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Culture Theatre

Morro And Jasp: 9-5 [Preview]

MORRO AND JASP: 9-5 written and performed by Morro and Jasp, directed by Byron Laviolette (U.N.I.T. Productions/Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst). Previews through May 13, opens May 14 and runs to May 31, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinee Sunday 2 pm. $23-$45, stu/snr discounts, some pwyc matinee tickets. 416-504-9971, factorytheatre.com.

Weve watched clown sisters Morro (Heather Annis) and Jasp (Amy Lee) grow up, struggle through puberty, get messy in the kitchen and put on a play.

Now, in Morro And Jasp: 9-5, theyre ready to enter the business world.

We didnt begin to write about the business world, but so many of our peers and we ourselves are in the job market, says Annis. There arent always a whole lot of options, and you often have to take on work simply to make money.

It seems less and less possible in this climate to find something youd be happy doing forever, and we looked at our own experiences around that: having our own business, a theatre company that we really care about it. There are several phases weve gone through, learning how to do it and the troubles of keeping it going.

Morro and Jasp went on a big journey to look at which business would be appropriate for them, adds Lee. Around Christmas time, they applied for jobs in the Eaton Centre and other places, complete with resumes. They did some shoe shining for a while, and Williams-Sonoma and lululemon were pretty welcoming the stores actually considered taking the sisters on for the short term.

Eventually the clowns (and their creators) decided that they wanted to be their own bosses, in control of what they did and put out into the world. In the current show, they launch their own start-up business.

We also wanted to explore the idea of success and what it means to achieve it, Lee offers, and even whether people ever do so. Do you get to be happy and satisfied, or is there always another goal to reach for?

Morro and Jasp have different takes on this. Jasp, the more aggressive of the pair, is driven to be the most successful businesswoman in the world, while the playful Morro wants to enjoy the journey and have fun along the way.

Those two concepts of work, says Annis solemnly, dont always mesh well.

Just as the theme of the duos show is a new one, so is their means of creating it. For the first time, theyre working not simply as an indie company U.N.I.T. Productions, in which they collaborate with director Byron Laviolette but also as clowns in residence at Factory Theatre.

We began this collaboration in the fall of 2013 and have never taken so long to develop a show, workshopping it in the Factory Wired developmental series, recalls Annis. Each workshop performance was different we tried the idea of an assembly line that incorporated audience members.

Though we decided not to go that route after the workshop, it was cool to try, Lee smiles. Factory was completely supportive of anything we wanted to do. The result opened up our process in a way weve never done in the 10 years weve worked together. We usually premiere a show at the Fringe and thats the first time audiences get to see it.

Though theyre best known (and loved) as Morro and Jasp theyve won a Canadian Comedy Award and a Dora, published a cookbook and are off to the Edinburgh Fringe this summer with Puberty, which theyre first reviving at the Toronto Fringe the two artists have other credits. Both have performed at Young Peoples Theatre Annis has worked with Soup Can Theatre, among others, and is a therapeutic clown, while Lee has performed with Theatre Columbus and is branching out into directing.

Weve had so many fun collaborative moments working at Factory, with both the designers and tech crew integrated into our process, says Annis. Weve never worked so hard or played so much with our ideas.

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