Some SummerWorks 1-Offs

When Sunny the SummerWorks mascot was down on his luck, he applied for a job at the Toronto Sun (logical). Click the image to learn Sunny's Story.

by Michael Wheeler

Sunny’s here.  Every year SummerWorks seems to have an increasingly stellar and creative line-up.

Let’s set aside this evidence new and experimental work is increasingly made gratis by indie artists (with a faint hope that institutions might one day program it)  and celebrate this awesome festival currently the hottest thing going in Toronto theatre because it is artist-driven.

Here are three one-off SummerWorks ancillary events that are interesting you may not be aware of, including one I’m directing.

Hold for Applause

Staged reading of the winner of the high school drama competition, The Ontario Sears Drama Festival

Lower Ossington Theatre, Monday August 13 @ 3pm. Free

The question of artistic integrity and how far one someone will go to feed their creative needs is explored in this drama split between a violent robbery and playwright trying to finish a draft of a new work.

Written by Sam Godfrey a drama student in the Claude Watson Arts Program entering grade 12 who has just completed a dramatic writing course at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Godfrey has written and directed two plays at the Paprika Festival in 2011 and 2012.  Hold for Applause, went on to win both the B.J. Castleman and Wayne Fairhead best new play award at the Sears Ontario Drama Festival. He is the recipient of a MIRA award for excellence in playwriting.

Performed by Tony Nappo, Pip Dwyer, Greta Papageorgiu, Julian DeZotti, David Tompa and James Murray. Directed by Michael Wheeler.

Through The Gates

Concert Reading of a new original musical about Siddhartha as part of The SummerWorks Musical Works in Concert Series.

The Theatre Centre, Monday August 13 @ 9:30pm. $15

Prince Siddhartha comes of age in a palace where all sign of sickness, old age, suffering and death are forbidden. A musical adaptation of the Buddha’s youth by Daniel Cummings (Kid Cosmic, Act Now!) and Scott Christian (Hero and Leander).

This concert reading is directed by Adam Brazier and features  Ma-Anne Dionisio, Sterling Jarvis, Evan Alexander Smith, Jonathan Tan and Julian Richings. It also features additional pit singers and a five-piece orchestra. You can check out the blog here.

Artaud Symposium

TheatreRUN hosts a symposium on the legacy of Antonin Artaud and his influence on contemporary thought and theatre practice  in conjunction with Artaud: un portrait en décomposition.

Tarragon Theatre, Tuesday August 14th @ 7pm. Free

Joining host Adam Paolozza as panelists are Richard Rose (theatre director and artistic director of the Tarragon theatre), Jacob Zimmer (director, dramaturge and choreographer), Tatiana Jennings (theatre director, choreographer), Marc Lemyre (poet, theatre maker) and Aaron Rotbard (psychotherapist).

If you’re interested in coming please RSVP Adam Paolozza at theatrerun.ensemble@gmail.com.