Alumnae Theatre in Doors Open Toronto 2017

Alumnae Theatre in 2013.

In 2017, Canada celebrates its 150^th birthday, and Alumnae Theatre Company turns 100 years young next February!

Accessibility renovations at Alumnae Theatre – upper lobby. Photo by Chloe Whitehorn, July 1, 2014.

Come take a peek inside 70 Berkeley Street during Doors Open Toronto this weekend.

Firemen (with horse-drawn and mechanical fire engines) outside 70 Berkeley Street, circa 1915.

You’ll see photos and a video of the building throughout the years – the present configuration was constructed around 1905, as well as books about architect Ron Thom (who converted the slated-for-demolition building from a firehall to a theatre in 1971-72), and the Toronto Fire Department.

Members of Alumnae Theatre Company will be available to answer questions (ask them if they’ve had contact with our resident ghosts!) and conduct tours to the Studio.

 

Due to rehearsals in the space – hey, it’s a theatre!  InspiraTO Festival opens June 1 – some areas will be off limits (Main auditorium, second floor, Tech booth).  InspiraTO is also using the 3^rd floor Studio, but tours will be accommodated at 2:00 and 4:00om on both Saturday and Sunday.

 

Dorothy Clark McClure illustration of Alumnae Theatre, circa 1973.

We encourage visitors to take photos of the architectural features of the building, but please do *not* photograph InspiraTO cast and crew.  When you post your photos on social media, we’d love it if you would tag your photos @alumnaetheatre and @Doors_OpenTO, and use the hashtag #DOT17.

 

Pick up a brochure of our 100^th season lineup for 2017/18, and tour the building that’s been our home for 45 years.

We’re open 10am – 5pm on Saturday May 27, and 1 – 5pm on Sunday 28^th.

http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=42eafa2cd4a64410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD

Big Ideas 2017: FREE readings of full-length plays, May 11-1

The “official” season of Alumnae Theatre Company is over, but the playwrights of Alumnae’s New Play Development group (the NPD) have a bonus treat for you:  this year’s edition of Big Ideas.  Over the course of a week, Thursday May 11 – Thursday May 18, head up to the 3^rd floor Studio in Alumnae Theatre to see staged readings of 5 full-length plays-in-progress that are being dramaturged in the group.

These readings are FREE (but donations much appreciated!); no reservations required.  Give your feedback on these developing works, and you may see these titles show up in the company’s New Ideas Festival (March) or FireWorks (November) in a year or two.

Here’s the lineup of Big Ideas 2017 – all events start at 8pm in the Studio.   Enter via the front door (70 Berkeley Street) as usual.

Thursday, May 11:     THE BAY, by Liz Best, directed by Ramona Baillie.

Synopsis: Two high school students spend a few months at a seniors’ residence to complete their community service hours.

CAST:

Kathleen Allamby – Claire

Lucy Brennan – Tessie

Razie Brownstone – Hannah

Daryn Dewalt  – Pat

Seanna Kennedy – Felice

Carol McLennan – Barbara

Ian Orr – Morris

Robert Ouellette – Jed

Steven Pereira – Daniel

Kate Shroder – Emilia

Susan Q Wilson – Helen

 

Friday, May 12:         VERITAS, by Lynda Martens, directed by Kelsey Laine Jacobson.

Synopsis:  The dramatic true story of a Father’s quest for the truth after his son died under mysterious circumstances at the Royal Military College of Canada in 2003.  With an ensemble cast of nine actors playing over thirty characters, the play features actual text from a public inquest into the death.

CAST:

Adam Bonney

Chris Coculuzzi

Roxanne Deans

Nick Eddie

Melinda Jordan

Amy Meyers

Steven Pereira

Rob Prince

Mike Vitorovich

 

Saturday, May 13:     KILL WOMAN, by Judith Fiore, directed by Pat McCarthy.

Synopsis:  On a beautiful Spring afternoon, a professor of poetry and English literature is out for a walk. She is facing a serious and life-threatening situation, and she happens to come upon an unkempt woman who is also dealing with a terrible problem. With humour and compassion, they explore what their lives have amounted to.

