Topdog/Underdog House Program

Written by Suzan-Lori Parks Topdog/Underdog is generously underwritten by David W. Binet.

The first production in our 23.24 season is underwritten by Sandra Simpson in recognition of her generous gift to Canadian Stage’s Transformation Campaign.

Season Sponsor

Mazin Elsadig and Sébastien Heins. Photo by Lorne Bridgman

Canadian Stage has three homes spread across our great city. The Bluma Appel and the Berkeley Street Complex bookend the vibrant St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood and run along what was once the shore of Lake Ontario. Our beautiful High Park Amphitheatre is nestled within the grassy mounds and forests of our city’s most beloved park. Canadian Stage is grateful to be able to tell our stories on this bountiful land that we all share.

This sacred land has held story for thousands of years: stories that live in the fabric of who we are as a nation. Canadian Stage would like to acknowledge and thank the original caretakers and knowledge keepers of this territory: the Anishinaabe Nations (including the Mississaugas of the Credit), the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Wendat and Métis Nations. We give thanks to the Nations recorded and unrecorded, acknowledged and unacknowledged, who also share the responsibility for this territory. We honour the Dish With One Spoon Treaty and our responsibility to peaceably share and care for the resources that surround us. We are honoured to be in this meeting place called Tkaronto that many First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people from across Turtle Island call home.

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Marilyn & Charles Baillie Theatre

Topdog/Underdog Written by Suzan-Lori Parks Creative

Production

Tawiah M’Carthy Director

Daniel Bennett Technical Director

Jordan Laffrenier Production Dramaturge

Jillian Wardell Assistant Technical Director

Rachel Forbes* Set Designer Joyce Padua* Costume Designer Jareth Li* Lighting Designer Stephen Surlin Sound Designer Laura Baxter Stage Manager

Mary Spyrakis Head of Props Chynah Philadelphia Props Assistant Janet Pym Head of Wardrobe Kathleen Johnston Stitcher Crew

Anna R. Kaltenbach Assistant Stage Manager

Josh Vlodarchyk Head Technician

Scott Hammell Card Trick Consultant

Ben Junor House Technician, Sound Operator

David Chinchilla Fight/Intimacy Director Ausar Stewart Voice & Dialect Coach Cast

Ricky Boudreau Launderer

Topdog/Underdog is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

Produced on Broadway by Carole Shorenstein Hays, Waxman/Williams Entertainment, Bob Boyett, Freddy De Mann, Susan Dietz, Ina Meibach, Scott Nederlander, Ira Pittelman, Hits Magazine, Kelpie Arts, Rick Steiner/Frederic H. Mayerson, The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival. Original New York production by The Joseph Papp Public Theater/ New York Shakespeare Festival, George C. Wolfe, Producer.

Canadian Stage is a member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres and engages professional Artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the terms of the jointly negotiated Canadian Theatre Agreement.

Stage Employees of the Bluma Appel Theatre are represented by Local 58 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees

Special thanks to Colin Doyle and Amy Keating

Mazin Elsadig Booth Sébastien Heins Lincoln

*Indicated designers on this production are represented by the Associated Designers of Canada, IATSE Local ADC659.

This performance has a 20 minute intermission

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Great performances live here.

The Inheritance – Part 1 & Part 2 Antoine Yared, Qasim Khan, and Stephen Jackman-Torkoff. Photo by Lorne Bridgman

At BMO, we take pride in our local communities, and the performers that contribute to the cultural diversity and creative richness of our cities.

We are proud to be Canadian Stage’s 23.24 Season Sponsor and the Pay-What-You-Wish Access Sponsor.

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Welcome to Canadian Stage Brendan Healy Artistic Director

Welcome to Topdog Underdog!

We could not be more thrilled to be launching our 23.24 season with this modern classic by the extraordinary Suzan-Lori Parks. Written over 20 years ago, the play’s exploration of the collision between identity and history remains as pertinent and revealing as ever. It’s a work that stuns with its intimacy, its poetry, and its immediacy. Although the Shaw Festival production had a brief run in the city in 2011, we are pleased to be bringing the first Toronto-based production of this play - widely considered to be one of the most significant plays of this century.

