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Einstein's Gift
by Vern ThiessenEinstein’s Gift follows the life and work of Nobel laureate Dr. Fritz Haber, a man who risked everything for a country that never accepted him. Haber, a chemist who worked hard to enhance life, discovered too late that when his knowledge was put in the hands of the wrong people, millions would die and that his efforts to serve humanity were futile against political will, nationalism, and war. This updated edition of Vern Thiessen’s compelling play about the collision of power and pride still resonates with verve and vigour.
The Elephant Song
by Nicolas BillonAn eminent psychiatrist has vanished from his office. The last person to have seen him is Michael, a troubled patient. Dr. Greenberg, the hospital director, is determined to question Michael, ignoring the head nurse's cryptic warnings. Michael speaks of elephants and opera—with the occasional hint of murder and foul play. Fraught with mind games and verbal tugs-of-war, The Elephant Song is a cat-and-mouse game that will keep you guessing until its haunting conclusion.
The Empire: A Trilogy of Modern Epics
by Susanna FournierExplore a world on the edge of change through three epic stories spanning five hundred years of imagined history, unpacking systems of power and what we are capable of in the pursuit of freedom. The story starts in The Philosopher’s Wife. Deep in the North, a philosopher exiled for promoting his atheist work amidst a bloody religious war yearns to ignite a revolution, but his personal life has collapsed into chaos. What begins as a desperate attempt to cure his wife’s animalistic behaviour erupts into a power struggle between the sexes, unleashing violent reckonings while the world outside hurtles towards an epoch-changing revolution. Over twenty years later, The Scavenger’s Daughter examines the true face of empire as Northern forces continue to march against the South, “liberating” all who stand in their way. In a landscape blown apart by war, we follow Jack and Ash, orphan soldiers belonging to the Black Swan army, trying to survive the camp, toxic masculinity, and each other until they can be free. When Jack returns to camp, his freedom having been bought for him by a mysterious philosopher, he believes his new life is just around the corner. But as rations wear thin and the king seizes the opium trails, the camp is thrown into chaos, putting everything Jack and Ash have known—including Jack’s first love, Sarah—at risk. Centuries later, in Four Sisters, we meet Sarah again as a woman and former Madam who has survived death, the toppling of regimes, and centuries of war. When a mysterious plague breaks out, she is forced to relocate to a quarantined zone called “The Skirts” with four young girls who were orphaned by the women she once employed. But when a strange doctor arrives and discovers the girls are plague-positive, Sarah must decide whether to go ahead with an experimental treatment or none at all. As time itself begins to erode, this found family of women must face loss, love, and their individual struggles for power in a violent world. For fans of Game of Thrones, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Mists of Avalon, The Empire is both foreign and shockingly familiar, leaving you asking, how did we get here, and where are we going?
The Enchanted Loom
by Suvendrini LenaThe Sri Lankan civil war has left many scars on Thangan and his family, most noticeably the loss of his eldest son and the crippling epileptic seizures brought on by his torture. As the final days of the war play out, the family bears witness from their new home of Toronto. Thangan’s other son Kanan comes home from a protest, shaken that someone referred to him by his brother’s name. His young daughter Kavitha innocently dances around with a mysterious pair of anklets that she found. And Thangan’s wife Sevi is consumed with feeling responsible for her broken family. Amidst the ongoing trauma, the family is faced with the possibility of Thangan undergoing neurological surgery. Will the surgery give them a chance to heal, or will it cause even more pain?Presented in both English and Tamil, this poetic play is both medical and mystical, drawing a connection between trauma and memory that creates a stark reminder of loss, hope, family, and freedom.
Every Day She Rose
by Nick Green Andrea ScottAfter the Black Lives Matter protest at the 2016 Toronto Pride Parade, two friends find their racial and queer politics aren’t as aligned as they thought, and the playwrights behind them must figure out how to write about the fallout. Cathy Ann, a straight Black woman, and her roommate Mark, a gay white man, came home from the parade with such differing views of what happened and how it affected their own communities. Cathy Ann agrees with the protest that the police presence at the parade doesn’t make her feel safe, while Mark felt safer with them there, especially in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. Frustrated he can’t see the bigger issue, Cathy Ann questions if she can continue living with Mark. Simultaneously, playwrights Andrea and Nick—who share the same identities as their characters—pause throughout the show to figure out how to work together to tell the story of a significant turning point in a friendship. Through both sets of dialogue, Every Day She Rose is a powerful exploration of white supremacy, privilege, and patriarchy in supposed safe spaces.
