Factory Theatre Presents 2020-2021 Season, THE SATELLITE SEASON: CANADIAN STORIES IN ORBIT

FACTORY THEATRE, Toronto's vibrant centre of cutting-edge Canadian theatre, has just announced its 2020-2021 Season, THE SATELLITE SEASON: CANADIAN STORIES IN ORBIT. Presented by Artistic Director Nina Lee Aquino and Managing Director Jonathan Heppner, FACTORY will have a full season of new and reimagined works that will continue to support Canadian artists across the country. In addition, admission for this season will be entirely free of charge, thanks to the support of the TD Bank Group.

20/21 SEASON SHOWS:

an act of faith

by David Yee and directed by Nina Lee Aquino

World Premiere

November 19 - 28, 2020

Streamed live for 6 performances from the Factory Theatre Rehearsal Hall

YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE

5 World Premieres

Beginning March 2021

Audio series will release one episode per week for 5 weeks

THROUGH THE EYES

by Don Druick and directed by ahdri zhina mandiela

April 29 - May 8, 2021

Streamed live for 6 performances from the Factory Studio Theatre

Featuring six world premieres and one reimagined Canadian classic, this entirely digital season offers uncompromising Canadian stories that embrace and reimagine how theatre is performed in the COVID-19 era.

"The world as we know it has changed. It continues to change, and theatre is no different. Although we cannot gather the way we are used to, Canadian stories are resilient and enduring. As theatre artists, we are trained to respond to challenges with opportunities, with new ways of sharing, shaping, and receiving stories. At the heart of this all-digital season is our commitment to storytelling: no matter how it's told, a good, compelling story will always transform, heal, reconcile, illuminate." - Nina Lee Aquino, Artistic Director

FACTORY kicks off the Satellite Season in November with a commissioned world premiere of David Yee's an act of faith, directed by Nina Lee Aquino. A solo piece specifically designed to be presented online, Yee brings his trademark command of language and form to a theatrical experience that meets our current moment. Presented live for 6 performances, an act of faith is an intimate work of live digital performance from one of Canada's most significant playwrights. David Yee is a mixed race actor and playwright, born and raised in Toronto. He is the co-founding Artistic Director of fu-GEN Theatre Company, Canada's premiere professional Asian Canadian theatre company. A Dora Mavor Moore Award nominated actor and playwright, his work has been produced internationally and at home, including the World Premiere of acquiesce which debuted on the Factory stage in 2016. He is a two-time Governor General's Literary Award nominee for his plays lady in the red dress and carried away on the crest of a wave, which won the award in 2015 along with the Carol Bolt Award in 2013.

FACTORY begins the new year with the launch of a new audio series, YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE, to be released as a pre-recorded podcast over the course of five weeks beginning March 2021. For many of us, the pandemic has altered our understanding of place and our relationship to the city. These five micro-commissions will offer fresh perspectives on Toronto's many neighbourhoods, forgotten landscapes, and help see the land on which we live and work anew. Vivid audio experiences from five of our country's most creative minds, audiences can listen to them from the comfort of their own rooms or journey on an urban exploration of their own.

FACTORY will close the Satellite Season with a radical new interpretation of Don Druick's critically acclaimed tour de force solo show, THROUGH THE EYES, directed by ahdri zhina mandiela. Produced in the Factory Studio, this production will be live streamed for 6 nights to audiences at home. THROUGH THE EYES is a play about seeing: about new ways of looking at the world, about how we tell stories, and how we see our places within them. Don Druick is a distinguished playwright and baroque flautist. His plays and translations have been produced on stage and radio throughout Canada, and in Europe, Japan, and the USA. Previous works include Recipe for Murder (CBC), The Frozen Deep, Tulip (Nightswimming Theatre), and Lizzie Stratas (Grand Theatre). His award-winning plays Where is Kabuki? and Through the Eyes were both shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award.

This upcoming season will be presented entirely free of charge to audiences across Canada thanks to support from the TD Bank Group. Through the TD Ready Commitment, the bank's global corporate citizenship platform, this support helps enable opportunities for cultural and community connection in a time of social isolation and other hardships presented by COVID-19. With this recent support for the 2020-21 Season, Factory and TD continue to uplift a national cultural dialogue by offering free artistic programming for Canadians from coast to coast and beyond. TD has worked with Factory for a decade to bring Canadian theatre to Toronto audiences, most recently as the founding sponsor of the CrossCurrents Canada presentation series which in two years has brought seven award winning productions from across Canada to Factory's stages.

"This season, you may not be able to be with us in our home at Adelaide and Bathurst, but we're making damn sure that the Factory you know and love comes to you. Whether live-streamed or podcasted, we're preparing for this orbit around the sun and asking you to invite us into your homes to bring you the full spectrum of Canadian stories. Until we can connect again in the flesh, let us come to you. This is Factory's Satellite Season: Canadian Stories in Orbit."

- Nina Lee Aquino, Factory Artistic Director

FACTORY presents

The 2020-2021 Season

The Satellite Season: Canadian Stories in Orbit

AN ACT OF FAITH by David Yee

Directed by Nina Lee Aquino

A Factory production | World Premiere

November 19 - 28, 2020

Streamed live for 6 performances

from the Factory Theatre Rehearsal Hall

YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE

A Factory Production | 5 World Premieres

Audio series will release one episode per week

for 5 weeks beginning March 2021

THROUGH THE EYES by Don Druick

Directed by ahdri zhina mandiela

A Factory production

April 29 - May 8, 2021

Streamed live for 6 performances

from the Factory Studio Theatre

Registration for David Yee's an act of faith opens on Monday October 19, 2020 - Audiences will register for performances directly on the Factory Theatre website https://www.factorytheatre.ca/

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