Stageworthy

Now in its 10th year, Stageworthy is Canada’s theatre podcast, bringing you in-depth interviews with theatre artists, panel discussions, and more. Each week, host Phil Rickaby sits down with the people who make theatre happen: from household names to artists you should know. Whether you're an audience member, a theatre maker, or just plain curious about Canadian theatre, Stageworthy offers a front-row seat to the conversations shaping the industry. New episodes every Tuesday.

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May 19, 2020 · 43 min
PlayME Podcast: Laura Mullin & Chris Tolley
Chris Tolley is a writer, director and producer, and the Co-Artistic Director of Expect Theatre. After graduating from York University he teamed up with Laura Mullin, and together they have created award-winning multi-disciplinary productions that have toured across Canada and the US. Chris’ work has been nominated for five Dora Awards in the General Theatre category, and has been shortlisted twice for the Toronto Arts Foundation Awards. In 2006 both Chis and Laura won Harbourfront Centre’s inaugural FreshGround commissioning award. His most notable works include Romeo/Juliet REMIXED (Toronto and Philadelphia), STATIC (World Stage Festival) and AWAKE (Next Stage Festival). Other work with Mullin include the CBC Radio drama, The Tunnel Runners, and the short film, AWAKE. He sits on the Board of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and serves as the Contracts Chair. He is also on a number of other theatre boards. Outside of theatre, Chris is also very active in national politics. In 2015, Chris ran in the federal election as the Green Party’s candidate in Toronto-Danforth, advocating for the cultural issues he is passionate about. His campaign resulted in the best showing for the Green Party in the GTA and surrounding area, and was recognized as one of the strongest campaigns run nationally. Twitter: @christolley Laura Mullin is a playwright, director and producer, and the Co-Artistic Director of Expect Theatre and The Spark Collective. She graduated from York University with a bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre before forming Expect and Spark with Chris Tolley. She has created and produced several highly acclaimed productions with Tolley that have toured nationally and internationally. Selected writing and directing credits: Romeo/Juliet Remixed (5 Dora award nominations, winner of Outstanding Choreography), EXPECT/ Spark; Tunnel Runners, CBC Radio; STATIC, Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage Festival; AWAKE, Next Stage Festival; AWAKE The Short Film; Rapid Eye Movement & To The Kid That I was, Nuit Blanche; One Sleepless Night, International Festival of Authors; Allowance (in development); Burusera, Watermark Theatre (national 21 city tour & to be published in the Playwright’s Guild Short Play Anthology); History of Visual Sources (short story). Awards & Commissions: Toronto Arts Foundation Award (short listed 2009 & 2013); Harbourfront Centre’s inaugural Fresh Ground Commissioning Award; Dora Award nomination for Outstanding Production for Romeo / Juliet Remixed (General Theatre category), Ontario Arts Council’s Creator’s Reserve from Nightwood Theatre (2013) and Crow’s Theatre (2015) for Allowance, Watermark Theatre Commission of Burusera for Canada 300’s national tour (2015). Twitter: @expectlaura PlayME Expect Theatre has created an exciting new initiative that celebrates the best of Canadian Indie Theatre on a national and international scale. The project helps raise the profile of Canadian playwrights by highlighting new works through a series of podcasts, making it accessible to audiences worldwide. PlayME is transforming the way we experience Canadian theatre, by taking a bold and innovative approach to disseminating plays. The podcast features distinguished actors, and focuses on current and relevant scripts geared to the growing “on-demand” audience. Expect’s Artistic Directors, Laura Mullin and Chris Tolley are spearheading this project, in partnership with organizations such as The Toronto Fringe Festival and the Playwrights Guild of Canada. http://www.playmepodcast.com/ https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcasts/arts-culture/playme/ http://expect.org/ Twitter: @expecttheatre
May 12, 2020 · 1 hr
Rebecca Perry & David Kingsmill
