Let's Run Away - Program

let’s run away

presents

Season Sponsor

Oct 31 – nov 17

Marilyn and Charles Baillie Theatre Produced by reWork Productions Presented by Canadian Stage

Written and Performed by

Daniel MacIvor Directed and Dramaturged by

Daniel Brooks Assistant Director

Stephanie MacDonald Lighting by

Kimberly Purtell Sound by

Deanna H. Choi Stage Manager

Marinda De beer Voice Over

Fiona Highet Produced by

Marcie Januska SPECIAL THANKS: Louisa Adamson, Cheryl Lalonde, John Price, BMO, the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and to the companies who supported the development of Let’s Run Away : Intrepid Theatre (Victoria), The Grand Theatre (London), Mulgrave Road Theatre (Guysborough), Banff Centre (Banff), and Canadian Stage. reWork Productions engages under the terms of the Independent Theatre Agreement, professional Artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.

This production runs approximately 80 minutes with no intermission

One More Some years ago, I retired from doing this kind of work, solo shows. That was three shows ago and now here it is our seventh solo. Two and a half years ago when we were winding down the run of our last — our 6th solo — Who Killed Spalding Gray?, I approached Daniel Brooks and asked if he would be interested in doing one more. I always say, “one more.” I suppose I’ve been saying that since after we did our first show House in the late ’80s – that “one more” was Here Lies Henry. The one more after that was Monster and then one more was Cul-de-sac — and that was the really “one more” one more where I retired from the form and we shut down da da kamera, the company that made them all. But then life changed, and dreams crashed, and I got sober and woke up in a strange new land and all I could imagine doing was going back to the thing I felt I knew best. The solo. Thankfully Brooks was on board for one more and that became This Is What Happens Next – our “true story” solo of stories that weren’t entirely true but close. And then one more was Who Killed Spalding Gray? and that’s when something happened that had been coming for a long time – my heart opened up. Brooks had been pushing for that I think, all those years.

It’s probably what kept bringing me back to the form, because the ironic thing is, of all the kinds of work I’ve done, the solo is where I’ve felt the least alone. It takes a lot of people to prop one guy up on stage – their names are all here in the program.

And there is something about being here in the room, alone with you, the audience, where all is acknowledged – the reality of the artifice, the truth of the game, the lie we all believe in – that feels like the point. And I don’t just mean of theatre. But I’m not going to get precious and high-falutin; I’ve got in trouble doing that in program notes before. I didn’t really want to write a note, but they kind of insisted I do. And so, I just want to thank all the people whose names are in this program and especially my brother Brooks for giving me permission all these years, for helping me to finally feel what I’ve always known.

Here’s to one more.

- Daniel MacIvor

Daniel MacIvor

cast & creative Daniel MacIvor

Daniel Brooks

Stephanie MacDonald

Kimberly Purtell

Deanna H. Choi

Originally from Cape Breton, Daniel divides his time between Toronto and Nova Scotia. Currently he runs reWork Productions with Marcie Januska. He has written numerous award-winning theatre productions including See Bob Run, Never Swim Alone, and His Greatness and his work has been translated into French, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech, German, and Japanese.

With Daniel Brooks, he created the solo shows House, Here Lies Henry, Monster, Cul-de-sac, This Is What Happens Next and Who Killed Spalding Gray?. The recipient of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama for his collection of plays I Still Love You, he has also been awarded the Siminovitch Prize for Theatre, an Obie Award and a GLAAD Award for his play In On It. Daniel wrote the libretto for Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian, staged at the Canadian Opera Company in October of 2018. Also a screenwriter, Daniel has written the films Marion Bridge, Wilby Wonderful, Trigger, and Weirdos, for which he won a Canadian Screen Award for best original screenplay.

He is currently developing a new musical, Here’s What It Takes, with Steven Page for the Stratford Festival’s 2020 season.

