GCTC & CCLA to Celebrate 16 Years of Fundraising with PARFUMERIE

The Great Canadian Theatre Company (GCTC) and the County of Carleton Law Association (CCLA) are celebrating 16 years of producing the Lawyer Play Fundraiser with Parfumerie, a comedy adapted by E.P. Dowdall from the original by Miklos Laszlo.

The large cast of 21 lawyers, articling students and paralegals immerse themselves in the world of theatre for one preview and three gala performances from April 15th to 18th on the mainstage at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre. This exuberant comedy is directed by Geoff McBride. McBride is also an actor, a playwright and a member of GCTC's Playwrights' Unit, and received funding from RBC's Emerging Artist Project to work as Assistant Director on GCTC's production of This is War.

"Parfumerie is a classic 'romcom' set in Budapest in the 1930's and is about characters who can't communicate, played by lawyers who communicate for a living," observes Mitch Charness, Co-Chair of the Lawyer Play Committee. "GCTC has designed a sumptuous set and stunning costumes so we feel as if we're working in the shadows of the Grand Budapest Hotel."

The CCLA/GCTC Lawyer Play is a fundraising project that supports the operations of the Great Canadian Theatre Company and benefits a charity partner. This year, the Lawyer Play committee selected StreetSmarts, a Jewish Family Services of Ottawa program. It is a unique, street-based outreach program that offers resources and referrals, and delivers basic supplies to Ottawa's homeless. Outreach teams are volunteers who have lived the experience and understand the effects of street culture, and are able to engage with those hardest to serve. The team opens doors and facilitates referrals to treatment programs, operates a crisis line and provides linkages to other community support services, as well as social and housing services.

The Lawyer Play is one of the legal community's longest running and most successful fundraisers. Over

the past 15 years, they have raised over $1.2 million in support of GCTC productions and charity partners such as Operation Come Home, The Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa-Carleton and the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa.

This warm romantic comedy set in Budapest, Hungary in 1937, follows the tangled love life of Parfumerie employee, George Horvath. Just days before Christmas, George's boss fires him after mistakenly suspecting him to be having an affair with his wife. Meanwhile, George's real love life takes an unexpected turn when he discovers the stranger he has fallen in love with is a co-worker with whom he is in constant battle. Note: This comedy, originally written by Miklos Laszlo and adapted by E.P. Dowdall, inspired the movies You've Got Mail (1998) and She Loves Me (1978) and The Shop Around the Corner (1940).

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