A Man Walks Into a Bar – Toronto Fringe 2015 Press Release

“[A] sharp meta-theatrical two-hander that skewers the dialogue surrounding men, women, and feminism.”

A Man Walks into a Bar - Jon Robertson

Excerpted from press release:

A woman, with the help of a man, tells a joke: A man walks into a bar and meets a waitress. As lines between the performers and the characters blur, a tense and funny standoff about gender, power, and selling sex emerges. Playwright Rachel Blair has created a sharp meta-theatrical two-hander that skewers the dialogue surrounding men, women, and feminism. Influenced by modern movements #YesAllWomen and #NotAllMen, A Man Walks Into a Bar is an argument with itself.

A Man Walks Into a Bar brings together Rachel Blair and dramaturg Andrew Cheng, who recently collaborated on Blair’s The Comfort Women as part of the Banff Playwrights Colony. Director David Matheson instructed them both in York University’s Devised Theatre program. A Man Walks Into a Bar brings together an entire collective of Theatre @ York alumni.

Rachel Blair won the Fringe New Play Contest in 2008 for Wake, which also received Patron’s Pick and Best of Fringe. Her last Fringe play This is About the Push was named a Best Production by Now Magazine. She was shortlisted in 2012 for Tarragon Theatre’s RBC Emerging Playwright Competition and was recently a member of Tarragon Theatre’s Playwrights Unit. Director David Matheson is currently Professor of Acting at Sheridan/UTM and Artistic Director of Dora nominated Wordsmyth Theatre. David’s past Fringe highlights include Best of Fringe’s [sic] and Patron’s Pick Bluebeard. Dramaturg Andrew Cheng is a Canadian Screen Award nominee. Lighting Designer Siobhán Sleath was nominated for the Pauline McGibbon Award in 2014.

Showtimes: 

  • Wed July 1, 6:30pm
  • Fri July 3, 1:15pm
  • Sat July 4, 7pm
  • Sun July 5, 3:30pm
  • Mon July 6, 8:30pm
  • Wed July 8, 12pm
  • Sat July 11, 5:15pm

Venue: Tarragon Theatre Extraspace (30 Brigman Ave.)

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, (481 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 by Jon Robertson

Cut-Throat: The Isolation of Ambition – Toronto Fringe 2015 Press Release

“Cut-Throat promises to be a raw, unforgiving and hilarious theatre experience for all audience members.”

Cut Throat - PACE Theatre

Excerpted from press release:

“Cut-Throat: The Isolation of Ambition”, a dark comedy premiering at the 2015 Toronto Fringe Festival, tells the story of ex-serial killer Maggie Levene, who has given up her dark days to follow her dreams of becoming an actor. Maggie, who is far from living a life of luxury, finds herself unable to afford her windowless, kitchen-less apartment – until Jenna Bell, a fellow actor with a similarly not-so-innocent past, move in. Stakes are high and blood runs deep when the two find themselves vying for the same role and are faced with the question: how far are you willing to go to achieve your dream?

Formed by two graduates of the University of Waterloo’s Drama program, Pace Theatre Toronto’s first show is a collaborative effort by the actors and the writer. Pace Theatre Toronto began as an idea between co-founders Andreea Hluscu and Meghan Jones, evolving into an opportunity to work collaboratively. “Cut-Throat” soon transformed into a collective creation between writer and actors, which aim to convey an honest yet comedic multi-layered story from various modern female perspectives.

Making their Toronto acting debut are Andreea Hluscu, Meghan Jones, Kandi Prosser and Zach Parsons who have been working closely as a company to develop a challenging new show featuring fresh, exciting, and dynamic writing and performance. “Cut-Throat: The Isolation of Ambition” promises to be a raw, unforgiving and hilarious theatre experience for all audience members. Do not miss this new original play at this year’s 2015 Toronto Fringe Festival!

Showtimes: 

  • July 03 at 07:00 PM
  • July 04 at 05:45 PM
  • July 06 at 10:30 PM
  • July 07 at 08:30 PM
  • July 08 at 12:15 PM
  • July 10 at 04:00 PM
  • July 11 at 10:30 PM

Venue: St Vladimir Theatre (620 Spadina Ave.)

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, (481 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 courtesy PACE Theatre

Exposure – Toronto Fringe 2015 Press Release

“Exposure is imaginative, eccentric, surprising and fun.”

