DEAD BROKE Comes to the Theatre Centre Next Month

Lost Dreams Collective will present Dead Broke by Will King from Oct 31 to Nov 10 at The Theatre Centre, directed by Calvin Petersen. 

This surreal, thrilling, dark comedy and horror-hybrid play asks us what we do when we are at a point of identity crisis. How do we take accountability for our life? And what’s the cost of living for nothing?

THE STORY: Oliver, a university student, is in trouble. After switching majors and losing all financial support, he begins squatting in an abandoned home to reduce costs and save his relationship with his girlfriend, Charlotte. To convince their friends that his new living situation is viable, they arrange a birthday party for Oliver’s best friend, Johnny, at his new, run down place. Joined by Laura, a plucky law school student, and Irina, a runner crashing with Johnny, everything appears to be falling into place. But when the house is revealed to have a sinister past, and someone goes missing, Oliver’s life, and reality, spiral desperately out of control.

THE COLLECTIVE: Lost Dreams Collective is a Toronto based theatre collective founded by Will King dedicated to creating Canadian contemporary work and presenting heightened text in a new light. We aim to develop and produce plays that reflect the narrative of our lives.

SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT: This script was originally developed as part of the 2020 Beats + Intentions Playwright’s Unit (Expect Theatre, in partnership with the Playwrights Guild of Canada). The play was further developed for a hit run at The 2022 Toronto Fringe, and expanded again to its current form.

“As I’ve been getting a bit older, I had this idea that I wanted to write a love letter to my youth. For people growing, and mostly stumbling, and discovering themselves at that age. I’m also extremely passionate about genre work in theatre. So these two sensibilities kind of grew together, and wriggled into the show’s central conflict, and now it’s this dark comedy, and horror-hybrid reflection of university life.” -Will King, Playwright

Dead Broke features an ensemble of Canadian talent from Theatre, Film, and TV, including: Kiera Publicover (Isle of Demons, The Birds, Talking to Dead Cats in the Night, co-founder of Arrowhead Theatre Company), Will King (From the Water, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Heretics, Certified Michael Chekhov technique teacher G.L.M.C.C.), Claire Shenstone-Harris (Smokeville, Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Bridge, Sick, MFA at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School), Gordon Harper (I Love You and It Hurts, Criminal Genius, Apprenticeship, The Boys, HBO's Station Eleven), and Diana Del Rosario (Prison Dancer at the National Arts Centre and Citadel Theatre, The Halcyon with The Reverie Playhouse, and Spring Awakening). 

Calvin Petersen (our Director), is a performer, director and clown from Aotearoa (New Zealand). He trained at Toi Whakaari: The New Zealand Drama School, where he earned his Masters (MTA: Directing) with a focus in creating collaborative devised theatre. As director, his credits include; DOGS, a clown-run secret eating society, A Smidge of Pidge, a one-pigeon show about an existential crisis, and txt if you get lost, a 70 minute non-stop poetic party. Calvin has directed alongside Mitchell Cushman on Hand to God at the Coal Mine Theatre and alongside Kendra Jones on I, Malvolio in the Toronto Fringe. He directed the premiere of Dead Broke at the 2022 Toronto Fringe, and has spent the last two years between Canada where he directed Goodbye Esther, a Clown saga about the end, and Germany where he directed 6 touring productions including The Comedy of Errors, and Romeo and Juliet.

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