Daniel Brooks

Marinda De Beer

Marcie Januska

Daniel Brooks has made a significant contribution to theatre in Canada as a writer, director, producer, performer, and teacher and has collaborated with a wide range of artists. His many works, which have toured across Canada and around the world, include a series of monologues created

with Daniel MacIvor, multi-media work with Rick Miller, direction of work by John Mighton, Beckett, Sophocles, Ibsen, Mamet and Goethe, the musical Drowsy Chaperone, and many creations including The Full Light of Day, The Noam Chomsky Lectures, Insomnia, The Eco Show, The Good Life, Bigger Than Jesus, Pokey Jones, Divisadero and a series of plays created with Don McKellar and Tracy Wright (The Augusta Company). He was co-artistic director of The Augusta Company and Artistic Director of Necessary Angel from 2003-2012. He teaches regularly, and in 2017/18, was the Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor at the University of Toronto. His many awards include the Siminovitch Prize.

Stephanie MacDonald Stephanie is an award-winning actor who makes her home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Select theatre credits include: The Last Wife, Snake in the Grass (Neptune Theatre); New Magic Valley Fun Town (Tarragon Theatre/ Prairie Theatre Exchange); Watching Glory Die, Small Things (Mulgrave Road Theatre); Nothing Less!, Dream By Fire, Liberation Days, Mary Celeste by Fire (Two Planks and a Passion); Marion Bridge (Valley Summer Theatre); The Weekend Healer, Communion (KAZAN CO-OP/NAC); The Boat (Theatre New Brunswick); and This is Nowhere (Zuppa Theatre).

Kimberly Purtell Kimberly is a Toronto based lighting designer for theatre, opera and dance. Kimberly’s designs

have been seen across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Prague, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Russia. She has designed for various companies in Canada including Mirvish Productions, Stratford Festival, Canadian Stage, Citadel Theatre, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Vancouver Playhouse, Soulpepper, Dancemakers, Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage, Tarragon Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Necessary Angel, Tapestry New Opera, Vancouver & Beijing Cultural Olympiads, The Banff Centre, Studio 180, and many others.

Deanna H. Choi Deanna grew up in Kingston but now calls Toronto home. A sound designer and composer working in theatre, film, dance, and installation art, Deanna has designed and composed for plays and musicals across Canada, with companies including the Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, Theatre Calgary, the Grand Theatre London, Neptune, Young People’s Theatre, Blyth Festival, Nightwood, Crow’s Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Buddies in Bad Times, Prairie Theatre Exchange, and Theatre New Brunswick. She graduated from Queen’s University (neuroscience) and the Royal Conservatory of Music (violin performance), and completed artist residencies at the Banff Centre, MediaSound Hamburg, Stanford University, the National Arts Centre, and NYO Canada.

Upcoming productions: Between Riverside and Crazy (Coal Mine); and Three Women of Swatow (Tarragon). www.splitbrainsound.com

Marinda De Beer

positions at Banff Centre’s opera training program, Vancouver Marinda has been a stage manager Opera, and Calgary International for over 20 years. For Canadian Children’s Festival.

As a stage Stage, she was stage manager manager, she worked on over 150 for Every Brilliant Thing, seven shows, including over 45 new summers with Shakespeare in High plays, with companies including Park, Palace of the End, Lucy, and Studio 180 Theatre, Necessary Keely and Du. Selected credits: Angel, Nightwood Theatre, New Magic Valley Funtown, Girls Modern Times Stage, Tarragon Like That, The Millenial Malcontent, Theatre, Canadian Stage, Red The Realistic Joneses, Enemy of Sky Performance, Crow’s Theatre, the People, The Real World?, Other Signal Theatre, Small Wooden People’s Children, The Misanthrope Shoe, ATP, Vertigo Theatre, Theatre (Tarragon Theatre); Orlando, Calgary and Lunchbox Theatre.

Idomeneus, Picture This, Vimy, Twelve Angry Men, Incident at Vichy, She has worked as a mentor Speed-the-Plow, The Sunshine Boys, to emerging stage managers throughout her career, most Our Town, Time of Your Life, Billy recently at the National Theatre Bishop, The Price, Glengarry Glen Ross, Faith Healer, Doc (Soulpepper School of Canada, her alma mater.

