Peggy Baker Dance Projects Presents ARE YOU OKAY, Previews 3/1

Peggy Baker Dance Projects, in association with Necessary Angel, presents the world premiere of Are You Okay, a theatre/dance piece created and performed by acclaimed dancer and choreographer Peggy Baker and award-winning playwright and actor Michael Healey, directed by Necessary Angel Artistic Director Daniel Brooks. Are You Okay previews from March 1, opens March 4 and runs to March 13 at Factory Studio Theatre.

These three self-described 'very old artists' navigate a kinetic conversation about creation, physical mastery, body betrayal, the brutal humour of time and the ephemeral nature of professional competence. Baker and Healey create a mutual autobiography in space, a simultaneous one-man, one-woman show, colliding in flashes of blind, glorious accident.

Peggy Baker is one of Canada's most outstanding and influential dance artists. A founding member of Dancemakers (Toronto / 1974), she toured internationally with Lar Lubovitch, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mark Morris before debuting as a soloist in 1990. Appointed Artist-in-Residence at Canada's National Ballet School in 1992, Baker is the recipient of the 2006 Premier's Award for Excellence in the Arts, an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary, three Dora Mavor Moore Awards for outstanding performance and two for outstanding choreography. She is a member of the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada, and is the recipient of the 2009 Governor General's Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement in dance. She recently was awarded the 2010 Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.

Michael Healey is an acclaimed television and stage actor and award-winning playwright whose work has toured nationally and internationally as well as being translated into multiple languages. The Drawer Boy, his first full-length play, premiered in Toronto in 1999 and won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best New Play, a Chalmers Canadian Playwriting Award, and the Governor General's Literary Award. His other plays include The Road To Hell (co-authored with Kate Lynch), Plan B (2002 Dora for Outstanding New Play), Rune Arlidge (nominated for the Governor General's Award in 2004), The Innocent Eye (2006), Generous (2007 Dora for Outstanding New Play), The Nuttalls (2009) and Courageous (2010 Dora for Outstanding New Play). His television work includes This is Wonderland (CBC) and George F. Walker's Living in Your Car (TMN).

Daniel Brooks has been a central figure in Canadian theatre for over 20 years. He is currently the Artistic Director of Necessary Angel, and recently received the first Baillie fellowship at Soulpepper Theatre. He has won many awards, including being the first recipient of the prestigious Elinore and Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre for directing. Some of his creations include An Autopsy (with Don McKellar and Tracy Wright); The Lorca Play, House, Here Lies Henry, Monster and Cul de sac (all with Daniel MacIvor); The Noam Chomsky Lectures and Insomnia (with Guillermo Verdecchia); and Bigger Than Jesus, Hardsell (both with Rick Miller) and The Eco Show for Necessary Angel. His work as a director also includes John Mighton's Possible Worlds and Half Life (Necessary Angel), Goethe's Faust (Tarragon Theatre), Beckett's Endgame (Soulpepper Theatre), The Drowsy Chaperone (Mirvish Productions) and, most recently, Michael Ondaatje's Divisidero: a performance (Necessary Angel). His work has traveled across Canada and around the world.

Peggy Baker Dance Projects, in association with Necessary Angel,
presents the World Premiere of
Are You Okay
a mutual autobiography in space
Choreographed by Peggy Baker
Written by Michael Healey
Performed by Peggy Baker and Michael Healey
Directed by Daniel Brooks
Lighting by Rebecca Picherack
Composer and Musician: Debashis Sinha
Stage Manager: Crystal Salverda
Previews from March 1, Opens March 4 and runs to March 13, 2011
Factory Studio Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street
Tuesday - Saturday at 8pm, Sunday matinees at 4pm
Tickets - Previews $15; Regular run $25 ($20 senior/student/CADA);
Sunday March 6 ONLY Pay-What-You-Can.
Factory Theatre Box Office: 416-504-9971 or online at www.peggybakerdance.com

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