Dora-nominated performer Kanika Ambrose’s powerhouse one-woman show “The Art of Traditional Head-tying” plays July 2-13 at the Toronto Fringe

Excerpted from Press Release

When Rosemarie Jon-Charles Hicks goes back to the island of Dominica to teach a series of head-tie workshops, her idealism and optimism are tested by her two zany nieces, a lethargic boyfriend, a persistent old flame, and a class of workshop attendees who really aren’t that interested.

Creator/performer Kanika Ambrose (Binti’s Journey, Theatre Direct; Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Humber River Shakespeare; Obeah Opera, bcurrent/Theatre Archipelago) andco-director Virgilia Griffith (Honesty, Suburban Beast/Koffler Centre; Salome’s Clothes, Body Theatre) bring to life the story of Rosemarie’s awakening to the realities of the island she left behind. Through a series of trials, an uncanny clan, and six weeks of very trying head-tie classes, Rosie is ultimately faced with this question… “If the values, people, and traditions of the place I call home have changed, where is my home now?”

Kanika Ambrose is a Toronto-based multi-disciplinary theatre artist. Her short plays (My Umm Hmm, Sleep Country, and Aprés) have been produced in Toronto festivals including Paprika Festival, rock.paper.sistahz!, and New Voices. She is a Dora Mavor Moore nominee for her role in Binti’s Journey, and part of the Dora nominated Outstanding Production, Obeah Opera. Kanika is the founder of Mabouya Dance Company, where she teaches Dominican Bélé dancing.

THE ART OF TRADITIONAL HEAD-TYING had its World Premiere as part of Crow’s Theatre’sEast End Performance Crawl in May 2014 and opened to rave reviews.

Performance Dates
Wed, July 2 @ 8:45pm
Sat, July 5 @ 2:15pm
Mon, July 7 @ 3:00pm
Wed, July 9 @ 7:45pm
Fri, July 11 @ 2:15pm
Sat, July 12 @ 12:00pm
Sun, July 13 @ 9:00pm

Venue
St. Vladimir’s Theatre, 620 Spadina Ave. (Near Spadina and Harbord.)

Ticketing
Tickets are $10 (cash-only) at the door, $12 in advance. Advance tickets may be purchased online (visa/amex), or from the Fringe Club box office, located in Honest Ed’s Alley, during the festival. (cash/visa/amex) Money-saving passes are also available; see website for details.

Be advised that there is absolutely no latecomer seating at Fringe shows.

Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre presents Reginald Rose’s classic legal procedural play Twelve Angry Men

The presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is the backbone of our criminal justice system. It’s also the basis of Reginald Rose’s classic legal procedural drama Twelve Angry Men. Written in the 1950s, the play is still incredibly relevant today in the digital age when the pervasiveness of digital and social media often allows the mob to swiftly act as judge, jury and executioner in the court of public opinion.  Continue reading Review: Twelve Angry Men (Soulpepper) →

From Press Release

A NOBODY’S BUSINESS THEATRE DOUBLE-BILL OF HITS!

Fringe favourites celebrate their 10^th anniversary with two remounts

 Following their immense success at the Next Stage Theatre Festival this January with Scheherazade, Nobody’s Business Theatre return to the Fringe stage.  Co-artistic producers Morgan Norwich and Johnnie Walker have charmed Fringe audiences for a decade with their bold, weird, and hilarious new plays, and they are thrilled to celebrate their 10 years of collaboration by remounting two of their biggest hits, Amusement and Redheaded Stepchild, at this year’s Toronto Fringe Festival.

In Amusement, Norwich and Walker play Rose and Sebastian, two friends seeking their fortune at a certain Orlando amusement park. They soon become embroiled in a series of conspiracies, hijinks, and musical numbers, thanks to the interference of a quirky cast of characters including a mean teen queen, nonagenarian costume mistress, and talking smell machine. Discover a whole new world of secrets at the happiest place on earth, in this darkly comic fairy tale for grownups.  Amusement is directed byTom Arthur Davis, whose Fringe credits include Elizabeth and Darcy (2013, Outstanding Direction – NOW Magazine) andMahmoud (2012, Best of Fringe & Patron’s Pick).  Amusement premiered last summer at the Edmonton Fringe Festival to sold out houses and glowing reviews.