Rebecca Perry is a Toronto-based playwright, performer and producer. She has written three solo shows which she tours around the English-speaking world. Her most well-known show, Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl has earned her awards and critical acclaim, has sold out in more than 30 cities worldwide, and was taped in front of a live studio audience for Bell Fibe TV’s On Stage On Demand. Her most recent show, From Judy to Bette: The Stars of Old Hollywood recently featured in the Sudbury Theatre Centre’s 19/20 season, debuting all-new scenography, and the grandest production Rebecca has yet put on. Following a hugely successful run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019, a two-month tour of the UK was booked (currently being rescheduled), and the show is in talks with presenters in Australia and New Zealand. Her work has even had celebrity attendees, including Anthony Rapp and Neil Patrick Harris. She also works in film and TV, and her work can be seen on Amazon Prime (Best Friend from Heaven, Forest Fairies and Fast and Furriest), T+E (Haunted Hospitals), Oxygen (Killer Affair) and Superchannel (Baby in a Manger). She also co-stars in the multi-Canadian Comedy Award-winning web-series A Gay Victorian Affair (YouTube). Twitter: @rebeccaperry21 Instagram: @redheaded_coffeeshop_girl Facebook: facebook.com/confessionsofaredheadedcoffeeshopgirl David Kingsmill hails from London, England, but now lives and works in Toronto. He is a writer, musician and online media producer who has worked on a wide variety of shows and productions. He has travelled all over Canada, England and Scotland with Rebecca Perry Productions, as musician and stage manager. He has composed music for various Shakespeare productions by Dauntless City Theatre in Toronto, and his two-man musical, Out of the Lens, co-written with Nicholas Cave, was featured in Musical Works in Toronto. He created his own superhero for the musical cabaret Mr Millennium: Issue #1 – and even had the character’s origin story drawn up as an 11-page comic! He is established in the board gaming industry, and worked for Snakes & Lattes for over 4.5 years, mainly teaching games. He runs the solo board gaming Twitch stream and podcast Once Upon a Die. Twitter: @uponadiepodcast Instagram: @onceuponadiepodcast
May 5, 2020 · 49 min
Carly Heffernan
Carly Heffernan is an award winning writer, director, actor, show runner and Capricorn. She is an alumna of the Second City Toronto where she wrote and performed in four main stage revues. She became the youngest resident director in Second City Toronto history when she directed the critically acclaimed, main stage hit, Come What Mayhem! She co-wrote, Second City’s Guide to the Symphony, which played such historic venues as Roy Thomson Hall and the John F. Kennedy Center. She also directed the critically acclaimed Second City main stage revue, “The Best is Yet to Come Undone” which was named one of NOW Magazine’s TOP 5 Comedy shows of 2018 and the smash-hit, first ever, all-female Second City sketch revue, SHE THE PEOPLE which has played for three years in Second City Chicago’s UP Theatre as well as enjoyed runs in Boston, Nebraska, Washington D.C. and Toronto. www.carlyheffernan.ca Twitter: @carlyheffernan Instagram: carly.heffernan
Apr 28, 2020 · 35 min
Lucy Eveleigh
Lucy Eveleigh is the Executive Director of the Toronto Fringe Festival, and the President of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals. She has been the Managing Director of the Toronto Fringe, the General Manager for the SummerWorks Performance Festival, and the General Manager of the Pleasance Theatre in London, England. Twitter: @eveleigh_lucy Toronto Fringe https://fringetoronto.com/ Twitter: @Toronto_Fringe
Apr 21, 2020 · 50 min
Franny McCabe-Bennett
Franny is an actor and playwright based in the GTA. She has performed her award-winning original work in Toronto, Hamilton, Oakville, Stratford, Winnipeg MB, Saint John NB and New York City. Franny is also Associate Producer at the Hamilton Fringe, www.frannymcb.com Twitter: @franny_mcb Instagram: franny_mcb
Apr 14, 2020 · 52 min
Michael Ross Albert and Cass Van Wyck
Recorded via live stream: April 7 2020. Michael Ross Albert Michael is the author of several plays including Miss (FringeNYC; Unit 102 Actors Company); The Farmers Lit the Fields on Fire (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); The Grass is Greenest at the Houston Astrodome (FringeNYC, published by Applause in Best American Short Plays 2014-2015); and Karenin’s Anna (Toronto Fringe Festival, “Outstanding New Play,” — NOW Magazine), as well as the 2018 Toronto Fringe hit, Anywhere and the 2019 Fringe hit The Huns, which was to travel to the Brighton Fringe, until that festival was postponed. http://michaelrossalbert.com/ Twitter: @michaelralbert Instagram: michaelralbert Cass Van Wyck Cass is an actor and producer, one of the co-creators of the new works series, Open Open Open, and one of the forces behind Toronto’s Assembly Theatre. Cass was part of the cast of The Huns. Twitter: @classvanwyck Instagram: classvanwyck Please consider supporting The Assembly Theatre. Due to the current mandated closure and the multiple cancellations of shows and events, The Assembly Theatre is taking a significant financial loss and is struggling to stay afloat. This is a very difficult time for all of us societally, and in the arts community, independent theatre is uniquely vulnerable. GoFundMe Link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-assembly-theatre-covid19-help
