SEVENTY COMPANIES, TWELVE READINGS, ONE CAUSE

Toronto, ON (Friday July 15, 2011) – In just over a week, a fundraiser that began with an open letter and a half dozen companies has grown to over seventy companies and a dozen readings across Canada in support of the SummerWorks Theatre Festival. The organization recently learned that it did not receive a major grant it had applied for, leaving a 20% budgetary shortfall to make up less than a month before the 2011 Festival opens.

Inspired by the initial show of support from Western Edge Theatre, theatre companies nationwide are donating time, space and talent and are inviting other theatre companies across Canada to sign on as producers as well, with staged readings as fundraisers scheduled on the same day, July 15, 2011. Readings are taking place in theatres, bars, parks and studios, with one taking place in the car on the drive home from Hamilton.

To donate, please visit the Summerworks page at Canada Helps

to find more info on Facebook click here

MEDIA
GLOBE AND MAIL
GLOBE AND MAIL guest post
NATIONAL POST
THE RECORD
VANCOUVER SUN
LONDON FREE PRESS
THE MARK
VUE WEEKLY
EDMONTON JOURNAL
BC LOCAL NEWS
BACK OF THE BOOK
THE RECORD

READINGS ACROSS CANADA

NANAIMO ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE
46 Nicol St.
Nanaimo BC

