Every Brilliant Thing - Program

every brilliant thing

Season Sponsor

WRITTEN BY

Duncan Macmillan WITH Johnny Donahoe DIRECTED BY

Brendan Healy A CANADIAN STAGE PRODUCTION

nov 27-dec 16, 2018 Berkeley Street Theatre

STARRING

Kristen Thomson DIRECTOR

Brendan Healy

cast + creative

SET & COSTUME DESIGNER

Victoria Wallace

Kristen Thomson

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Steve Lucas SOUND DESIGNER

Richard Feren assistant LIGHTING DESIGNER

Imogen Wilson assistant SOUND DESIGNER

Brendan Healy

Victoria Wallace

Steve Lucas

Richard Feren

Marinda De Beer

Noa Katz

Dustin Woods-Turner STAGE MANAGER

Marinda De Beer APPRENTICE STAGE MANAGER

Noa Katz 9 0 minutes , no intermission Canadian Stage is a member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres and engages under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. Stage employees are represented by Local 58 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (iatse). Wardrobe attendants are members of iatse Local 822.

Every Brilliant Thing was first produced by Paines Plough and Pentabus Theatre, on July 28, 2013 at Ludlow Fringe Festival. The play had its North American premiere at Barrow Street Theatre, New York, on Dec 6, 2014, where it was presented by Barrow Street Theatre and Jean Doumanian Productions.

Every Brilliant Thing is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

KRISTEN THOMSON

DUNCAN MACMILLAN

Performer Kristen is an award-winning actor/writer for theatre, film, television, and the recipient of four Dora Awards, two ACTRA Awards, two Canadian Comedy Awards, a Genie, and a Gemini. For Canadian Stage: Someone Else (also playwright/Crow’s co-pro), Peggy Pickett Sees The Face Of God (Volcano co-pro), Hysteria, Oleanna. Recently: The Wedding Party, (also playwright) enjoyed two successful runs at Crow’s Theatre and will be touring to NAC in the new year. Elsewhere: I, Claudia (performer and playwright) first produced at Tarragon, later Crow’s Theatre, toured internationally and was adapted as a feature film. Other credits include: The Chairs, The Bald Soprano, The Lesson, School For Wives, Streetcar Named Desire, The Guardsman, Mirandolina, Uncle Vanya (Soulpepper); The Memory Of Water (Tarragon Theatre); Problem Child (Factory).

Film and Television: Recurring role in Cardinal (CTV); Away From Her; I Shout Love; Flower and Garnet and The Republic of Love.

Playwright Plays include: People, Places and Things (2015-2017, National Theatre/Wyndham’s Theatre, West End); 1984, adapted from George Orwell (2013-2017, Headlong/ Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company, West End, Broadway, international tours, co-adapted/co-directed with Rob Icke); Every Brilliant Thing (2013-2017, Paines Plough/Pentabus Theatre, Edinburgh Festival, UK and international tours, HBO); City of Glass, adapted from Paul Auster (2017, 59 Productions, HOME, and Lyric Hammersmith); 2071, co-written with Chris Rapley (2014-2015, The Royal Court/Hamburg Schauspielhaus); The Forbidden Zone (2014-2016, Salzburg Festival and Schaubühne Berlin); Wunschloses Unglück, adapted from Peter Handke (2014, Burgtheater Vienna); Reise Durch Die Nacht, adapted from Friederike Mayröcker (2012-2014, Schauspiel Köln, Festival d’Avignon, Theatertreffen); Lungs (2011-2016, Paines Plough and Sheffield Theatres/Studio Theatre, Washington, DC); and Monster (2006, Royal Exchange Theatre).

BRENDAN HEALY Director Brendan is the recently appointed Artistic Director of Canadian Stage. As a director, Brendan’s work has been presented across the country. His productions have garnered multiple Dora Mavor Moore Awards and he is a recipient of the Ken McDougall and the Pauline McGibbon awards for directing.

Notable productions include Sarah Kane’s Blasted, Martin Crimp’s Fewer Emergencies, Jean Genet’s The Maids, and Daniel MacIvor’s Arigato,Tokyo. Brendan is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada where he is a regular instructor and he holds a Masters in International Arts Management from the Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Texas), l’École des hautes études commerciales (Montréal, Québec), and the SDA Bocconi School of Management (Milan, Italy). Prior to coming to Canadian Stage, Brendan was the Artistic Director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and was the Artistic Director for Performing Arts at the City of Brampton.

VICTORIA WALLACE Set & Costume Designer Victoria has designed for Theatres across Canada. Costume design credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night (Canadian Stage’s Shakespeare in High Park), A Doll's House, Tartuffe, Endgame, Barber of Seville (Soulpepper), Oedipus Rex (Stratford Festival), Peace in Our Time (Shaw Festival). Set and Costume credits include: The Gift of The Magi (Caravan Farm Theatre), Les Miserables (Theatre Smith Gilmour), Happy Days (Theatre Columbus/NAC). As well as productions at Blyth Festival, Canadian Opera Ensemble, Factory Theatre, Tarragon, Theatre Aquarius, YPT and others. Other: Guest Designer for Memorial University, University of Toronto, Sheridan and George Brown College. Design Assistant at the Canadian Opera Company, The Metropolitan and Vienna Opera Houses. 2 Dora Awards for Outstanding Costume Design.

