beth Airton

Opens July 5th runs to July 14th
Factory Theatre Studio
125 Bathurst St, Toronto, Ont.

Performances:
July 5, 5:30 pm
July 6, 1:30 pm
July 8, 9:45 pm
July 10, 8:00 pm
July 11, 4:00 pm
July 13, 4:30 pm
July 14, 6:00 pm

From Press Release

CRINGE FEST: ADOLESCENT ANSWERING MACHINE ARCHIVE MADE PUBLIC

AFTER THE BEEP at the TORONTO FRINGE FESTIVAL

LINK TO INFO ON TORONTO FRINGE WEBSITE

Victoria, BC (June 10, 2019) – Pamela found cassettes from the answering machine she had as a teenager in the 1990s. Instead of a ritual burning, she’s sharing this archive of adolescence in After the Beep – her one-person cringe fest. Part confessional, part show-and-tell, it’s Watergate Tapes meets The Breakfast Club. It’s a show for anyone who was ever a teenager or had an answering machine.

Yes, she had to contact everybody whose voice is now in the show and yes, it was awkward.

Pamela Bethel is based in Victoria, BC where the show premiered at UNO Fest in 2017. It has since played at the Victoria Fringe (2017) Winnipeg Fringe, Nanaimo Fringe (2018). This year After the Beep plays the Toronto Fringe and Vancouver Fringe.

Pamela Bethel

in association with The Toronto Fringe Festival presents

After the Beep

written and performed by Pamela Bethel directed by Geoffrey Ewert dramaturgy by Andrew Bailey

sound advice from Brian Linds & Carolyn Moon design consultant Erin Macklem

development and production support from Theatre SKAM more about Pamela at pamelabethel.ca

Opens JULY 4 runs to JULY 13

TARRAGON THEATRE EXTRASPACE (30 Bridgman Ave.)

Performances:

July 4, 10:00pm

July 6, 3:00pm

July 7, 7:45pm

July 9, 8:45pm

July 10, 6:00pm

July 11, 2:15pm

July 13, 6:15pm

Purchase online: https://fringetoronto.com/fringe/show/after-beep

By Phone: 416-966-1062 In Person: During the festival at POSTSCRIPT, the patio at the Toronto Fringe (Hockey Rink at 275 Bathurst Street)