“Ledbetter and his fiancé decide to undergo “premarital counseling” through an 800 kilometer walk across Spain on El Camino de Santiago!“

From press release:

The Road to Santiago is a new 60-minute solo show by Rory Ledbetter having its World Premier at the Toronto Fringe Festival. Ledbetter and his fiancé decide to undergo “premarital counseling” through an 800 kilometer walk across Spain on El Camino de Santiago! Armed with a guidebook, shoes, backpacks, and a lot of issues concerning their relationship, they meet a cast of characters, survive an army of blisters and physical injuries, and find peace in their relationship. Santiago is a high energy solo show that is hilarious and full of heart.

[…]

Rory Ledbetter is an award-winning Actor, Director, Writer, and Vocal Coach residing in Oxford, MS, and he just got married (November 2015)! He teaches Voice, Speech, and Acting at The University of Mississippi and is a certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Rory’s 1st solo show,  A Mind Full of Dopamine, which chronicled his personal journey through gambling addiction, won multiple awards across Canada including the “Steve Sauvé Spirit of the Fringe Award” at The Ottawa Fringe Festival, the “Spirit of the Fringe Award” at The Vancouver Fringe Festival, and the “Westey Award for Best Performer” at The Calgary Fringe Festival. This July, Rory will perform A Mind Full of Dopamine as the Featured Presentation at the 30th National Conference on Problem Gambling in Tarrytown, New York.

Show times:

• Wednesday June 29th, 07:00 pm
• Saturday July 2nd, 12:00 pm
• Tuesday July 5th, 04:30 pm
• Wednesday July 6th, 11:30 pm
• Thursday July 7th, 09:45 pm
• Friday July 8th, 05:45 pm
• Saturday July 9th, 01:45 pm

Venue:  St. Vladimir Institute. (620 Spadina Ave)

Details:

• Tickets for all Fringe productions are $10, $12 in advance. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone (416-966-1062, business hours only), in-person from the festival box office located in the parking lot behind Honest Ed’s, (581 Bloor West), or — if any remain — from the venue box office (cash-only), starting one hour before showtime.
• The festival offers a range of money-saving passes for committed Fringers; see website for details.
• Be advised that Fringe shows always start exactly on time, and latecomers are never admitted.

Photo provided by the company.

“One audience member at a time enters the Shed alone and has 5 minutes to perform a monologue all for themselves. “

From press release:

Jordan Mechano is pleased to announce that Monologues for Nobody will appear at the 2016 Toronto Fringe Shed Shows, located at the Fringe Club behind Honest Ed’s.

Would you like to read a monologue?

Monologues for Nobody is a participatory performance experiment that asks the question, “Is it still art, even if it’s just for you?”

One audience member at a time enters the Shed alone and has 5 minutes to perform a monologue all for themselves. They can choose from a variety of genres, styles, and characters to create a quick, unrehearsed performance in a safe environment.

Featuring monologues from Kat Sandler, Rebecca Perry, Norman Yeung, Jiv Parasram, Laura Anne Harris, Brian James Polak, Christopher Duthie, Reina Hardy, Christina Wong, Héloïse Thual, Cate D’Angelo, and Jordan Mechano.

No audience, no cameras, no pressure. Just play.

Show times:

Venue:  Fringe Club behind Honest Ed’s.

Details:

• Shed Shows are Pay-What-You-Can.
• Note the five minute rolling start times.
• Be advised that Fringe shows always start exactly on time, and latecomers are never admitted.

Photo provided by the company.

“Touching on ideas of voyeurism, consent, privacy, identity and lookism, this is a play for right now. Come take a peek. It’s fun to watch.”

From press release:

Toronto Fringe Festival veteran Jessica Moss returns with an all-star team for Cam Baby, a fast-paced ensemble comedy about the selves we create, and the stories we consume, presented by Theatre Mischief at the Factory Theatre Mainspace, July 1-10, 2016.

Matabang and Joseph secretly webcam girls in Joseph’s apartment, for fun and profit; until they end up renting to Clara, who doesn’t exactly meet their beauty standards. But when Clara starts a romance with Tim, the videos take on a life of their own…and everyone is forced to examine their relationships with each other, and with themselves.

