THEATRE ERINDALE SEASON 2011-2012
Julian Munds in Don’t Drink the Water (2009 – photo by Jim Smagata)
Theatre Erindale Announces Anniversary Season!
Last year Theatre Erindale was “Coming of Age”. But this Fall we’re celebrating the actual birthday – the Twentieth Anniversary of the Sheridan-UTM Theatre and Drama Studies Program. After twenty years, our grads are starring on CBC and at Second City and Soulpepper, running theatre companies across the country, writing award-winning plays, and mentoring the next generation of young performers. They all trained at Theatre Erindale with the design and direction of seasoned professionals in the intimate state-of-the-art Erindale Studio Theatre, on the campus of UofT Mississauga. So to celebrate this milestone, we have in store both an amazing season of outstanding plays and some welcome innovations for our audiences.
What’s new? Well, how about …
Two NEW matinées – an added Saturday and, for the first time ever, a Sunday!
All-NEW padding and upholstery on our auditorium chairs (thanks to our loyal supporters)!
NEW Advance Parking Permits for Members!
A NEW “Flex Pass” – any five tickets for three or more shows make a Membership! and
A brand NEW system of Donor Recognition to say thanks to our special contributors – the “Friends of Theatre Erindale”!
And what a season! We’re feeling these twenty-year-old muscles, so this year our theme is “The Power of Performance”! Every play reveals something new about the potential for live entertainment to enrich and transform the lives of the people it involves. The list includes the two biggest period blockbusters we’ve ever produced, two brilliantly stimulating contemporary gems, and our annual world première adaptation – which this year is literally explosive!
The original RSC production of Dickens’ comic masterpiece Nicholas Nickleby, adapted by David Edgar, was one of the landmarks of twentieth-century theatre. In October, Theatre Erindale will mount Part 1 of the shortened 2006 version (a complete story arc in itself) directed by Peter Van Wart (The Clandestine Marriage) with Kevin Bowers. Expect twenty-five actors in a hundred characters and costumes with loads of Victorian magic and melodrama. “[The year] will not bring us a more entertaining, deeply moving, and truly theatrical experience.”—Toronto Star
We move on in November to World War I on the Canadian east coast, for the meta-theatrical heartbreak and hope of 1917: The Halifax Explosion. It’s the story of the greatest single man-made catastrophe before the atom bomb – an exciting Theatre Erindale World Première adapted by the new third-year Company under the direction of Meredith Scott, with music direction by Dora nominee Anthony Bastianon and movement by Marc Richard.
Ann-Marie MacDonald’s surreally absurd classic Canadian Comedy Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) follows in January, staged by Stratford Fight Director Daniel Levinson. It’s the nightmare adventure of mousy academic Constance Ledbelly, in a cross-dressing sword-fighting world of Shakespearean characters as you’ve never seen them before! “A feast: funny, fast-paced, and unforgettable!”—Greenmanreview.com
On to witness in February the true story of the first play ever staged in Australia, as convicts struggle to rehearse amid the antagonism of their British officers. Timberlake Wertenbaker’s dark but frequently hilarious Our Country’s Good – set in the 1780s – won the BBC Play of the Year and the New York Drama Critics Best Foreign Play Awards, and will be helmed by Artistic Director Patrick Young. “A triumph … a tribute to the transforming power of drama.”—The Guardian
The season ends in March as Heinar Piller directs the largest cast Theatre Erindale has ever fielded in a 1936 blockbuster fresh from successful revivals in Chicago and Los Angeles. Edna Ferber (Showboat) and George S. Kaufman (You Can’t Take It With You) collaborated to create two years in the life of a boarding-house filled with hopeful actresses at the height of the Depression: the famous Stage Door. “[An] historical valentine to the theater … superb!”—Los Angeles Times
Member bonuses include a 20% discount (that’s one show FREE!), exchange privileges, plus free admission to The Beck Festival of one-act plays (formerly known as “On the Fringe”) in December at the MiST Theatre. Season Memberships go on sale in August for just $60.00 – only $40.00 for students and seniors! And single seats are still only $10.00-$15.00! To receive a free colour brochure, call the Erindale Studio Theatre Box Office at 905-569-4369 or visit www.theatreerindale.com