Everybody Just C@lm the F#ck Down
by Robert ChafeAfter an unexpected night in a Regina hospital emergency room, Robert Chafe can’t shake the burning question of whether he’s Tennessee Williams or Dorothy Zbornak. Are his symptoms a harbinger of a terrifying undiagnosed condition, or is it all just in his head? Frenetic, tender, and sometimes scary, Everybody Just C@lm the F#ck Down is a stumbling folly about the aging body, mid-life anxiety, and what it means to live when you can’t know what’s next.
Everything I Couldn't Tell You
by Jeff D'HondtRevived from a coma after a traumatic event, Megan’s injuries leave her capable of great violence, forcing her desperate physician Cassandra to recruit Alison, an Indigenous clinician, as her consultant. Alison uses an innovative form of technologically enhanced expressive arts therapy to augment the rehabilitative effects of speaking Lenape, their shared (and almost extinct) language. However, this reminder of cultural expression and identity triggers Megan, putting herself into a life-threatening situation. With Megan’s safety in jeopardy, Alison must internalize a life-changing lesson to save her: pain is often unjust, but it also reminds us that we’re alive.Everything I Couldn’t Tell You is a potent reminder of the healing and rehabilitative power within Indigenous languages.
Feet of the Angels
by Evelyne de la Chenelière Nigel SpencerEver since her brother's untimely death, Marie has been fascinated with angels, believing her brother has become one. Now as a young woman, she has dedicated her doctoral thesis to the subject: the sudden portrayal of angels with feet in Renaissance paintings. As Marie tries to analyze the motive behind this, she begins to uncover questions of existentialism, societal perceptions of women, and the meaning of art and life. Her biggest challenge, though, becomes grasping a seemingly impossible understanding of her brother's suicide, and dealing with her own dislocation.
The Femme Playlist & I Cannot Lie to the Stars That Made Me
by Catherine HernandezFrom masturbation to motherhood, body shaming to burlesque, Catherine Hernandez reveals the reality of living as a queer woman of colour. Set to the music of her life, The Femme Playlist shows what it’s like to be sexy and proud, slutty and loud, queer and brown. I Cannot Lie to the Stars That Made Me is an around-the-campfire guide to mourning and healing for women of colour, written after Hernandez and her daughter left an abusive relationship. As a group of women share their stories around a campfire, they pray for each other and give as much strength as their bodies will allow.
The Fish Eyes Trilogy
by Anita Majumdar Maria NguyenFish Eyes is the story of Meena, a classically trained Indian dancer who, despite being obsessed with Bollywood movies and her dance career, just wants to be like the rest of her high-school friends. When she develops a massive crush on Buddy, the popular boy at school, Meena contemplates turning down an incredible opportunity to pursue him, even if he barely notices her.Boys With Cars follows Naz, also a classically trained Indian dancer, who dreams of getting out of small town Port Moody to attend the University of British Columbia. But when Buddy causes a stir over Naz at school, Naz’s university plans begin to crumble quickly.Let Me Borrow That Top centres on Candice, a girl who appropriates Meena’s Indian dance skills and bullies Naz after a nasty rumour spreads through the halls of their high school. But like her two enemies, Candice shares a passion for Indian dancing, and has just been accepted to the Conventry School of Bhangra. Will she leave behind the comforts of home to pursue her dreams?
Five @ Fifty
by Brad FraserWhen Olivia loses control at her fiftieth birthday party, her four best friends decide to intervene once and for all, much to the irritation of Olivia and her lover, Norma. But is she the only one battling a demon? Or do each of these women face an addiction of one kind or another? Five @ Fifty is a raw and darkly comedic portrayal of turning fifty in contemporary society, and of the friendships we can't live without.
Flesh and Other Fragments of Love
by Evelyne de la Chenelière Linda GaboriauWhen Pierre and Simone planned a vacation to the Irish coast, they were hoping to revive their failing marriage. What they weren't expecting was to stumble upon the body of Mary, a drowned woman, during a walk along the beach. It's not long before curiosity and obsession take over, and the couple begin to piece together Mary's history using both facts and their imaginations. As her story comes alive, Mary's presence integrates itself into Pierre and Simone's lives, resurrecting their memories and regrets, fears and obsessions. Now they must struggle more than ever to revisit the past in order to write their own story.