It is also wonderful to welcome Tawiah M’Carthy back to Canadian Stage as the director of this production. Tawiah was with us twice last season. First, with his arresting production of Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Fairview and, second, as one of the two creators/performers in Maanomaa, My Brother.

Our 23.24 season is one of our most ambitious. Buoyed by last season’s success and support from our generous and committed donors, we put together a bold program of Canadian and international work for you. This fall alone, we will be producing the Canadian premiere of the Tony Awardwinning The Lehman Trilogy at the Bluma. We will be welcoming back internationally acclaimed choreographer Akram Khan with his spectacular adaptation of The Jungle Book. Canadian Stage favourite, Crystal Pite, will return with her newest work, Assembly Hall. And the beloved Red Sky Performance have put together an exquisite program of Indigenous dance.

It is not too late to subscribe, save, and enjoy the perks of being a subscriber.

If you have already subscribed, thank you. You are the backbone of this organization and we are so grateful for your patronage.

Thank you for joining us and we look forward to seeing you again soon!

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Jungle Book reimagined feels like a blockbuster cinematic experience with a powerful message for us all.

It’s truly exceptional —The Stage

Jungle Book Akram Khan's

reimagined

Bluma Appel Theatre Get Your Tickets Now

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Pui Yung Shum. Photo by Ambra Vernuccio

October 12 – 14, 2023

Dramaturge’s Note I am often haunted by the people I knew who died violently. There are three that I recall. They were all young. They were all beautiful. Two of them were men. All of them were Black. Everyone involved was Black.

I don’t know if the loss keeps me awake as much as the feeling that I am both a part of the murdered and the murderer, a brother of the killer and the killed.

In Topdog/Underdog, Booth and Lincoln, two brothers inauspiciously named, seem to understand both the violence I witnessed and my tie to those lost. Although they hold a special affection for one another and their absent familial relationships, their relationships are marked by competition, dominance, and violence. They know how to put up their hands for you when you are down and use those same hands against you when they are down. At all points, they seem both completely together and completely alone. As I watch them eat, sleep drink, fall and reminisce about loved ones I am reminded of a line from SuzanLori Park’s Getting Mother’s Body “Everybody’s got a hole…a soft spot, sweet spot, opening, blind spot, itch, gap…some people got a hole in their head…a hole in the heart person craves company.” Booth and Lincoln are hole in their heart people.

Suzan-Lori Parks, perhaps America’s greatest living playwright, premiered Topdog/Underdog in 2001. At the time, it was noted by critics as being more mainstream than her previous work because the play does not deal with history, nor does it break theatrical form in any evident waytwo features of her previous work.

In dramatis personae of Topdog, the play is described as taking place “Here and now.” Is this actually a departure?

Parks has asserted that she uses theatre as “a way of creating and rewriting history...Since, history is a recorded or remembered event, theatre, for me, is the perfect place to ‘make’ history - that is because so much history has been unrecorded, disremembered, washed out, one of my tasks as a playwright is to –through literature and the special strange relationship between theatre and real-life– locate the ancestral burial ground, dig for bones, find bones, hear bones sing, write it down”.

The bones that Parks’ has dug up are still with us singing but so is their history. History is always with us.

The inheritance we receive isn’t always physical, and sometimes it resembles what we lose rather than what we gain. Booth and Lincoln hold history with them and seem to suffer from a type of determinism that has them sharing one room, one bed and one chair and desperately needing room for two.

This show is as much about violence as it is about healing. We can take what we get from it and we can create and rewrite and dig up bones and sob and write it all down. SuzanLori Parks’ talent is her ability to hold both the living and the dead together and make them sing.

It has been a great honour to work as Dramaturge of this production.

Working with this cast, creative team and production team has been a dream come true. I am very thankful to Tawiah for asking me to join the team. Every day we discover new things about the text, we laugh a lot, dance sometimes, and at all points, we dig inside ourselves and sing.

