Centaur Theatre Announces Lineup for Wildside Theatre Festival, 1/3-1/14

Centaur Theatre is proud to mark the 15th anniversary of its Wildside Theatre Festival with a spectacular line-up that breaches theatrical boundaries and breaks new ground. Performed by both seasoned and emerging talent, the avant-garde works range from slapstick comedy to the surreal. Co-curated by Centaur Artistic and Executive Director, Roy Surette, and writer and performer Johanna Nutter, this exciting edition of the festival includes the winner of Centaur's Best of the Fringe Award, Blink Blink Blink; the North-American, English-language premiere ofBliss; and Bifurcate Me, Wildside's first bilingual production.

Hibernation is not an option, come out and see both award-winning and new-to-the-world productions. Exciting artists and vibrant theatregoers will unite at Centaur's Wildside this January. Affordable individual tickets and the extra savings on the 4-PLAY SUPERPASS mean sellout performances. TICKETS NOW ON SALE

Centaur Theatre provides companies with a guarantee of $1000 and seventy-five percent of ticket revenue.

A Thousand Paper Cranes: The Weapons of Peace
PRESENTED BY: Geordie Productions | CREATED BY: Micheline Chevrier & Paula Wing | WRITTEN BY: Paula Wing
DIRECTED BY: Micheline Chevrier | STARRING: Cassandre Mentor, Jennifer Roberts, Nicholas (Koy) Santillo
Maximum impact, with measurable results. These were the tactics of the US army in 1945 in an aim to end the war with a significant event. The
results were death, destruction and sickness from the A-Bomb that dropped from the sky. Sadako Sasaki was two years old when the ghastly
nuclear weapon was dropped near her home in Hiroshima, Japan. She died 10 years later from radiation-induced leukemia. Her fight to survive
and stay positive in the face of her illness has made her a symbol of peace and hope throughout the world.
"Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding." - Albert Einstein

Bifurcate Me
PRESENTED BY: Theatre 4.669 | CREATED BY: Nathaly Charrette, Julie Legal, Andy Massingham and Kevin Orr
DIRECTED BY: Kevin Orr | STARRING: Nathaly Charrette and Andy Massingham
A scientist has hired two people to determine why humans fall down. Set in a lab at the Douglas Hospital in September 1972, Bifurcate Me is a
theatrical drug trial that fuses chaos theory, a dash of sports history, over 235 falls, and the intimate narrative of two human guinea pigs trying
to navigate the landscape between discomfort and pain. The play is hilarious, fabulously physical – and bilingual!
"Intensely physical... part slapstick, part absurdist comedy... engaging, refreshing and surprisingly affirmative." - The Ottawa Citizen

Blink Blink Blink
Centaur's Best of the Fringe 2011 Award | Runner up Just for Laughs Best Comedy
PRESENTED BY: Kirsten Rasmussen Productions | CREATED BY: Kirsten Rasmussen | STARRING: Kirsten Rasmussen
Blink Blink Blink is an award-winning, tragic comedy written and performed by Kirsten Rasmussen. The play tells the story of motivational
speaker, Sara Tonin, and a scared little bunny named Benjamin. Sara wants to experience the success and fearless approach to life that she
preaches in her books, and Benjamin wants to become a courageous rabbit like his heroic father. Both are so blinded by their goals that they
lose sight of themselves and collide head-on with each other.
"Rasmussen's timing is unreal. [Her] star power is mind-blowing." - Charlebois Post

Bliss
English-language North American Premiere | Summerworks CanStage Award for Best Direction
PRESENTED BY: Candles are for Burning | WRITTEN BY: Olivier Choinière | TRANSLATED BY: Caryl Churchill |
DIRECTED BY : Steven McCarthy STARRING: Delphine Bienvenu, Jean-Robert Bourdage, Trent Pardy, France Rolland
Olivier Choinière's dark and surreal masterpiece explores our insatiable appetite for celebrity. Who is Celine Dion? What is Wal-Mart? And who
is that girl kept prisoner in her room? An Oracle appears and gives us the answer by allowing us to hold Heaven in one hand and Hell in the
other. "Outstanding direction, production, design, ensemble"- Now Magazine