PROGRESS LAB
1422 William Street
Vancouver, BC

NINA HAGGERTY CENTRE FOR THE ARTS STOLLERY GALLERY
11731 93 Street
Edmonton, AB

BERKELEY STREET THEATRE
26 Berkeley St.
Toronto, ON

PALACE THEATRE
710 Dundas St. E
London, ON

THE ROYAL GEORGE THEATRE BAR
Shaw Festival,
Niagara on the Lake, ON

QUEEN’S PARK BANDSHELL
at 5:30 pm
Stratford, ON

THEATRE AQUARIUS
190 King William Street
Hamilton, Ontario

SPEAKERS CORNERS
King & Benton Streets
Kitchener ON

THE IRVING GREENBERG THEATRE CENTRE
1233 Wellington Street West.
Ottawa, ON

DALHOUSIE ARTS CENTRE STUDIO 1
6101 University Avenue
Halifax, NS

THE OLD FIREHALL
1105 1st Ave
Whitehorse, YT

PARTICIPATING/SUPPORTING COMPANIES INCLUDE -updated July 15, 2011

ACTivist Theatre Company (Vancouver BC)
“A Company of Fools”
Aether of Us (Toronto, ON)
Aluna Theatre (Toronto ON)
AlvegoRoot Theatre Company (London ON)
The Arts Club (Vancouver BC)
Blyth Festival (Blyth, ON)
Canadian Stage (Toronto
Channel Surfing Productions (London ON)
Convergence Theatre (Toronto ON)
COPA
Electric Company Theatre (Vancouver BC)
Evolution Theatre
Flush Ink Productions (Kitchener, ON)
Fu-Gen (Toronto ON)
Great Canadian Theatre Company
Gas Station Theatre (Winnipeg ON)
Gruppo Rubato
Gwaandak Theatre (Whitehorse YT)
Headlines Theatre (Vancouver BC)
IATSE Local 58 (Toronto ON)
Inter Arts Matrix
Kaufman Arts Studio
Kitchen Band Productions (Toronto ON)
Lady Remnants Productions
London Fringe Theatre Festival (London ON)
“Mammalian Diving Reflex”:www.mammalian.ca
Mi Casa Theatre
MISCELLANEOUS Productions (Vancouver BC)
Moving Parts Theatre (Whitehorse YT)
MT Space
Nakai Theatre (Whitehorse, YT)
Native Earth (Toronto ON)
New Theatre of Ottawa
Necessary Angel. (Toronto ON)
Neworld Theatre (Vancouver BC)
Nightwood Theatre (Toronto ON)
Northern Light Theatre (Edmonton, AB)
Obsidian Theatre (Toronto ON)
Open Pit (Whitehorse YT)
PAL Studio Theatre BC)
Patrick Street Productions (Vancouver BC)
Palace Theatre (London ON)
Passionfool (London ON)
Playwrights Theatre Centre (Vancouver BC)
Prairie Theatre Exchange (Winnipeg MB)
Praxis Theatre (Toronto ON)
Presentation House Theatre BC
Ramshackle Theatre (Whitehorse YT)
Reaching Symmetry Theatre (Hamilton, ON)
Rock Theatre Co. (Vancouver BC)
Roseneath Theatre (Toronto ON)
Shakespeare in The Ruins (Winnipeg MB)
Soulpepper Theatre (Toronto ON)
Sour Brides Theatre (Whitehorse YT)
Studio 180 Theatre (Toronto ON)
Tarragon Theatre (Toronto ON)
The Coalition of Performing Artists
The MT Space
The Company Theatre (Toronto)
The Room (Toronto ON)
The Irish Repertory Theatre Company of Canada (Toronto ON)
The Shaw Festival (Niagara-on-the Lake ON)
Theatre Projects Manitoba (Winnipeg, MB)
The Theatre Centre (Toronto ON)
Theatre in London (London ON)
Theatre Passe Muraille (Toronto ON)
Touchstone Theatre (Vancouver BC)
urban ink productions (Vancouver BC)
Vancouver Playhouse (Vancouver BC)
Visceral Visions (Vancouver BC)
Winnipeg Jewish Theatre (Winnipeg MB)
Western Edge Theatre (Nanaimo BC)
Whitehorse Theatre Ensemble (Whitehorse YT)
Why Not Theatre (Toronto, ON)
Winterbird Arts (Hamilton ON)
Working Spark Theatre (Vancouver BC)
Workman Arts (Toronto ON)
Young People’s Theatre (Toronto ON)
“Yukon Arts Centre”: http://www.yukonartscentre.com/ (Whitehorse YT)

• 47 days ago

A FUNDRAISER TO BENEFIT THE SUMMERWORKS FESTIVAL

A FUNDRAISER TO BENEFIT THE SUMMERWORKS FESTIVAL
Friday July 15, 2011

Toronto, ON (Thursday July 7, 2011) – Several Toronto theatre companies have begun working collaboratively to host a fundraising event for the SummerWorks Theatre Festival. The organization recently learned that it did not receive a major grant it had applied for, leaving a 20% budgetary shortfall to make up less than a month before the 2011 Festival opens.

Aether of Us, Aluna Theatre, Canadian Stage, IATSE Local 58, Native Earth, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, The Room, The Theatre Centre and Workman Arts are working collaboratively to host a staged reading of Homegrown by Catherine Frid as a fundraising event for SummerWorks. Inspired by the initial show of support from Western Edge Theatre, they are inviting theatre companies across Canada to sign on as producers as well, with staged reading as fundraisers scheduled on the same day.

(Companies listed above were Toronto collaborators at time of release, the current full list of participating companies across Canada is below and will be updated regularly).

Aluna Theatre originally produced Homegrown as part of the 2010 SummerWorks Festival, and it rapidly became one of the most talked about productions of the season.

The reading will be held Friday, July 15th at 8:00 p.m. at the Berkley St Theatre – doors open at 7:20 and admission is Pay What You Can.

“I think it’s fantastic that the theatre community is showing this support for the Festival,” said Michael Rubenfeld, Artistic Director of SummerWorks. “It shows what a valuable place it holds in both the Toronto and national arts scene. We’re very grateful.”

The Summerworks Festival has long been considered a testing ground for new works which are often picked up by larger organizations for longer runs and tours.