Jordan Laffrenier Production Dramaturge & Associate Artistic Director 6

Cast Mazin Elsadig - Booth Mazin Elsadig has been writing and acting professionally for two decades.

He’s performed in multiple critically-acclaimed theatre productions such as Pass Over (Obsidian Theatre Company), Pipeline (Soulpepper), and Dora Award-Winning The Brothers Size (Soulpepper). His film/tv credits include Brother, Four In The Morning, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Stoked. He recently worked as a writer/story editor on Pretty Hard Cases (CBC/Netflix). Mazin is an alumnus of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (New York), and the Canadian Film Centre.

Sébastien Heins - Lincoln Sébastien Heins (actor, writer, producer, director) is AAD of multi-Dora winner Outside the March (No Save Points, Mr. Burns, Mr. Marmalade, Mundane Mysteries). His solo show Brotherhood: The Hip Hopera (Winner: Best Emerging Artist, NYC United Solo Festival) toured North America and India. Theatre credits include: The Tempest, School for Scandal, Breath of Kings (Stratford 2016-18), Bang Bang (Factory, RMTC, Belfry) and Wedding at Aulis (Soulpepper). Screen credits include: Ghosts of Xmas Past, The Listener, Cracked, and his short Her Chance to Dream (Winner: City Stories Award). For Canadian Stage: Artistin-residence at BMO Lab for Creative Research, performer in Arturo Ui. Training: National Theatre School of Canada, School at Steppenwolf in Chicago. For Dasha, John, and Shella.

Creative Suzan-Lori Parks – Playwright Named among Time magazine’s “100 Innovators for the Next Wave,” Suzan-Lori Parks is one of the most acclaimed playwrights in American drama today. She is the first African-American woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, is a MacArthur “Genius” Award recipient, and in 2015 was awarded the prestigious Gish Prize for Excellence in the Arts. Other grants and awards include those from the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts and New York Foundation for the Arts.

She is also a recipient of a Lila-Wallace Reader’s Digest Award, a CalArts/Alpert Award in the Arts, and a Guggenheim Foundation Grant. She is an alum of New Dramatists and of Mount Holyoke College.

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Tawiah M’Carthy - Director Tawiah M’Carthy is a Ghanaian-born, Toronto-based theatre practitioner, notable as a director, playwright, and performer. Director credits include Fairview (Obsidian Theatre/Canadian Stage), Death and the King’s Horseman (Stratford Festival) and Rihannaboi95 (Young People’s Theatre).

Playwright/Creator credits include Maanomaa, My Brother (Blue Bird Theatre Collective), Yɛn Ara Asaase Ni (21 Black Futures, Obsidian Theatre), Black Boys (Saga Collectif) and Obaaberima (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre). Performer credits include Sizwe in Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (Soulpepper Theatre) and Ato in Body 13 (MT Space). Tawiah is a co-artistic director of Blue Bird Theatre Collective. Tawiah is a multi Dora-nominated playwright and performer.

Rachel Forbes - Set Designer Rachel is an award-winning Set and Costume Designer creating for theatre, dance, opera and film. Her designs have been seen on stages, sites, and screens across Canada. Rachel is particularly interested in the development of new works, interdisciplinary explorations, experimental creation methods and designer-led theatre projects. Selected Credits: Treemonisha (Volcano Theatre); Of the Sea (Tapestry Opera/ Obsidian Theatre); Fairview, Choir Boy, New Monuments (Canadian Stage); Da Kink in My Hair, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Brothers Size (Soulpepper Theatre); Death and the King’s Horseman (Stratford Festival); Harlem Duet (Bard on the Beach); The Doctor’s Dilemma, Trouble in Mind, Victory, 1837: The Farmers’ Revolt (Shaw Festival); 21 Black Futures, School Girls (Obsidian Theatre).

Joyce Padua - Costume Designer Joyce Padua is a Toronto-based set and costume designer. A BFA graduate of York University, her work as a designer and assistant has been featured in several productions including shows with the Shaw Festival, the Stratford Festival, and Factory Theatre. In 2021, Joyce was nominated as a Siminovitch Prize Protegée under designer Gillian Gallow. Previous theatre credits include: Prison Dancer (Citadel Theatre), Fall On Your Knees (Canadian Stage), Too True to Be Good (Shaw Festival), Vierge (Factory Theatre), Year of the Rat (Factory Theatre), Desire Under the Elms (Shaw Festival).