The Flood: and other misadventures of the female prisoners of the St. Lawrence Market
by Leah Simone Bowen“I bore him fourteen children and he had me down here faster than lightning.” In 1887, women were property and could be imprisoned for any reason. Jail was considered a place for the criminal, the disabled, the mentally ill, and the marginalized. In the basement prison below Toronto’s largest market, two women named Mary—one a shunned, pregnant Irish immigrant, the other a vilified Mississauga woman—become an unlikely pair as they form a friendship within their cold, shared cell. Their bond threatens fellow inmate Sophia—who calls herself the first Black woman in Canada and the leader of the prisoners—and she plots to use the women to gain better treatment for herself. But as melting ice water pours into the prison from Lake Ontario, the forgotten women of Toronto must come together to survive. Inspired by true accounts and the history of Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market, The Flood gives voice to the little-known stories of early female prisoners in Canada.
The Forbidden Phoenix
by Marty Chan Robert Walsh Derek MahSun Wukong's path, however, becomes a test of strength, agility, and character as he comes face to face with mysterious, enchanting, and heartless creatures. Inspired by the Chinese opera, The Forbidden Phoenix's lyricism brings us to a world where Chinese parables are woven with the painful history of the immigrant men who suffered greatly to build Canada's railroad in the 1800s. Playwright Marty Chan and composer Robert Walsh create a musical rife with stylized characters, lending itself to a performance brimming with acrobatics, slapstick, and martial arts.
Forgiveness
by Mark SakamotoMitsue Sakamoto and Ralph MacLean both suffered tremendous loss during WWII: Mitsue as a survivor of a Japanese Canadian internment camp, and Ralph as a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp. In order to rebuild their lives and their families after the war, Ralph and Mitsue must find the grace and generosity necessary to forgive those who have wronged them. Their paths eventually cross in 1968 when Mitsue’s son and Ralph’s daughter begin dating, and Ralph is invited to Mitsue’s home for dinner.This soaring adaptation of Mark Sakamoto’s award-winning memoir affirms the power of forgiveness and shows us that in our challenging times characterized by political divisiveness, xenophobia, and race hatred, the story of Mitsue and Ralph’s personal triumphs over hatred, injustice, violence, and bigotry remains vitally relevant and urgently necessary.
Fortune of Wolves
by Ryan GriffithWhat would it feel like if the world emptied out? Lowell Garrish has lost everything—his parents, his grandma, the music the waves make on the shore in Nova Scotia. Desperate to hold on to real sound, Lowell sets off on a road trip across Canada with a tape recorder, capturing something from every person he meets and his observations along the way. But as he drives, strange occurrences and mass disappearances imply that something terrible is happening, and Lowell begins to realize that time for humanity may be running out. Written as transcriptions of now-disintegrated cassette tapes, and meant to be read in random sequence, this engrossing apocalyptic adventure is a self-guided tour into the belly of a deafening silence.
The Foursome
by Norm FosterRick, Ted, Donnie, and Cameron are home for their fifteen-year college reunion; a great time to go out for a game of golf and catch up on each other’s lives. Unlike their college days, the conversation doesn’t include talk of beer and final exams, but of colonoscopies, home-security systems, alcoholism, Buddhism, and more.
Freda & Jem's Best of the Week
by Lo FineJem is a self-described butch dyke from Montreal who always imagined spending her life in bars and having multiple flings. When she meets Freda, a woman who exposes Jem’s vulnerabilities, her preconceived notions of who she is become moot as she finds herself partnered in a long-term relationship with kids. Which she surprisingly loves—most of the time. But that’s all changing as Jem and Freda’s marriage shifts from one of love and lust to one of gripes and grumbles. Freda & Jem’s Best of the Week is a love story that explores the struggle for identity as a couple reconciles a new way of loving one another while accepting their new familial reality.
Freedom: A Mixtape
by Marcel Stewart with Suitcase In PointFreedom: A Mixtape is a soulful artistic response to recent and historical violence on Black bodies, presented through a collection of original songs, stories, poems, anecdotes, spoken-word pieces, and musical instrumentation from folks living in Ontario's Niagara Region. A community conversation about our complicated relationship with emancipation and the human right to be free, Freedom: A Mixtape is a compilation album that is part protest and part celebration. It is history and the present moment all at once, a reminder that this moment is part of a larger, ongoing movement. Familiar pains are felt deeply in moments both bygone and bitingly present, setting the tone—and stage—for action.Analog field recordings and soothing talk-radio energy give voice to the residue of intergenerational trauma, the depths of colonialism, resilience amidst oppressive conditions, and a clarion call that joy is a birthright for everyone. With emotional precision and softness, Freedom: A Mixtape offers a radical reminder that in our bleakest moments, we rise up through love of self and community.
