Nightwood Theatre Presents I LOVE THE SMELL OF GASOLINE

Nightwood Theatre will present Pencil Kit Productions' I love the smell of gasoline with support from Aluna Theatre at Aki Studio, March 8-19, 2023. Overhead projection meets performative research essay meets personal narrative as Creator-Performer Claren Grosz attempts to reconcile her Alberta oil-industry roots with the current environmental emergency. I love the smell of gasoline was born of a frustration with divisive Canadian politics, rampant hypocrisy, and a lack of team spirit when facing impending doom. What does it really mean to sacrifice and to survive? How can we harness our agency and responsibility in a global crisis?

Claren Grosz (she/her) is a Toronto based theatre and visual artist. She is also the Artistic Director of Pencil Kit Productions, a company dedicated to generating new work. Her theatre practice focuses on physical, visually compelling work and collaborative, alternative theatre making processes. She is the recipient of the 2018 Ken MacDougall Emerging Director Award and the 2015 My Entertainment World Outstanding Direction (Small Theatre) Award.

Grosz shares, "This work has allowed me to bring together so many different parts of my life. Designing the projections means I get to show up as a visual artist. Analyzing statistics and research means I get to draw on my background as a math and science tutor. And I get to talk about Alberta! This play is a very fraught and complicated love letter to my home province."

Nightwood Theatre's Artistic Director, Andrea Donaldson says, "I love the smell of gasoline is a vividly handcrafted work that not only interrogates the impact of fossil fuel but more interestingly, of an assumed left leaning perspective on the complex conundrum of consumption. Drawing on both facts of science and facts of the heart, this show offers an unparalleled opportunity for audiences to loosen their grip on a 'stance' to welcome complexity, hope and togetherness as we face the unknown."

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