Jareth Li - Lighting Designer Born in Singapore, Jareth is a stage designer based in Toronto by way of Calgary. He has a love for new work that examines identity politics, culture, and heritage. Select Credits include: Prince Caspian (Shaw Festival); Jersey Boys, Ring of Fire (Citadel Theatre); Every Little Nookie (Stratford Festival); Peter’s Final Flight (Ross Petty Productions); Controlled Damage (Grand Theatre); The Hours That Remain (Theatre Aquarius); The Home Project, The Wolves, Casimir and Caroline, Punk Rock (The Howland Company); Vierge, Prairie Nurse (Factory Theatre) In addition to his artistic practice, he is part of The Howland Company, as well as a stagecraft instructor at York University. Jareth is a member of the IATSE 659 – The Associated Designers of Canada.

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Stephen Surlin - Sound Designer Stephen Surlin is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and educator.

Surlin’s practice includes audio, visual, and technology-based theatre production work with Outside the March Theatre Company, Obsidian Theatre Company, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and youth education programs with Soulpepper and Toronto Metropolitan University. Surlin’s art and design work often incorporates hardware, software and wearable sensors that wirelessly connect participants to interactive audio-visual experiences. Examples of this work include the wireless haptic feedback system in No Save Points (Outside the March Theatre Company), interactive audio-visual installations at Nuit Blanche (Toronto), and outdoor musical theatre at the SummerWorks Festival (Toronto).

Jordan Laffrenier - Production Dramaturge Jordan is an award-winning director, producer, playwright, dramaturg and educator. Jordan is currently the Associate Artistic Director of Canadian Stage and Prime Mover Theatre Company. Jordan has held many musical theatre development roles in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto. Jordan is the founding Artistic Director of Then They Fight Theatre, a dramaturgically based theatre company dedicated to developing new work from the initial spark of an idea into a fully realized production. Jordan is an advocate of theatre that supports the community on and off stage and has partnered theatre productions directly with local charities.

Laura Baxter - Stage Manager Select theatre credits include: Sweat, Love and Information, Venus in Fur, 9 seasons at Dream in High Park (Canadian Stage), Da Kink in My Hair, Pipeline (Soulpepper), Treemonisha (Volcano), Indecent, Oslo, My Name is Asher Lev, My Night With Reg (Studio 180), Black Boys, Arigato Tokyo, Obaaberima, The Maids (Buddies in Bad Times), Actually (Obsidian/ Harold Green), The Story, Tails From the City (Common Boots Theatre), Trout Stanley, Little Pretty and the Exceptional (Factory Theatre), 11:11, Elle (Theatre Passe Muraille), Soliciting Temptation (Tarragon Theatre). Laura is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, 2005. Thank you to my amazing wife Shawn and our daughter Amari for your unconditional love and support.

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Anna R. Kaltenbach - Assistant Stage Manager Anna is grateful to return to Canadian Stage after stage managing Maanomaa, My Brother last season! Toronto: Canadian Stage, Bustle & Beast, Culchahworks, Garner Theatre Productions, Project: Humanity.

Broadway/N.Y.: Motown, Broadway Advocacy Coalition, Broadway Inspirational Voices. Tours: Hamilton, Motown, Once, Memphis, Shrek, A Chorus Line, Mamma Mia!, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Joseph… (Tokyo). West End: Motown. Regional US: Marriott Lincolnshire, Chicago Shakespeare, Other Theatre Company, Western Stage, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Colorado Ballet, Opera Colorado.

Scott Hammell – Card Trick Consultant Scott has been entertaining professionally around the world since 1998.

