Alumnae Theatre's 2015-16 Season to Feature ANTIGONE & More

Alumnae Theatre Company proudly announces our provocative 2015-2016 season featuring Antigone by Jean Anouilh, adapted by Lewis Galantiere; our explosively successful FireWorks Festival featuring original full-length plays by three local playwrights; Stepping Out by Richard Harris; the 28th annual New Ideas Festival; and the Pulitzer Prize winning play August: Osage County Tracy Letts.

We launch the season on the Mainstage with Antigone by Jean Anouilh, adapted by Lewis Galantiere (September 18-October 3, 2015) directed by Janet Kish. This provocative adaptation of the Sophocles tragedy presents a world of honor, treachery and fateful consequences. Jean Anouilh's modernized version uses the classic Greek tragedy Antigone to explore the disturbing moral dilemmas of our times.

Up in the Studio Theatre, three original full-length plays will be running as part of the FireWorks Festival (November 4-22, 2015). After the resounding success of the previous two years, the FireWorks Festival is back with three plays developed at Alumnae Theatre: Divine Wrecks by Chloë Whitehorn, Cottage Radio by Taylor Marie Graham, and Radical by Charles Hayter. A festival of creativity, FireWorks will also feature discussion panels, playwright talkbacks, and we're delighted to announce that playwright Marcia Johnson will spearhead the Playwrights' Intensive Workshop series to run for the duration of the Festival.
Divine Wrecks by Chloe Whitehorn (Nov 4-8, 2015) ?A high school god falls for the wrong girl, his teacher. A modern take on a classic story, this dark tale of heart break and revelations explores the nature of love without boundaries.
Cottage Radio by Taylor Marie Graham (Nov 11-15, 2015) Inspired by the true events of the Goderich, Ontario 2011 F3 class tornado, Cottage Radio explores the effect of the horrific storm on the fictional, yet very recognizable Marley clan.
Radical by Charles Hayter (Nov 18-22, 2015) The story of a forgotten Canadian hero, Dr. Vera Peters, and her fight to alter breast cancer treatment. Spurred on by patient outrage, memories of her mother's suffering, and her own diagnosis of breast cancer, peters embarks on a quest to find a gentler alternative to the mutilating radical mastectomy - and in the process sets the surgical world against her.

Our "Countdown to 100" Retrospective Choice originally produced in the Alumnae Theatre Company's 1989/90 season is Stepping Out by Richard Harris (January 22-February 6, 2016) directed by Brenda Darling. At a weekly tap dance class with a vivacious ex-pro and her vegetarian pianist, eight mismatched strangers joyfully exchange their hum-drum lives for "tap, step, ball change, cramp roll... pick up your feet". Secrets tumble out. Conflicts arise. Friendships grow. Everyone is changed. And they dance....

In its 28th season, New Ideas Festival 2015 (March 9-27, 2016) is a three-week, juried celebration of new writing, works-in-progress and experimental theatre, with a different program of plays each week and staged readings on Saturdays at noon. New Ideas is a crucible for original plays, some of which have gone on to full productions elsewhere. As such, they are must-sees for avant-garde Toronto theatre-goers. Writers from all over Canada and beyond submit original short plays which have never before been produced, so every play in the festival is a world premiere.

We are thrilled to close the season with the Pulitzer Prize winning August: Osage County by Tracy Letts (April 8--23, 2016) directed by Victoria Shepherd. When the family patriarch vanishes, the Westons return to rural Oklahoma to care for their afflicted, manipulative mother. Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize, Tracy Letts' darkly comic drama August: Osage County is a harrowing epic that puts the "fun" in "dysfunctional"..

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