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Nightwood Theatre Announces its 2019/20 Season
By: Stephi Wild Apr. 26, 2019
Artistic Director Kelly Thornton and Managing Director Beth Brown are proud to announce Nightwood Theatre's 2019/20 season. Marking our 40th year as Toronto's preeminent feminist theatre company, we have curated an electric lineup of productions that bravely and playfully examine politics, privilege, power, and progress. Offering up three world premieres born out of creative collaboration from Common Boots Theatre, Aluna Theatre, and Nightwood's own Write from the Hip program, as well as a Toronto premiere from Governor-General Award-nominated playwright, Karen Hines, Nightwood is proud to step into this landmark season with a focus on the future of contemporary Canadian theatre.
Nightwood Theatre's Artistic Director Kelly Thornton says: "I am thrilled to share the announcement of my last season of programming. After 18 years of leading this company and bringing provocative and compelling theatre to the stage, this our 40th anniversary season is a salute to our roots while putting a distinct focus on our future. The theatre of our foremothers was rooted in collective creation as well as challenging the status quo. Shared authorship is a common thread this year, as is work that experiments with form and pushes in content. Our 40th season is an array of work that grapples with our collective history, cautions us on the precarity of our present, and calls us to action for our future. I am humbled by the talent this season represents, both the artists and the partnering companies, and I am so proud to hand the gauntlet to Andrea Donaldson, Nightwood's new Artistic Director, as she carves our path forward with passion and determination."
NIGHTWOOD THEATRE'S 2019/20 SEASON
THE ELECTION
Written by Yolanda Bonnell & Natasha Greenblatt with Jennifer Brewin, Qasim Khan, Anand Rajaram, and Courtenay Stevens
Directed by Jennifer Brewin
Dramaturgy by Yvette Nolan
A Common Boots Theatre Production in association with Nightwood Theatre and Theatre Direct
October 4 - 27, 2019 at Theatre Passe Muraille - Opening on October 8
How do we hold different truths together in the same space?
Following the wildly successful run of The Public Servant, Common Boots Theatre delivers a provocative and hilarious investigation of how Canadians engage in democracy.
In 2015, a group of artists from Ojibwe, Jewish, Polish, Tamil and Pakistani backgrounds, identifying as straight, queer and bi-sexual, infiltrated local elections as volunteers for three major political parties and documented their experiences. Incorporating kaleidoscopic political views as well as questions of Indigenous sovereignty, The Election promises to spark an urgent dialogue just as Canadians are about to take another swing at the ballot box.
Presented by Theatre Passe Muraille with the support of Studio 180 Theatre's IN DEVELOPMENT program.
EVERY DAY SHE ROSE
Written by Andrea Scott and Nick Green
Directed by Andrea Donaldson and Sedina Fiati
A Nightwood Theatre Production
November 23 - December 8, 2019 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre - Opening on November 26
The personal becomes political in this collaboratively created new work from playwrights Andrea Scott and Nick Green. When racial and queer politics collide at the 2016 Toronto Pride parade, two best friends discover that the things that brought them together may now drive them apart. A hilarious and heartbreaking stare-down of privilege and oppression.
THE SOLITUDES
Created and directed by Beatriz Pizano with Lara Arabian, Brefny Caribou, Liliana Suarez Henao, Janis Mayers, Rosalba Martinni, Michelle Polak, Sofia Rodriguez, Rhoma Spencer, and Asha Vijayasingham
An Aluna Theatre Production in association with Nightwood Theatre
January 7 - 26, 2020 at Harbourfront Centre Theatre - Opening on January 9
What if this is how it begins?
Nine women: each is tied through distinct mythologies and life experiences to a Story, a Truth. None of their stories match. Yet they all remain true. Drawing from historical and personal documentation, these figures embody a mythological world where past, present and future exist all at once. Inspired by the women of Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, they unearth and reclaim space for the keeping of memory.
ALL THE LITTLE ANIMALS I HAVE EATEN
Written and directed by Karen Hines
A Nightwood Theatre Production in association with Crow's Theatre
March 24 - April 12, 2020 at Streetcar Crowsnest - Opening on March 26
In the latest of Karen Hines' darkly hilarious comedies, we follow a tender-hearted young server on the most harrowing shift of her life. In the extraordinarily modern bistro of an all-women's condo, our heroine contends with voracious insurance adjustors, literary plagiarists, and indomitable invertebrates. Table talk ranges from real estate to politics to the existential transcendence of lambs - but it's only when the fuzzy ones start to speak that our hero really starts to listen. Governor General nominated, powerhouse playwright of The Pochsy Plays and Crawlspace, Hines serves up a biting meditation on neo-liberalism, consumption, precarity and hope.
THE GROUNDSWELL FESTIVAL: Readings from our 2018/19 Write from the Hip Playwrights program
September 24 - 29, 2019 at Dancemakers Theatre, The Distillery District
Don't miss this week of new Canadian plays from some of the most exciting emerging female-identifying playwrights in the city. The 2018/19 Write from the Hip playwrights are Katherine Gauthier, Anyika Mark, Tabia Lau, Catt Filippov, and Lara Arabian. Visit nightwoodtheatre.net for the full Groundswell Festival schedule in September 2019.
Season Passes (The Election | Every Day She Rose | The Solitudes | All the Little Animals I Have Eaten) $100 (plus HST), or $80 (plus HST) for Under 30, Seniors and Artsworkers - passes are on sale now.
Call Nightwood Theatre at 416-944-1740 ext. 5, or purchase online at nightwoodtheatre.net.
Single Tickets range from PWYC to $40 and will go on sale in Fall 2019.
As Canada's foremost feminist theatre, Nightwood provides an essential home for the creation of extraordinary theatre by women. Founded in 1979, Nightwood Theatre has created and produced award-winning plays, which have won Dora Mavor Moore, Chalmers, Trillium and Governor General's Awards. The company is driven by artistic excellence, advocacy, and the successful training and development of emerging female-identifying talent.
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