The four-time Guinness World Record holder has hung upside down from a hot air balloon while locked in a straitjacket and chains, successfully completed a card trick while skydiving and jumped from an airplane while blindfolded and handcuffed to his waist. He has performed Houdini’s famous Milk Can Escape, juggled live explosives and has been shot at with a sniper rifle and caught the bullet as it ricocheted off a steel plate that hung around his neck. Whether it’s a palace in Abu Dhabi, a stadium in Malaysia or a hut in Kenya, Scott always brings his passion for his art to entertain and inspire! Scott has never been involved in a Canadian Stage production. www.ScottHammell.com Ausar Stewart - Voice & Dialect Coach Ausar Stewart is one of North America’s leading Voice and Communications coaches. As an actor Ausar trained at York University graduating with an MFA in theatre in 2003. Then as a teacher he trained with David Smukler graduating in 2007 with a Post Graduate Diploma in Voice, Speech, Accent and Dialect Coaching. Upon entering the profession he taught at many of Toronto’s most reputable theatre programs and established a private coaching practice. In 2019 Ausar journeyed to the Orkney islands of Scotland where he trained with his mentor’s mentor, the world renowned Kristin Linklater and in 2021 became a Designated Linklater Voice Teacher. Ausar is also a burgeoning Director and presently a Professor of Voice and Acting in the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University.

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Annual Donors, Sponsors and Members Canadian Stage is deeply grateful to the many individuals and organizations that supported our 22.23 season. They allowed us to invest in artists, build our pipeline of new work, and present contemporary artistic experiences at the highest levels.

Artistic Director’s Circle $100,000+

Sandra & Jim Pitblado, C.M.

BMO Financial Group

Frances & Tim Price

The Slaight Family Foundation

Julie Sutherland

$50,000-$99,999

$5,000 - $9,999

Marilyn Baillie, C.M. & Charles Baillie, O.C.

Sara & Dr. Michael Angel

David W. Binet

Tony Baylis

Polar Foundation

John & Nancy Embry

Adam and Gayle Burke

The William and Nona Heaslip Foundation

Chartwell Retirement Residences

TD Bank Group through the Ready Commitment

Susan Crocker & John Hunkin

$25,000-$49,999 Mark & Gail Appel The Azrieli Foundation Alexandra Baillie J.P. Bickell Foundation

Joan & Clifford Hatch Foundation Kathy Inch & Steve Simpson Kingfisher Foundation Ron Lalonde & Jane Humphreys Carole Winberg Anonymous

Kiki Delaney

$2,000 - $4,999

Katy Graham Debost The Henry White Kinnear Foundation

The Paul Butler and Chris Black Foundation at Toronto Foundation

Michelle Koerner

Lynn Curry

Paul Maranger & Robert Brown

Lynn Eakin

Trina McQueen, O.C.

Dr. Roy Eappen

Shawn McReynolds & Elaine Kierans

Monica Esteves & Chris Bretz

Metcalf Foundation

Robert & Julia Foster

Polar Asset Management Partners

Linda Glover & Ian de Verteuil

The Sabourin Family Foundation

Colin Gruchy

The Shishler Family

Colin Hennigar & Justine Turner

Anonymous

Angela Herwin

Producer’s Club $10,000 - $24,999 Hugh Clark Huw Evans & Kathryn Bird Sheila Goldman Brendan Healy Ken Hugessen & Jennifer Connolly Fabio Mascarin Foundation Maureen & Roger Parkinson Remembering Otto and Marie Pick Charitable Foundation

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Nancy Jain Nina Josefowitz Ian & Dorothy MacDonald In memory of John MacNaughton Heather McMartin & David Lightheart Vafa Mirzaagha John Montesano Robert Morassutti Perry Orestes & Tim Giguere The Racioppo Family Foundation Linda Reed

Gabrielle Richards

Shawn McReynolds & Elaine Kierans

Glenn Rogers

Mirzaagha Investments

Helena Ruken

Polar Asset Management Partners

Sylvia Soyka

RAW Design

Doug & Gail Todgham

Smith + Andersen

Antoinette Tummillo & John Carter

Raman Srivastava

Rajesh Uttamchandani

SvN Architects + Planners

David S Weinberg

TAS

Susan Wortzman

Vandana Taxali

City Builders Members Principals Kingsett Capital SvN Architects + Planners

Torys LLP Veltri Wealth Management Anonymous

Legacy Giving

Partners

We are grateful to the following individuals who have very thoughtfully and generously remembered Canadian Stage in their estates.

