FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
WINNIPEG, AUGUST 12, 2008
THEATRE PROJECTS MANITOBA ANNOUNCES 2008/2009 SEASON
Theatre Projects Manitoba is celebrating their 19th year by giving audiences a season packed with seductive new works that will make hearts and heads spin. First up is the English Premiere of celebrated Manitoba playwright Marc Prescott’s Encore – a decidedly unsentimental but hilarious romantic comedy inspired by Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Spring will bring revolutions! Industrial and Sexual revolutions spark and bubble in Age of Arousal by Linda Griffiths – one of Canada’s most acclaimed and innovative playwrights. Come May, we’ll top it off with more exciting new work in progress! Our popular series In the Chamber returns for another long weekend of thought provoking theatre from some of Winnipeg’s most fearless artists.
Read More - Download PDF here!
ENCORE
By Marc Prescott
Translation by Marc Prescott
Directed by Ann Hodges
Featuring Arne MacPherson and Monique Marcker
October 30 – November 9th, 2008
Rachel Browne Theatre – 211 Bannatyne at Main Street
” Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition.”- Milan Kundera
A man walks into a bar…he sees a beautiful woman sitting alone at a table and the chase is on! Given just ten minutes to win her over, Sir and Ma’am engage in a dialogue that will forever shape their lives. Encore! From the first blush of love, to old-age we witness these dramatic lovers perform the romantic scenario that first drew them together. Through their script where words remain static even as their meanings change, this couple’s anniversaries are cause to celebrate and suffer all the extremes of human existence.
Encore is a thoroughly theatrical and refreshingly unsentimental romantic comedy!
Les pièces de Marc Prescott ont été produites partout au Canada et à l’étrangère…En français. Il traverse maintenant la rivière cet automne avec sa traduction de sa pièce Encore dans un étui bien étanché!
Production photos of Encore by Leif Norman
Arne MacPherson as Sir and Monique Marcker as Ma’am
AGE OF AROUSAL
By Linda Griffiths
Wildly inspired by George Gissing’s The Odd Women
March 19th – 29th, 2009
Rachel Browne Theatre-211Bannatyne
Directed by Ardith Boxall
Production Design by Leanne Foley
Lighting Design by Hugh Conacher
Cast: Eric Blais, Carolyn Gray, Krista Jackson, Patricia Hunter, Erin McGrath and Maggie Nagle
London, 1885…a time of passion and confusion. Virtue is barely holding down its petticoats. The typewriter and the Suffragettes are turning things topsy-turvy!
Mary Barfoot runs a school for secretaries with her young love, Miss Nunn. When the three Madden sisters arrive at their door, the older ones prove deliciously inept at the keys and the youngest is more interested in a sexual revolution than a career in business. When the charismatic Everard arrives, ideas and libidos clash for dominance - passion erupts and confusion reigns! Age of Arousal is a sexy, frenetic ensemble piece about the gloriously liberated self.
Genre-busting, rule-bending and ambitiously original!
“Age of Arousal is a gorgeous melding of old/new, political/personal and passion/ repression into a heady mix of wit and intelligence. It’s a delight to watch.” - Barb Stewart, Uptown
“Linda Griffiths has written a deftly poetic and profoundly witty play in Age of Arousal…enjoy one of this country’s best playwrights at the top of her game.” - The Toronto Star
“Griffiths has been absent from local stages for almost two decades and her agile writing, vivid characters and bawdy humour remind Winnipeg audiences what they’ve been missing.”
-Kevin Prokosh, Winnipeg Free Press
Read the full Winnipeg Free press review!
“Very witty and thought provoking” - Joff Schmidt, CBC Radio 1
“Linda Griffiths’ uproarious take on the Victorian era, Age of Arousal, has found a perfect home with Theatre Projects Manitoba.” - Barb Stewart, Uptown
On March 10, 2009 Winnipeg was treated to a reading by Age of Arousal playwright Linda Griffiths at the Cinemateque. Organized by Manitoba Association of Playwrights, and sponsored by Theatre projects Manitoba, the evening was delight for all including the entire cast of the Manitoba production of Age of Arousal. Here’s a couple of photos from the reception that we enjoyed in the lobby of the Artspace:
Left to Right: playwright Linda Griffiths and Director Ardith Boxall
The cast with Linda Griffiths - Left to Right:
Maggie Nagle, Erin McGrath, Patricia Hunter, Linda Griffiths, Krista Jackson and Eric Blais
This Manitoba premiere of Age of Arousal received the generous support of The Assiniboine Credit Union and The W.H. & S.E Loewen Foundation. TPM’s Age of Arousal Special Event Sponsor was Taylor McCaffrey LLP Barristers & Solicitors. Age of Arousal Opening Night Sponsors were Amphora Imports, Bothwell Cheese and Half Pints Brewing Company. Our Media Sponsor was The Winnipeg Free Press. Our Ad sponsor was Outwords Inc.
In the Chamber 2009
4th installment
The Daffodil Man
By Ross McMillan
Directed by Ardith Boxall
Cast: Ross McMillan and Carolyn Gray
May 7-9th 2009
Gas Station Theatre, 445 River Avenue
Every year Theatre Projects presents this exciting series of works in progress by writer performers. Fear not– these are not your average first drafts (see above quote). We select artists sizzling with ideas. We provide the electricity and if they short out we flip the breaker. Some call this a safety net, but there is nothing safe about this series.
We ask them for a visceral reaction to catapult their work. Past springboards include horrors, terrors, morbid fascination…and hillbillies. This year Ross McMillan is dying to get something off his chest – and we are just the company to find out what it is…