To donate, please visit the Summerworks page at Canada Helps

READINGS ACROSS CANADA

NANAIMO ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE
46 Nicol St.
Nanaimo BC

PROGRESS LAB
1422 William Street
Vancouver, BC

BERKELEY STREET THEATRE
26 Berkeley St.
Toronto, ON

PALACE THEATRE
710 Dundas St. E
London, ON

THE ROYAL GEORGE THEATREBAR
Shaw Festival,
Niagara on the Lake, ON

QUEEN’S PARK BENDSHeLL
at 5:30 pm
Stratford, ON

THEATRE AQUARIUS
190 King William Street
Hamilton, Ontario

SPEAKERS CORNERS
King & Benton Streets
Kitchener ON

THE IRVING GREENBERG THEATRE CENTRE
1233 Wellington Street West.
Ottawa, ON

DALHOUSIE ARTS CENTRE STUDIO 1
6101 University Avenue
Halifax, NS

THE OLD FIREHALL
1105 1st Ave
Whitehorse, YT

PARTICIPATING COMPANIES INCLUDE -updated July 14, 2011

ACTivist Theatre Company (Vancouver BC)
“A Company of Fools”
Aether of Us
Aluna Theatre (Toronto ON)
AlvegoRoot Theatre Company (London ON)
The Arts Club (Vancouver BC)
Blyth Festival (Blyth, ON)
Canadian Stage (Toronto
Channel Surfing Productions (London ON)
Convergence Theatre (Toronto ON)
COPA
Electric Company Theatre (Vancouver BC)
Evolution Theatre
Flush Ink Productions (Kitchener, ON)
Fu-Gen (Toronto ON)
Great Canadian Theatre Company
Gas Station Theatre (Winnipeg ON)
Gruppo Rubato
Gwaandak Theatre (Whitehorse YT)
Headlines Theatre (Vancouver BC)
IATSE Local 58 (Toronto ON)
Inter Arts Matrix
Kaufman Arts Studio
Kitchen Band Productions (Toronto ON)
Lady Remnants Productions
London Fringe Theatre Festival (London ON)
Mammalian Diving Reflex
Mi Casa Theatre
MISCELLANEOUS Productions (Vancouver BC)
Moving Parts Theatre (Whitehorse YT)
MT Space
Nakai Theatre (Whitehorse, YT)
Native Earth (Toronto ON)
New Theatre of Ottawa
Necessary Angel. (Toronto ON)
Neworld Theatre (Vancouver BC)
Nightwood Theatre (Toronto ON)
Northern Light Theatre (Edmonton, AB)
Obsidian Theatre (Toronto ON)
Open Pit (Whitehorse YT)
PAL Studio Theatre BC
Patrick Street Productions (Vancouver BC)
Palace Theatre (London ON)
Passionfool (London ON)
Playwrights Theatre Centre (Vancouver BC)
Prairie Theatre Exchange (Winnipeg MB)
Praxis Theatre (Toronto ON)
Presentation House Theatre BC
Ramshackle Theatre (Whitehorse YT)
Reaching Symmetry Theatre (Hamilton, ON)
Rock Theatre Co. (Vancouver BC)
Roseneath Theatre (Toronto ON)
Shakespeare in The Ruins (Winnipeg MB)
Soulpepper Theatre (Toronto ON)
Sour Brides Theatre (Whitehorse YT)
Studio 180 Theatre
Tarragon Theatre (Toronto ON)
The Coalition of Performing Artists
The MT Space
The Company Theatre
The Room (Toronto ON)
The Irish Repertory Theatre Company of Canada (Toronto ON)
The Shaw Festival (Niagara-on-the Lake ON)
Theatre Projects Manitoba (Winnipeg, MB)
The Theatre Centre (Toronto ON)
Theatre in London (London ON)
Theatre Passe Muraille (Toronto ON)
Touchstone Theatre (Vancouver BC)
urban ink productions (Vancouver BC)
Vancouver Playhouse (Vancouver BC)
Visceral Visions (Vancouver BC)
Winnipeg Jewish Theatre
Western Edge Theatre (Nanaimo BC)
Whitehorse Theatre Ensemble (Whitehorse YT)
Why Not Theatre (Toronto, ON)
Winterbird Arts (Hamilton ON)
Working Spark Theatre (Vancouver BC)
Workman Arts (Toronto ON)
Young People’s Theatre
Yukon Arts Centre (Whitehorse YT)

• 56 days ago

A message to Artistic Directors of Canadian theatres

Over the Canada Day Weekend, multi-award winning playwright and former Wrecking Ball member Michael Healey, sent the following text to Artistic Directors across the country in the form of an email:

July 1st, 2011

As you are no doubt aware, the Summerworks Festival in Toronto, having raised the ire of the PMO by staging a play last summer it found objectionable, has suddenly seen its federal funding withdrawn. This act of naked contempt, described by the Finance Minister essentially as a coincidence, should send a chill through any arts organization currently receiving money from the federal government. In my opinion, the government needs to be shown that this kind of baseless, petty and unconscionable intervention will not get a free pass from the nation’s cultural institutions. After all, if it happens to Summerworks, it could happen to any other company.

