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A Midsummer Night’s Dream (January 10-19, 2013)

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A Midsummer Nights DreamView the trailer

Stage Centre Productions proudly presents its first production of a play by the world’s greatest and most famous playwright, William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

 

Directed by Michael James Burgess

Designed and lit by Clay Warner

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Written more than 400 years ago…

…this timeless comedy – one of Shakespeare’s most beloved works for the stage – offers us a dose of summer magic in the midst of winter. Four plots intertwine: the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta; the entangled love affairs of Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius; the preparations for the performance of a “play within a play” – The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe – by the well-meaning but talentless tradesmen of Athens led by Bottom the weaver; and the forest antics of King Oberon and Queen Titania and their fairy court, including the mischievous Puck.

 

Special features

Rehearsal video   Making The Donkey Mask
Backstage Tour – Striking the set

 

“FRONT ROW CENTRE: Stage Centre makes Shakespearean debut”

“For the production on stage at York Woods Library Theatre, [artistic director, Michael James Burgess] has a assembled a terrific cast from the company’s roster including regulars Roger Kell, Heather Goodall, Bob Martyn and Frank Keenan.”
 – Mark Andrew Lawrence | InsideToronto.com

 

Featuring

Alisa Berindea
Mia Berindea
Holm Bradwell
Heather Goodall
David Galvin Heppenstall
Olivia Jon
Frank Keenan
Roger Kell
James Marshall

Bob Martyn
Thomas McMahon
John Mencarelli
Katie Pinhorn
Ted Powers
Pierre Rajotte
Irit Shomrony
Demetri Tsioris
and Keith Williams

A Midsummer Nights Dream Cast[fbphotos id=481084845266396 limit=5 rand=1]

Enjoy one of Shakespeare’s funniest and most colourful comedies…

…full of love triangles, mischievous, fun-loving creatures and over-heated romantic intrigue! Don’t miss Stage Centre Productions first venture into Shakespeare! “A deeply poetical and delightful play, satisfying all hearts.” ~ Karl Elze

Twelve Angry Jurors (November 8-17, 2012)

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Twelve Angry JurorsA drama by Reginald Rose | Adapted from the television play by Sherman L. Sergel

A 19-year-old boy has just stood trial for the fatal stabbing of his father. It looks like an open-and-shut case-until one of the jurors begins opening the others’ eyes to the facts. During the discussions each juror reveals his or her own character as the various testimonies are re-examined and the murder is re-enacted before their own eyes! Tempers get short, arguments grow heated, and the jurors become twelve angry people. Their final verdict and how they reach it provides an electrifying and thought-provoking experience and will, we hope, keep audiences on the edge of their seats.

Director’s Notes

Twelve Angry Men was penned by Reginald Rose as a television play in 1954. Rose later wrote the screenplay for and co-produced the 1957 movie with actor Henry Fonda, who played Juror number 8. The story was inspired by Rose’s own experience of serving on a jury in a manslaughter trial. Although written before the fruition of the civil rights struggle, the subject matter remains fresh and relevant. Until the 20th century, both Canada and the United States had relatively open immigration policies for European immigrants. As Canada has become increasingly multicultural, the United States has become increasingly restrictive in its immigration policy.

In the play, a young man is on trial for murder. His race is never disclosed, but he is different and certainly an immigrant. The play touches on themes of race, class, prejudice, family and anonymity, as none of the characters’ names are ever revealed. Each juror is representative of class of persons, or backgrounds, races or creeds. No one in America (and Canada) is not represented by at least one of the twelve jurors.

From time to time, a comedian or celebrity will make a racial comment that will spark enormous debate. Such debates are always heated and the criticism acerbic and vitriolic. We take offence easily and give offence freely, secure in the knowledge that we are not prejudiced. “Well, I’m not prejudiced, but…” It is only in the aftermath of such an event that we take the time to look within. Within the context of that self-denial, each character is called upon to face their inner demons as they are confronted by one another during the deliberations.

The concept of Nature vs. Nurture debates the importance of the relative importance of an individual’s innate qualities versus one’s personal experience. Not easily resolvable, it is one of the subjects that forms part of the jury room deliberations you’re watching today.