From the Ashes: Six Solo Plays
by Shauntay GrantFrom the Ashes collects solo plays by Black Canadian women and womxn that together celebrate the hope, humour, and healing that can come after devastation and loss. From lighthearted comedies to heavy dramas, this anthology contains a multitude of stories on Blackness, love, motherhood, sexuality, trauma, racism, mythology, and more.In Georgeena by Djanet Sears, a bride speeds down the highway, struggling to make sense of what led her to that moment. In benu by d’bi.young anitafrika, a young woman faces motherhood while still coming to terms with her own motherlessness. Makambe K Simamba’s A Chitenge Story follows a young woman who travels to her native Zambia to find and confront the man who abused her as a child. Ngozi Paul’s The Emancipation of Ms. Lovely chronicles a woman throughout different stages of her life that relate to her sexual awakening. In The Sender by Cheryl Foggo, a woman working for a global racism-elimination project encounters some technical difficulties when someone unexpectedly objects to the project’s restrictions. And in Kalale Dalton-Lutale’s Crybaby, a young woman falls in love for the first time, which opens a well of questions about her identity.
From the Theater to the Plaza: Spectacle, Protest, and Urban Space in Twenty-First-Century Madrid (McGill-Queen's Iberian and Latin American Cultures Series)
by Matthew I. FeinbergLavapiés - diverse, multicultural, and one of Madrid’s most iconic neighbourhoods - has emerged as a locus of resistance movements and of cultural flourishing. Poised at the intersection of theatre studies and cultural geography, this innovative study sketches its physical and imaginary contours.In From the Theater to the Plaza Matthew Feinberg guides readers on a journey through the development of the theatre, as both art and space, in Lavapiés. Offering a detailed analysis of dramatic texts and productions, performance spaces, urban planning documents, and the cultural activities of squatters, Feinberg sheds new light on the lead-up to Spain’s economic crisis and the emergence in 2011 of the 15-M anti-austerity protest movement. The result is a multidisciplinary account of how the spectacle of the contemporary city connects local, municipal, and global geographies.By linking the neighbourhood’s unique role as both a site and a subject of Madrid’s theatre tradition with its contemporary struggles over gentrification, From the Theater to the Plaza offers new approaches for understanding how culture and capital produce the twenty-first-century city.
Frozen River (nîkwatin sîpiy)
by Michaela Washburn Joelle Peters Carrie CostelloMichaela and Carrie worked together previously on the TYA play Water Under the BridgeAll three authors share the desire to challenge audiences to think about big issues in meaningful ways for young people, wanting to offer something for the next seven generations, as youth are our future
Fundamentals of Directing
by Ric Knowles Pat FloodConcise and practical, Fundamentals of Directing is a distillation of Ric Knowles’s twenty-five years of experience as a director, teacher of directing, and dramaturge across Canada. Organized to reproduce the chronology of a play’s rehearsal, the book moves through the various stages of the directorial process, from selecting a project through auditioning; working with designers, actors, and technicians; to coordinating the work of the full company through tech week to closing night. It also, and uniquely, includes important appendices on the work of directors in devised theatre and new-play development.
Games: Who Wants to Play?
by Linda GriffithsIn the aftermath of a local high-school boy’s mysterious death, Dan and Marion Metcalf are increasingly worried about their son Zach. He’s apathetic and shuts himself away in the basement to play video games and spend time with Keira, his virtual girlfriend and confidante, giving his parents more to worry about than their own insecurities and lacklustre sex life. When Zach’s best friend, Micky, begins to spend more time around the house, bonding with Dan and flirting with Marion, even Keira cannot anticipate the depth of Zach’s rage and sense of alienation. Will his repressed feelings culminate in a violent act that is sure to go viral?
Gas Girls
by Donna Michelle St. BernardGigi knows the limitations of her trade, while her young protege, Lola, looks for love in every man that comes her way. Lola's brother, Chickn, ekes out his own living while keeping an ever-watchful eye for Gigi's affections and Lola's safety. But love is not a luxury these girls can afford. Through story, song, and play, Gigi and Lola inspire each other to find joy on the edges of survival.