Cam Baby was developed at The Juilliard School, where Moss is currently a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwright Fellow, under the direction of Marsha Norman and Chris Durang. The play was selected for a reading at Roundabout Theatre as part of Roundabout Underground’s Reading Series. Moss’ solo work has been hailed as ‘glorious’ (National Post), and ‘pure joy’ (NOW), and sold out runs at Fringe and Next Stage, and with Cam Baby, she debuts a multi-actor piece in her hometown of Toronto.

The show features an all-star team both on and offstage, made up of some of the most exciting talents in Toronto theatre. Director Charlotte Gowdy makes her Fringe debut after assistant directing Tim Carroll’s The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe at the Stratford Festival, with support from assistant director Taylor Trowbridge (The Tempest, Canadian Stage), designer Brandon Kleiman (Blind Date, Tarragon; Stratford Festival), and stage manager Meredith Henry (Up the Garden Path, Obsidian). Forming the cast is Karl Ang (The Madness of the Square, Factory/Cahoots; Stratford Festival), Ashley Botting (Canadian Comedy Award Winner; Sixteen Scandals, How to Kill a Comedian, Second City), Andrew Cameron (True Love Lies, Factory; Smokescreen, Roseneath), Brandon Coffey (A Bullet for Adolf, New World Stage, Rookie Blue), Beau Dixon (Dora Award Winner for Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story; Titus Andronicus, Canadian Stage) and Christine Horne (Canadian Screen Award Winner for ‘Remedy’; The Seagull, Crow’s; Belleville, Company Theatre).

Touching on ideas of voyeurism, consent, privacy, identity and lookism, this is a play for right now. Come take a peek. It’s fun to watch.

Show times: 

• Friday July 1st, 04:45 pm
• Saturday July 2nd, 07:00 pm
• Monday July 4th, 01:00 pm
• Wednesday July 6th, 11:00 pm
• Thursday July 7th, 07:00 pm
• Friday July 8th, 05:45 pm
• Sunday July 10th, 12:00 pm

Venue:  Factory Theatre Mainspace. (125 Bathurst St)

Details:

• Tickets for all Fringe productions are $10, $12 in advance. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone (416-966-1062, business hours only), in-person from the festival box office located in the parking lot behind Honest Ed’s, (581 Bloor West), or — if any remain — from the venue box office (cash-only), starting one hour before showtime.
• The festival offers a range of money-saving passes for committed Fringers; see website for details.
• Be advised that Fringe shows always start exactly on time, and latecomers are never admitted.

Photo Credit: Dahlia Katz In picture: Ashley Botting, Brandon Coffey.

“Water Wonders offers young people and their families an engaging outdoor theatre experience about our deep connection with nature and one another.”

From press release:

Award-winning director, Sue Miner teams up with playwright Cheryl McNamara to present Water Wonders at the Toronto Fringe Festival. The festival’s very first outdoor production for young audiences, Water Wonders is about one boy’s love of nature and his fight to preserve it.

Presented by Wunder Kid Productions, Water Wonders is a site-specific show performing at the garden courtyard of St. George the Martyr Church (205 John Street, Toronto),June 30 – July 10.

Miner and McNamara worked together in 2001 and 2004 to present Dick’s a Dame (co-written by Jane Moffat) and Dizzy and Dale Chronicles, respectively at the Toronto Fringe Festival. No stranger to the Toronto Fringe Festival, Miner’s most recent Toronto Fringe production, Three Men in a Boat (2014) was named Best of the Fringe and went on to perform at the Tata Festival in Mumbai, India, Globus Theatre, The Next Stage Festival and Fringe Festivals in Canada.

In addition to Water Wonders, Miner is directing, for the Toronto Fringe, INTO by David Carley about a magic realism traffic jam.

Joining the Water Wonders company are acting veteran, Brenda Kamino, and Chase Jeffels, Michelle Langille and Mike Ricci. Alexa Carroll will stage manage the show.

At a time when children are disconnected from nature like never before, and when nature really needs our help, Water Wonders offers young people and their families an engaging outdoor theatre experience about our deep connection with nature and one another.

