2016 Festival
Full Productions
BLUe CARTOID (Jasmine RUFF)
Director- Alexandra Henderson // Cast- Nina Tischhauser, Murry Peeters
On a summer night childhood friends, Sarah and Eva, navigate new boundaries and old memories. The play opens after they have already spent several hours together.
THe bus (AShley Park)
Director- Alen Dominguez // Cast- May Bosaing, Michael Sousa, Aaron Chan
Traveling between the zones of too absurd to be real and absurd enough to be nothing but real, The Bus is an interactive play that highlights both anxieties of solitude and intimacy that can only arise from taking public transit.
A LITTLe FOAM (K.c. Novak)
Director- Pippa Johnstone // Cast- Alexandra Lainfiesta, Jeremiah O- Driscoll
Kris is going through something and unfortunately Matt is going to hear about it. Modern urban life is full of chance encounters, and Kris and Matt’s early morning cafe stop comes with a chance to realize why both don’t have any better place to be. Kris, however, is more determined to get the appropriate amount of milk foam with her espresso than to tell the truth.
Cassandra in the house (Meaghan Rondeau)
Director- Caroline Sniatynski // Cast- Christine Bissonette, Jess Hoffman, Tricia Trinh
It’s open mic comedy night in Hades. Cassandra—daughter of the defeated Trojan King Priam, prisoner of the Greek general Agamemnon, incoherent foreteller of doom, staple of classical mythology for 30+ centuries—has signed up for a slot at the advice of her therapist. Ancient tragedy and modern comedy are forced to make space for each other on stage as Cassandra seeks catharsis by correcting the standard version of her story with a little help from her dead friends: Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra, and Gary, who used to sell boat insurance.
FLESH and blood, DIsintegrate (avash Islam)
Director- Iris Lau // Cast- Owen Caddell, Eleanor Felton, Jeff Hoffman, Cheyenne Maberly
It’s raining outside. Memories are diced up and spread like flowers on your tongue while it’s still presently tomorrow. Who’s there? Last week a shadow caught your eye and kept it in a jar and everything is so beautiful. You’re starving. You watch yourself. Come into the light, says no one. A child gives birth to you. You trace the outline of their ribs along the canticles of real. When you speak, it is someone else. It’s been so long you tell the stranger. The two of you melt into some vast pyre of the living. It’s raining outside, yesterday.
Fracture (meagan andres)
Director- Stefanie Bartlett // Cast- Jeremiah O- Driscoll, Angela Way, Aurora Chan
The dilemma of whether to let Beth’s terminally ill mother, Mara, move in with her and her boyfriend, Jake, forces Beth to confront difficult childhood memories of her mother.
ode to a camping trip (Fraser Sutherland)
Director- Dale MacDonald // Cast- Shauna Griffin, Raeanne Lee, Bailey Kaye
Three friends teetering on the cusp of adulthood find themselves in a dark forest without a reliable source of light. Based around John Keats’ poem “Ode to a Nightingale”, Ode to a Camping Trip looks at the importance of childhood friendships, and the shadowed fear of who we become when these relationships start to fade.
Seeing DArk (Kevin Sun)
Director- Misty Oakes // Cast- Robson Baker, David Lloydy, Nick Heffelfinger, Murray Peeters
Jonathan comes from a family of cops, Donald from a family of doctors, Cameron and Carrie from a family of soldiers. Jonathan has no family left; when his father was murdered before Donald’s eyes, he left his home to hunt down the murderer. Now, two years later, Jonathan comes back with Cameron and Carrie to see Donald, to hear the truth of his father’s death from Donald’s mouth. He will stop at nothing to get it.
to the dead (bryce doersam)
Director- Katrina Darychuk // Cast- Sean Patrick, Mark Tibando, Nina Tischhauser
Cynthia comes home to an odd confession from her boyfriend Louis, who is recovering after a car accident. It’ll have to wait, though: Uncle Bill, who was driving when the car skidded off the ice, is coming over to get some help with the funeral arrangements for his wife Jackie, who died in the crash. Unfortunately, Louis just can’t keep his news to himself.
traktor (sebastien wen)
Director- Nessa Aref // Cast- Mik Byskov, Aaron Stewart, Joshua Murdoch
It’s September, 2001, and growing up sucks. Mason is entering the eighth grade. Jude is his only friend. With so little control over their own lives, the pair will struggle to come to terms with vulnerability, sexuality, grief, violence, neglect, and forgiveness. Traktor is a depiction of male adolescence and an open question about the ways in which we survive our traumas.
vague, lawless (jackson weaver)
Director- Lisa Goebel // Cast- Bland Brifkani, Tricia Trinh, Joel Ballard, Patrick Mercado
Vague, Lawless is a short interpretation of Thomas Mann’s novella Death In Venice, examining the same themes of probity, success, youth, reverence, and obsession. A man and a woman on a beach discussion is interrupted by the distraction of the woman’s son and his friend moving freely in and out of the scene, aspects of the man’s character begin to come out. After revealing a shocking decision, the woman attempts to talk the other out of it. After this distraction, a dark action comes over their discussion, ending in bitter violence.
