Strolling Player – Toronto Fringe 2013 Press Release

From Press Releasestrollingplayer
Strolling Player at the Toronto Fringe Festival
From enchanted boy at his father’s theatre to actor bringing Shakespeare to the White House, through death and divorce, Oscar Wilde and Harvey Fierstein, falling off the stage and falling in love, Richard Sheridan Willis recounts the passions and absurdities of one actor’s life.
 
There’s the paparazzi stalking a doomed marriage. A backstage brawl and a wedding ring, flung into a parking lot. Debilitating tours across America. Rehearsal in New York on 9/11, a performance for George W. Bush, a break-up in Venice. A beautiful, dark Northern Ontario girl, a wedding on a lake. Encounters with Daniel Day Lewis, Richard Burton, Dr. Who, Oscar Wilde. And Shakespeare, his first love. Always, there is Shakespeare.
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Richard Sheridan Willis has appeared on Flashpoint, Law & Order, Nikita, Dr. Who, Lost Girl, and numerous other TV series. He has just finished acclaimed performances in Washington DC at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre as the Chorus in Henry V and Malvolio in Twelfth Night. Originally from England, he married the Canadian writer, Heidi Reimer and moved to Canada 5 years ago.
 
Lucas Wilson is Strolling Player’s Technical Director and is best known for his work as an illusionist. He has appeared on Canada’s Got Talent and made a successful pitch on The Dragon’s Den. According to The Guinness Book of World Records, Lucas is officially the world’s fastest straitjacket escape artist. www.theillusionist.ca.
 
Lisa Dent-Couturier is the General Director of Compass Theatre Productions. In addition to her work on Strolling Player, she can be found preparing for Compass’ 2013- 2014 Season which begins with a tour of The Little Prince and ends with performances at the Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts.  She will be dividing her time between Toronto and Stratford where her son Arden is playing the young Tommy in the Stratford Festival’s “Tommy” directed by Des McAnuff.
 
Robert Richmond directs Strolling Player. His off-Broadway hit production of Comedy of Errors was brought to La Jolla Playhouse by Des McAnuff. This year he directed the critically acclaimed Henry V at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC, which became the best-selling show in the theatre’s history. He has just directed Twelfth Night at the Folger and will return there to direct Richard III in 2014. www.robertrichmond.com, DreadfulSorrymovie.com
STROLLING PLAYER at the TARRAGON EXTRA SPACE
30 Bridgman Avenue, Toronto
July 3 – 13, 2013
Wednesday July 3 6:30pm
Friday July 5 3:30pm
Sunday         July 7 8:15pm
Monday         July 8 4:30pm
Wednesday July 10 12:00pm
Friday July 12 5:15pm
Saturday July 13   10:30pm
Please note that there is no latecomer seating.
Tickets:
$10 at the door (cash only). Available at TARRAGON EXTRA SPACE starting one hour prior to show time.
$11 in advance ($9 + $2 service charge, VISA or MC). On sale June 15th, 2013.
Purchase online: fringetoronto.com By phone: 416-966-1062, ext. 1
In person during the Festival: Box Office in the parking lot behind Honest Ed’s (581 Bloor St W)

This Prison Or: He CameThrough the Floor – Toronto Fringe 2013 Press Release

From Press Release

thisprisonACTIVIST THEATRE TROUPE BRINGS THE PRISON TO THE FRINGE

Hot on the heels of a 33-show cross-country tour that spanned theatres, churches, high schools and prisons, Theatre of the Beat has come home to Ontario to perform their first comedy – This Prison: Or He Came Through the Floor. Founded in 2011, Theatre of the Beat has quickly gained a reputation as a Social Justice theatre troupe that engages tough topics that people don’t usually talk about. After previously tackling pacifism, globalisation, and how communities respond to crime, Theatre of the Beat is now exploring fundamentalism, and what it’s like to be trapped in inherited worldviews.

This Prison Or: He Came Through the Floor tells the story of a deranged prisoner on death row, and the man who has come to rescue him. Combining tea-time and philosophy, This Prison explores Plato’s allegory of the cave using a witty script, slapstick comedy and a memorable set.

Written by Johnny Wideman, and starring Johnny Wideman and Benjamin Wert, Theatre of the Beat will bring ‘This Prison’ to the Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton Fringe festivals. Last year, Theatre of the Beat performed ‘Gadfly: Sam Steiner Dodges the Draft’ at the Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver Fringe festivals. Co-written by Johnny Wideman, and co-starring Johnny and Benjamin, ‘Gadfly’ received a nomination for ‘Best English Script’ at the Montreal Fringe, as well as positive reviews  across the country.

This Prison Or: He Came Through the Floor can be seen during the Toronto Fringe Festival at the Robert Gill Theatre. The showtimes are the following:

Wednesday July 3rd at 8:45 PM
Saturday July 6th at 11:45 PM
Sunday July 7th at 4:00 PM
Tuesday July 9th at 10:45 PM
Thursday July 11th at 1:45 PM
Friday July 12th at 11:30 PM

For tickets, call the Fringe at 416-966-1062 or go to www.fringetoronto.com. Tickets are $10 at the door, $11 in advance.

Announcement: 34th Annual Dora Mavor Moore Award Winners

DORA AWARDS LOGO copy

The 2013 Dora Mavor Moore Awards were held last night at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. The Doras are held annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) to honour excellence in Toronto’s performing arts industry.

The Doras serve as Toronto theatre’s night out and a chance for the community to celebrate and honour its own.

Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus, co-Artistic Directors of The National Theatre of the World,  hosted a consistently upbeat,  tightly-paced evening and winners kept their acceptance speeches short and to-the-point making this one the shortest Dora Award ceremonies in recent history. Despite there being more categories of awards to present this year the ceremony clocked in at a breezy two-and-a-half hours. Continue reading Announcement: 34th Annual Dora Mavor Moore Award Winners →

Polly Polly – Toronto Fringe 2013 Press Release

From press release:

Polly Polly promo

I’M JUST NOT MYSELF TODAY: THEATRE MISCHIEF TAKES A CINEMATIC
ADVENTURE INTO AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS

Toronto, ON – As part of the 25th Toronto Fringe Festival, Theatre Mischief presents Polly Polly, by Jessica Moss, July 4 – 13, 2013, at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. Polly is an ordinary girl with a call–centre job and a sense that there could be more. One day, a voice in her head begins narrating her thoughts and actions: as if she was worthy of an audience. Then, on a routine call, she phones someone with a beautiful alto voice and an uncanny knowledge of Polly’s own soul. ‘I’m Polly Eschfield’, the voice says, ‘I’m you. Find me’. Polly is thrown on a journey of self-discovery and realization as she is tormented with questions of who she really is.

What is a self, where do you find one, and who does the finding? What does it mean to tellyour own story, when the voice that tells it isn’t necessarily your own? What is that voice in our heads that is more poetic than we are, that’s scripting the movie version of our lives? Polly Polly is a theatrical romp into a screwball movie, a mystery with only one suspect, one victim, and one performer, and a farce of an identity crisis, all presented live in Theatr-OScope Vision.

Writer/performer Jessica Moss (Modern Love at Next Stage Festival, Was Spring at Tarragon Theatre, Tout Comme Elle with Necessary Angel, TICK, and Swoon! with Toronto Fringe) says of the play:

I’m interested in stretching, or, perhaps more accurately, shattering the perceived limits of one-person shows. The ideas of finding yourself, being unsure about your identity, and a voice in your head that is somehow different than your own voice feel like natural things to explore in this medium. I love theatre that is fast, funny, and true, and that’s what I’m searching for as I fall down this particular rabbit hole. Give yourself a good talking to and come down to Theatre Passe Muraille for Polly Polly. Whether you feel like yourself or are still looking for the real you, we all need a little escape. Polly Polly, written and performed by Jessica Moss. Presented by Theatre Mischief.

SHOWTIMES:
Thursday, July 4 – 7:45 pm Tuesday, July 9 – 10:15 pm
Friday, July 5 – 1:15 pm Thursday, July 11 – 6:15 pm
Sunday, July 7 – 9:45 pm Friday, July 12 – 5:15 pm
Monday, July 8 – 4:00 pm Saturday, July 13 – 8:00 pm
At Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, Fringe Venue 11
16 Ryerson Avenue (North of Queen Street, East of Bathurst)

TICKETS: $10 At the door, available at the venue starting one hour prior to showtime. $11 in advance.
Available online at fringetoronto.com, by phone at 416 966 1062, ext 1, and in person during the Festival Box Office in the Parking lot behind Honest Ed’s (581 Bloor St. W).

Handle With Care – Toronto Fringe 2013 Press Release

From press release:

Tyler-and-recycling-eyes-300x288

Tangled Web Theatre makes their Toronto FringeKids! debut with Handle With Care. This show provides a positive take on environmental education and uses humour, play and puppets to create a fun theatre experience for family audiences aged 4 and up. Opens July 4th at the Palmerston Theatre.

The seed for Handle With Care was planted when Bonnie Thomson and Tyler Seguin were leading a Grade 3 puppetry workshop. They noticed that the students had created some pretty grim environmentally-themed posters. Tangled Web Theatre started talking about whether it was possible to teach a more positive view of how we can interact with our environment, and include humour and a sense of playfulness, as well as cautionary messages. Handle With Care incorporates a wide variety of puppetry styles, including tabletop, rod, shadow, and object manipulation and uses many different materials, including recycled and found objects.

Tangled Web Theatre is an artistic collective whose work emerges from the collision of conventional theatre with unconventional forms such as physical theatre and puppetry. Tangled Web members participated in the inaugural Puppetmongers’ Puppetry eXploratory Laboratory, and have also worked with Old Trout Puppet Workshop. Parts of their previous work, Jurkka Jarvinen’s Troll Stories have been presented at Theatre Passe Muraille’s Crapshoot, The Fresh Ideas in Puppetry Festival, National Theatre of the World’s Carnegie Hall Show and Theatre Caravel’s Seachange. For more information please visit www.tangledwebtheatre.com.

Tangled Web Theatre
in association with The Toronto Fringe Festival presents
Handle With Care
written by Bonnie Thomson
featuring Helen Juvonen, Tyler Seguin and Bonnie Thomson

Venue: Palmerston Theatre
560 Palmerston Ave.

Performances:

Thursday, July 4 – 5:45pm

Friday, July 5 – 7:45pm

Saturday, July 6 – 2:30pm

Monday, July 8 – 1:15pm

Wednesday, July 10 – 6:00pm

Thursday, July 11 – 3:45pm

Saturday, July 13 – 1:00pm

Sunday, July 14 – 6:45pm

Tickets: $10;  $5 for kids under 12
Tickets can be purchased by phone 416-966-1062, online at www.fringetoronto.com
50% of tickets are available in advance. Advance tickets go on sale June 15th
At-the-door tickets available at Palmerston Theatre 1-hr prior to show – cash only.

Photo credit: Robin Munro