“Water Wonders was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend and expert in biodiversity,” says McNamara who founded the Toronto chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby. “I asked her if she could do one thing to make a difference what it would be. She said: to teach children the importance of nature. I immediately thought of writing a play about a boy’s fight to save it.”

Water Wonders is appropriate for ages 8 and up. In case of rain, the show will perform in the sanctuary at St. George the Martyr Church.

Show times:

• Thursday June 30th, 07:00 pm
• Saturday July 2nd, 04:00 pm
• Saturday July 2nd, 07:00 pm
• Sunday July 3rd, 04:00 pm
• Sunday July 3rd, 07:00 pm
• Tuesday July 5th, 07:00 pm
• Thursday July 7th, 07:00 pm
• Friday July 8th, 07:00 pm
• Saturday July 9th, 04:00 pm
• Saturday July 9th, 07:00 pm
• Sunday July 10th, 04:00 pm

Venue:  St. George the Martyr Anglican Church. (205 John St)

Details:

• Tickets for all Fringe productions are $10, $12 in advance. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone (416-966-1062, business hours only), in-person from the festival box office located in the parking lot behind Honest Ed’s, (581 Bloor West), or — if any remain — from the venue box office (cash-only), starting one hour before showtime.
• The festival offers a range of money-saving passes for committed Fringers; see website for details.
• Be advised that Fringe shows always start exactly on time, and latecomers are never admitted.

Photo Credit: Elizabeth Littlejohn. In Photo: Chase Jeffels (left), playing Richard the boy, and Mike Ricci playing Spark.

La Cucina takes the immigrant story in a new direction, looking at what gets left behind

From press release:
The romantic notion of purchasing one’s ancestral home, in Elio Scorsini’s case, in northern Italy, conjures up dreams of an idyllic lifestyle of extended vacations, perhaps even retirement. But family histories and closet skeletons can easily get in the way of even the best laid plans. This is the story of a young man who emigrated from war-ravaged Italy in 1950 to provide a better future for his family in Canada, and the events that befell the people he left behind. It reminds us of the thousands of Italians who came to this country seeking their fortune, only to realize that they would never move back to their beloved, but damaged homeland.

The title, La Cucina, means “the kitchen” which represents the heart of every home, no matter your origin. The kitchen is where all the action takes place, as the play moves back and forth between the 1980s and the years from 1945 to 1950. Although it is set mostly in the past, this four act play will resonate with anyone whose family has left their place of birth to come to Canada in search of a better life.

The cast is comprised of varied performers, some of whom will be on stage for the first time, (Marisa and John Bressan) and some who have participated in Festival productions in the past (Gregory Willmot, Robert Morgenhauser, and Valentyn Korotkevych).

This is the first play written by John Bressan, and it is based on the experiences and reality faced by his parents, Ottorino and Lina, when they emigrated to Canada. John wrote this play in their honour, and to memorialize his parents in the hearts and minds of his children and grandchildren whom they never lived to get to know. Although the details are fictional, the story is filled with memories from John’s childhood, and impressions gathered from his family’s friends and relatives. John hopes that Festival-goers will find something in it that speaks to their own family histories… whatever they might be.

Performances

• Friday July 1st, 07:00 pm
• Saturday July 2nd, 01:45 pm
• Monday July 4th, 04:45 pm
• Tuesday July 5th, 06:30 pm
• Thursday July 7th, 12:00 pm
• Friday July 8th, 10:30 pm
• Sunday July 10th, 05:45 pm

Details

• La Cucina plays at the Factory Theatre Studio. (125 Bathurst St)
• Tickets are $10 at the door, $12 in advance. The festival also offers a range of money-saving passes for serious Fringers.
• Tickets can be purchased online, by telephone (416-966-1062), from the Fringe Club at Honest Ed’s Alley, and — if any remain — from the venue’s box office starting one hour before curtain.
• Be aware that Fringe performances always start exactly on time, and that latecomers are never admitted.
• Content Warning: Mature Language.
• This venue is NOT wheelchair-accessible.