Apr 7, 2020 · 51 min
Teiya Kasahara
Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野 (they/them) is a queer, gender non-binary multidisciplinary performer/creator, and first-generation Nikkei-Canadian of Japanese and German roots. Recently heralded as “a force of a nature” (Toronto Star) Teiya comes from a background of over 12 years of singing operatic roles across North America and Europe and has recently begun a career in multi-disciplinary theatre creation, acting and artistic leadership. Equally comfortable on the operatic, concert hall or cabaret stage, you can find them singing and making music with or without a microphone, sometimes even with a taiko drum or looping machine. www.teiyakasahara.com Twitter: @teiyakasahara Instagram: teiyakasahara
Mar 31, 2020 · 1 hr 5 min
Maria Wodzinska and Oliver Jane of Goat Howl Theatre
Maria Wodzinska (“she/her”) Maria began her training at Humber College working with physical theatre practices from the Barba, Grotowski and Lecoq tradition. Later inspired by mask and movement workshops in London at LAMDA with Mark Bell, she continued physical theatre studies and graduated from L’ecole Jacques Lecoq in 2015. Concurrently she studied under Pascale Lecoq in the Laboratory of Movement (LEM). LEM focusses on the language of movement of scenic objects, masks, and object manipulation. Additionally, she has worked with Raymond Bobgan of the Cleveland Public Theatre on physical theatre training from the Grotowski tradition. Her current interest is to develop a blended pedagogy from these two traditions, Lecoq and Growoski, and evaluate their possibilities for applied theatre contexts. This is the focus of her Major Research Project for her MA Studies at York University, funded through SSHRC research fellowship. www.mariawodzinska.com Twitter: @Maria_Wodzy Instagram: mariawodzinska Oliver Jane (“they/them”) Oliver is a Toronto based multi-disciplinary artist, devised theatre director, and theatre producer. Canadian-born, US-raised Oliver Jane began creating and producing original works in Philadelphia starting in 2013. Oliver currently resides in Toronto where they dedicate themself to creating immersive installations and theatrical experiences to address the questions that nag Oliver throughout their daily life. To date, Oliver’s work walks a delicate line between clown, dance, performance art, art-installation and ritual experience. In Philadelphia Oliver has presented work part of Between A Boat and Green Place at Bartram’s Garden, Four Weeks in January, FringeArt’s Scratch Night, INVISIBLE RIVER, and SoLow Fest. Original works include The Gathering of the Mother Moth People; an exploration of ritual and spiritual pursuit guided by some widely naïve clowns (1fiftyone Gallery, 2015), and David & Oliver: Mystic Masters; a collaboration with playwright David Jacobi about their collective experiences as students of metaphysics (SoLow Fest, 2016). Oliver has been Assistant Director for a variety of projects with the Pig Iron Theatre Company (www.pigiron.org), including PayUp! (2013), I Promised Myself to Live Faster (2015), and SWAMP is On (2015), and for director Hinako Arao on her project Milky Way. As a performer Oliver has appeared in Surge Protector (MFA Thesis 2016), David & Oliver: Mystic Masters (2016), Mad Forest (d. Alex Torra, 2014), 99 Breakups (Pig Iron Theatre Company, 2014), The West (d. Alex Bechtel, 2013), and Dinner With Madness(Goat Howl, 2018). Oliver graduated summa cum laude from Drew University with a BA in Theatre Studies, and is a graduate of the inaugural class at the Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training and completed a Master’s Degree in Devised Performance at the Pig Iron School/University of the Arts in 2016. www.oliverjane.com Instagram: olivia_oliver_yoga www.goathowl.com Instagram: goathowltheatre Featured Theatre Many theatres and theatre companies that have shut down their productions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of these companies are in desperate need of help to ensure that they can keep their doors open once the current crisis is over, and many are turning to crowdfunding in order to do that. In the coming weeks Stageworthy will highlight some theatres and theatre companies that need your help. Red Sandcastle Theatre The Red Sandcastle is a 50 seat Storefront theatre, in which Anything is Possible! The Red Sandcastle Theatre was created as a place where our theatre community of artists and audiences could get together and share what we do best: tell stories together. Unfortunately, with the COVID-19 outbreak, the Sandcastle has had to shut its doors. The funds will go toward the rent and bills associated with the Red Sandcastle Theatre. GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/life-support-for-the-red-sandcastle-theatre