Allied Properties REIT

The Estate of Bluma Appel

Castlepoint Numa

The Estate of Kenneth C. Dawe

Diamond Schmitt

The Estate of John Gordon Hunter Larry Lubin

EllisDon

The Estate of Stanley Shaw

Enwave Energy

The Estate of Helen Joan Kates

Vandyk Properties

ERA KPMB RAW Design TAS

Theatre Ball 2023 Supporters Nimal Amitirigala

These listings include donations received between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.

We have made every effort to ensure proper recognition. If, however, your name has been accidentally omitted, listed incorrectly, or misspelled, we apologize. Please notify us at donate@canadianstage.com with any corrections.

Sara & Dr. Michael Angel Alexandra Baillie Khalidah Bello David W. Binet Bond Paving & Construction Boszko & Verity David Bronskill & Mark Dilworth CIBC Hugh Clark Deloitte Canada Diamond Schmitt Nina Josefowitz Colin Hennigar and Justine Turner Hogg, Shain & Sheck Professional Corporation Ken Hugessen & Jennifer Connolly KingSett Capital Paul Maranger & Robert Brown Fabio Mascarin Foundation Trina McQueen, O.C.

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Lifetime Giving Canadian Stage wishes to thank the generous contributions from individuals and corporations whose lifetime financial contributions to the company exceed $100,000.

Above $2,000,000

$100,000 - $249,999

Bram & Bluma Appel

Alexandra Baillie

The Bluma Appel Community Trust

The Azrieli Foundation

BMO Financial Group

Cathy Bateman

TD Bank Group

Jill E. Black & Barry Allan

$1,000,000 - $1,999,999 Marilyn Baillie, C.M. & Charles Baillie, O.C

Susan & Hans Brenninkmeyer The Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation

CIBC

M. Joan Chalmers C.C., O.Ont & Barbara Amesbury

Sandra Simpson

Peter & Frances Chiddy

$500,000 - $999,999 BMO Harris Private Banking Susan Crocker, C.M. & John Hunkin, C.M. John & Nancy Embry Imperial Oil Foundation Ron Lalonde & Jane Humphreys William MacKinnon Manulife Financial Maureen & Roger Parkinson RBC Foundation Scotiabank

Hugh Clark Mark & Ann Curry Deloitte Foundation Ernst & Young LLP Margaret & Jim Fleck, O.C. GE Canada Peter & Dianne Gillin Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc. Sheila Goldman Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Barbara Hackett & John Tory

St. Joseph Communications

The William & Nona Macdonald Heaslip Foundation

Anonymous (1)

Hewlett Packard Canada

$250,000 - $499,999 David W. Binet Canada Life Hal Jackman Foundation The Henry White Kinnear Foundation Laidlaw Foundation Loblaw Companies Limited Metcalf Foundation Ontario Trillium Foundation Jack & Judith Rose The Sabourin Family Foundation Sylvia Soyka Sun Life Financial Anonymous (1)

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HSBC Bank Canada Ken Hugessen & Jennifer Connolly Intact Insurance Company Ed & Ann Kerwin KPMG Canada Adrian Lang & Ash Taylor Don & Marjorie Lenz Gail MacNaughton & In Memory of John MacNaughton John & Kay McKellar Household Trina McQueen, O.C. Molson Coors Brewing Company Sandra & Jim Pitblado Polar Foundation Emmanuel Pressman

Timothy & Frances Price

Tridel Corporation

PwC Canada

Chip & Barbara Vallis

Shawn McReynolds & Elaine Kierans

Arlene & Michael Willis

Penny & Robert Richards Jim Riley & Nicole Sigouin

Julie, Peter & James in Memory of John David Wood

Edward S. Rogers

Anonymous (2)

Rogers Communications Inc. Ellen & Brian Rose Schuyler Bankes & Family The Estate of Stanley Shaw TC Energy

A family and a company that changed the world

November 14 – 26, 2023

Lehman Trilogy

Written by Stefano Massini Adapted by Ben Power

Get your tickets now!