CAST:

Lisa Lenihan – Unkempt Woman

Clara Matheson – Professor

 

Wednesday, May 17:    I AM AWAKE, by Anne MacMillan, directed by Ara Glenn-Johanson.

Synopsis:  A gothic paranormal story in early mid-19th century of a young Irish girl who has to escape her traumatic first employment as a lady’s maid through a forest with wolves, is thrown out by her parents who feel disgraced, saved by her grandmother and the nuns, is sent to Canada for a new beginning again as a lady’s maid, only to run into an evil other-worldly master, a helpful ghost who tries to save her and a young man who is keen to take her fishing…

CAST:

Lucy Brennan – Grannie

Michael-David Blostein – Elgin

Sheila Charleton – Apparition Mary

Claire Keating – Mary

Emmet Leahy – Harry

Frans Robinow – Wagoner

Ronak Singh – Gatekeeper

Morna Wales – Nun

 

Thursday, May 18:     WHERE TRUTH LIES, by Carol Libman, directed by Claren Grosz.

Synopsis:  What happens when a long-held family secret is secret no longer?  Does anyone really know where truth lies?

CAST:

Kathleen Allamby – Martha

Martha Breen – Cathy

Paquito Hernaci – John

Jamie Johnson – Peter

Tina McCulloch – Karen

Mike Vitorovich – Andre.

 

Check out Alumnae Theatre Company’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/AlumnaeTheatre/, and also our website at http://www.alumnaetheatre.com/  for news of our upcoming 100^th season starting in October!

Seeking Directors for FireWorks 2017 (apply by April 28)

Next season marks the 100th anniversary of Alumnae Theatre Company, and the slate is dedicated to plays by women, directed by women.  FireWorks, in its 5^th year as of 2017, features a provocative lineup of three full-length plays focusing on friendships among women.

Apply to direct one of the plays – the deadline has been extended to April 28, 2017.

FireWorks 2017 runs November 8 – 26 in the 75-seat Studio space at Alumnae Theatre.
Each play runs one week, with 6 performances: Wednesday to Saturday at 8pm, plus matinees on Saturday and Sunday.

This Will Be My Last Transmission – Natalie Frijia
You can’t stop in the Death Zone. Above 8,000 meters, you’re already dying. When a storm traps three women, expert climbers, just below the summit of K2, they face a challenge even greater than climbing mountains: getting down. As the storm rages on the summit a whole different tempest picks up speed at base camp, as the men of camp debate whether the women had the right to climb K2 in the first place, and whether they deserve to be rescued. And the window is quickly closing.

3 Women, 30s;  4 Men, 30 – 40.  One central location, lots of bad weather.

Surrender Dorothy – Liz Best
Online dating’s been around for awhile. But it’s not something you’d ever consider, right?  Until Ally, in her 50s, meets someone – online! She insists that her friends, all seasoned players in the relationship game, share her joy and her online experience. What follows is a hilarious, rueful, touching examination of the murky, ambush-laden search for connection, even love, as played out on the net. Snappy dialogue, penetrating insights as five clever women support each other in taking risks and learning to live again, even when your heart’s been broken.

5 Women, 50s.  One central setting, other suggested locations, many cellphone conversations.

Pose Ball – Caitie Graham
Cata wakes up with an infected tattoo on her leg. When the memory of everyone involved is clouded by either drugs, denial, or desire, whose version of the truth is Cata supposed to believe? POSE BALL is a fierce exploration of a young girl’s sexuality, an act of violence that devastates a friendship, and the question; can truth be subjective? A play about two high school kids adrift in a world they’re ill-equipped to navigate.

2 Women, 16-17; 1 Man, early 20s.  Multiple locations, extensive use of projections.

 

To apply to direct:
Send your résumé and a short (2-3 sentences) statement about why you wish to direct your play of choice. If you are chosen for an interview, you will be given access to the scripts and asked to prepare a detailed outline of your vision for the production.

Note: FireWorks is a development festival; dramaturgy will continue right through production, and the writer will be part of the process.

Extended Deadline for applications: April 28, 2017
Send to: fireworksATC@gmail.com, with subject heading as: 2017 CALL FOR DIRECTORS. 
(Both MEMBERS and NON-MEMBERS of Alumnae Theatre Company are welcome to submit.)