Western Edge Theatre, in Nanaimo, BC, is staging a public reading of the play in question, Catherine Frid’s Homegrown, on July 15th. Proceeds are being donated to Summerworks. I’m writing to ask every artistic director of every theatre across the country to stage their own reading of the play on that date.

Companies in a given city could band together to produce the event. The fundraising aspect is optional. The point is that we all announce, loudly and with one voice, that this kind of cabinet censorship is not acceptable. To that end, a press release announcing your company’s solidarity with Summerworks is vital. The more theatres that stand up and speak, the stronger our message. The more news hits we can generate with this event, the further from the government’s goal of isolating and punishing one small theatre festival.

Feel free to email me with ideas, questions, or for support. And be sure to let me know when you decide to take part—the sooner we can create a list of participating theatres, the more momentum for the event we create. I’ll get my hands on Catherine’s script and distribute it to whoever wants it. If the PMO continues to describe these events as coincidental, we can describe the public airing of this play, in dozens of theatres across the country on the same night, as another kind of coincidence.

And if you find yourself anxious about the potential ramifications for your own company’s federal funding as a consequence of taking part in this demonstration, I can think of no better reason for participating in it.

Happy Canada Day

Michael Healey

Click here to read a list of theatres that have already agreed to participate

• 57 days ago

PEN Writers Deliver 'Letters to Canada' on eve of National election

Photo by Aviva Armour-Ostroff

Wrecking Ball 12 in Toronto marked the first time The Wrecking Ball had the fortune to collaborate with PEN Canada to present the works of Writers in Exile as part of the evening.

It was an honour to hear these letters read in the native tongue of the authors at a Wrecking Ball dedicated to questions of Leadership and Democracy on the eve of a historic election. They are presented in full, in English below:

Photo by Aviva Armour-Ostroff

A Letter from a Kurdish Writer-in-Exile to Canada

by Ava Homa

“The penalty good people pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by people worse than themselves.” Plato

Why vote? Why take time out of one’s busy schedule to study the candidates, make decisions and leave the comfort of home on a cold day to vote? Listen to my story. See if it helps find the answers.

I am in exile, 12 thousand kilometres away from my family and friends, from people whom I deeply love and miss, with little hope of ever being able to visit them. My name is Ava Homa and I have published a collection of short fiction called Echoes from the Other Land. The Other Land is where people are routinely denied and many of the rights you in Canada enjoy.

I speak the same language as Ayub and we belong to the same ethnicity but absurd, man-made borders have divided us between two different countries. I am Kurdish like Ayub but unlike him I was never taught to read or write in my mother-tongue. In my country, ethnic identities are suppressed and the punishment for protestors like my father is intimidation, violence or execution.

When my father was magically released from prison, nobody could bear to look at the scars on his back, neck and head. But the wounds, bruises and blisters were nothing compared to what the government had done to him psychologically. Up to the very moment that I am reading this letter, my father carries around the invisible injuries of torture. We’re not the only family suffering persecution. Talk to any Kurd and they’ll have at least one family member or a loved one who has been executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

My Canadian friend, you are free to openly criticize your government. This is something people in many countries in the world, not just Iran, can only dream about. We have spent centuries fighting, dying to get where you are today and it makes me sad when I see that some Canadians are reluctant to participate in the elections.

In the Other Land, an election is only a game. In 2009, however, millions of Iranians voted for mainly one thing: to get rid of Ahmadinejad. The few other candidates also had a lot in common with the government so we had choose between bad and worse. Nonetheless, we did vote, because we were fed up with cannibals governing us and constantly damaging our country’s international reputation. In July 2009, many Iranian-Canadians took a Friday off and travelled to Ottawa to vote in the Iranian embassy. When our votes were shamelessly stolen, the protestors in Iran took to the streets in millions, asking one peaceful question: “Where is my vote?”