STEVE LUCAS

MARINDA DE BEER

Lighting Designer Steve has designed award winning sets and lighting for more than 500 productions of theatre, dance and performance art. His work has toured extensively and has been seen all across Canada and the United States, the UK, Ireland, Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Australia, and Asia. Steve has designed the world premieres of hundreds of shows, many of which have gone on to further acclaim, including some of the most successful shows in Canadian history. Steve has been awarded 4 Dora Awards (with 31 nominations) and has been shortlisted for several of Canada’s most prestigious awards including the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre.

Stage Manager Marinda recently co-created, produced and stage managed Secret Life of a Mother.

Other stage management credits include: Idomeneus, Picture This, Vimy, Twelve Angry Men, Incident at Vichy, Speedthe-Plow, The Sunshine Boys, Our Town, Time of Your Life, Billy Bishop, The Price, Glengarry Glen Ross, Faith Healer, Doc (Soulpepper Theatre); Minotaur (YPT); Girls Like That, The Millennial Malcontent, The Realistic Joneses, Enemy of the People, The Real World?, Other People’s Children, The Misanthrope (Tarragon Theatre); Crash (TPM/Gateway); The Passion Play (Sheep No Wool/Outside the March); I, Claudia (Crow’s Theatre); seven summers with Shakespeare in High Park (SM/ASM); Palace of the End, Lucy, Kelly and Du (Canadian Stage). Administrative producer: Borders (workshop: Events in Real Time/Public Recordings), Obeah Opera (PANAMANIA).

RICHARD FEREN Sound Designer Richard has been creating music and soundscapes for theatre, dance & film since 1992. For Canadian Stage: The Other Place, This, The Test. Other recent credits: The Nether (Coal Mine/ Studio 180); Dr. Silver (Musical Stage Co./Outside The March); An Ideal Husband (Stratford Festival); Sisters, Animal Farm (Soulpepper); Jerusalem, Tomorrowlove™, Terminus (Outside The March); The Wars, Silence (The Grand Theatre); Daughter (QuipTake/ Pandemic/Theatre Centre); Asking For It (Nightwood/Crow’s/Necessary Angel); Confederation & Riel/Scandal & Rebellion (VideoCabaret); Unholy (Nightwood Theatre); The Magic Hour (Theatre Centre); The Body Politic (Lemontree Creations/Buddies In Bad Times). Other: composed scores for seven feature films & numerous shorts; won seven Dora Awards; 1999 Pauline McGibbon Award; shortlisted for 2012 Siminovitch Prize.

NOA KATZ Apprentice Stage Manager Noa Katz was born and raised in Toronto. Before completing a Diploma in Theatre Production at Humber College, Noa received a BA in Environmental Studies and Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto. Previous Apprentice Stage Management credits include Renovations for Six (The Foster Festival). Stage Management credits include Upstream Downtown (Animacy Theatre Collective), Day of the Locust (Humber Theatre), Yeats in Love (New Ideas Festival), and The Possessed (SMC Troubadours). Assistant Stage Management credits include High Point Fields (Humber Theatre), To Ithaca (Humber Theatre), and Hamlet (Hart House Theatre). Noa has also worked as a Production Assistant on Hadrian with the Canadian Opera Company.

DRAMATURG’S note While recovering from a year of cancer treatment, a close friend of mine found a book filled with “brilliant things” as a welcoming gift in her room on the first day of her rehab stay: “cycling downhill; twenty minutes of napping; spotting a rabbit in the grass; opening a new perfume…” My beloved grandmother, who had lived through the Second World War, fled the totalitarian regime of East Germany, and defeated multiple life-threatening illnesses, kept a similar list of precious moments. She once told me how she strove to count the imaginary grains of rice at the end of each day which she had moved one by one from one pocket to the other for each instance when something beautiful or life-affirming occurred—big or small. She lived to be 96. I strongly believe this outlook was one of the pillars of her strength and what gave her the will to look beyond the challenges of her long and eventful life.

A play that radiates this kind of spirit comes as a much-needed counterweight to balance the at times overwhelmingly bleak and problematic nature of the material we must consider when programming a varied and relevant theatre season. Without avoiding the darkness that comes with depression, the bottomless pit of fear we sometimes face, Every Brilliant Thing points us to the moments of beauty and wonder we tend to overlook. Not only does the play’s Narrator add the item “Bed” to her ever-growing list; she then posts a sticky-note with the word on her mother’s bed. Sometimes, all it takes is such a reminder. I believe this is the kind of theatre that can profoundly affect our thinking, our willingness to see and feel the sublime in the ordinary.

Entry number 1010 in the Narrator’s list says: “Reading something which articulates exactly how you feel but lacked the words to express yourself”. I hope you’ll leave the theatre looking for surfaces—analogue and digital—to start scribbling on.

ENGAGE

BIRGIT SCHRE YER DUARTE

Pre-show chats Friday, nov 30 with Shira Leuchter Friday, dec 7 with Parul Pandya of Community Impact

Post-show talkbacks wednesday, dec 5 & 12 (matinees) thursday, dec 6 & 13 (evenings)

connect with us #csBrilliant

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