This is a non-union, non-paying gig.

http://www.alumnaetheatre.com/directors.html

New Ideas Festival: Heart beats, blue feels & the big sleep in trippy, darkly funny Week Three program

Review of New Ideas Festival 2017 – Week Three.
Main program (4 short plays) runs to Sunday, March 26, with a one-time staged reading of Catherine Frid‘s Thistlepatch on Saturday at noon.

life with more cowbell

Alumnae Theatre Company continues its 2017 edition of the New Ideas Festival (NIF) with a trippy, darkly funny Week Three program, the final week of the fest. The annual festival includes three weeks of short new plays and full-length readings, including four plays and one reading each week, running in the Studio space.

Beat by Dale Sheldrake, directed by Josh Downing. Alone and injured following a near fatal car crash, Evelyn 1 (Jackie Mahoney) is beside herself, as she listens to her heart/inner voice (Evelyn 2: Laurel Schell). Taking stock of her life as she waits for help to arrive, she’s forced to face her inner demons and addictions. Darkly funny, sharp and theatrical; with some lovely spoken word dialogue and strong performances from Mahoney and Schell.

The Ballad of Sadie Wong by Andrew Lee, directed by Cassidy Sadler. Film noir detective story meets modern-day romance when day-dreamy…

View original post 319 more words

New Ideas Festival: Attraction, secrets & brave new worlds in eclectic, insightful Week Two program

Review of the Week Two lineup in New Ideas Festival 2017.  Week Two continues to Sun March 19 – a different lineup starts Wed March 22, and wraps up the festival on March 26.

life with more cowbell

Alumnae Theatre Company continues its 2017 edition of the New Ideas Festival (NIF) with an eclectic Week Two program. The annual festival includes three weeks of short new plays and full-length readings, including four plays and one reading each week, running in the Studio space.

The Red Lacquered Box by Burke Campbell, directed by Lynn Weintraub. In this one-woman period drama, secretary Madame Gilles (Aleksandra Maslennikova) relates what she knows about the events leading up to the scandalous tragedy involving her employer Madame Tullée. Maslennikova’s Mme Gilles is a fastidious, bright-eyed charmer; a fine performance as she shifts between characters, including the dramatic, effervescent Mme Tullée and her suave, sophisticated lover Derek. What is the significance of that red lacquered box?

Parallax by Michelle Glennie, directed by Ara Glenn-Johanson. Brave new worlds collide in this hilarious, sharp tale of two pairs of friends/colleagues boldly going. Physicist/surgeon Marie Soleil (Melanie…

View original post 393 more words

New Ideas Festival: Connection, reflection & living with illness in thoughtful, funny Week One program

Catch Week One lineup of the 2017 New Ideas Festival just until Sunday March 12. There’ll be different lineups in Weeks Two and Three, running to March 26. Tickets only $15 per week, plus PWYC for Saturday readings.
See http://www.alumnaetheatre.com/new-ideas-festival-2017.html for details.

life with more cowbell

Alumnae Theatre Company opened the 29^thNew Ideas Festival (NIF) with a strong Week One program in its Studio space last night. The annual juried festival includes three weeks of short new plays and full-length readings, including four plays and one reading each week.

Call by Rosemary Doyle, directed by Rebecca Ostroff. A hilarious look at the never-ending hum of talking without communicating, set in a busy office environment where chatterbox Millennial receptionist Sandra (Jennifer-Beth Hanchar) is constantly in conversation with a friend in between fielding business calls. Frazzled HR Manager Laura (Shalyn McFaul) is unplugged on a meditation retreat, struggling to maintain silence and stay off electronic devices. Meanwhile, her skeezy colleague Mark (Andrew Batten, who also wrote a play, included in this week’s program) is covering for her at work, wreaking havoc in her absence with a laissez faire attitude and inappropriate remarks, including a hysterical comedy…

View original post 517 more words

Write Now! 2016 – Oct 23: the plays + writers + directors

As mentioned in the post dated Sept 23, Write Now! is an annual writing challenge spearheaded by Alumnae Theatre Company’s New Play Development group (NPD).  Company members who accept the challenge must write a 10-minute play over a specific weekend, having been sent the “challenge ingredients” on Friday evening.

