THE ART OF BUILDING A BUNKER, THE DAISY THEATRE and More Set for Factory Theatre's 45th Season
By: Louisa Brady May. 27, 2014
Factory Theatre Co-Artistic Director's Nina Lee Aquino and Nigel Shawn Williams, and Managing Director, Sara Meurling present the 45th season of Factory Theatre consisting of five Factory premieres: THE ART OF BUILDING A BUNKER, written by Adam Lazarus and Guillermo Verdecchia; TAKE ME BACK TO JEFFERSON an adaptation of William Faulkner's AS I LAY DYING by Dean Gilmour and Michele Smith in collaboration with the company; TWISTED, written by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman and Joseph Jomo Pierre; THE UNPLUGGING written by Yvette Nolan; MORRO AND JASP: 9-5, created and performed by Morro and Jasp; and as a special add-on to the subscription season, the return of THE DAISY THEATRE, created and performed by Ronnie Burkett. BMO Financial Group returns as the 2014-15 45th Season Sponsor.
"There is an exciting energy at the Factory as we celebrate and honour the collaborative spirit between artists and companies that makes our 45th exciting season of work possible," noted Aquino and Williams. "Our 45th season is one of profound partnerships - with new ones and old friends."
THE ART OF BUILDING A BUNKER
October 11 - November 2, 2014
Main Stage
A Factory Theatre and Quiptake partnership
The season will launch with the Main Stage premiere of the Summerworks hit, THE ART OF BUILDING A BUNKER, written and performed by Adam Lazarus and written and directed Guillermo Verdecchia. A play about sensitivity training that is anything but sensitive, THE ART OF BUILDING A BUNKER is a viciously funny and tragic story recounting an average week in the life of Elvis as he endures mandatory workplace sensitivity training.
Adam Lazarus is an award-winning actor and director, faculty at The National Theatre School of Canada, and the Artistic Director of the Toronto Festival of Clowns. 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, a four-time winner of the Chalmers Canadian Play Award, and he is a Resident Artist with Soulpepper Theatre where he heads New Play Development.
TAKE ME BACK TO JEFFERSON
An adaptation of William Faulkner's AS I LAY DYING
November 5-23, 2014
Main Stage
Theatre Smith-Gilmour in association with Factory Theatre
Theatre Smith-Gilmour returns to the Factory Main Stage with the Dora-nominated smash hit TAKE ME BACK TO JEFFERSON, an adaptation of William Faulkner's AS I LAY DYING by Michele Smith and Dean Gilmour in collaboration with the company. This vibrant production utilizes multiple narrators on a bare stage and the powerful movement-based physical theatre of Theatre Smith-Gilmour, Canada's masters of the genre, to chronicle the Bundren family's odyssey across the Mississippi countryside. A darkly comic adaptation of Faulkner's Southern gothic novel, the family reveals their foibles and follies while chronicling the journey, which is marked by flood and fire and family discord.
For over 30 years, the artistic process has been at the heart of every aspect of Theatre-Smith Gilmour's operations. Pioneers in Canada of a unique physical theatre with text, their highly-esteemed, Dora-Award winning body of work is known for its compassionate vision of the human condition. They have created 33 shows, 18 of which were original plays, toured across Canada several times and to 14 countries around the world, and were invited to perform their critically-acclaimed Chekhov Shorts at the Chekhov International Theatre Festival in Moscow.
TWISTED
January 31- February 22, 2015
Main Stage
Factory Theatre down with b current
Factory Theatre presents the world premiere of TWISTED written by two of Toronto's hottest young playwrights, Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman and Joseph Jomo Pierre. In a modern day re-imagining of Dickens' classic, Oliver Twist, directed by Factory Theatre's Nigel Shawn Williams, Ollie and Nance struggle to survive on the unforgiving streets of Toronto. This two-hander is told boldly, brutally and beautifully, with Jane-Finch and Regent Park as the backdrop, and references from Lionel Bart's 1960 musical artfully woven throughout.
Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman has written for theatre, radio, film and television including the Herman Voaden Award-winning and Dora Award nominee, Scratch. Joseph Jomo Pierre is a Trinidadian-Canadian actor, playwright and self-proclaimed child of hip-hop, and best known for his 2013 play Shakespeare's Nigga. Nigel Shawn Williams is a four-time Dora Award-Winner, with such directing credits as Brothel #9 and Bingo! at Factory Theatre, and Canadian Stage's upcoming As You Like It. b current is the hotbed for culturally rooted theatre development in the Toronto area, and over the past 23 years, b current has created space for diverse voices to be seen and heard.