I hope you enjoy Twelve Angry Jurors as much as we have enjoyed preparing it for you. And remember, we have three more fabulous shows to come: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Taking Sides and Romantic Comedy.

Tony Rein
Director

Jitters (September 27 – October 6, 2012)

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JittersA comedy by David French

September 27 – October 6, 2012

This extremely funny play has become a Canadian classic. It begins on the set of The Care and Treatment of Roses, an ambitious work by a budding young local writer, which is now in final rehearsal by a provincial Canadian theatre company. Whatever can go wrong does so but the show, despite all, goes on, even though the New York producer who has promised to attend never arrives, and the surprisingly good (if somewhat sententious) opening night notices set the cast members at each other’s throats — all lending special credence to a remark by one of the actors who, when the rattled director implores his cast to behave like adults, replies: “We’re not adults, we’re actors.”

Tarantara! Tarantara! (May 10-19, 2012)

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A Musical

Book, music, and lyrics by Ian Taylor. With music by Sir Arthur Sullivan.

This delightful small-scale musical tells the story of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan partnership filled with the incredible successes and the divisions that would threaten their collaboration. We see the highs: their meeting, the association with impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte, the mounting achieve-ments in comic opera, but we also see the problems: the divergencies of temperament and conflicting ambitions, Gilbert’s obsession with his “lozenge” story and the trouble it caused, Sullivan’s lavish social life and its disruptive consequences, his ill health, and the famous tragi-comic quarrel over a new carpet for the theatre. All of these episodes and more are covered as musical excerpts from their well-known operas are threaded into this story.

Bus Stop (March 15-24, 2012)

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A Drama by William Inge

In this warm and affecting hit drama, with romantic and some comedic elements, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright William Inge examines some of the many faces of love. Bus Stop is about a group of strangers travelling by bus stranded in a rural Kansas diner during a freak snowstorm. The compelling narrative observes eight characters as they experience frustration, tears and laughter, examine their own motivations and forge unlikely romantic connections in a single night.

The Play’s the Thing (January 12-21, 2012)

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A Comedy by Ferenc Molnar

The Play’s The Thing is one of the funniest comedies ever written about the theatre. In it, playwright Turai and his collaborator bring a young composer, Albert Adam, on a surprise visit to a castle on the Italian Rivera with their prima donna, Ilona, Albert’s fiancee. When Albert overhears his beloved being wooed in her boudoir, Turai tells him it is all a silly mistake, explaining to the besotted young man that the passionate scene was merely a rehearsal for a new play. To support his fabrication, Turai stays up all night to write a play which includes the overheard love talk. The next day, during a public rehearsal, the suggestive dialogue is reborn as an innocent, harmless bit of dialogue from a play, but actually a barbed satire showing just how ridiculous a writer can make an actor appear, especially when the actor is in no position to protest!

Praise for The Play’s the Thing

 

Crown Matrimonial (November 17-26, 2011)

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A Drama by Royce Ryton

This year sees the 75th anniversary of the 1936 abdication crisis which brought the diffident and stuttering King George VI to the throne, an event depicted in the recent highly successful film, The King’s Speech. It is this crisis which is at the heart of Royce Ryton’s play, showing us the volatile relationship between Queen Mary and her son King Edward VIII caused by his love affair with a divorced woman, Wallis Simpson. The author shows us the King’s conviction that without Mrs. Simpson he could not do his job, and his readiness to sacrifice his throne and his family, espe-cially his stammering younger brother, who must succeed him.

The Winslow Boy (September 29 – October 8, 2011)

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A Drama by Terence Ratigan

Based on a true incident, The Winslow Boy is considered by some to be the finest work of the brilliant British writer Sir Terence Ratigan, a master of the “well made play” and immensely popular at the box office during his life time. In the play, young Ronnie Winslow is accused of theft and is expelled from the Royal Naval College at Osborne without a trial. Ronnie protests his inno-cence to his father, who is determined to clear his son’s name no matter what the cost. It is the father’s fight to “Let Right Be Done” in the face of injustice that captivates and enthrals the audience.

Praise for The Winslow Boy