This year, the event’s producer Anne MacMillan, a playwright and actor, devised the challenge: to write a detective story based on this poem (the famous first line was penned William Wordsworth in 1802; the rest is by Annie!):

A DETECTIVE STORY

In Prose or in Verse

+++++++++++++++++

I wandered lonely as a cloud

Spouting ancient poetry aloud

When all at once I saw a sight

which filled me with a sense of fright

An old trunk by the river’s edge

Floating by a single shoe

A glove with blood tipped fingers

Lying half covered on the ground

All under a weeping willow tree

No one else around to see

When a smiling stranger appeared

from behind a high earthen mound

Upon seeing me, frowned.

 

Annie shares that one of her favorite romantic poets is Wordsworth, and especially his “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, which reminds her of her father – a photographer – and a photo he took of daffodils under the oak trees in the beautiful Botanical Gardens in  Glasgow.  “When I was a schoolgirl I would sometimes walk home through the Botanical Gardens after school,” she said.  “You could hear the Kelvin River rushing, there were weeping willow trees – their fronds in the river… It was, and still is, a magical place.”

So those memories of the willow tree by the river wound up in the poem, combined with Wordsworth, and became the Write Now! Challenge.

16 writers accepted the challenge on Friday, October 14, and 13 submitted their scripts by the Sunday noon deadline on Oct 16.  These plays will be presented as staged readings; actors (some not yet cast!) have not memorized the scripts, and will only have one or two rehearsals.  Here are the writers / plays / directors – note that this list is in alpha order; not in performance sequence:

Teresa Bottaro – No objects from the past are allowed to stay directed by Laurie Williams.

Barbara Brown /Rhona Bennett – Finding Amy in four scenes directed by Nina Kaye.

Norma Crawford – L & D                        directed by David Suszek.

Judith Fiori – Poetic Justice                  directed by Stacy Halloran.

Connie Guccione –  Road Less Travelled  directed by Aleksandra Maslennikova.

Stacy Halloran – If you come to a fork in the road directed by Kat Horzempa.

Krystyna Hunt – Out of the Past            directed by Rebecca Grace.

Nina Kaye – The Magician                     directed by Jennifer McKinley.

Donna Langevin – Dear Professor         directed by “Present Conductor”.

Carol Libman – At Peace by the River   directed by Kelsey Laine Jacobson.

Tina McCulloch – The Last of Tuesday  directed by Sandra Burley.

Jennifer McKinley – Dark and Deep        directed by Carina Cojeen.

Morna Wales – Worthy Words              directed by Pat McCarthy.

 

Write Now! Staged readings take place 2 – 4:30 pm on Sunday, Oct 23 in the Studio at Alumnae Theatre.  There will be an intermission, with refreshments available.  PWYC admission; no reservations required.

Write Now! is coming Oct 23… Stay tuned.

Write Now! is coming!  The annual challenge spearheaded by Alumnae Theatre Company’s New Play Development group (NPD) sees company members take on a weekend project: to write a 10-minute play based on a subject or prompt that they only receive on the Friday evening.  The finished scripts must be electronically submitted by noon on the Sunday.

A week later, the plays (having been assigned directors and actors) are presented as free staged readings before an audience.

This year, the challenge/subject/prompt will be revealed to participating writers  on Oct 14, and they must  turn in their scripts by Oct 16.

The *free* readings will be in the Studio on Sunday, October 23 beginning at 2 p.m.

Stay tuned!

Audition notice for “The Gut Girls” (2016/17 Retrospective Choice)

Back in our 1997/98 season, Alumnae Theatre Company staged British writer Sarah Daniels’ 1988 dramedy about the young women who worked in the bloody ‘gutting sheds’ of Victorian London, The Gut Girls.  It was directed by Jane Carnwath, and performed in the intimate 3^rd floor Studio space, complete with realistic pig carcasses, spewing intestines.

 Nineteen years later, as part of the Countdown to our 100^th season – the company hits the century mark in February 2018! – we present The Gut Girls as our Retrospective Production of the 2016/17 season.  This time, it will be played on the Main Stage, directed by Maya Rabinovitch, and I don’t know about the pig carcasses!

