“[D]elves deep into the suspense, nostalgia and clichés of classic detective fiction and old-time radio mysteries”

Excerpted from Press Release:

Duotang Chesterfield’s Mystery Theatre delves deep into the suspense, nostalgia and clichés of classic detective fiction and old-time radio mysteries in their first live show at the Toronto Fringe Festival.

“Like Sherlock if he had PTSD, I loved it.” – Diana McCallum (co-creator of internet phenomenon Texts from Superheroes) on the DCMT Podcast.

Part Nancy Drew, part Sherlock Holmes, with more than a dash of CBS Mystery Theatre, Duotang Chesterfield’s Mystery Theatre LIVE! skillfully spoofs a mix of detective fiction styles – while never mocking. “We’re all big fans of the mystery genre,” says co-producer Josef Beeby; “so we enjoy playing with some of its stranger tropes.”

From July 1-12, Randolph Theatre will be the ‘Duotang Chesterfield Radio Station’ where audiences can view a live broadcast hosted by the mysterious Narrator (Leete Stetson). Stetson will be joined onstage by Nicole Byblow, Josef Beeby, Marika Lapointe, Justin Miller, Zara Jestadt, Rebecca Russell, and Grace Smith. “It’s fascinating getting to see voice actors perform, because we so rarely do, “ says Smith; “one minute you’re a 90-year-old British Countess; the next, a teenager from Nebraska!”

The production will be helmed by Director Aria Umezawa, Artistic Director of Opera 5 and creator of the popular web series Opera Cheats, with scripts contributed by cast-members Beeby, Stetson, and Smith, and Polly Phokeev (Seams – Summerworks 2015).

Can’t wait until the Fringe? Check out the back-catalogue of podcast episodes (iTunes or www.duotangmysteries.com) to tide you over. Creators Beeby, Smith, and Stetson came up with the idea for DCMT in March 2014 after noticing a dearth of high-quality radio-play-style offerings on iTunes. “If you want to listen to guys arguing about movies, you have lots of podcast options; if you want to hear something scripted, something with an arc to it, well that’s a little harder to find,” says Stetson. “We’re trying to fill that gap.”

Showtimes:

• Weds July 1 – 10:30pm
• Sat July 4 – 8:45pm
• Mon July 6 – 4:45pm
• Weds July 8 – 8:45pm
• Thurs July 9 – 1:45pm
• Fri July 10 – 7:30pm
• Sun July 12 – 12:00pm

Venue:  Randolph Theatre (Mainspace), 736 Bathurst St.

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, starting one hour before showtime. (Cash-only.)

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.

“Come enter our lab and find out what those rowdy kids from Gen Y-made!”

Excerpted from Press Release:

The 10/10/10 Project is a large-scale interdisciplinary piece that explores the idea of moving forward when the people we love don’t need us anymore. Inspired by postmodern chance procedures, 10/10/10 is a gathering point that combines the work of 43 emerging artists of 3 different mediums. Who knows what will be created?

In April 2014, 10 emerging writers from across Canada wrote 10 pieces using the prompt “There’s something here that shouldn’t be” These pieces were then given to 10 emerging composers who composed 10 unique musical tracks based on the essence of the writing they were given. Each piece of music was then matched with one of 10 emerging choreographers, who created a movement piece inspired by the music they received. The writers then returned to view these dance creations and each wrote a final piece inspired by the essence of the individual dance they had been assigned. During this process, none of the artists were allowed to talk to each other about the work they had exchanged, creating an ego-less and random creation environment.

Now, the 10 final pieces of writing, 10 pieces of choreography, and 10 pieces of music have all been combined to form one piece of interdisciplinary dance-theatre, facilitated by a director who is unable to speak with any of the creators as well, forced to find the through line based solely the presentation of work itself.

10/10/10 is inspired by the idea of imagined community: that even if we do not speak the same language or live in the same space, we can still find hopes, dreams, despairs and inspirations from the work of another who we may never meet. We can communicate without ego, crossing borders through our art.

Our award winning collection of artists (all between the ages of 18 and 33) have danced in Shawn Desmond videos and scored films at Cannes. They have worked with the Blyth festival, Theatre Aquarius, Buddies in Bad Times, their award winning work being produced in the Hamilton and Toronto Fringe Festivals, and the Summerworks Performance Festival. We even have an award winning Maclean’s writer on board all the way from Vancouver!

With 43 artists from across the country, 10/10/10 is the largest show at this year’s TorontoFringe Festival. Come enter our lab and find out what those rowdy kids from Gen Y-made!

Showtimes:

• July 3rd – 7:00 PM
• July 4th – 12:00 PM
• July 6th – 6:45 PM
• July 8th – 3:30 PM
• July 9th – 3:30 PM
• July 11th – 2:15 PM
• July 12th – 1:45 PM

Venue: Factory Theatre (Mainspace), 125 Bathurst.

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, starting one hour before showtime. (Cash-only.)

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.

Production photograph by Jordan Laffrenier. Photograph is of a workshop of this production, and does not necessarily reflect final casting.

“[A] memory play that is grounded in Ladi and Hasana’s time held captive by Boko Haram.”

Excerpted from press release:

In July, AnOther Theatre Company will present All Our Yesterdays. A new play written and directed by Chloé Hung, it centers on the kidnapping of the Chibok school girls by Boko Haram in northern Nigeria in April 2014. All Our Yesterdays features Chiamaka Umeh (Hairspray, Into the Woods) and Amanda Weise (Pon Broadway,Soundclash). The play will be presented at the Factory Studio Theatre from July 1st to 12th as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival. AnOther Theatre Company has teamed up with Plan Canada’s Because I Am A Girl campaign making the first two performances of All Our Yesterdays a fundraiser for their global initiative.

