Alumnae's 2016 - 2017 Season
2016 - 2017 Season Overview · The Plays:
2016 - 2017 Season of Alumnae Theatre: This, The Gut Girls, The Clean House, FireWorks Festival 2016, New Ideas Festival 2017
THIS
by Melissa James Gibson Directed by Rebecca Ballarin September 16 - October 1, 2016 on the Mainstage Four friends since college struggle with questions of marriage, loss, love, and loyalty. Sitting on the edge between comedic and painful, THIS dives into the anxieties and insecurities of five messy, imperfect--real--people. The New York Times called this 2010 play by Canadian-born Melissa James Gibson a “tart, melancholy comedy about a group of close friends entering the choppy waters of middle age.” Read more about the play, THIS |
The Gut Girls
by Sarah Daniels Directed by Maya Rabinovitch January 20 - February 4, 2017 on the Mainstage Surprisingly funny and hard-hitting, this beautifully written piece follows the fortunes of the brash and proud working-class gut girls. When the gutting sheds are shut and their way of life disappears, the girls must try and find a place in the new world order of late Victorian London. Read more about, The Gut Girls |
The Clean House
by Sarah Ruhl Directed by Ali Joy Richardson April 7 - 22, 2017 on the Mainstage After the unusual death of her parents, aspiring comedian Matilde moves from Brazil to Connecticut to clean the house of married doctors. When the husband falls in love with a patient, the household is thrown into a messy (and sometimes magical) whirlwind of hilarity and heartache. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, The Clean House is a fearlessly honest and wildly funny look at class, comedy, and the nature of love. Read more about, The Clean House |
FireWorks Festival 2016
November 9 - 27, 2016 in the Studio Theatre AROUND THE WORLD IN THREE WEEKS! Sri Lankan immigrants with political baggage, a Toronto tattoo artist with a sassy goth-girl apprentice, an Armenian musician with a smothering mother - all featured in the 4th annual FireWorks Festival of new full-length plays developed at Alumnae. Read more about FireWorks Festival 2016 THE CREASES IN MY SARI by Sindhuri Nandhakumar Nov. 9 - 13 Two young Sri Lankan immigrants from warring factions fall in love, but growing political turmoil and their own cultural baggage threaten to drive them apart, even in Toronto. Shadows of the past and secrets abound, and radicalism erupts as the violence in Sri Lanka escalates. INKED HEART by D.J. Sylvis Nov. 16 - 20 A Toronto tattoo artist aspires to become a successful painter while struggling with the breakup of his marriage and tangling with his mouthy goth-girl apprentice, who has her own story. A plot full of twists and hidden agendas, with surprising insights into the complexities of human nature - and the art of the tattoo. MOTHERLAND by Kristine Greenaway Nov. 23 - 27 A young Armenian actor-musician strives to make a life for himself as an artist in his economically depressed country and to break free of his smothering mother. A free-spirited young Frenchwoman does battle with his mother for Davit's future, pitting progress against tradition as the action reaches a climax that is both horrific and inevitable. |
New Ideas Festival 2017
March 8 to 26, 2017 in the Studio Theatre New Ideas Festival is an annual, 3-week, juried festival of new plays, works-in-progress and experimental theatre, with a different program of plays each week and staged readings on Saturdays at noon. The 2017 festival takes place in the Studio at Alumnae Theatre and runs from March 8 to 26, 2017. This year’s festival features 15 new works, ranging in length from 10 to 60 minutes. The plays’ eclectic mix of characters includes three inept call centre employees, a nineteenth century lady’s maid with a secret, a young black woman confronting shadism, a physicist on her way to outer space, a troubled child psychologist, a lovelorn detective, an environmentalist who wants to save a river, and a dancing octopus. Come, enjoy three evenings of original plays and three Saturday readings, and give the playwrights your feedback. Read more about New Ideas Festival 2017 |