Here’s the audition notice:

The Gut Girls

By Sarah Daniels

Directed by Maya Rabinovitch

Performance dates: January 20 – February 4, 2017

Surprisingly funny and hard-hitting, this beautifully written piece follows the fortunes of the brash and proud working-class “gut girls”.

When the gutting sheds are shut and their way of life disappears, the girls must try and find a place in the new world order of late Victorian London.

Alumnae Theatre Company seeks:

6 women (ages 15-60)

2 men (ages 20 – 60)

 To play multiple roles in this sharp comedy about rotting meat and workers’ rights, where Margaret Thatcher meets Victorian England.

Please note: all actors must be able to perform with a formal and/or cockney British accent.  The ability to sing is an asset.

 

All interested applicants should email gutgirls.alumnaetheatre@gmail.com or leave a message on the Alumnae audition line at 416-364-4170, xtn 3.

AUDITION DATES:

Wednesday October 5^th –  6:30 – 10pm

Saturday October 8^th –  10am – 5pm

Callbacks: Sunday October 9^th – 10am – 5pm

 

LOCATION:

Alumnae Theatre: 70 Berkeley St. (SW corner of Berkeley & Adelaide), Toronto

PREPARATION:

Please prepare a 2 minute monologue. You may also be asked to read from the script.

Please read the play before auditioning. Reading copies are available at the 5th floor Performing Arts desk of the Toronto Reference Library.

All auditioners must bring a photo and résumé to the audition.

 

Alumnae Theatre is a non-professional theatre company which encourages diversity in its membership and casting.  Please note that this is a non-union and non-paying engagement.

Big Ideas 2016: Free readings of full-length plays, May 9-15

Yes, the “official” season of Alumnae Theatre Company is over, but the playwrights of Alumnae’s New Play Development group (the NPD) have a bonus treat for you:  this year’s edition of Big Ideas.  From Monday May 9 – Sunday May 15, head up to the 3^rd floor Studio to see readings of 10 full-length plays-in-progress.  All FREE (but donations much appreciated).

Give your feedback on these developing works, and you may see these titles show up in New Ideas Festival (March) or FireWorks (November) in a year or two!
Here’s the lineup of Big Ideas 2016 – please note the different start times:

DATE	TIME	PLAY TITLE	WRITER
Mon May 9	8:00 pm	Bargains in the New World In New France, the colonists make bargains with God, the devil and each other to fit into or escape the king.	Donna Langevin
Tue  May 10	8:00 pm	Shattered Dreams on St. Helena Napoleon feared one person, and now she has come to haunt his dreams in exile as he dictates his memoir.	Kristine Greenaway
Wed May 11	8:00 pm	Into The Abyss A drama based on historical figures in Niagara Falls, including daredevils, circus showmen and female impersonators.	Nina Kaye
Thu May 12	8:00 pm	*A Very Different Place “You can’t go home again,” so said Thomas Wolfe.  But if you chance it, what you’ll find – is a very different place.	Carol Libman
Fri May 13	8:00 pm	The River Flows Both Ways Margaret Laurence, faced with yet another move, packs up mementos from her lifelong search for acceptance and belonging – a “tribe” and a home.	Jane Carnwath
Sat May 14	2:00 pm	Where The Heart Is Irish matriarch Mairead confounds, confronts and comforts her family.	Mary Barnes Amoroso
Sat May 14	3:15 pm	They All Get Off The Bus Unexpected happenings on a family farm in the 1970s.	Anne MacMillan
Sat May 14	8:00 pm	**Yeats in Love The love story of W.B. Yeats & Maud Gonne: a poet and a firebrand.  He is obsessed with her. She is obsessed with Irish freedom.	Anne Tait
Sun May 15	2:00 pm	Run, Father, Run The collision of a priest who can’t allow himself to be human, and a woman who can’t allow herself to be loved.	Lynda Martens
Sun May 15	7:00 pm	A Little Happiness Madness, murder and medical ethics are all themes of this complex and compelling drama.	Ramona Baillie

 

*a short version appeared in New Ideas Festival 2010

**a short version appeared in New Ideas Festival 2016 – video trailer by Nicholas Porteous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8PrSod97-k&feature=youtu.be