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Culture Stage

Garden dream

Who knew that working in a family garden would inspire a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that draws together locavores and theatregoers?

A few years ago, actor/director Matthew Krist lived in North Bay, helping to grow food for a local farmers’ market.

“It was an amazing garden,” recalls Krist, who’s performed with The Queen’s Men and Shrimp Magnet Theatre. “The family planted 10 kinds of tomatoes and at least as many kinds of beans.

“That’s when I got the idea of doing a production of the Dream in the garden. It didn’t happen, but the idea was planted.”

Fast forward to Toronto, where Krist has been involved with creating green roofs. He hooked up with the community at the Carrot Common, a learning hub for sustainability and wellness. The Common is currently building a green roof for the complex.

Another of Krist’s connections is just around the corner from the Carrot Common: the Oasis garden site on Broadview. Krist’s theatre company, Frolick, has been rehearsing the Dream as well as planting seeds and harvesting crops there.

“It’s an organic experience,” he smiles. “That goes for the production, too. Our Puck is a holistic guru who does wild harvesting. Another actor has a connection to Sketch, a downtown group that works with street-involved and homeless youth other members of that company have gotten involved in our production design.”

The production of Dream, to be staged on the Carrot Common’s green roof, includes pre-show raw vegan hors d’oeuvres made from food grown in the Oasis garden and from the Big Carrot, chocolate treats and musical sets along with the Bard’s play.

This production of the tale of fairies and mixed-up lovers has an increased musical focus, too.

“Our Oberon has composed music for his monologues,” says Krist, “while other musicians create a foley track of tunes and sound effects for the show.

“The whole evening has developed into a community affair, allowing audiences to sample all sorts of art and food from local sources.”

Proceeds from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which opens tonight (Thursday, July 21), go to Feed Your City, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to growing food on rooftops year-round.

See listings.

Fringe north

Didn’t get to see some of the popular shows at this year’s Fringe Festival?

You can catch 11 audience faves at Best of The Fringe Uptown, running through August 5 at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.

The big hit of the festival, Kim’s Convenience, gets seven performances, and other productions run between one and three times. Performances rotate, with shows usually at 7 and 9 pm check the schedule at tocentre.com.

Cycling around

For the past few years, grassroots-based Clay & Paper Theatre has been nurturing a group called CYCLOPS: Cycling Oriented Puppet Squad.

This summer’s Clay & Paper production, The Pedaler’s Wager, puts CYCLOPS in the spotlight.

The bicycle-based, mobile play is a family comedy with puppets, live music and larger-than-life characters. A look at societal transformation, the show deals with a family forced to leave their home by the forces of greedy big business.

Written and directed by David Anderson and Amira Emma Routledge, the show plays in the company’s usual venue, Dufferin Grove Park.

For weekend matinees, though, audiences can bike with the company to three different parks to see the story played out. Beginning at Dufferin Grove Park, the action continues at Fred Hamilton Park and concludes at Trinity Bellwoods.

See listings.

Time well Spent

Spent, one of the cleverest productions of the past few years, makes a return engagement before going off to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival next month.

Created by Ravi Jain, Adam Paolozza, Michele Smith and Dean Gilmour, the show features Jain and Paolozza as a variety of characters, all of whom are hit by the economic downturn of the past several years. The result is a comedic tour de force by a pair of expert performers.

Presented by Why Not Theatre and TheatreRUN in association with the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, the show has a six-performance run before it leaves town. The Friday (July 22) performance is a benefit for SummerWorks, with half the box office going to the festival, which recently lost some of its grant money.

And you’ll get a bonus at each performance: curtain-raiser appearances by Morro and Jasp, Lisa Diliberto, Melissa D’Agostino and others.

See listings.

Diva does another debut

No one will question the star quality of Sharron Matthews, one of the foremost cabaret performers in the city.

Now she’s about to fly even further with her new show, Sharron Matthews Superstar: Jesus Thinks I’m Funny!

She’ll give a pair of performances this Saturday and Sunday (July 23 and 24, see listings) before heading in August to the Edinburgh Fringe she performed another show there last year. Then it’s on to her West End debut in London the following month.

She’s sure to wow audiences.

stage@nowtoronto.com

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