To respond to our question, the Islamic government shut down city lights, blocked the Internet, brought down mobile networks, and issued a curfew. They did not hesitate to shoot at peaceful protesters, or to use illegal force against the demonstrators, such as running them over with cars. Thousands of protesters were detained and tortured; hundreds were executed or placed on death row. Many who did manage to return home were depressed or suicidal, filled with shame and guilt for having been raped.

My friends, you can participate in genuine elections and see the results. Do you understand what that means? You have the power to change and strengthen your government. We are dying in thousands to gain a small portion of that power. To me, refusing to participate in the future of one’s nation is a betrayal of freedom. How can any human being ever undervalue freedom?

Photo by Aviva Armour-Ostroff

Letter to Canada

by Ayub Nuri

For almost half of my life I have had the right to vote, but I haven’t taken part in any elections and I have never voted. I know this is a great right and I should practice it, but in a country where your vote has no value it is better to relinquish and forget about it.

For many years people in my country dreamed of a day when there is no more dictatorship and they can cast their votes freely. That dream came true and in the past eight years there have been elections in Iraq where all kinds of parties and groups participate. But I am still not convinced that those elections are free and fair.

I see so many Iraqis dress up on that day and line up outside the polling stations all smiles and happy. I understand their happiness, but when I see someone like the young man who had voted ten times in one of the elections because the observer at the box was a member of his party, I lose all faith in the process and thank myself for not mixing my vote with those false ones.

Perhaps Iraq will have clean elections in the future and I hope that is the case, but at this time the country’s history of dictatorship is too long and the political, ethnic and religious rivalry is too deep and dirty and unless all that has faded I will refrain from voting.

Now I am in Canada and I see that everywhere the talk is about elections. Wherever I look I see the faces of the candidates. I am unable to vote because I am not a citizen, but I have faith in their elections. I am not sure what the winning party can do and how much of its promises it will keep, but I admire the way they campaign.

Unlike Iraq, the candidates here do not renew old wounds and do not try to turn the elections into a weapon to settle old scores and avenge personal feuds.

I see the candidates here focus more on the future and the fulfilment what the previous government has failed to do. The talk here is about the environment, peace and Canada’s role on the international stage.

Because Canada’s past is not stained with sectarian wars and decades of tyranny, torture and persecution, it is easy for its citizens not to fall victim of emotions and use their vote to punish this party or that.

I am sure Canadians appreciate the democracy that they have and for those of you who take this great achievement for granted, I tell you that millions of people in other countries such as mine, live day and night with the hope of having a democracy like yours.
For the sake of democracy we have paid heavy prices in the past and thousands of people on the streets of Middle Eastern capitals are there to one day have free and fair elections like the one you are having in just a few days.

• 121 days ago

#elxn 41: The Wrecking Ball Goes National Again!

Image by Tristan D. Lalla

On Monday April 25th at 8pm local time in seven cities across Canada, theatre artists and audiences will come together to consider the upcoming federal election, the state of democracy in Canada, and many other sundry and current topics in a one-night-only national evening of political theatre.

This national evening of Wrecking Balls will be connected by with performances of new scripts by Vancouver playwright Marcus Youssef, and Toronto-based Sean Dixon (writer of the just released The Many Revenges of Kip Flynn), while each city will curate original work by local artists to fill out their dance card for the evening.

These seven Wrecking Balls will also be connected via the internet – as each Wrecking Ball will be using and promoting the hashtag #wreckingball2011 to encourage a nation-wide conversation about politics, theatre and any other ideas this vast array of original, immediate, topical theatre will inspire in seven cities in BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

Read The Globe and Mail Preview

Listen to an interview on CBC’s Metro Morning with playwright Jean Yoon and co-founder Ross Manson

Elxn 41 Wrecking Ball 2011 venues:

Victoria
Read more in the Victoria Times Colonist
Victoria Events Centre
1415 Broad Street
Victoria WB Facebook Event