Praise for Amusement

“★★★★… Resplendent… a breath of fresh Fringe air.” VUE Weekly

“★★★★… Walker and Norwich are an appealing pair, with classic showbiz caper chemistry.” Edmonton Journal

“Devilishly funny… high-speed, hip, and hilarious.” Edmonton Sun

In Redheaded Stepchild, directed by Norwich, playwright and performer Walker shares the hilarious and heartbreaking story of Nicholas, a 12-year-old with redhair whose dad just remarried, making him a redheaded stepchild. Literally. And tomorrow at lunch, the biggest boy in grade six plans to beat him up. Walker plays Nicholas; his ex‐Jehovah’s witness golf-pro step mom, Mary-Anne; and his fabulous alter ego and imaginary friend, Rufus Vermilion.  Walker was awarded the Steam Whistle Emerging Artist Award for Redheaded Stepchild when it premiered at the Summerworks Festival in 2010.  The play has since toured across North America to festivals in Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria and New York City, playing to sold out houses.  This July Redheaded Stepchild travels to Halifax as part of the Queer Acts Festival.

Praise for Redheaded Stepchild

“★★★★★ … Laugh-out-loud funny…Walker is a deft performer with brilliant comedic timing and an excellent writer.” Uptown Magazine

“★★★★1/2… Insightful, funny, uncannily performed… A big, flaming winner.” Edmonton Journal

“★★★★★… An hour-long virtuoso display of storytelling.” The Calgary Herald

A Toronto indie theatre institution, founded in 2004 by Johnnie Walker and Morgan Norwich, Nobody’s Business Theatre is a critically acclaimed company of young artists dedicated to the creation and production of new work that is exciting, accessible to all communities, and completely hilarious.

Nobody’s Business Theatre

In association with the Toronto Fringe Festival
Amusement & Redheaded Stepchild
written by Johnnie Walker
performed by Morgan Norwich and Johnnie Walker
directed by Morgan Norwich (Redheaded Stepchild) and Tom Arthur Davis (Amusement)

July 2-13, 2014
Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse, 79 St. George St on the U of T Campus

Performances:

Wednesday July 2, 6:30pm – Amusement
Friday July 4, 8:45pm – Amusement
Saturday July 5, 11:00pm – Amusement
Sunday July 6, 7:15pm – Redheaded Stepchild
Wednesday July 9, 12:00pm – Amusement
Thursday July 10, 4:15pm – Redheaded Stepchild
Friday July 11, 1:45pm – Redheaded Stepchild 

Please note that there is absolutely no latecomer seating.

Tickets: $10

On sale June 12, 2014
Online: fringetoronto.com.
By Phone: 416-966-1062
In Person: During the Festival Box Office in the parking lot behind Honest Ed’s (581 Bloor St W).

For more information please visit www.nobodybusiness.ca

From Press Release

POWER RANGERS, TAMAGOTCHIS, AND BEANIE BABIES TAKE THE STAGE AT TORONTO FRINGE FESTIVAL

Do you remember the Midnight Society, TGIF, and dial-up Internet? What about scrunchies, slap bracelets, and Pogs?  If you can relate, you’re one of the millions of young adults who fondly remembers the ’90s. And it might make you feel a bit old.

Taryn Parrish, writer for HelloGiggles.com, is excited to announce the debut of her ’90s nostalgia sketch comedy show, Hey ’90s Kids, You’re Old at the Toronto Fringe Festival (July 2-13 2014).

The twist is, the show isn’t set in the ’90s. “As glorious as they were, we don’t need to go back,” says Parrish, 25. “Instead, we are bringing ’90s pop culture into the present. What are the kids from the Magic School Bus up to? What if you ditched your iPod for your CD player? Where is Waldo, anyways?”

