2015 Festival
Full Productions
AUNTIE/REBECCA AND UNCLE/BEn (Kamila Sediego)
Director- Jake Prins // Cast- Jeremiah O’Driscoll, Jessica Parsons
Rebecca wants to have sex. Ben wants to take care of Jacob. Jacob just wants company – mostly because he’s five, and is taking a bath by himself in the next room. When Rebecca tries to express her frustration, the couple is forced to look at the compromises they’ve made for their relationship. Romantic duty and familial obligation hang over the couple as they try to decide: Are we still us, with him?
AURORA (Ramón Esquivel)
Director- Sara McIntyre // Cast- Allie Pev, Rachelle Tom
In the middle of the night, a despondent Kai visits the Aurora Bridge, where her girlfriend Halen took her own life two years ago. Halen appears to Kai. She shares aspects of an Earthbound afterlife, how her molecules moved through the air, earth, and water to merge with other organisms. Kai wants that too, until Halen reveals other sides of death. In this desperate moment, Kai confronts Halen with her anger, bitterness, and feelings of abandonment. In what will be their final conversation, how will Halen and Kai find closure that will free them to continue on separate paths?
THE BED TRICK (Kat Montagu)
Director- Chris Robson // Cast- Nicole Oliver, Chris Robson, Celia Sutton, Ava Vanderstarren
A judge has made an indecent proposal to a virtuous young woman whose sibling is in jail. Writer Kat Montagu’s modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure puts sexual politics and power on trial, and cross examines our taboos. Is it wrong for a woman to trade sex to gain her sister’s freedom? Will she exploit herself – or an older man’s weakness? Who decides what is fair and what is forbidden? Will their mother’s sacrifices have been all for nothing?
EVERYONE’S A WINNER (Emily Swan)
Director- Deborah Vogt // Cast- C.J. McGillivray, Simon MacIntyre, Jeremiah O’Driscoll
With David and Maria on the verge of a break-up, their long-suffering childhood friend takes it upon himself to fix it. Is he a little too invested in their relationship? Probably. Will that stop him? No. Most importantly: in a battle of increasingly twisted logic, transparent lies, and deteriorating mental states, can anyone really be a winner?
FOG LIGHTS (Annahis Basmadjian)
Director- Jenna Newton // Cast- Ed Fong, Allyson Fournier, Janet Glassford, CJ McGillivray, Adam Tatelman
Synopsis
In search of her happiest memories, Wertha Lotte enters the home of Never Fog, a curious personage of curious profession, in hopes that he will be able to find what she’s looking for. However, though Never’s intentions are good, and he only really wants to help, memories sometimes aren’t exactly how we remember them.
GO FOR BROKE (Mikiko Galpin)
Directoe- Lisa Goebel // Cast- Katie Hayashida, Alex Patalas, Zac Scott, and Brett Willis
After the bombing of Pearl Harbour, Harry Sato volunteers to serve in the 442nd Infantry Regiment. Far from his home in Oahu, he communicates his experiences to his sister, Anne, via letters, but the effects of the war are more far-reaching than either could imagine. The play explores the racial tensions of the World War II era through the untold story of Japanese American internment in Hawaii.
THE LETTER A (Carolyn Nakagawa)
Director- Cory Haas // Cast- Julie Casselman, Simon MacIntyre, Cathy Wilmot
Some facts about Stacy: She’s twenty-four years old. She just started grad school. She’s been talking to a speech therapist. And a regular therapist. One of them is her prof. There is nothing wrong with her, physically or mentally. She doesn’t want to talk anymore.
MY OCEAN (Sasha Singer-Wilson)
Director- Ulla Laidlaw // Cast- Nadeem Umar Khitab
Twelve-year-old environmentalist Lenny has his lucky pouch around his neck, and the eczema behind his knees is hardly even itchy. He is more ready than ever for his Speakers League presentation on Sea Turtles! But when he can’t help but reveal the dramatic events leading up to the presentation and the whole thing derails, the line between Lenny’s reality and memory blurs. My Ocean is about the significance of home and the power of the human spirit and the natural world.
PICK ME UP (Kevin Kokoska)
Director- Aubrey Maxwell // Cast- Janet Glassford and Celia Sutton
A distressed woman attends a free therapy session with a counsellor half her age. Molly is a master’s student in counselling psychology struggling for authenticity within the constraints of a supervisor dead set on imposing his beliefs onto her work. Margaret is seeking a reprieve from her domineering husband but will unexpectedly be forced to confront her issues head-on when aspects of the very problem she has come to escape begin manifesting themselves in the counselling room.
THE QUIZMASTER (Deborah Vogt)
Director- John Dickinson // Cast- Javier Sotres
Dave has been a pub quizmaster for years. He is a good at his job and he loves his audience. Even if the rest of his life feels like it’s falling apart, at least he has the Monday night pub quiz to rely on. Until tonight.
SWORDPLAY (Chloe Rose)
Directoe- Stacey Kaser // Cast- Ed Fong, Adam Tatelman, and Ava Vanderstarren
To what lengths will a rejected fellow go to win back his engaged lady friend, after she’s already told him, a little rudely, to bugger off? Quite far! Watch as this trio of love birds clashes over what some have called “utter nonsense.”
Staged Readings
Bobby (Tara Ciric)
Featuring- Christina Cuglietta, Brendan Mackreth, Emilio Merrit, Christine Bissonnette
Can Open, Worms Everywhere (Halle Gulbrandsen)
Featuring- Jessica Quartel, Evan Rein
Confidentiality (Nadine Clark)
Featuring- Christine Bissonnette, Christina Cuglietta, Emilio Merrit
A Lesson In Ironing (Geoffrey Morrow)
Featuring- Jessica Quartel, Evan Rein, Kailea de Leon, Ramon Esquivel
Lily (Indu Iyer)
Featuring- Christine Bissonnette
Scenes from Requiem for a Bad John (Katherine Atkinson)
Featuring- Janelle Reid, Ramon Esquivel, Katherine Atkinson
The Stallion Trial (Kyle D’Odoric)
Featuring- Ramon Esquivel
Things Don’t Go The Way You Want Them To (Shaelyn Johnston)
Featuring- Kailea de Leon, Evan Rein