LIZA LIVE! and THE HOMEMAKER to Play Toronto Fringe, July 2013
By: BWW News Desk Jun. 14, 2013
After taking the Next Stage Festival by storm this past January, Jennifer Walls and Laura Anne Harris team up once at for the Toronto Fringe at the Annex Theatre. Two charismatic and enigmatic performers, two dynamic cabarets, starlets Jeni Walls and Laura Anne Harris present their solo shows - Liza Live! and The Homemaker - in one amazing venue.
Following the lives of two different characters in vastly different circumstances - one a familiar face, Liza Minnelli who was born a star; the other, Janet Cardinal, an isolated housewife in Saskatchewan who dreamed of being on stage - both Walls and Harris explore their characters' triumphs, challenges and deep vulnerabilities.
LIZA LIVE! combines music and memories from one of the most dynamic and dysfunctional stars of the past 60 years, bringing you Liza Minnelli like you've never seen her before.
As a professional impersonator and music theatre performer, I became enthralled by Liza's edge and eagerness to, despite personal and physical pain, entertain and engage her audience. Over the last 5 years, I've been evolving an act based on her persona, her songs and her life. Not quite spoof, not quite satire, it's a living autobiography in honour of a woman who from the darkness of her mother's shadow, managed to make a name for herself.
LIZA LIVE! will play the Annex Theatre, 730 Bathurst St, July 8 - 3:15pm July 9 - 10:15pm July 12 - 4:30pm July 13 - 2:15pm. Conceived, performed and produced by Jennifer Walls, featuring Donavon LeNabat and Jamie Bird. Directed by Byron Laviolette with original dramaturgy by Ryan G. Hinds; Stage Managed by Sonia Vaillant, with additional writing by Shane Hollon.
Total Betty Productions was created in 2012 as a platform for LIZA LIVE! at the 2012 Next Stage Theatre Festival. Since the NSTF, LIZA LIVE! has been developed from a 30 minute intimate cabaret to a full hour in a theatre space in the Annex Theatre. After the Fringe, TBP is co-producing Liza and Barbra, Together At Last (featuring Gabi Epstein as Barbra Streisand) with Angelwalk Theatre as part of their Showcase Series at the Toronto Centre For The Arts October 19th.
BIOS:JENNIFER WALLS - "Liza"/Creator/Producer: Jennifer Walls is a Toronto based singer/actor/impersonator/host and producer and a graduate of Sheridan College's Music Theatre Performance program.
As a music theatre performer, Jennifer has enjoyed lead roles in Toronto productions of RENT, Beauty and the Beast, Wizard of Oz and the Canadian premieres of Reefer Madness and High Fidelity as well as the Dora Nominated original musical Off-Broadway, On Stage with Angelwalk Theatre, with whom she is on the Artist Advisory Board. Most recently she reprised her role as Goldilocks in the original Canadian musical Fairy Tale Ending (Best of Fringe 2010, Next Stage Festival 2011) at the Stratford Spring Works Festival. She received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Liza Minnelli in her self- produced one-woman show Liza Live! at this year's Next Stage Festival. Last year Jennifer was part of the team behind The Mission Business' ZED.TO: ByoLogyc (2012 Fringe Tosho Innovation Award, Canadian Digi Award Best Cross Platform Fiction) She has also toured across North America as Miley Cyrus, Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera and Lady Gaga. She can also be seen as Lady Gaga in the John Greyson documentary "Jericho" Jennifer is also a voice actor and the current voice of Garnier Fructis. She can also be heard on a number of cartoons, audiobooks and commercials.
She is the host of SINGular Sensation A Music Theatre Open Night every Monday on Church Street in Toronto with whom she co-produced and hosted "Do You Want What I Have Got A Craigslist Cabaret" with Acting Upstage Theatre Company.
She has also hosted fundraisers and events for a number of Toronto theatre companies including Angelwalk Theatre, Halfpint Theatre, Soupcan Theatre as well as the 12/13 season of Theatre Passe Murielle's CRAPSHOOT. She has also produced The Rocky Horror Show for 2 years for the LOT and Iana Theatr's production of Tweed: A New Canadian Musical.
Currently Jennifer can also be seen in Soupcan Theatre's Love Is A Poverty You Can Sell Two at this year's Toronto Fringe Festival. She will also be co-producing Liza and Barbra, Together At Last in collaboration with Gabi Epstein (as Barbra Steisand) with Angelwalk Theatre at the Toronto Centre for the Arts October 19th, 2013.
