Canadian Stage TD Dream Presents ROMEO AND JULIET, Closes 9/5

The Canadian Stage TD Dream in High Park presents Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare's timeless tale of ill-fated lovers and feuding families. Jeff Irving stars as Romeo (Ross Petty's Robin Hood, Mirvish Productions' Sound of Music and Canadian Stage/Citadel Theatre's The December Man /L'homme de décembre) and Christine Horne stars as Juliet (The Stone Angel with Ellen Burstyn and KICK Theatre's Miss Julie: Sheh'mah). The production is directed by Dora Award-winner Vikki Anderson (The Doll House, Coyote Ugly) and runs June 25 to September 5, 2010 (media night: June 29) at the High Park amphitheatre.

Performances run Tuesday through Sunday at 8 p.m. Gate opens at 6 p.m. Admission is PWYC at the gate (suggested minimum donation $20) and free for children 14 and under. Family Day Sundays feature free, all-ages, pre-show activities. Entering its 28th season, the Canadian Stage TD Dream in High Park is the oldest annual outdoor theatre event in Canada. Since its inception in 1983, an estimated 1.3 million people have enjoyed the tradition of theatre under the stars. For Dream information, contact 416-367-1652 or canadianstage.com/dream.

Romeo and Juliet is one of William Shakespeare's most popular plays and indisputably the world's best-known love story. In this present-day, play-within-a play adaptation, the tragic tale of the young lovers destroyed by their feuding families is re-told by a group of travelling performers delayed at the Verona train station. Weary and irritable, tempers flare and tension ignites a spirited confrontation. In an attempt to restore calm, the Station Master demands they perform their show for the other stranded passengers. Reluctantly they bring the story of Romeo and Juliet to life. Given the freedom to perform the show in a new and simpler fashion, the actors interchange roles, comment on each other's performances and get caught up in the story as if they are telling it for the first time. They add music from their iPods, pull a colourful palette of props and costumes from their suitcases and use all the elements of the station as their set. In the end, under the starry Italian sky, they transform the train station into the medieval city of Verona and the story of the Montagues and Capulets unfolds.

Romeo and Juliet stars: Jeff Irving (Ross Petty's Robin Hood, Mirvish Productions' Sound of Music and Canadian Stage/Citadel Theatre's The December Man /L'homme de décembre, and a Shaw Festival veteran) as Romeo, Gregory and others; Christine Horne (The Stone Angel with Ellen Burstyn, Turn of the Screw directed by Vikki Anderson for DVxT) as Juliet, Sampson and others; Clinton Walker (recurring role on Queer as Folk; Turn of the Screw directed by Vikki Anderson for DVxT) as Mercutio, Capulet and others; Ron Kennell (The Tempest, Canadian Stage; Stratford Festival veteran) as The Nurse and others; Lisa Berry (Intimate Apparel, Canadian Stage/Obsidian Theatre) as Prince Escalus and others; Peter N. Bailey (Come Good Rain, Black Theatre Workshop) as Montague, Paris and others; Caroline Gillis (Daniel MacIvor's How It Works, Factory Theatre) as Friar Lawrence, Benvolio and others; Jani Lauzon (Comedy of Errors, Canadian Stage) as Lady Capulet, Peter and others; Jamie Robinson (El Numero Uno, LKTYP; and Stratford Festival veteran) as Tybalt and others.

Joining director Vikki Anderson are Set and Costume Designer Jackie Chau, Lighting Designer Arun Srinivasan, Composer Claudio Vena, Stage Manager Sandy Plunket and Assistant Stage Manager Kristen Kitcher.

Family Day Sundays, the popular, free, all-ages program for children, parents and families return featuring fun-filled activities including backstage tours, an opportunity to meet the cast, Shakespearean games, workshops exploring the language of the Bard and more. Held at the High Park amphitheatre on Sundays, the program runs July 4 to September 5, from 5 - 6:30 p.m., weather permitting. Registration is required. Registration requests will be accepted June through September. Contact 416-367-1652 or family@canadianstage.com for more information.