Graeme Somerville, Jordan Pettle, and Ben Carlson. Photo by Lorne Bridgman

The

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Fairview: Ordena Stephens-Thompson, Sophia Walker. Designed by Rachel Forbes, Jawon Kang, Logan Cracknell. Photo by John Lauener

A round of applause Many thanks to The Slaight Family Foundation for your transformational theatre initiative. Your commitment of $15 million to 22 Canadian theatre companies and training institutions is having a profound impact.

“The remarkable commitment from the Slaight Family Foundation substantially strengthens Canadian Stage’s resilience as we navigate the challenges and opportunities in our post-pandemic recovery. Their generous contribution supports our innovative initiatives, expanding our efforts to empower artists and engage audiences.

This extraordinary investment not only helps us overcome the challenges posed by the sector’s reopening, after the extended pandemic closures, but also leaves a lasting legacy that will resonate throughout the arts community.”

— Brendan Healy & Monica Esteves

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Canadian Stage Board of Directors

Artistic

Alexandra Baillie Chair

Lynanne Sparrow Producer

Hugh Clark Vice-Chair

Jordan Laffrenier Associate Artistic Director

Adam Burke Treasurer

Laurie Merredew Company Manager

Huw Evans Secretary

Qwyn Charter MacLachlan Senior Manager of Education and Community Engagement

Nimal Amitirigala Sara Angel Rupinder Dhillon Councillor Paula Fletcher Colin Hennigar Nina Josefowitz Elaine Kierans Marc Mayer Trina McQueen

Development Chris Faulkner Senior Manager, Government Relations and Foundations Derolyn Kinkead Senior Manager of Corporate Development Gillian Hoff Manager of Special Events

John Montesano

Shaneill Floyd-Wlazlak Development Coordinator

Vanessa Pfaff

Finance & Administration

Drew Sinclair

Sunitha Rai Manager, Payroll Administration and HR Support

Julie Sutherland Vandana Taxali Raj Uttamchandani

Management

Kari Seppen Intermediate Accountant

Brendan Healy Artistic Director

Brian Parsons Senior Manager, IT Services

Monica Esteves Executive Director

Ruth-Anne Yiu Executive and Administration Assistant

Beth Toombs Director of Finance and Administration Heather McMartin Director of Development and Campaigns Elissa Horscroft Director of Production and Facilities Tanya Doroslovac Director of Marketing and Communications

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Phillip Pike Data Entry Clerk, Accounts Payable

Marketing and Communications Shannon Tigert Senior Marketing Manager, Loyalty & Growth Juliana Feng Assistant Manager, Marketing & Digital Madison Zinger Marketing Manager, New Audiences Derek Ma Graphic and Digital Manager Michael Crumpton Senior Sales Specialist Andrea Healy Audience Services Manager Faisal Butt Assistant Manager to Audience Services J. Atlas Front of House Manager

Production Daniel Bennett Technical Director Meg Woods Assistant Production Manager Ian Kowalski Production Coordinator Jillian Wardell Assistant Technical Director Marshall Kidd Assistant Technical Director Mary Spyrakis Head of Properties George Nadrous Building Operations Manager Josh Vlodarchyk Head Technician Ben Junor House Technician Finn Browne Head Technician

Thanks to our Sponsors and Funders Season Sponsor

Special Foundation Support

Major Corporate Sponsors

Dream Pay-WhatYou-Wish Sponsor

Education & Community Outreach Lead Donor

Supporting Donor

Marilyn & Charles Baillie Family Foundation

J.P. Bickell Foundation

Major Foundation Supporters

The William and Nona Heaslip Foundation Fabio Mascarin Family Foundation

Marilyn & Charles Baillie Family Foundation

The Joan and Clifford Hatch Foundation

Kingfisher Foundation

Henry White Kinnear Foundation

Otto & Marie Pick Charitable Foundation

City Builders – Principal Sponsors

Hotel Sponsor

TORONTO DOWNTOWN

Government Support

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