BYRON LAVIOLETTE - Director: Byron Laviolette is a Toronto-based director, dramaturg and scholar. The resident director of U.N.I.T. Production, home of the Morro and Jasp clown series he, along with Heather Marie Annis (Morro) and Amy Lee (Jasp) were nominated for three 2012 Dora Mavor Moore Awards (winning the Best Ensemble Award in the Independent Theatre category) as well as over ten NOW Magazine Awards including Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Production and Outstanding Ensemble in the past 4 years.
He is also a founding member of the Mission Business as well as its lead narrative designer. His work with the Mission Business includes ZED.TO, an 8-month pervasive end-of-the-world trans-media story (winner of the Best in Show Award at the 2012 World Future Society's Beta Launch; the Toshio Innovation Award at the 2012 Toronto Fringe and the 2012 Digi Award for Best in Cross Platform Fiction); Visitations, a interactive ghost story developed in partnership with the Drake Hotel; and ByoLogyc: Shadowfall - an immersive innovation simulation which ran this past May at the NASA Ames Research Centre in California, hosted by AutoDesk and Singularity University.
Byron is currently also completing a PhD degree in Theatre Studies at York University, working on a dissertation on Interactive Theatre, During his time at York, he was the president of the Creative Arts Student Association (Fine Arts Student Government) as well as winning the Mira Friedlander Award for Writing and as well as being a multi-time recipient of the Lawrence Heisey Grad Award in Fine Arts. He is also a board member of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association and his criticism/art journalism has appeared in Scene Changes, EYE Weekly, AdBusters and IN Toronto magazine.
DONAVON LENABAT - Music Director/Piano: Donavon LeNabat (http://lenabat.com) is a Toronto-based pianist, accompanist, arranger and piano entertainer. As an accompanist, he has worked with Patricia Hammond, SharRon Matthews, Jenni Burke (Curtains Down) and is the accompanist/assistant director for NewChoir. As an arranger, Donavon has worked almost exclusively with Saccha Dennis to put together an exciting array of material for her two records. Donavon has also spent several years as a member of soul/funk r&b band "Soular", recently leaving to pursue his own musical ambitions as a piano entertainer and leader of his own band, "Jack Squat" (www.jacksquat.ca). As a member of a larger ensemble, he has played for Paquito D'Rivera, Esthero, Jim Cuddy (Blue Rodeo), Greg Keelor (Blue Rodeo), Colin Cripps (Blue Rodeo), Molly Johnson, Oh Susanna, The Tenors (formerly the Canadian Tenors), Ed Robertson (BNL), and in the pit orchestra of Jersey Boys.
JAMIE BIRD - Percussion: Jamie Bird is a professional musical director, drummer, and percussionist from Toronto, and a recent graduate from the University of Western Ontario. Jamie can most often be seen playing the cajon for local Toronto area Cabarets, and plays for SINGular Sensation: A Musical theatre open mic, among other things. Jamie has been involved in numerous musicals Sweeney Todd, Les Miserables and most recently Little Shop Of Horrors.
SONIA VAILLANT - Stage Manger: Sonia was born in Ottawa but grew up calling all of Canada and the US her home as she spent her childhood traveling with her family. After surviving a lifetime of sibling rivalry and the social awkwardness of high school, Sonia moved to Guelph where she complete a BAH in Theatre Studies. She now lives in Toronto with her loving girlfriend and spends the majority of her time playing outside, writing, and stage managing for the incredible people she is grateful to consider friends. She'd like to personally thank you for supporting Liza Live! and helping her live the dream.
SHANE HOLLON - Writer: Shane Hollon is an aspiring Canadian author, playwright and actor. Born and raised in Toronto, Shane has been active in the theatre community for most of his life. He studied Theatre at Unionville High School, known for it's Arts-intensive focus. He studied Creative Ensemble Theatre at York University (2006-2009), where he wrote and performed several short pieces. His most-notable projects to date have been The Mission Business' [ZED.TO], co-writing with Byron Laviolette to help shape the "ByoLogyc" universe; and The Mission Business' Visitations at The Drake Hotel. Kirkham in the 8-month long ByoLogyc narrative in performance and online.
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