Edmonton
Read more in The Edmonton Sun
1 – Avenue Theatre
9030 118 Avenue Northwest
Edmonton WB Facebook Event

Calgary
Read more on 660 News
Jack Singer Concert Hall Lobby, Epcor Centre for the Performing Arts
205 8th Avenue SE
Calgary WB Facebook Event

Winnipeg
Read more in Uptown
Prairie Theatre Exchange
393 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg WB Facebook Event

Toronto
Read more in Now Magazine
The Theatre Centre
1087 Queen St. W
Toronto WB Blog Post

Ottawa
Read more on Apt 613
Montgomery Legion,
330 Kent St.
Ottawa WB Facebook Event”

Montreal
Mainline Theatre,
3997 St Laurent blvd,
Montreal WB Facebook Event

• 132 days ago

Writers announced for Wrecking Ball 12 Toronto - Are You Dying to Vote?

Nine days from Wrecking Ball 12, playwrights are polishing their scripts and and getting ready to hand them off to directors and their casts for a lightning fast series of rehearsals.

The Writers:

Sean Dixon:
Sean Dixon’s plays include Billy Nothin’, Aerwacol, Sam’s Last Dance, and the epic short, The Death of the Finance Minister’s Mother. His first novel was The Girls Who Saw Everything. His second, The Many Revenges of Kip Flynn (set in Toronto’s Kensington Market), will be arriving in bookstores next week, courtesy of Coach House Books.

Ava Homa:
Ava is a Kurdish-Iranian-Canadian, writer-in-exile, with two Master’s Degrees, one in “English and Creative Writing” and one in “English Language and Literature.” Echoes from the Other Land, Ava’s collection of short stories about resistance of modern Iranian women under the oppressive regime, was published by TSARbooks, Toronto.

Ayub Nuri:
Ayub is an Iraqi Kurdish journalist, a native of Halabja, who now lives in Toronto. He has covered the Iraq war for European and American news organizations, including BBC radio and Public Radio International in Boston. His opinion pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Toronto Star. He has taught journalism at Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in Iraq and managed War News Radio project at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, USA. Nuri was awarded first prize by The Foreign Press Association in New York for “outstanding academic and professional achievement” in the field of international reporting.

Colleen Wagner:
Colleen is a Governor General Award-winning playwright (for The Monument – translated into four languages and produced on five continents). Other plays include Sand (short-listed for best international play at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester); down from heaven; Eclipsed; The Morning Bird; and Home.

Jean Yoon:
Jean is a Gemini-nominated actress, a poet and a playwright. Her writing credits include Hongbu and Nolbu; Spite; Sliding for Home & Borders and The Yoko Ono Project (2001 Dora award nomination for Best Play). Jean was the artistic director of Loud Mouth Asian Babes from 1995 to 2007, and co-artistic director at Cahoots Theatre from 1992 to 1994.

Marcus Youssef:
Marcus is a performer and playwright. His work includes Ali and Ali and the aXes of Evil, Adrift, and A Line in the Sand. His work has been produced across North America and Europe, from the Kennedy Centre to Ca’Foscari in Venice. He has been an Assistant Professor of Community Based, Political and Activist Theatre at Concordia University in Montreal, and currently teaches at Vancouver’s Studio 58 (Langara College) and the Playwrights Theatre Centre. Marcus is also the co-founder of Crank Magazine.

Click here to learn more about Wrecking Ball 12 Toronto

• 136 days ago

Wrecking Ball 12: Are You Dying To Vote?

On Monday May 2nd 2011, Canadians will vote in their third Federal Election in five years after the Harper Government became the first in the history of the Commonwealth to be held in Contempt of Parliament.

On Monday April 25th, one week before this historic trip to the polls, The Wrecking Ball unleashes a reckless coalition of artists and perspectives on to the electoral stage in:

Wrecking Ball 12: Are You Dying To Vote?
Monday April 25/2011
The Theatre Centre
1087 Queen St. W. @ Dovercourt
Box Office: 7pm, Doors: 7:30pm, Show: 8pm
Tickets PWYC @ the door

Beyond the constraints of the CRTC, online voting tools on CBC, considering voting ABC, possibly the type to take off down the a runway on an ATV (we do make the rules here), The Wrecking Ball is back and swinging into the electoral debate without an invitation from the television consortium.