Key Bios

Jeff Irving plays Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. No stranger to Canadian Stage, Irving played Jean in the Governor General's Award-winning play The December Man (L'homme de décembre) which garnered a Dora Award for Best Production. His stage credits include Robin Hood in Ross Petty's critically acclaimed Robin Hood, the EnvironMental Family Musical and Rolf in Mirvish Productions' Dora Award-winning Sound of Music. Irving is a five-year veteran of the Shaw Festival where he appeared in Hotel Peccadillo, Mack & Mabel, High Society, Invisible Man and other plays. His theatre credits also include Anthony in Sweeney Todd (Citadel Theatre), Peter in The Diary of Anne Frank (Theatre Aquarius) and Baby John in Westside Story (Arts Club Theatre). Irving is originally from Regina and a graduate of the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria, BC (2001).

Christine Horne plays Juliet in her Canadian Stage debut. Stage credits include the governess in Turn of the Screw (directed by Romeo and Juliet's Vikki Anderson for DVxT), the starring role in Miss Julie: Sheh'mah (KICK Theatre) for which she received a 2009 Dora nomination for Outstanding Female Performance, Twelfth Night (Resurgence Theatre Co.), Bluebeard (Toronto Fringe), and The Seagull (Wordsmyth). As the Artistic Co-Director of The Thistle Project, she co-created and performed in Gorey Story which received four 2007 Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations including Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Production. Her screen credits include the young Hagar Shipley in the feature film The Stone Angel which earned her a Vancouver Film Critics Circle nomination for Best Supporting Actress, the Geraldine Page Best Actress Award (Method Fest, California) and the UN's Time For Peace Film Award for Supporting Actress and she will star in the upcoming feature The Untitled Work of Paul Shepard. Television credits include Desdemona in Othello (CBC Television and CBC Radio One), Little Films About Big Moments (TMN), and guest appearances on Flashpoint (CTV) and The Dresden Files (Sci Fi Channel/Space). Originally from Aurora, Ontario, Christine is a graduate of the Acting program at York University (2004).

Vikki Anderson is an award-winning theatre director, designer and producer. She is the successful candidate of Canadian Stage's Directors Development Initiative, selected from over 80 applicants across the country to direct this season's Canadian Stage TD Dream in High Park. Anderson is the founder and artistic director of Toronto's DVxT Theatre Company which has received 14 Dora nominations and 9 Dora AwardS. Anderson's directorial credits include the world première of Adam Pettle's Mosley and Me at Canadian Stage (2003), Happy Days starring Martha Burns for Soulpepper Theatre Company (2003), St. Christopher at Theatre Passe Muraille (2005), the multi-award-winning productions of The Doll House (7 Dora Awards including Outstanding Production, Direction, Female Performance, Male Performance, Set Design, Costume Design and Sound Design, 2001) and Coyote Ugly (2 Dora Awards for Outstanding Female Performance and Sound Design, 1998), and most recently The Last Five Years at The Grand Theatre (2010) and The Turn of the Screw at the Campbell House Museum (2009). She was also Assistant Director for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet in 2008.

About Canadian Stage

Founded in 1987 with the merger of CentreStage and Toronto Free Theatre, Canadian Stage is one of Canada's leading not-for-profit contemporary theatre companies. Led by Artistic & General Director Matthew Jocelyn, Canadian Stage produces and showcases innovative theatre work from Canada and around the world, allowing its audience to encounter daring work guided by a strong directorial vision and a 21st-century aesthetic. The company prides itself on presenting trans-disciplinary work and work in translation that pushes the boundaries of form and style. The company reinforces the presence of Canadian art and artists within an international context through work that mirrors the
for the public and investing in the cultural diversity of Toronto. Canadian Stage has a long-standing commitment to education and enhancement programs art form by nurturing and developing theatre professionals while producing thought-provoking theatre and quality entertainment in Toronto, one of North America's largest theatre centres. For more information, refer to canadianstage.com.

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