Why Not Theatre to Present CONCORD FLORAL

Why Not Theatre presents Suburban Beast's world premiere production of Concord Floral, a new play written by acclaimed young playwright Jordan Tannahill.

Featuring a cast of ten teenagers, Concord Floral is a contemporary adaptation of Giovanni Boccaccio's 14th century allegory The Decameron, set in the suburbs of contemporary Vaughan. Concord Floral previews from October 12, opens October 16 and runs through to October 26 at The Theatre Centre in the Mainspace and is collaboratively directed by Erin Brubacher, Cara Spooner and Jordan Tannahill.

Concord Floral is a million-square foot greenhouse located just above Highway 7 in Vaughan, Ontario. Abandoned for years, it is seen as a scourge by concerned parents in the nearby suburbs. But it is also a hangout and refuge for neighbourhood teens; a place all to themselves in which to throw parties, experiment, dream, dare, and come of age.

As in Boccaccio's original, in which ten youth flee to an abandoned villa when the Black Death sweeps through medieval Florence, ten youth flee to the abandoned greenhouse when a mysterious plague descends upon their neighbourhood. But in Concord Floral, it is a plague they have brought upon themselves.

Inspired by the real-life greenhouse in Vaughan (demolished in 2012), and the ways in which adolescents reclaim abandoned and unused spaces in their suburbs, Tannahill has written a lyrical, choral-driven play for mature audiences performed by ten teenagers.

Over three years in the making, Concord Floral's development has been a collaborative effort between multi-disciplinary artist Erin Brubacher, choreographer/dancer Cara Spooner and playwright Jordan Tannahill.

With work-in-progress showings presented by Canadian Stage (BASH 2012) and Theatre Passe Muraille (Bring the Buzz 2013), the cast of Concord Floral is comprised of participants from the three cohorts of Tarragon Theatre's Spring Training Project, led by Brubacher during her Tarragon tenure, and for which Spooner was a principal artist-teacher.

For this full production premiere, the creative team is enlarged by innovative sound designer Christopher Willes and award-winning lighting designer Kimberly Purtell. The sound design by Willes includes field recordings captured from the former site of the actual Vaughan greenhouse and, in collaboration with the cast members, recordings from their actual homes and bedrooms. The stage manager is Laura Hendrickson.

Much of the diverse young cast hails from far-flung neighbourhoods across the GTA - from Mississauga to Vaughan to Scarborough - and several of them have dedicated the majority of their high school years to the project. While this is their first professional play, many of the cast members are active cultural movers-and-shakers. Theo Gallaro is a rising young (16-year-old) visual artist whose artwork has been exhibited at Toronto's Narwhal Gallery and Buffalo's Albert Knox Museum; Rashida Shaw has become a prolific youth leader in the Toronto theatre community; Liam Sullivan is one half of an electronica duo called NOSEX4U; and Eartha Masek-Kelly is an active concert booker (who will be curating a not-to-be-missed post-show party featuring several young musical acts on October 17).

Coinciding with the production of Concord Floral is a photographic exhibition at The Theatre Centre by Erin Brubacher titled This is my room. Look. In this photo-essay, Brubacher frames the ten teen cast members in their real-life bedrooms, in the details of their personal refuges, all across the neighborhoods of the GTA. Brubacher has long incorporated her performance practice into her photographic work, with projects including Private Commute, a Featured Exhibition for the CONTACT photography festival; and Readers, 70 portraits of people reading in public spaces of the city of Paris.

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