Factory Theatre to Open Season with THE ART OF BUILDING A BUNKER

Factory Theatre launches its 45th season with the main stage world premiere of THE ART OF BUILDING A BUNKER in partnership with QuipTake. This one-man tour-de-force is co-written and directed by Guillermo Verdecchia and co-written and starring Adam Lazarus. First seen in 2013 at SummerWorks Festival, the show was heralded by Torontoist.com, The Grid, BlogTO and Artvox.ca as one of the best of the Festival, as well as named Best of the Fest for Outstanding Production, Performance and Direction by NOW Magazine.

THE ART OF BUILDING A BUNKER is a viciously funny and tragic story recounting a week in the life of your average Elvis as he endures mandatory workplace sensitivity training. Elvis finds himself surrounded by a group of characters that is diversely bizarre and bizarrely diverse, all portrayed by Adam Lazarus with a sharp wit and comic genius. THE ART OF BUILDING A BUNKER is an equal opportunity satire where nothing is sacred and no one is spared.

Guillermo Verdecchia is a director, playwright, dramaturge, and reluctant actor. He is the recipient of the Governor-General's Award for Drama for his play Fronteras Americanas and a four-time winner of the Chalmers Canadian Play Award. His work, which includes the Governor General shortlisted Noam Chomsky Lectures (with Daniel Brooks), the Adventures of Ali & Ali (with Marcus Youssef and Camyar Chai), and Another Country, has been anthologized, translated into Spanish and Italian, and produced in Europe and the US. He is a Resident Artist at Soulpepper where he heads New Play Development.

Adam Lazarus is an award winning actor, director, and acting instructor and graduate of L'École Phillipe Gaulier. He is faculty at The National Theatre School of Canada and the Artistic Director of the Toronto Festival of Clowns. Notable credits include, The Solo Show Project at the National Theatre School of Canada (2009-13); The Lupe Trilogy (QuipTake); Bleed (QuipTake); [boxhead] (Crow's Theatre/ Mammalian Diving Reflex); Wonderland (QuipTake); Le Fain de Partie (Waves Festival/Luminato Festival); Appetite (Volcano/Theatre Passe Muraille/ Exchange Rate Collective); Tyumen, Then (Groundwater Productions); and Terminus (Outside The March).

QuipTake produces startling new works that engage audiences through bouffon and clown styles. Often heralded as political meets comic, the works of QuipTake are challenging, entertaining and relevant. THE ART OF BUILDING A BUNKER is a Factory Theatre and QuipTake partnership.