Exposure - Greg Wanless
Excerpted from press release:
Paris, spring, 1838. The collision of three lives — inventor Louis Daguerre, his ex-mistress, and a suicidal young man — leads to the birth of photography as we know it in this bright new comedic fantasy from award-winning Canadian playwright John Lazarus. Imaginative, eccentric, surprising and fun, EXPOSURE features an all-star creative team and plays July 1-10 at the Robert Gill Theatre as part of the 2015 Toronto Fringe Festival.
EXPOSURE: A bright spring morning in Paris. Inventor Louis Daguerre is struggling to photograph a living being, but his camera speed is far too slow — the pictures he takes from his office window still make the bustling Boulevard du Temple look utterly deserted. Everyone goes by too fast to register on the plate, and his colleagues laugh at him and say it can’t be done – until one day a chance meeting with his ex-mistress Mme. Brilliante leads to an opportunity that changes our world in ways they could not have imagined.
Playwright John Lazarus is well known for his iconic plays Babel Rap, Dreaming and Duelling, and Village of Idiots. He is the recipient of a Chalmers Award, a Writers’ Guild of Canada Top Ten Award, the World Gold Medal for children’s radio drama, and the International Association of Film Critics FIPRESCI Grand Prize at the 1998 Montreal Film Festival (Village of Idiots, National Film Board). Lazarus made waves atthe Vancouver Fringe as the writer/performer of smash hit (and “Best of the Fringe” pick) Medea’s Disgust, lauded by the press as “Great” (The Vancouver Province),“Brilliant” (The Georgia Straight) and “Perfect” (The Vancouver Sun).
Directed by Kathryn Mackay (The Drowning Girls, The Russian Play/Essay, The Girl in the Goldfish Bowl, Thousand Islands Playhouse; Women Who Shout at the Stars, Summerworks 2014/Critics Choice Award at The Ottawa Fringe; Theatre Orangeville; PeerLess Productions), EXPOSURE features veteran actor/director Craig Walker (The Turn of the Screw at Tarragon Theatre and The Winter’s Tale at Harbourfront Centre, both for Theatre Kingston; St Lawrence Shakespeare Festival; Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival) as ‘Louis Daguerre’, Gemini Award Nominee Laurel Paetz (Wendy Lill’sSisters, Primedia Productions; ten seasons Blyth Festival; Prairie Theatre Exchange) as ‘Mme. Brilliante’, and introducing up-and-coming actor/producer Christopher Blackwell(of Theatre Mies) as ‘Anonyme’. Set Design by Bill Penner (Soulpepper). Video design by Kevin Tanner. Stage managed by Kathleen Harrison.
Showtimes:
  • Wed July 1 @ 10:30pm
  • Sat July 4 @ 12:30pm
  • Sun July 5 @ 11:00pm
  • Mon July 6 @ 5:15pm
  • Wed July 8 @ 7:45pm
  • Thur July 9 @ 9:15pm
  • Fri July 10 @ 4:30pm

Venue: Robert Gill Theatre (214 College St, 3rd floor)

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, (481 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 by Greg Wanless

Two Girls, One Corpse — Toronto Fringe 2015 Press Release

“[T]he women are always on the same team; even when one of them might be a killer. And you can never hear enough Angela Lansbury impressions.”

Two Girls One Corpse - Monique Elliott

Excerpted from press release:

For twenty-something best-friends-slash-failures, weddings can be killer.
When two girls attend an old flame’s wedding, the next morning they’ve got bigger problems than major hangovers: there’s a corpse in the apartment. And it’s the groom. What follows is a true whodunit for the newly adult and barely functional.
Two Girls, One Corpse is making its world debut this summer in the micro-miniest Fringe tour ever; starting in Ottawa on June 19th, and finishing in Toronto on July 12th.
Created by the founders (and only members) of Lazy Sunday Theatre, Two Girls, One Corpse has been a labour of love for Michelle Blanchard and Marissa Caldwell over the past year. The company was founded in 2013 and still exists three years later, despite Blanchard’s move to Toronto, and Caldwell’s insistence on surviving law school in Ottawa. Since Lazy Sunday Theatre is a long distance relationship, Two Girls, One Corpse was created mostly over the internet. A true marvel of modern technology, the script was entirely formed through solo and collaborative writing sessions on Google Drive.
The idea for Two Girls, One Corpse came out of Blanchard and Caldwell’s love of two things: each other, and Murder, She Wrote. Tired of the one-dimensional roles available to young women, the creators sat down over a beer to craft a story of genuine female friendship, where the women embrace each other’s flaws from a place of love and support. In Two Girls, One Corpse, the women are always on the same team; even when one of them might be a killer. And you can never hear enough Angela Lansbury impressions.
Under the direction of Fringe veteran Dave Dawson, Blanchard and Caldwell of Two Girls, One Corpse have become: “the next-next-next Tina and Amy,” “Bridesmaids if it starred Jessica Fletcher,” and “those weirdos.”
Showtimes:
  • July 3 10:30pm
  • July 5, 2:45pm
  • July 7, 6:30pm
  • July 8, 9:15pm
  • July 9, 6:00pm
  • July 10, 12:00pm
  • July 12, 7:30pm

Venue: Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse (79 St George St, #302)

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, (481 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 by Monique Elliott