Theatre); Minotaur (YPT); Crash about reWork (TPM/Gateway); The Passion Play Productions (Sheep No Wool/Outside the Mandate: reWork is a theatre March); I, Claudia (Crow’s Theatre). company with a focus on the She was the administrative continued development of producer/co-creator of Secret production through public Life of a Mother (SLOM Collective) workshops and international and administrative producer for touring. Our creative energies are Borders (workshop: Events in equally focused on all elements Real Time/Public Recordings) and of production: performance, text, Obeah Opera (PANAMANIA). direction, design and marketing.

We believe that theatre is an Marcie Januska essential service to the human Marcie Januska has been working spirit and aspire to both enlighten as an arts administrator and and entertain. stage manager for over 25 years. She is the co-founder and Producer at reWork Productions (reWorkproductions.com), CoProducer at Spontaneous Theatre/ Northan Industries and Chief Engineer at Coal Mine Theatre. She has worked in a producer/associate position for Theatre Direct, Eldritch Theatre, Appledore Productions, Coal Mine Theatre, and fu-GEN Theatre. She has held administrative

History: Who Killed Spalding Gray? premiered at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival as part of the Stages Festival in June 2014.

It has since been presented at Luminato and the OntarioScene Festival (2015), High Performance Rodeo (2016), and Spark Festival (2017). reWork is currently developing a feature-length documentary about that piece.

C ANAD IAN S TAG E S U P P O RTERS ANNUAL F UN D We would like to thank the following individuals whose contributions to our annual fund help to sustain our ability to collaborate, innovate and create with cutting-edge artists from Canada and around the world.

AR TI S TI C D I R ECTO R ’ S CI RCLE Underwriter $25,000+ Marilyn Baillie, C.M. & Charles Baillie, C.M. David W. Binet Susan Crocker, C.M. & John Hunkin John & Nancy Embry Ron Lalonde & Jane Humphreys

Shawn McReynolds & Elaine Kierans Trina McQueen Maureen & Roger Parkinson Sandra Simpson Sylvia Soyka The Henry White Kinnear Foundation The William and Nona Heaslip Foundation Anonymous (1)

P rod u cer ’ s Clu b Director $10,000-$24,999 Sara Angel & Dr. Michael Angel Alexandra Baillie Adam Burke Monica Esteves & Chris Bretz Margaret & Jim Fleck Sheila Goldman Brendan Healy Sandra Pitblado & Jim Pitblado, C.M. Timothy & Frances Price Jim Riley & Nicole Sigouin Gretchen & Don Ross, O.C. The Sabourin Family Foundation Eli & Philip Taylor Julie, Peter & James in Memory of John David Wood Anonymous (1)

Innovator $5,000-$9,999 Hugh Clark Huw Evans Kathy Inch & Steve Simpson Kingfisher Foundation

Peter Lyman & Judith Moses Sheena Macdonald & Phil Schmitt John Montesano Rob & Penny Richards Avery Swartz

Visionary $2,000-$4,999 Rick Archbold & Rick Feldman Cathy Bateman Tony Baylis & Jacqueline Kirk Murray & Ellen Blankstein Gary Bryck & Renée Barrette Jennifer Bratty Margaret Craw & Trevor Lloyd Desiree Chan & Richard Trevisan Dr. Roy Eappen Steven Endicott Robert & Julia Foster Margaret Genovese Linda Glover Franca Gucciardi Robert Henderson & Diana Burke Ken Hugessen

& Jennifer Connolly David Lynch & Melanie Carino Gail MacNaughton In Memory of John MacNaughton Ronan McGrath & Sarah Perry Ian & Patti Milne David Nichols Elisa Nuyten & David Dime Perry Orestes & Tim Giguere Penny Partridge Vanessa Pfaff Otto & Marie Pick Charitable Foundation Len & Vivian Racioppo Gabrielle M. R. Richards In Memory of John & Norma Rogers Lena & Greg Sarkissian Lom & Michael Schelew Greg Sharp Jason Silzer Dennis & Denny Starritt T.J. Tasker Doug & Gail Todgham Antoinette Tummillo & John Carter Carole Winberg

These listings are current as of Oct 10, 2019 and we have made every effort to ensure appropriate recognition. If, however, your name has been accidentally omitted, listed incorrectly or misspelled, we apologize in advance for the error. Please notify us at donate@canadianstage.com with any corrections.