Mar 24, 2020 · 49 min
Karen Hines
Karen is an award-winning writer, director and performer and the artistic director of Keep Frozen: Pochsy Productions, which develops Hines’ dark comedies for stage and screen. She is the author of Drama: Pilot Episode, Citizen Pochsy, Hello…Hello (A Romantic Satire),Oh, baby and Pochsy’s Lips as well as several short plays and the Neo-Cabaret Pochsy Unplugged, which have been presented across North America and in Germany at venues such as Alberta Theatre Projects, Tarragon Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Joe’s Pub (Public Theatre, NYC), Word Stage, Factory Theatre, Magnetic North, One Yellow Rabbit and Beme Theatre in Munich. Featured Theatre Company Many theatres and theatre companies that have shut down their productions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of these companies are in desperate need of help to ensure that they can keep their doors open once the current crisis is over, and many are turning to crowdfunding in order to do that. In the coming weeks Stageworthy will highlight some companies that need your help. The Assembly Theatre Due to this current mandated closure and the multiple cancellations of shows and events, The Assembly Theatre is taking a significant financial loss and is struggling to stay afloat. This is a very difficult time for all of us societally, and in the arts community, independent theatre is uniquely vulnerable. GoFundMe Link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-assembly-theatre-covid19-help
Mar 17, 2020 · 7 min
The Social Distancing Episode
No guest this week. With all the theatre closings and cancellations, we may see this coming up now and then. instead, some thoughts about social distancing, and more. www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter: @StageworthyPod Instagram: stageworthypod Facebook: https://facebook.com/StageworthyPod
Mar 10, 2020 · 58 min
Steven Vlahos & Jonathan Sconza
Steven Vlahos Steven is an actor/creator based out of Toronto. His mom thinks he’s a really nice guy, but don’t let that fool you, he’s also an infamously known bad boy. He can lift upwards of 30 pounds, but Steven knows that muscles don’t make the man, which is why his only life aspiration is to make all of your dreams come true. He is also a co-founder and associate producer of The Theatre Circuit and one half of Nose Bros Comedy (an improv, sketch and clown duo). Steven attended the Humber Theatre Performance program, and has performed in numerous theatre, tv, and film productions since graduating. You can catch him hosting “Bad Improv” at the Imperial pub or playing different comedy shows in the city with Nose Bros. He was recently seen playing Pratt in Judith Thompson’s new play ,Who Killed Snow White? at 4th Line Theatre. He was also seen as Roy in Brandon Crone’s Turtleneck (Some more theatre credits include: The Last Performance (Nose Bros), Sister Act: The Musical (Lower Ossington Theatre), Inch Of Your Life: Episode One (The Theatre Dept.) . Recent Film and TV: Goodnight Sleep Tight (Evelyn Eleven Prod.) WAYNE (YouTube Premium) Fear Thy Neighbour (Bad Movie Prod.) Murder Wall (Our House Media) 100 Days to Victory (HISTORY channel). Jonathan Sconza Jonathan is a Toronto based performer, voice actor, clown, improvisor and D&D player. He has performed in an award winning production of The Stranger (DLT), has starred in every production of The Secret Sessions Movie Experience since its inception (Anchorman, Casablanca, Shaun of the Dead, The Princess Bride, and Ghostbusters), and played Sam Catelli in the Inch of your Life Trilogy. You can catch him hosting late night comedy shows such as Bad Improv and Beer Beer Comedy Show. He is the co-founder of Nose Bros, a clown, improv and sketch duo. He is also a co-founder and associate producer of The Theatre Circuit (A theatre company devoted to producing new, Toronto-centric work). In addition to his theatre credits, Jonathan has also voiced animated characters in Gary and His Demons, (CBC Comedy) and in Dog and Pony (Discovery Kids) He was a Worlds Biggest Improv Tournament semi-finalist, holds a national gold medal from the Canadian Improv Games, an intermediate actor combatant certificate (with distinction), and a Hnatyshyn Award nomination. Bad Improv April 9, 2020 The Imperial Pub Tickets $5 at the door Doors at 7:30, show at 8 Sign up to play at the door.