All Our Yesterdays follows two sisters. Ladi (Weise) is eighteen and attends Chibok government girls secondary school, and Hasana (Umeh) is sixteen, and is unable to attend school because of her undiagnosed Asperger’s. All Our Yesterdays is a memory play that is grounded in Ladi and Hasana’s time held captive by Boko Haram, and goes back and forth to the events leading up to their kidnapping. The memories move from Ladi’s leaving home for the first time to go attend school, to a devastatingly selfish decision that has tragic results.

On April 14, 2014 Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from their school in Chibok, Nigeria. While in recent weeks the Nigerian Army has liberated women and children from several Boko Haram camps, to date the 276 Chibok girls have not been found. Initially, the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls spread quickly and ignited global outrage. A few months later, however, the story of the Chibok girls had disappeared from the media narrative. As a student herself Hung felt compelled to write a piece for these girls, both to keep their story alive, and because their desire to learn was the main reason Boko Haram attacked their school.

All Our Yesterdays began as a short five-minute piece written by Chloé Hung for an assignment at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. It was well received which led to workshops of an hour-long play under the supervision of Gary Garrison and Peter Parnell. Hung also conducted extensive research for the play, including speaking with Pablo Idahosa (York University), Wumi Asubiaro-Dada (Voices 4 Change Nigeria), Hadiza Aminu Dorayi (Save the Children Nigeria), and accessing special reports such as Julian Eaton’s advisory report Services available for people with Autism in Nigeria.

In an effort to support Plan Canada’s global initiative, the first two shows of All Our Yesterdays will be a fundraiser for the organization’s Because I Am A Girl campaign. Proceeds from these performances will go towards supporting programs aimed at providing education for girls around the world.

Showtimes:

• Wednesday, July 1 at 8:45pm
• Sunday, July 5 at 8:15pm
• Monday, July 6 at 10:00pm
• Wednesday, July 8 at 4:00pm
• Thursday, July 9 at 1:45pm
• Saturday, July 11 at 9:15pm
• Sunday, July 12 at 12:00pm

Venue: Factory Theatre (Studio) at 125 Bathurst.

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, starting one hour before showtime. (Cash-only.)

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.

Photograph of Chiamaka Umeh and Amanda Weise provided by the company.

“[A] darkly funny journey navigating life post-tragedy”

Excerpted from Press Release:

TORONTO, ON: Staircase Theatre presents One Good Marriage, by Sean Reycraft. What do you do when you return from your honeymoon to find disaster has struck in your absence? Critically acclaimed Fringe veterans, Staircase Theatre, bring this newly revised Toronto favourite, which takes the audience on a darkly funny journey navigating life and grief post-tragedy. Join Steph and Stewart for a 1 year anniversary celebration you won’t soon forget. Directed by Jessica Rose, and starring Becky Shrimpton and Matthew Gin, One Good Marriage runs as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival July 2-12, 2015 at the Trinity St. Paul’s United Church.

One Good Marriage, winner of the NOW Magazine award for Outstanding New Play at the 2002 Summerworks Festival, is the grimly funny tale of Steph and Stewart, who have gathered their friends (the audience) together to celebrate their first anniversary. The couple, while finishing each other’s sentences and awkwardly walking the line of socially appropriate/not appropriate, plaintively fill us in on the terrible tragedy that took place shortly after they left their wedding reception, one year ago.

“This wonderfully dark comedy is fringe-style theatre at its finest. It’s too quirky for a main stage, yet gloriously at home on the edge.”-Wendy Burke, Winnipeg Free Press

Sean Reycraft is a Toronto playwright/screenwriter currently living in Los Angeles. His first play, Pop Song, won the 2001 Chalmers Canadian Play Award and One Good Marriage has enjoyed numerous productions across Canada and the United States. TV credits include ‘Switched at Birth’, ‘The Vampire Diaries’, ”Rookie Blue’, ‘Slings & Arrows’ and ‘Degrassi: The Next Generation’. He also adapted the novel ‘Breakfast With Scot’ into feature film of the same name.

“Mr. Reycraft, (…) has a distinctively spare, darkly ironic style; call it Canadian Gothic.” – Jason Zinoman, NY Times

Staircase Theatre is a Vancouver-based, independent theatre company focused on the idea that theatre should stimulate the mind and the soul- with class, charm and polish. They provide intelligent, contemporary theatre and are committed to bringing emerging and established artists together for opportunities to learn and grow. Past shows include AR Gurney’s Love Letters, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s Hunter Gatherers, Stewart Lemoine’s Cocktails at Pam’s, Lanford Wilson’s Home Free, Stewart Lemoine’s Evelyn Strange, and Will Eno’s Oh the Humanity! (which will be remounted at the 2015 Vancouver Fringe Festival.)

[…]

Showtimes:

• July 02 at 07:30 PM
• July 03 at 07:30 PM
• July 04 at 07:30 PM
• July 05 at 07:30 PM
• July 08 at 07:30 PM
• July 09 at 07:30 PM
• July 10 at 07:30 PM
• July 11 at 02:00 PM
• July 11 at 07:30 PM
• July 12 at 02:00 PM
• July 12 at 07:30 PM

Venue: Trinity St. Paul’s United Church at 427 Bloor West.

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, starting one hour before showtime. (Cash-only.)

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.

Photograph of Becky Shrimpton and Matthew Gin by Jessica Rose.