NEWS ITEM: Canadian Stage unveils new season
17 Mar'10

Business unusual

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

TORONTO - Almost a year after he took over the reins of the Canadian Stage Company, artistic and general director Matthew Jocelyn is ready to climb into the saddle.

At a gathering Tuesday, Jocelyn stripped the wraps off the 2010-11 season, his first at the head of Toronto's largest theatre company -- a season that states emphatically that it is anything but business as usual at Canadian Stage.

After launching his season with the annual Dream in High Park event -- a previously announced summer production of ROMEO AND JULIET under the direction of Vikki Anderson -- Jocelyn himself will move centre stage at the Bluma Appel Theatre. There he will direct his own adaptation of German Tankred Dorst's FERNONDO KRAPP WROTE ME THIS LETTER: AN ATTEMPT AT THE TRUTH, itself an adaptation of Miguel de Unamuno's 'Nada Meno Que Todo un Hombre' (Nothing Less Than a Man).

The previously announced engagement of Robert Lepage's THE ANDERSON PROJECT is next up on the Bluma stage, to be followed by the Electric Company Theatre's production of STUDIES IN MOTION: THE HAUNTINGS OF EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE, in its Toronto premiere. Written by Kevin Kerr, directed by Kim Collier and choreographed by Crystal Pite, the Vancouver-born work will star Andrew Wheeler as Muybridge, considered by many to be the forefather of modern cinema.

It will be followed by a co-production, with Ottawa's National Arts Centre, of Linda Gaboriau's new translation of Michel Tremblay's SAINT CARMEN OF THE MAIN. It will be directed by Peter Hinton, who is head of English Theatre at the NAC.

Jennifer Tarver takes the helm next, directing David Greig's 'The cosmonaut's last message to the woman he once loved in the former Soviet Union' in its Canadian premiere.

The Bluma season closes with a limited run of a new work, as yet untitled, by Edouard Lock and his La La La Human Steps Company, created to celebrate the company's 30th anniversary.

On their smaller Berkeley Street Stage, Jocelyn will continue the Berkeley Street Project, implemented by his predecessor, which partners Canadian Stage with Nightwood Theatre and Studio 180 Theatre in showcase productions. The former will partner with Canadian Stage in the Toronto premiere of Jennifer Tremblay's THE LIST, featuring Allegra Fulton in a translation by Shelley Tepperman under the direction of Kelly Thornton. Studio 180, meanwhile, will produce OUR CLASS, written by Tadeusz Slobodzianek, translated by Ryan Craig and directed by Joel Greenberg.

A third company -- Theatre Passe Muraille -- has been added to the mix next season, with TPM and CanStage collaborating to produce Project Humanity's THE MIDDLE PLACE, written by Andrew Kushnir and directed by Alan Dilworth.

Berkeley Street will also see the launch of a new multi-cultural program next season -- an annual showcase of "groundbreaking contemporary theatre and culture that features a country or geographic area that varies year to year."
It's called Spotlight, and next year it will be trained on Italy, honouring the 150th anniversary of that country's unification.
The program will include NUNZIO and LA FESTA, two plays from Sicily's Compagnia Scimone Sfameli, as well as two dance theatre pieces, LA NATURE DELLA COSE, from Florence's Compagnia Virgilio Sieni, and BASSO OSTINATO from Venice's Compagnia Caterina Sagna.

The fourth annual Festival of Ideas and Creation rounds out the season, produced next year in partnership with Equity Showcase Theatre, taking over the entire Berkeley Street complex for two weeks to promote the development of artists and new works.

Subscriptions, beginning at $124 for six plays and $158 for nine, are currently available at 416-368-3110, while single tickets will become available Sept. 6.