Writers who have voted to participate in Wrecking Ball 12 will be creating works both strategically and from their hearts, but all with the same questions in mind as many Canadians appraising their slate of diminishing and imperfect electoral options:

What is leadership? What is democracy? How are they related?

While North Africa surges towards democratic ideals, North America seems to be passing our Atlantic neighbours like strangers in the bright daylight of heavily engineered apathy.

Three years after the continent buzzed with hope, where do we look to for inspiration? Who do we look up to and why? How can we impact a system engineered to further empower the empowered?

As our democratic institutions face this crucial test, the Wrecking Ball invites audiences and artists to consider these questions one week from the ballot box at:

Wrecking Ball 12: Are you dying to vote?

The Wrecking Ball Toronto crew is:
Ross Manson, Ruth Madoc-Jones, Michael Wheeler, Julie Tepperman, Nina Lee Aquino, Aaron Willis, Ravi Jain, Alan Dilworth, and Weyni Mengesha.

*Proceeds donated to the Actors’ Fund of Canada.

• 151 days ago

Wrecking Ball Toronto #11: What happened at Now What?

The Theatre Centre was sold out and filled to capacity on the upper and lower levels

This map of Toronto’s 2010 election results was sketched in chalk on the playing space floor by designer Camilla Koo

Darren O’Donnell and the Torontonians literally turn the joint upside down. Note the pile of what used to be audience chairs in the upper left corner.

Photos by Alex Williams

Check out independent coverage of Wrecking Ball Toronto 11: Now What?:

NOW Magazine
Theatre artists go political with a look at Toronto’s future under a new council

The National Post
Staging a Protest

EYE Weekly
Best Bet

Torontoist
With Rob Ford as Mayor, Toronto Artists Play Hard Wrecking Ball

Classical 96
Review by Paula Citron

The Globe and Mail
The Lineup

Mooney on Theatre
Review by Dorianne Emmerton

Special Bonus Link
Wrecking Ball Crew Member Ruth Madoc Jones writes a letter to Don Cherry that goes viral

• 254 days ago

Wrecking Ball TO #11: Full creative teams rehearsing throughout the city

Image by Microdot Photography

These 6 teams of actors, directors and writers have one week to prepare 6 new works ripped from the headlines on a set (hastily) prepared by Camilla Koo.

Read a Preview of Wrecking Ball #11 by Jon Kaplan in this weeks’s NOW:

Citizen Michael by Anthony Furey
Directed by Hrant Alianak
Cast:
Dalal Badr
Jim Codrington

Perfect Storm by Yvette Nolan
Directed by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
Cast:
Eli Hamm
Waawaate Fobister
Nisha Ahuja

Outsourced Anger by Jovanni Sy
Directed by Sanjay Talwar
Cast:
Anand Rajaram
Pamela Sinha

SOS/MS/ASAP by Edwige Jean-Pierre
Directed by Nigel Shawn Williams
Cast:
David Collins
Gia Sandhu
Jack Grinhaus
Daniela Vlaskalic
Shawn Hitchins
Nicky Guadagni

Untitled
Written and Directed by Judith Thompson
Cast:
Marjorie Chan

Untitled
Created by Darren O’Donnell and the Torontonians

Proceeds from this event will go to The Actors’ Fund of Canada

• 270 days ago

Wrecking Ball Toronto #11: Now what?

On Tuesday December 7th, the new Toronto City Council including 14 new city councillors and His Worship Mayor Rob Ford will meet for the first time.

The night before this new era of civic governance, The Wrecking Ball presents the works of six Toronto writers who consider the question, “Now What?”

Monday December 6th, 2010
8pm @ The Theatre Centre, 1087 Queen St. W
Tickets PWYC @ door only. Box office opens at 7pm

Is Toronto united? Is Toronto divided? The anti-deamalgamation forces have assured us that the status quo is here to stay. Given a lack compelling evidence to the contrary, it is safe to assume that Torontonians will be compelled to co-exist with their government and themselves for the next four years. From the rocky shores of North Etobicoke, to the sunny mountain vistas of Trinity/Spadina, an uneasy calm has settled over the megacity state.