The show is inspired by the recent popularity of ’90s nostalgia, especially online. A simple Internet search reveals hundreds of lists with titles like, “You’re a ’90s kid if…” and “50 Best Moments in a ’90s Kid’s Life.” The comment sections are, of course, full of complaints about “feeling old.”

“We’re not old, obviously,” says Parrish, “but we’re the last generation to have experienced a childhood free of the Internet, cell phones, and social media. We played outside, went to libraries and video rental stores, and used landlines. We feel old because so much has changed in so little time. What would our favourite ’90s characters be like if they had to grow up, like we did?”

Taryn Parrish
In association with The Toronto Fringe Festival presents
Hey ‘90s Kids, You’re Old
Written & Directed by Taryn Parrish
Starring  Samantha Adams, Alan Bee, Brian Jansen, Isabel Kanaan, Sundance Nagrial, and Alexander Steele Zonjic
Stage managed by Thomas Orwen-Goldhar & Alexandrea McGillis

Opens JULY 4-JULY13
St. Vladimir’s Theatre 620 Spadina Ave, Toronto, ON M5S

Performances:

July 4, 9:15PM
July 5, 4:00PM
July 7, 6:30PM
July 9, 11:15PM
July 10, 9:15PM
July 11, 12:30PM
July 13, 1:00PM

Please note that there is absolutely no latecomer seating.

Tickets:
Available for purchase June 16^th
Purchase online: fringetoronto.com
By Phone: 416-966-1062
In Person: During the Festival Box Office in the parking lot behind Honest Ed’s (581 Bloor St. W)

From Press Release

TARRARE’s real name and precise diagnosis remain a mystery but medical records and urban legend have given inspiration to Suspicious Moustache Theatre’s newest Fringe freak show about a man whose appetite and adventures are so fantastical one might almost disbelieve they are lifted from the history books. TARRARE’s insatiable appetite (including cats, stones, and corpses) stalks him from the streets to the sideshow, from the army to behind enemy lines, and finally, to the hospital.  An hour with TARRARE promises to be an astonishing story of love, hunger and shame that feeds our appetite for the extraordinary and grotesque.

“The weirdest thing at the Fringe” – Culture Vulture Victoria

After garnering much praise (“A nifty and nasty piece of work by some talented up’n’comers” – The Visitorium) and Pick-of-the-Fringe Best Family show (Victoria Fringe Festival 2011) for their earlier play, Struwwelpeter, Suspicious Moustache bring their latest Tim-Burton-esque world of weird to the Toronto Fringe Festival. TARRARE’s creative team includes director Darcy Stoop (Struwwelpeter, Suspicious Moustache; Scheherazade, Nobody’s Business; The Homemaker, Convection Productions), designer Cat Haywood (NOW magazine’s Outstanding design award for Life of Jude, SummerWorks 2013; nominated for Best Costume Design for Twelfth Night, Phoenix UVic) and playwright/actor Liam Volke(nominated for My Theatre Award for Best Actor for Bent, Hart House). Joining in the macabre madness are John Fray (nominated for My Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actor forTurtleneck, safeword), Scott Clarkson (The Tim Drum, UnSpun; We Are the Bomb, Brouhaha;The Making Of, Modern Underground), Kristoffer Pedlar (Prayers for the New World, Glasswater; Yellowface, Fu-Gen; Empire of the Magic Beansalks, Vampire Frog), and Cydney Penner (Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet, Hart House; The Washing Machine, Red Betty; Antigone, Soup Can). Given this creative team’s track record of award-winning weird, you may find yourself like TARRARE – hungry for more!

Suspicious Moustache Theatre Company was founded in 2011 in Victoria, BC, by directorDarcy Stoop, designer Cat Haywood and playwright/actor Liam Volke. They create original plays which explore the dark and whimsical side of the human experience. The company relocated to Toronto in 2013.