Mar 3, 2020 · 48 min
The Negroes Are Congregating
The Negroes Are Congregating (NAC) unapologetically wrestles with deep-rooted internalized racism through the lens of the Western World and the ‘Black experience’ hat stretches far beyond Canada and the United States, and rather a pan-African exploration. The laugh-out-loud piece balances comedy with discomfort, pulling audiences beyond the fourth wall, where everyone is invited to cackle, cry and be still together. Artists; Uche Ama (Female 1), Christopher Bautista (Male 1) and Christopher Parker (Male 2) perform this contemporary piece delivered through a fusion of spoken word, satire, soulful dialect and musical vocals. Audiences will enter a realm of private truths and leave with an understanding of what it means to be Black, proud, and ready. The Negroes are Congregating has already received international acclaim, having been programmed by Théâtre de l’Usine (Geneva, Switzerland); Black Theatre Network Conference (Memphis, TN); Halifax Fringe (Halifax, Nova Scotia); SummerWorks Performance Festival (Toronto, Ontario) and selected ‘Best of The Fest’ Award at The Atlanta Black Theatre Festival (Atlanta, GA). Tickets can be purchased at www.passemuraille.ca. This production is a Theatre Passe Muraille Production in association with Piece of Mine Arts. Created and Directed by Natasha Morris an award winning playwright whose work has been presented in Canada, the United States, and Europe. She is the founder and executive director PIECE OF MINE Arts, a platform for Black play creators to showcase work-in-development, featuring over 150 artists since 2013. Natasha is the recipient of several accolades including SummerWorks’ New Performance Text Award, The Black Canadian Awards’ Leadership Certificate, and the Ontario’s Leading Women Building Communities Certificate. She credits local companies b current, anitafrika dub theatre, and Obsidian Theatre for her invaluable artistic training. The Negroes are Congregating originated out of development and excerpt presentations during the Piece of Mine Festival in 2016 at Toronto’s Palmerston Library Theatre. Troy De Four (Producer) is an award-winning producer whose experience started in regional theatre and is recently producing professional productions. Troy De Four is the executive producer of Scores in The City Musical Productions (Toronto, Ontario). Troy has recently been a participant of Obsidian’s 2018/2019 Playwrights Unit and has received grants from the OAC and CCA for his development of new Canadian libretto’s focused on stories centralizing characters of the black-Canadian and pan-African diaspora. Past producer credits include; Jesus Christ Superstar, The Full Monty, Jekyll & Hyde The Musical, CHESS, TOMMY and more. Uche Ama (Performer – Female 1) is a graduate of the St Clair College Music Theatre Performance program. Some previous credits include; Obeah Opera (Luminato Festival2019), Rosencrantz: Drunk Hamlet (Dauntless City Theatre), Oya/Ahosi/Buffalo: Lukumi: A Dub Opera (Watah Theatre). She is honored to be a part of this production. Christopher Parker (Performer – Male 2) received his Master of Music in Literature & Performance at Western University while studying under renowned Canadian baritone Theodore Baerg. He made is professional debut in the Canadian premiere of Choir-Boy (Centaur Theatre) by Oscar-winning writer Tarrell Alvin McCraney which won Best PACT Production at the 2019 Montreal English Theatre Awards. Since then, he has participated in the workshopping of new productions with Obsidian Theatre, Tapestry Opera, and The Musical Stage Company. Christopher is elated to make his Toronto stage debut in The Negroes are Congregating before flying to Halifax to perform in Billy Elliot (Neptune Theatre) Christopher Paul Bautista (Performer – Male 1) was born in Dallas, Texas. While playing Santa Claus in his kindergarten class, and seeing his Grandmother Shirley look on with a smile, he fell in love with performing. Following September 11th, he joined the military and went on two deployments with the US Marine Corps. Christopher then attended and graduated from the University of Southern California, where he studied English Literature, Theatre, and Film. It was while studying at USC, after attending a performance of Tennesee Williams’ Glass Menagerie that Christopher rekindled his passion with acting. His striking appearance, strong presence, and distinct voice make him a memorable addition to theatre, television, and film productions. Christopher’s recent credits include; Sound and Fury; (Shakespeare in Action), Fences; (Grand Theatre), Timothy Findley’s The Wars; (Grand Theatre). When: Performances run from February 29 to March 14 at 7:30pm, with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00pm Previews: Feb 27 at 7:30pm, Feb 28 at 2:00pm for previews, and every performance has a part-of-show discussion as a part of the 90 minutes. Where: Theatre Passe Muraille (Mainspace Theatre), 16 Ryerson Ave, Toronto, ON Price: Tickets range from $17 – $38, with “pay what you can” options. www.pieceofminearts.com Instagram: pieceofminearts Tickets: https://www.passemuraille.ca/19-20-season-shows/the-negroes-are-congregating/
Feb 25, 2020 · 39 min
Natasha Adiyana Morris
Natasha Adiyana Morris is an award winning playwright whose work has been presented in Canada, the United States, and Europe. She is the founder and executive director PIECE OF MINE Arts, a platform for Black play creators to showcase work-in-development, featuring over 150 artists since 2013. Natasha is the recipient of several accolades including SummerWorks’ New Performance Text Award, The Black Canadian Awards’ Leadership Certificate, and the Ontario’s Leading Women Building Communities Certificate. She credits local companies b current, anitafrika dub theatre, and Obsidian Theatre for her invaluable artistic training. The Negroes are Congregating originated out of development and excerpt presentations during the Piece of Mine Festival in 2016 at Toronto’s Palmerston Library Theatre. The Negroes Are Congregating The Negroes Are Congregating poses an unapologetic and impolite perspective about the ongoing effects of racism in Canada and around the world. Delivered through a fusion of spoken word, satire, and soulful dialect, audiences are invited to experience raw truths up close and personal – leaving them with an understanding of what it means to be Black, proud, and ready. Each performance will include audience discussion. www.pieceofminearts.com Instagram: pieceofminearts Tickets: https://www.passemuraille.ca/19-20-season-shows/the-negroes-are-congregating/ Episode Transcript: https://stageworthypodcast.com/natasha-adiyana-morris/
Feb 18, 2020 · 43 min
Alan Dilworth
Alan Dilworth is a theatre director, playwright and teacher. He is Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company in Toronto. Alan’s work explores personal, social and political transformation, questions of the nature of ‘self’ and its relationship with ‘the other’, and the notion of a contemporary text-based theatre, although he also works in physical and image-based forms. His practice privileges vulnerability, presence, simplicity and the unknown. Alan has directed across Canada and internationally. www.alandilworth.com Twitter: @alandilworth1 The Events by David Greig Music by John Browne Directed by Alan Dilworth Cast: Raven Dauda and Kevin Walker Written in response to the politically motivated mass shootings in Norway, The Events has been described as “…a solemn, searching and ultimately very moving play…” and “ an extraordinary new work…strangely uplifting…”. www.necessaryangel.com Twitter: @necessaryangel Note: in this episode, 2004 is given as the year of Utoya shootings, however this event actually occurred in 2011. Transcript: https://stageworthypodcast.com/alan-dilworth/
Feb 11, 2020 · 56 min
Lauren Allen
Lauren Allen is a theatre artist originally from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Since graduating from Grant MacEwan University in 2013, she has worked across Canada and Europe as an actor, producer, burlesque instructor, stage manager, and director. She has settled in Toronto, for the moment. Most recently she has taken courses to become a script supervisor and will soon be seen again in Saskatchewan for Burn Rubber, Dolly at The Lyric Theatre in Swift Current. Lauren is also a social media marketer, and the creator of Social Media the L.A. Way. lauren-allen.net socialthelaway.com Twitter: @lesmis456 Instagram: lesmis456 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/socialthelaway/ Transcript: https://stageworthypodcast.com/lauren-allen/
