Tricks and Treats Coming to Crow's Theatre This Halloween!

Crow's Theatre has a magical Halloween planned for lovers of the macabre and of the theatre!

For the first time, Crow's will open the "rehearsal hall" to audiences, inviting them to be a part of the development of new large-scale works. The first of two Crow's Theatre Public Workshop presentations is MASTER AND MARGARITA, A New Musical Adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's famously banned novel The Master and Margarita. Hailey Gillis (Ghost Quartet, Crow's Theatre; Onegin, The Musical Stage Company) returns to Crow's Theatre with collaborators Mikaela Davies (The Changeling, Stratford Festival; Miss Bennett, The Citadel Theatre), and Polly Phokeev (Seams, Summerworks Festival; How We Are, a site-specific work staged in private bedrooms) for an evening of magic, music, and demons.

A hugely resonant work of magic realism is set in motion by an act of divine intervention when the devil and his crew arrive in 1930s Moscow to upend the Soviet bureaucracy under Stalin. The Master, author of an unpublished novel about Jesus and Pontius Pilate, languishes in a psychiatric hospital. Margarita, the Master's devoted lover, agrees to sell her soul to the devil to rescue him from his dire fate. MASTER AND MARGARITA is an evocation of the human instinct to fight for love, to fight for connection, and to fight for freedom, even in the face of hate, censorship, and subjugation.

Written by Polly Phokeev, composed by Hailey Gillis, and directed by Mikaela Davies; the supersize cast of MASTER AND MARGARITA features Ali Momen as Master, Sara Farb as Margarita, Robert Persichini as Pilate, Jonathon Young as Woland plus Krystina Bojanowski, Michelle Bouey, Fallon Bowman, Eric Da Costa, Donna Garner, Jefferson Guzman, Dominique Leblanc, and Andre Morin, with music director JamesSmith and arranger Kris Maddigan.

GHOST QUARTET in Concert, an original Crow's Theatre Digital Production of the smash hit stage show featuring the original cast of Beau Dixon, HaileyGillis, Kira Guloien, and Andrew Penner, returns for a special Halloween engagement. A haunted song cycle about love, death, and whisky, four friends sing, drink, and tell stories that span seven centuries in this surreal, chamber musical of murder ballads, doo-wop, jazz noise, and a purgatorial intermezzo.

MASTER AND MARGARITA runs for three performances only, October 28, 29, 30, 2021 at 8 pm in the Guloien Theatre, Streetcar Crowsnest. All tickets $25.

GHOST QUARTET screens for three performances only, October 29, 30, 31 at 8:30 pm. All tickets $20.

Currently on stage, real and virtual; Cliff Cardinal's radically retelling of AS YOU LIKE IT has been extended twice, and is now on stage until October 24. The title AS YOU LIKE IT holds a double meaning that famously teases, this is a play to please all tastes. For this world premiere, cultural provocateur Cliff Cardinal has promised to do something just like that.

Two new works from Crow's Theatre's 2021 Digital Residency have received their world premieres as part of #BMOVirtualStage and continue to stream this month. A theatrical, filmed production with new work from composers Cecilia Livingston and Donna McKevitt, GARDEN OF VANISHED PLEASURES is drawn from the journals of English artist and queer rights activist Derek Jarman, devised and directed by Tim Albery, and runs until October 10. MISTATIM is a story of reconciliation for children and their families about taming a wild horse and the truest of friendships, conceived and directed by Sandra Laronde and written by Erin Shields and runs until October 17. All Virtual Stage tickets $20.

The Lobby Bar in Crowsnest Corner continues to run Wednesday to Saturday each week with Toronto's finest musicians and performers from all genres. Concerts begin post-live-show at approximately 9:30pm and there is no cover.

The week of October 13, The Lobby Bar will be hosting Kensington Market Jazz Festival in Residence at Crowsnest Corner for four special concerts with Joe Sealy & Dave Young, Amanda Tosoff & Jon Maharaj, Billy Newton-Davis & Stu Harrison, and Robi Botos & Mike Downes.

October 2021 at Crow's Theatre

AS YOU LIKE IT

A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal

A Crow's Theatre Production

Guloien Theatre, Streetcar Crowsnest

September 22 to October 24, 2021 (new dates)

Tuesday to Saturday 8 pm

Saturday, Sunday 2 pm

MASTER AND MARGARITA

A New Musical Adaptation

Created by Mikaela Davies, Hailey Gillis, Polly Phokeev

Based on the novel The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

A Crow's Theatre Public Workshop Presentation

Guloien Theatre, Streetcar Crowsnest

October 28, 29, 30, 2021 at 8 pm

GHOST QUARTET

Written and Composed by Dave Malloy

Directed by Marie Farsi

A Crow's Theatre Digital Production

> Screening October 29, 30, 31, 2021 at 8:30 pm

GARDEN OF VANISHED PLEASURES

Devised and Directed by Tim Albery

Part of Soundstreams' 2021 Digital Residency at Crow's Theatre

> Screening September 23 to October 10, 2021 (dark on Monday) at 8pm

MISTATIM

Conceived and Directed by Sandra Laronde

Written by Erin Shields

Part of Red Sky Performance's 2021 Digital Residency at Crow's Theatre

> Screening September 30 to October 17, 2021 (dark on Monday) at 8:30 pm

As Streetcar Crowsnest welcomes back audiences, Crow's Theatre's commitment to the health and safety of every patron, artist, and employee is paramount. All patrons who visit Streetcar Crowsnest must provide proof of vaccination to enter the building. Everyone inside the building and the Guloien Theatre must wear a mask at all times, unless eating or drinking while seated in the lobby or on the patio. Food and drink is not permitted in the theatre.

Learn more at crowstheatre.com.

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