David Craig waves bye
It’s time to say goodbye to one of Canada’s strongest proponents of theatre for young audiences, David S. Craig.
After 28 years running Roseneath Theatre and five years before that at Theatre Direct, Craig’s retiring from arts management. We don’t think it’s a final farewell he’s likely to continue creating and being involved with shows for young viewers.
Roseneath holds a celebration of Craig and his work on Monday (February 21), an evening that includes versions of some of his productions and even an appearance by Craig’s buffon clown, Napalm the Magnificent.
Expect equal measures of roast and hurrah during the free evening there’ll be a cash bar, with proceeds going to the Actors Fund of Canada.
See listings.
Dramatic Groundswell
Nightwood’s annual Groundswell Festival of new works by women returns in its 26th edition.
Beginning tonight (Thursday, February 17), you can catch 10 days of readings scripted by Natasha Greenblatt, Radha S. Menon, Meghan Swaby, Aisha Sasha John, Jayne Collins, Jordi Mand, Lisa Codrington and Rose Cullis.
The directors include Aviva Armour-Ostroff, Sasha Kovacs, Dian Marie Bridge, Rosa Laborde, Ruth Madoc-Jones, Kelly Thornton and Audrey Dwyer.
Among the impressive list of performers are Allegra Fulton (who scored in Nightwood’s The List last fall), Ordena, Zarrin Darnell-Martin, Nicky Guadagni, Susan Coyne, Christine Horne, Ijeoma Emesowum, Nancy Palk and Lally Cadeau.
Also on the bill is the panel discussion Women Writing Women (February 26) and a playwriting master class this weekend with Judith Thompson.
See listings or nightwoodtheatre.net.
Artaud en français
Adam Paolozza and Theatre Smith-Gilmour’s Michele Smith, two of the creators of the fine show Spent, collaborate again on a French-language piece based on the writings of 20th-century theatre legend Antonin Artaud.
Artaud: un portrait en décomposition, combines poetry, imagery and verbatim theatre for a look at the man’s life and art. Expect the show to be as focused on physical work as on text both creators are graduates of Jacques Lecoq’s school in Paris.
A co-production by Paolozza’s anglophone TheatreRUN and Théâtre français de Toronto, the play inaugurates the latter company’s Centre for Creation.
See listings.
Double Daniel
Theatre Caravel’s latest is a double bill of Daniel MacIvor solo shows, Wild Abandon and See Bob Run, two of his best solo scripts.
Bob is the first show that MacIvor presented in Toronto back in the 80s, when he moved here from Nova Scotia. It announced that a major playwright had come to town.
Eric Double, Theatre Caravel’s co-founder, directs both shows, with Julia Nish-Lapidus (the other co-founder) as Bob and David Gingerich as Steve, the speaker in Wild Abandon.
See listings.
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