THE UNPLUGGING
March 14 - April 5, 2015
Main Stage
A Factory Theatre and Native Earth Performing Arts Partnership
THE UNPLUGGING, written by Yvette Nolan and directed by Factory Theatre's Nina Lee Aquino, won the 2013 Jessie Award for Outstanding New Play. Cast out of their community for being too old to contribute to a post-apocalyptic society, two aging aboriginal women are forced to begin a new life, living off the land as their ancestors had done long before them. As the duo begin to settle into their new existence, they encounter a young man whose sudden appearance is anything but coincidental.
Yvette Nolan is a playwright, dramaturge and director and former Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts (2003 - 2011). Her many plays include BLADE, Job's Wife and Annie Mae's Movement. Nina Lee Aquino is an award-winning director, dramaturge and playwright. She was the former Artistic Director of fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company and Cahoots Theatre Company and is the editor of Canada's first Asian-Canadian 2-volume drama anthology "love + relasianships" (Playwrights Canada Press). Founded in 1982, Native Earth Performing Arts is Canada's oldest professional Native theatre company dedicated to creating and producing Indigenous performance. Native Earth has been instrumental in the development of a community of artists and of several Aboriginal classics by Daniel David Moses, Tomson Highway, Drew Hayden Taylor and Margo Kane.
MORRO AND JASP: 9-5
May 5-24, 2015
Studio Theatre
Factory Theatre in conspiracy with U.N.I.T. Productions
DANGER: Clowns at Work! Morro and Jasp are hard at work . . . or at least they would be if someone would hire them. 2013-14 Factory Theatre Clowns-in-Residence, Morro and Jasp are all grown up and ready to enter the workforce! In their past eight shows, Morro and Jasp have experienced the pain of growing up (Puberty), have explored their sexuality (Gone Wild), learned about the importance of family (Go Bake Yourself) and suffered existential angst (Of Mice and Morro and Jasp); now, finally, it's time to embrace maturity. The clowns, despite high expectations, have questionable credentials and eccentric interpersonal skills. But this will not prevent them from finding work as temps, interns, wage slaves and white-collar cogs on Bay Street. MORRO AND JASP: 9-5, created and performed by Heather Marie Annis and Amy Lee, and directed and dramaturged by Byron Laviolette, promises to be their most labour-intensive adventure yet!
Up your Nose and In your Toes (U.N.I.T.) Productions, founded by Heather Marie Annis (Morro), Amy Lee (Jasp) and Byron Laviolette, is a non-profit theatre company dedicated to breaking social norms and identifying the flaws that society works hard to cover up. Through energetic and unapologetic work they seek to help people rediscover joy, truth and creativity, not as a passing moment but as an important part of everyday life. Morro and Jasp have performed in numerous cities including Toronto, Halifax, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Montreal and New York City and recently published their cookbook "Eat Your Heart Out" with Tightrope Books.
THE DAISY THEATRE
March 18 - April 5, 2015
Studio Theatre
Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes
This production includes mature content. Suitable for audiences 16+
Since its premiere at the 2013 Luminato Festival, Ronnie Burkett's THE DAISY THEATRE has played to thousands, including a sold-out run at Factory Theatre later in the same year. Audiences and critics alike have fallen in love with the ridiculous, tender and outrageous antics of Daisy Theatre favorites Esme Massengill, Mrs. Edna Rural and beloved fairy child Schnitzel. This season, new characters such as lounge singer Rosemary Focaccia, marionette ventriloquist Meyer Lemon, and the filthiest lesser royal ever to hit the stage join THE DAISY THEATRE's ever-growing cast. This is Ronnie Burkett unleashed and unscripted, manipulating and voicing his characters through variety acts, impromptu monologues, musical numbers and audience participation.
Ronnie Burkett is one of Canada's most celebrated theatre artists. He founded the Theatre of Marionettes in 1986 and has produced some of the world's most evocative and elaborate puppetry, garnering him the 2009 Siminovitch Prize in Theatre and a Village Voice OBIE Award. His productions include Penny Plain, Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy, Ten Days on Earth, Provenance, and the acclaimed "Memory Dress Trilogy" of Tinka's New Dress, Street of Blood and Happy. Burkett's work has been described as "profoundly eerie, strange and strangely beautiful" and "more camp than a boy scout's tent".
For more information call 416.504.9971 or click on www.factorytheatre.ca
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