Feb 4, 2020 · 1 hr 1 min
Shaista Latif
Shaista Latif is a Queer Afghan-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, consultant and facilitator. Her works and collaborations have been presented by Koffler Gallery, Ontario Scene Festival, SummerWorks, Why Not Theatre, Blackwood Gallery, Mercer Union, the AGO, Halifax Queer Acts Festival, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and recently the Undercurrents Festival. She is a published playwright (Playwrights Canada Press) and voiced the character Soraya in the Oscar-nominated film The Breadwinner. In 2020, Latif will be touring her critically acclaimed show The Archivist around Ontario. Her latest work Learning the Language of My Enemies was recently presented in conjunction with Nevet Yitzhak: WarCraft at the Koffler Gallery. Twitter: @shaista_latif Instagram: shaistalatifmakes How I Learned to Serve Tea A participatory workshop on the politics of capacity and resource sharing, How I Learned to Serve Tea explores dynamics of power through acts of hospitality with artist-facilitator Shaista Latif. “Assessing the language of invitation and hosting, and how it translates into action is how I learned to serve tea. A hyphenated existence, my life is my work, my work is my life. Some people can categorize and separate but those of us who are marginalized can’t afford to do so. Sometimes I wonder if our work has had to evolve into critical interrogation out of necessity? If we lived in a decolonized world what would we be making? Who would we be serving? I think we are all capable and deserving of knowing and living ourselves into these answers. This workshop invites participants to reflect and confront on who gets to have a seat at the table.” – Shaista Latif Tickets: http://progressfestival.org/programming/how-i-learned-to-serve-tea
Jan 28, 2020 · 58 min
Mateo Lewis
Mateo Lewis is a Toronto based actor, writer and composer. His musical, Boys Don’t Cry was performed at the 2019 Toronto Fringe. Twitter: @mateolewis Instagram: mateo.lewis
Jan 21, 2020 · 53 min
Alexander Crowther & Hallie Seline
Alexander Crowther plays Casimir, and Hallie Seline plays Caroline, in The Howland Company’s production of Casimir and Caroline. Casimir just got fired, his phone’s not working and his shoes are falling apart. Caroline wants to dance, sing karaoke, and forget about the weight of the world for just one night. They are engaged… for now. Casimir and Caroline is a play about love in the cold atmosphere of modern capitalism. We follow these ultra star-crossed lovers, as they navigate clingy co-workers, sketchy best friends, questionable HR representatives, the playboy boss, that powerhouse from the Montreal office and those beautiful few who might actually possess an ounce of wisdom. They all desperately long for something more. None of them can say what that might be. But at least their lives look #goals on Instagram. CASIMIR AND CAROLINE, European playwright and novelist Ödön von Horváth’s 1932 tragicomedy, is one of the most frequently staged plays in the modern German repertoire, but until now has never been staged for a North American audience. It seems to be on the mind, however, with its recent shout out in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story (Thank you Adam Driver)! After nearly five years in development, The Howland Company is proud to present the North American premiere of this new adaptation of a modern classic by company member Paolo Santalucia with Dr.Holger Syme and The Howland Company, based on an original translation from German to English by Dr.Holger Syme. The play will be directed by Paolo Santalucia and will run at Crow’s Theatre’s East End arts hub Streetcar Crowsnest this January 14th to February 9th, 2020. More about the Adaptation & Production: Moving from the original beer hall setting in Octoberfest to a glitzy Toronto roof-top corporate party that quickly deteriorates as the drink tickets run out, this new adaptation takes its cue from Horváth’s insistence that the play takes place ‘now’, and explores Horváth’s distanced but faithful, unflinching but sympathetic portrayal of ‘people as they are’ in Toronto 2020. “CASIMIR AND CAROLINE cares little for decorum,” says director Paolo Santalucia, “It relentlessly reminds