Into this tenuous vacuum, The Wrecking Ball throws the talents and imaginations of playwrights with disparate perspectives and experiences in Hogtown. Their only guidance is the question “Now what?” and the knowledge that this performance will take place on the final evening of a golden/shameful era where a brilliant/condescending administration established Toronto as a world leading city/gravy train.

Wrecking Ball Toronto #11: Now What? creators:

Judith Thompson is the author of The Crackwalker, White Biting Dog, I Am Yours, Lion in the Streets, Sled, Perfect Pie, Habitat, Capture Me, and Enoch Arden. She has been awarded the Governor General’s Literary Award twice and has been invested as an Officer in the Order of Canada. In 2007, she was awarded the prestigious Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts. In 2008, she became the first Canadian awarded the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for Palace of the End, which began is performance life at Wrecking Ball #2 as My Pyramids, (or How I Got Fired from the Dairy Queen and Ended Up in Abu Ghraib by Pte. Lynndie England).

Jovanni Sy is an actor, playwright, and director. Earlier this summer at St. Lawrence Market Kitchen, he wrote and performed his one-man show A Taste of Empire where he examined cultural imperialism while cooking a Filipino dish in real time. Next spring, he will return to Hong Kong to direct the Asian premiere of Yasmina Reza’s The God of Carnage.

Anthony Furey is the political columnist for 24H, a National Post columnist and a political analyst on SUN TV. He covered the municipal election extensively. His last play was Artifacts at Fringe 2009, directed by Jani Lauzon, starring Bruce Hunter and Billy Merasty. He also recently directed Daniel Karasik’s The Crossing Guard, starring Karasik, Gary Reineke and Monica Dottor. He writes literary criticism for The Times Literary Supplement and Toronto Star. Find him at www.fureyonpolitics.com

Darren O’Donnell and The Torontonians. Initiated by Sanjay Ratnan, The Torontonians are a Parkdale-based art collective, working in collaboration with Mammalian Diving Reflex. They create performance, give lectures, make videos, dance on the street, hassle drunk guys, take photographs, check cell phones, sing songs, play cellos, draw bunnies, take the TTC, ride bmx and do volunteer hours. Darren O’Donnell is the artistic director of Mammalian Diving Reflex and the research director of the Tendency Group, a social research think tank and policy laboratory. He is also a Msci candidate in Urban Planning at the University of Toronto.

Edwige Jean-Pierre is the author of Even Darkness is Made of Light (Summerworks Festival), Our Lady of Spills (Theatre Archipelago), The Big Mess (Crosscurrents Festival), Saint Bitch (Buddies in Bad Times), Lick’n Seal (Hysteria Festival). She is a past member of Obsidian Theatre’s Playwright Unit, Tarragon Theatre’s Playwright Unit, and recently returned from The Stratford Festival’s third annual Playwrights’ Retreat.

Yvette Nolan is Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts and author of the critically acclaimed Annie Mae’s Movement. She’s been playwright in residence at the National Arts Centre (2008), Mount Royal College (2009), Brandon University (1996), and was the president of both Playwrights Union Canada and Playwrights Canada Press.

The Wrecking Ball Toronto crew is:
Ross Manson, Ruth Madoc-Jones, Michael Wheeler, Julie Tepperman, Nina Lee Aquino, Aaron Willis, Ravi Jain, Alan Dilworth, and Weyni Mengesha.

The Wrecking Ball Eleven: Now what? is ONE PERFORMANCE ONLY.

*Monday, December 6th, 2010*

The Theatre Centre 1087 Queen St. West, Toronto.

Box Office opens at 7:00pm
Show starts at 8:00pm.
Pay what you can. No advanced sales.
Proceeds from this event will go to the Actors’ Fund of Canada

Rehearsal Space generously donated by:

Fixt Point
Tarragon Theatre
Cahoots Theatre Company
fu-GEN Asian-Canadian Theatre Company
Theatre Passe Muraille
Nightwood Theatre

• 293 days ago