SummerWorks Performance Festival

Q&A: Lac/Athabasca

Lauren Gillett — Sat, 08 Aug 2015 00:57:54 +0000

Subtitle:

Len Falkenstein talks about the real-life tragedy behind his play at SummerWorks Performance Festival

Headline:

Interview

Credits:

Presented by Theatre Free Radical
Written and directed by Len Falkenstein

Inspired by the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster, Theatre New Radical's Lac/Athabasca interconnects stories of lives lived and lost on rivers and railways across Canada: a pair of nineteenth-century fur traders pursued by an unseen terror along Alberta’s Athabasca River; two scientists studying fish kills and cancer rates downstream from the oil sands; and the residents of a small town united in grief after an entirely preventable disaster.

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Show Dates:

Thu, 2015-08-06 - Sat, 2015-08-15

Theatre:

Theatre Passe Muraille

2015 SummerWorks Performance Festival

Lauren Gillett — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 01:51:31 +0000

Subtitle:

Six theatre productions to see at the 2015 SummerWorks Performance Festival

Headline:

Preview

SummerWorks is back! Canada's largest juried and curated performance festival takes over Toronto for 11 days from August 6 to 16, with more than 50 productions and performances happening all over the city. This year's edition– SummerWorks 25 – marks the organization’s 25th anniversary.

Here, we list six shows that caught our eye in the theatre category this year.

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Show Dates:

Thu, 2015-08-06 - Sun, 2015-08-16

And Now, The End

Lauren Gillett — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 04:00:00 +0000

Subtitle:

Apocalypse looms in this darkly moving musical at the SummerWorks Performance Festival

Headline:

SummerWorks Performance Festival

Credits:

Presented by Ante Up Productions
Written by Victoria Houser, Emily Nixon, Drew O'Hara, Zach Parkhurst and Jake Vanderham
Music and lyrics by Jake Vanderham
Directed by Esther Jun

Now playing at the SummerWorks Performance Festival, the group-written musical And Now, The End tells the story of a Canadian town awaiting certain death as an approaching astroid threatens to obliterate Earth.

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Show Dates:

Thu, 2014-08-07 - Sun, 2014-08-17

Theatre:

Theatre Passe Muraille

YARN

Lauren Gillett — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 04:00:00 +0000

Subtitle:

Alex Eddington unravels his soul in this offbeat solo show at SummerWorks

Headline:

SummerWorks Performance Festival

Credits:

Written composed and performed by Alex Eddington
Direction and dramaturgy by Tyler Seguin

Superstition and sheep collide in Alex Eddington's YARN, a tale of sacrifice and self discovery now playing at The Majlis Art Garden as part of the SummerWorks Performance Festival. Using an arrray of instruments and props, the charismatic Eddington tells the story of a long and lonely summer spent working in a hotel on the Scottish Isle of Mull. He hopes the craggy landscape will inspire an operatic masterpiece...if only he could silence the bleating voice in his head.

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Stars:

3.5

Show Dates:

Thu, 2014-08-07 - Sun, 2014-08-17

SummerWorks 2014

Lauren Gillett — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 01:09:05 +0000

Subtitle:

5 shows to watch this at this year's SummerWorks Performance Festival

Headline:

Preview

Launched in 1991, the SummerWorks Performance Festival is the largest juried and curated performance festival in Canada. This year's event runs from August 7 to 17 at venues across the city.

Images:

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Show Dates:

Thu, 2014-08-07 - Sun, 2014-08-17

2013 SummerWorks Performance Festival: Delicacy

Lauren Gillett — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Subtitle:

Theatre Brouhaha serves up more savory satire at SummerWorks

Headline:

Review

Credits:

Presented by Theatre Brouhaha
Written and directed by Kat Sandler

A wealthy Yorkville couple invite a pair of young swingers to their condo after an exciting encounter at a sex club in Kat Sandler's Delicacy, an irresistibly funny four-hander now on stage at the Lower Ossington Theatre as part of the SummerWorks Performance Festival.

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Stars:

Show Dates:

Thu, 2013-08-08 - Sat, 2013-08-17

Theatre:

Lower Ossington Theatre

2013 SummerWorks Performance Festival: Murderers Confess At Christmastime

Lauren Gillett — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Subtitle:

Outside The March explores the dark side of the holidays with the world premiere of Jason Chinn's wicked new play

Headline:

Review

Credits:

Presented by Outside The March in co-production with The Serial Collective
Written by Jason Chinn
Directed by Simon Bloom

Sinister secrets come out to play in Jason Chinn's Murderers Confess at Christmastime, now on stage at the Lower Ossington Theatre as part of this year's SummerWorks Performance Festival.

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Stars:

Show Dates:

Thu, 2013-08-08 - Sat, 2013-08-17

Theatre:

Lower Ossington Theatre

2013 SummerWorks Performance Festival: This Wide Night

Victoria Bégin — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 11:52:22 +0000

Subtitle:

Freedom is fleeting in Chloe Moss's arresting two-hander

Headline:

Review

Credits:

Presented by Wide Night Collective
Written by Chloe Moss
Directed by Kelli Fox

Serving a prison sentence requires adaptability to surroundings, fellow inmates, and daily routines, leaving the past “normalcy” of the outside world behind. However, once the inmate is released back into that outside world, they often realize that they are still captives, regarded as “other” in a society they no longer recognize.

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Victoria Bégin — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Subtitle:

Birdtown and Swanville’s Dumbo Squid offers an unsettling glimpse into psychopathic minds

Headline:

Review

Credits:

Presented by Birdtown and Swanville
Written by Aurora Stewart de Pena
Directed by Charlotte Gowdy

A filthy old couch and a flickering overhead light set the stage upon which violent, dark and disturbing themes take place. Now playing as part of this year’s SummerWorks Performance Festival, Dumbo Squid is a bold, gritty drama centered around a passionate, yet vicious relationship and the terrible consequences that ensue.

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SummerWorks 2012: Dutchman

Lauren Gillett — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Subtitle:

Tolerance takes a backseat in lemonTree creations’ uniquely staged production

Headline:

Review

Credits:

Presented by lemonTree theatre creations
Written by Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)
Directed by Sabryn Rock

Racism comes in the shape of a femme fatale in Amiri Baraka’s 1964 play Dutchman, the latest production by Toronto-based lemonTree creations, now playing as part of the 2012 SummerWorks Performance Festival. Performed in an old bus parked at 15A Ossington Avenue, this emotional rollercoaster of a show explores a shocking encounter between an unassuming young black man, Clay (the charismatic Peyson Rock), and an alluring white seductress (a beguiling Sascha Cole).

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Show Dates:

Wed, 2012-08-15 - Fri, 2012-08-17