Patro n ’ s clu b Ambassador $750-$1,999 Walter M. & Lisa Balfour Bowen Ernest & Barbara Balmer Marcia & Henry Blumberg Boszko & Verity Inc. David & Patti Bragg Louise Cannon Paul & Jean Emond George & Doone Estey Colin Gruchy David Heden Mary & Arthur Heinmaa Peter Herrndorf & Eva Czigler Jane Hill Orit & Raphael Hofstein Edward & Ann Kerwin Ian & Dorothy MacDonald Robert Morassutti Alice Morgan Joanne Niblock & John Ozikizler Roger Pearce Andrew Reddon & Diane Cordell Gerald Sheff & Shanitha Kachan Graham & Catherine Tobe Sybil Wilkinson David Young

Advocate $250-$749 William & Lorna Anderson Ioana Bala Bandiera Family

Douglas Barrett Vali Bennett Jennifer Birmingham Malcolm Burrows David Clarry Lorena Chioran Nancy Cohen Robert Cook Professor Wayne Dowler Kevin Doyle Sandra Dudley Bill Dunk-Green Debbie Dumaresq Ellen & Robert Eisenberg Roy Firth & Elaine Casavant Mr. Christopher Ferguson Richard & Justine Giuliani Foundation Eric B. Hanbury Karen Heater Isabel Henniger Angela Herwin & Michael Dales Susan & Richard Horner Nancy Howe Nancy Jain Robert & Popsy Johnstone Alex Josephson Gerda Kaegi Karen Kalchhauser Emily Key Diane & Jim King In Memory of Jacqueline Kolber Deborah & Rae Lake Delphine Milbrandt

Susan Moellers April Moon & Dickon Wallis Larry Moore Ms. Susanne Palmer Eric E. Parker Maureen Parry Jerry Patava Dee Patterson Thomas Payne Sanjiv Purba Georgia Quartaro Greg Reed & Heather Howe Joy Rosen Glenna Ross Mr. Greg Seale Heather Sheehan Steven & Brynie Silver Ivor Simmons Mary Spyrakis Carol Strom Dennis C. Thomson & Leo Maloney Tamara Trojanowska Dr. Paul Truelove Monique Tschofen Les & Ellen Wallace Ruth Watts-Gransden Brent Whitby Dr. Blossom T. Wigdor, C.M. Greg Wilkie Morden Yolles Irene Zaguskin Anonymous (6)

I N M E M O R IAM We would like to thank the following people who have made gifts in memory of loved ones.

In memory of Ruth Salzman Rebecca Dennis Terry Eng Toby Greenbaum

Connie Hirsch Roslyn Houser, Peter & Andrew Friedenthal and Kayla Robins Francy Kussner & Arthur Yallen

Goodmans LLP Sweeny & Co Architects Standil Family Shery Wasser

CIT Y BU I LD I N G @ CANAD IAN STAG E CB@CS brings together members of Toronto’s building and corporate industries to enhance our city’s cultural legacy through the support of Toronto’s arts community.

PRINCIPALS

ASSOCIATES

Castlepoint Numa Selkirk Investments SvN Architects and Planners Inc.

Boszko & Verity Inc. Hugh Clark CORE Architects LRI Engineering Inc.

Moriyama & Teshima Architects ONE Properties RAW Design Robin Simpson-McKay TAS Design

sweat

W i n n e r o f t h e 2 01 7 P u l i t z e r P r i z e i n D r a m a

written by

Lynn Nottage

winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama “A must-see!

Scorching.

Superb. Vital.”

– The New York Times

A Canadian Stage and Studio 180 Co-Production This production has been generously underwritten by David W. Binet

Jan 14 - Feb 2

toronto premiere