Countries Shaped Like Stars
Prix Rideau Award for Outstanding New Creation
PRESENTED BY: Mi Casa Theatre (Ottawa) | CREATED & PERFORMED BY: Emily Pearlman and Nicolas Di Gaetano |
DIRECTED BY:?Patrick Gauthier
The story of Gwendolyn Magnificent and Bartholomew Spectacular starts with demanding dragon fruits and ends with heartache whispered into
the ears of birds and constellations. With water glasses, whirly-winds and mandolin, they create the sounds and images of a landscape forever
altered by regret. Part storytelling, part concert, this is a tale of love heard best through a tin-can telephone.
"To miss a show so indelible, enchanting and inventive would be tragic." - Alibi Magazine,

Albuquerque NMDick Powell's "In the Mood for Jazz"
PRESENTED BY: SideMart Theatrical Grocery | CREATED BY: PatRick Costello and Graham Cuthbertson | STARRING: Dick Powell, Laura
Thornton, Holly Houston Vanderbilt III and the Buck Wheaton Trio
Dick Powell returns to the stage after a hiatus that lasted 22 years plus a day! The man from the famed Pacific City Wolf Pack will sing some of
his favourite hits in a one-night-only-special-appearance! A brief introduction will be made by noted Jazz historian, Holly Houston Vanderbilt III,
and the guest of honour is Dick's ex-wife, the beautiful and talented Laura Thornton. Dick is backed by the hippest five-piece jazz band around: The Buck Wheaton Trio!

'Longest Date Song' The Seasons of Arkadelphia Part 2: Winter and Summer and Spring (FOURFOUR Magazine Writers Poll).

Queen of Hearts
PRESENTED BY: Les Saints | WRITTEN BY: Manon Beaudoin | DIRECTED BY: Moira Wylie | STARRING: Lois Anderson and Manon
Beaudoin
Queen of Hearts is set in a psychiatric hospital in an evacuated town that is under constant bombing. Two women are stuck in one of the
hospital wings: a nurse and a patient who suffers from delusions. At the beginning of the story, the nurse is wounded by a fork that flies into her
heart. As she gets weaker, she is gradually seduced by the patient's illusionary world.
This black comedy combines animation, soundscape and two women on The Edge.

Teaching Hamlet
PRESENTED BY: Repercussion Theatre | WRITTEN BY: Keir Cutler | DIRECTED BY: Paul Hopkins | STARRING: Brett Watson, Keir Cutler
Teaching Hamlet premiered at the 2011 Montreal Fringe Festival to rave reviews. Brilliantly directed by Repercussion Theatre's artistic
director, Paul Hopkins, the play is a fast-paced, hilarious battle of wits between a Shakespearean actor (Brett Watson) and an Oxford
intellectual (Keir Cutler). Teaching Hamlet is the latest play by Keir Cutler, the multiple-award-winning playwright of Teaching Shakespeare.
"What ensues is an intelligent, hilarious word wrangle over authorship of the [Shakespeare] plays,
as the worlds of theatre and academia are cleverly juxtaposed." - Pat Donnelly, Montreal Gazette

Edgar Allan Poe's: The Pit and the Pendulum
A World Premiere
PRESENTED BY: Second Body Productions | ADAPTED FOR THE STAGE BY: Alex McCooeye |
DIRECTED BY: Greg Kramer and Alex Johnson STARRING: Leni Parker and Alex McCooeye
In a medical chamber of a war-torn territory, an unrelenting army official prods a man to recall his trial and confinement at the hands of a mutual
foe during "The Inquisition". As he reveals his plight, both are forced to explore their own inner turmoil as they face "a death of more than
customary bitterness".
"Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality." - Edgar Allan Poe.

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