us that we’ll never be rich enough, happy enough, or important enough to satisfy our desires. And when faced with the disappointment of falling short, it laughs at how outrageously we try to prove everyone otherwise.” Read more about the show here. This 10-person ensemble will feature Howland Company members Alexander Crowther (Pure – CBC/WGN America, The Glass Menagerie – The Grand Theatre), Hallie Seline (The Wolves – Howland Company/Crow’s Theatre, Winner of the Outstanding Ensemble Award – Toronto Theatre Critics Association), James Graham and Cameron Laurie (Punk Rock – Howland Company, Outstanding Ensemble Award – Dora Mavor Moore Award Nominated), joined by six more of Toronto’s most exciting performers: Michael Ayres (Bang Bang – GCTC, What I Call Her – In Association/Crow’s Theatre), Michael Chiem (Asking For It – Thousand Islands Playhouse, A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare in Action), Veronica Hortiguela (NOW Magazine’s Breakthrough Toronto Stage Artist, Dry Land – Cue6 Theatre), Shruti Kothari (Three Seasons at The Stratford Festival), Kimwun Perehinec (The Watershed – Porte Parole/Crow’s Theatre), and Caroline Toal (Selfie, To Kill a Mockingbird – Young People’s Theatre). Rounding out the creative team is award-winning set and costume designer Ken MacKenzie, lighting designer and Howland Company member Jareth Li, with sound design by Jeremy Hutton and original composition by Evan MacKenzie. howlandcompanytheatre.com Twitter: @TheHowlandCo Instagram: thehowlandcompany Tickets: https://tickets.crowstheatre.com/TheatreManager/1/login?event=214
Jan 14, 2020 · 58 min
Amy Lee & Heather Marie Annis
Amy Lee & Heather Marie Annis, along with Byron Laviolette are the creators of the clown duo, Morro and Jasp, presenting Save the Date (directed byByron Laviolette and Kat Sandler) at the 2019 Next Stage Festival. Save the Date Does saying “I Do” to someone new mean saying “I Don’t” to each other? For better or for worse, the sisters have to negotiate what their relationship will look like now that there is a third person in the mix. Can they survive this new chapter of life without the person who has always been by their side? Can they still be Morro and Jasp? www.morroandjasp.com Twitter: @morroandjasp Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morroandjasp/ Youtube: http://youtube.com/morroandjasp Tickets: https://fringetoronto.com/next-stage/show/morro-and-jasp-save-date
Jan 7, 2020 · 46 min
Beatrice Pizano
Beatrice Pizano is one of Canada’s most important Latin-Canadian playwrights and directors. She founded Aluna – Canada’s first Latin theatre company in 2001 and has gone on to win multiple Dora’s, the prestigious John Hirsch Prize for Direction from the Canada Council for the Arts, The Ken McDougall Award for Direction, The Chalmers Fellowship, The Urjo Kareda Award (Tarragon Theatre), and The Metcalf Performing Arts Internship. As a writer/director Bea has been nominated three times for Best New Play for her multi-award-winning trilogy about women and war comprised of For Sale, Madre, and La Comunión. She has also created and led a number of youth programs both in Canada and Colombia including a theatre/photography workshop with ex-combatant children and youth victims from the armed conflict in her native Colombia. In November, she was named one of TD Bank’s Most Influential Hispanic Canadians of 2019. The Solitudes Eight women follow the thread of history and the bloodlines that brought each of them to this land, to this moment in their journeys towards home. Is home a house? Is home a “homeland?” Their offering: eight recipes for transforming our solitudes and an invitation to sit at the table. Inspired by the women of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Solitudes is a provocative, humorous, and visually charged experimental performance that conjures the many forces of separation that have overtaken our lives. This is a protest. This is an act of claiming space. This is a call to action: because a house can be invaded, but home can never be taken away. www.alunatheatre.ca Twitter: @alunatheatre Instagram: alunatheatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlunaTheatre Tickets: https://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/whatson/theatre.cfm?id=10830&festival_id=0