Citadel Announces 2018/19 Season Full Of Stars And Surprises

The new Citadel Theatre season, which kicked off September 22, features many brilliant, accomplished artists - local, national, and international - who will appear on the Citadel stages in the upcoming months.

Gemini Award-winning actor Lorne Cardinal (TV's Corner Gas) will star as Prospero in a magical retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Directed by Josette Bushell-Mingo, former artistic director of Tyst Teatre, Sweden's National Deaf Theatre, The Tempest will feature a cast of Deaf and hearing actors who are 2019 Citadel/Banff Centre Professional Theatre Program participants, including Edmonton actors Nadien Chu (TV's Blackstone) and Troy O'Donnell.

One of the most thrilling ventures of Artistic Director Daryl Cloran's second season of programming is the World Premiere of not one but two Kat Sandler plays, taking place at the same time, with the same cast, in two separate theatres. Starring Dora Award-winning actor Martha Burns (TV's Slings and Arrows) and Dora Award-nominated actor Thom Allison (TV's Killjoys; Citadel's The Drowsy Chaperone), and Edmontonians Rachel Bowron (Citadel's Crazy For You), Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks, Amber Lewis, Glenn Nelson (Citadel's A Christmas Carol), Luc Tellier (Citadel's Shakespeare in Love), and Jesse Lipscombe, plus Kevin Bundy (Citadel's August: Osage County) and Colleen Wheeler (Vancouver's Bard on the Beach's Timon of Athens).

Our first Add-On production of the season is Redpatch, featuring an all-Indigenous cast, including Raes Calvert (Citadel's Children of God). Calvert, along with director Sean Harris Oliver, wrote the script, using his maternal grandfather as inspiration for the character of an Indigenous soldier in World War I. This production is presented in partnership with Arts Club Theatre Company and Hardline Productions.

Opening in November, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, features Dora-nominated actor Mikaela Davies (Stratford's The Changeling, The Madwoman of Chaillot; Soulpepper's Spoon River, The Dybbuk) as Mary Bennet. Miss Bennet also stars Umed Amin (A Simple Favour, Factory Theatre's The Unplugging) as Arthur, and Edmonton performers Gianna Vacirca, Emma Houghton, Mathew Hulshof, and Cameron Kneteman.

This year marks the 19th Season of Tom Wood's adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol - and it's also the last time this version will take place at the Citadel. For the first time, the production will feature an all-Edmonton cast, including Julien Arnold and Glenn Nelson alternatively performing the role of Ebenezer Scrooge.

The new year will kick off with the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Sweat, starring Edmonton performers Lora Brovold, Christopher Cook, Nicole St. Martin, and Ashley Wright (Citadel's A Christmas Carol, Mamma Mia!), plus Marci T. House (Vancouver's Bard on the Beach's Lysistrata, Timon of Athens). This production is presented in partnership with Arts Club Theatre Company.

The exciting musical Matilda will star Lilla Solymos (Citadel's A Christmas Carol) as Matilda, as well as local actors Corben Kushneryk (Citadel's Mamma Mia!), Alison MacDonald (Citadel's The Penelopiad), Andrew Macdonald-Smith (Citadel's Crazy For You, Mary Poppins), and John Ullyatt (Citadel's Crazy For You, Once), and eight local children. This production is presented in partnership with Arts Club Theatre Company and Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre.

As part of the Citadel's Beyond The Stage series, we're proud to present Nassim, by acclaimed Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour (author of the international hit White Rabbit, Red Rabbit). No rehearsals, no preparation: Just a sealed envelope and a different actor every night reading a script for the first time. The roster of adventurous performers includes Nasra Adem (former Youth Poet Laureate of Edmonton); piano teacher and social advocate Sarah Chan; Belinda Cornish (Citadel's A Christmas Carol, Sense and Sensibility); Teatro La Quindicina's Jeff Haslam (Citadel's Hello, Dolly!, Little Shop of Horrors); and John Ullyatt (Citadel's The Drowsy Chaperone, Rocky Horror Picture Show).

For a look at our full season, and show dates, please visit www.citadeltheatre.com.

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