Tripping with trump (colleen osborn)
Director- Shelby Bushell // Cast- Elana Mabrito
Tripping with Trump jumps between small towns (Stratford) where the character Charlie has stopped for gas as she reluctantly heads home to Goderich after several years of being away. A rush of memories of her troubled teenage years in rural Ontario return to her when she encounters an older man from her past who went by the name, Donald Trump. It makes her question if she is all that different from him in her need for escape. The themes touch on domestic violence, loss, and the prevalence of drug use in small towns.
Staged Readings
Come through (ben stephenson)
Featuring- Julie Disher
A young woman, new to the city, drinks a beer on a Vancouver bus. She calls various people trying to find a place to stay. Will anyone come through?
The executioner (olivia etey)
Featuring- Joshua Paquette, Michael Sousa, Caroline Doyle
Master Arent, Nuremberg’s loyal and socially ostracized executioner, finds himself in the horrifying position of having to take the life of the woman he loves: the beautiful Princess Eislen. As Arent sharpens his sword, he’s visited by his closest friend, Mennek who thinks they can save Princess Eislen’s life and free them all from their social bondages. But how does the fear of death affect our own ability to save?
mood board (ella adkins)
Featuring- Caroline Doyle, Kristy Fielding, Julie Disher
Its 12 o’clock in the afternoon. Jane makes a mood board from magazine cutouts from “Bridal Guide”. Vanessa nurses her third glass of wine. Violet smiles uncomfortably. Mother is on life support, with no hopes of recovery. Funeral arrangements are being made. Remembering mother isn’t pretty.
Voicemail (hallie ann jacobson)
Featuring- Michael Sousa, Caroline Doyle, Kristy Fielding, Julie Disher
It is 1995 in USA, downtown Seattle. Olivia has recently been dumped by her boy friend of three years, Matt. As the dust of their breakup settles, Olivia struggles to except that maybe the guy she swore was “the one,” wasn’t, just as Matt struggles with the realization that perhaps his motivation to escape their adult relationship had more to do with him and nothing to do with Olivia. Told through voicemails Olivia and Matt leave each other after their break up, Voicemail explores the stereotypical process and miscommunication a couple goes through after they are no longer together.
Exi(s)t (nitchka wefers bettink)
Featuring- Jessica Quartel
Agatha Romani; a once very successful performance artist that has been struggling with a creative draught. Today she shall make her last piece of art. The question is: what will it be? All her life she has lived for her art and become one with her work: Her body as her art. But what more can a performance artist give in a world where voyeurism is something that is not only accepted, but also celebrated? How can she be the provoking mirror that is her signature, when every one is constantly exposed to an unimaginable source of knowledge and opinions? How can she give not only herself, but also her beloved Rafferty, a worthy goodbye? What will be the summation of her entire creation?
inner city news (emily weldon)
Featuring- Jessie Crabbe, Cam Forbes
The ever-charming Rod Daniels and his live-wire co-anchor Kat Wilson were simultaneously and infamously fired from the Inner City News team exactly one year ago. On the anniversary of their demise, the duo reunites at the news desk for a congenial, nostalgic evening between two old friends…or that’s what Rod had in mind when he invited her. Kat has some news for him. Tonight will be her biggest career move yet.
Leon Does the Haka (Donal Thoms- Capello)
Featuring- Patrick Dodd, Cam Forbes
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has been sent by Washington to New Zealand. Now he just needs to sober up for the ceremony….
on the side (taylor kinequon)
Featuring- Patrick Dodd, Jessie Crabbe, Cam Forbes
Hailey invites her husband, whom she hasn’t spoken to since the loss of their child, to a coffee shop. Hailey tries to find new ways to cope with and handle her pain, while also having to figure out her relationship with her husband James, and decide what she wants for the future.
Weighed sin (simon sierra)
Featuring- Jessica Quartel, Patrick Dodd
Ira and Sarah struggle in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy. Will their relationship survive?