"Stages," GCTC's Second Season in the new Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre

Media Release: Ottawa, ON - Monday, April 7, 2008

The Great Canadian Theatre Company’s Artistic Director, Lise Ann Johnson, is pleased to present GCTC’s 2008-2009 season, entitled “Stages,” at a season launch on Monday, April 7, 12 noon, at GCTC’s new home, The Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre at 1233 Wellington Street West, Ottawa. GCTC’s newest season presents the cycle of a human life and all its rites of passage and metamorphoses, beginning in childhood and ending in old age. The Stages season literally reflects GCTC’s mandate to “examine Canadian life.” The professional independent theatre company was incorporated in October 1975.

This is Lise Ann Johnson’s third season at GCTC and she warmly invites audiences to enjoy the “Stages” season: “I’ve often thought that a life is structured like a play.  We all have a beginning, a middle, and an end.  As we cycle through the acts of our life, we are transformed by our experiences and become new characters.  Whether our lives are shaped by our own will or determined by Lady Fortune, I believe that we are always coming of age. We live in an aging society.  The 2006 Census shows that there has been a dramatic shift in the demographics of Canada, with record numbers of our population retired or approaching retirement.  We see it in our families, we see it on the street, and we see it our theatres. Our Stages season will ask GCTC audiences to take a look at Canadian society through an intergenerational lens.  In keeping with GCTC’s mandate, I hope that this season both provokes examination of the various stages of Canadian life, and also encourages discussion between the young and, well, the merely young at heart. Regardless of which act of your life you are currently playing, I look forward to welcoming you to our new season of ‘Stages’”.

GCTC’s playbill begins with an entrance onto the stage of childhood with I, Claudia, written by Kristen Thomsen and featuring Liisa Repo-Martel. Chris Abraham, directs the Dora Award-winning show (Outstanding New Play 2001). A Crow’s Theatre Production, this play runs September 9 - 28, 2008. This is an extraordinary one-woman show that maps the raw, but beautiful interior life of a misfit adolescent.  Claudia finds herself suffering from the triple afflictions of puberty, unpopularity, and her parents' divorce. Using four astonishingly expressive masks, the performer evokes Claudia and those around her. Alternatively wrenchingly sad and wrenchingly funny, I, Claudia casts a spell of rare power in the theatre.

Johnson herself directs Zadie’s Shoes, her selection for the stage of youth.  This show, playing October 21 – November 9, 2008, is written by Adam Pettle. This play, first produced in Toronto in 2001, follows Benjamin who is a compulsive gambler who's just lost the money for his girlfriend's trip to an "alternative" cancer clinic in Mexico.  With only 72 hours to win it back, a desperate Benjamin finds himself at synagogue, praying for a miracle… or a winner. In the fast-paced, madcap worlds of horseracing, addictions and championship curling, Zadie's Shoes provides a hilarious yet moving look at the nature of luck and the power of faith. TELUS is the Production Partner.

GCTC’s third stage is mid-life. In Coma Unplugged, written by Pierre-Michel Tremblay and translated by Micheline Chevrier, who also directs, the audience meets Daniel who is having a mid-life crisis in his head. Daniel Martin, a humour columnist for the local daily, is plunged into a deep coma following an accident.  Or was it an accident?  Between reality and dream, between the man he was and the man he wants to be, Daniel takes stock of his life.  This hit comedy from Quebec probes our society’s desire to laugh at all costs.  Coma Unplugged was one of the most notable successes of the 2006-2007 theatrical season in Quebec, snagging the “Prix de la critique” from the Association québecoise des critiques de theatre (AQCT) and several Masque Awards in the 14th annual Gala des masques.  GCTC has commissioned, developed, and will produce the World Premiere of the English Translation of Coma Unplugged November 25 – December 14, 2008.  Scotiabank Group is the Production Partner.

Tempting Providence, written by Robert Chafe and directed by Jillian Keiley, guides theatre patrons through GCTC’s fourth stage: giving life. The production was first produced in Gros Morne by Theatre Newfoundland Labrador (http://www.theatrenewfoundland.com/), and plays in Ottawa January 6 – January 25, 2009. Tempting Providence tells the simply elegant tale of Nurse Myra Bennett, a “Florence Nightingale of the North”.  In 1922 she left her home in England to provide the only medical services along 350 kilometres of Newfoundland’s remote Northern Coast. She came for two years, and stayed for 50.  She helped deliver more than 700 babies, extracted 5000 teeth, set broken limbs, and performed kitchen table operations by lamplight. Johnson tells us that, along the way, Nurse Myra Bennett also fell in love… “You’ll be swept away by this extraordinary story of how an ordinary individual changed and saved the lives of so many.”  Pure Advice is the Production Co-partner.

The fifth stage is age, and is represented by The Drawer Boy, playing February 24 – March 15, 2009.  Written by Michael Healey, and directed by Todd Duckworth, The Drawer Boy is the story of Morgan and Angus – aging farmers and lifelong friends who served together during World War II.  Their lives are comically disrupted when Miles, a young actor from the big city comes to live with the two bachelors to research a play. Miles stumbles upon the key to painful memories locked in the mind of one man that ultimately unlocks the hearts of them all. Johnson says, “It is, quite simply, an entertaining, compassionate and magical piece of theatre.” 

Lise Ann Johnson moves to her final stage, the exit, with The Net. The play runs April 14 – May 3, 2009, and is a World Premiere of an English Translation commissioned by GCTC.  In The Net, written by Marcel-Romain Thériault, and translated by Maureen Labonté and Don Hannah, audiences meet Anthime Chiasson, who leaves his grandson an inheritance he does not want.  In the Maritimes, the entire fishing industry is in decline and a society is on the brink.  Anthime Chiasson, the owner of a prized crab boat, expects his grandson, Etienne, to take the reins of the family business.  However, jealous Uncle Leo has no intention of stepping aside.  Family tensions echo the social tensions that thrive along the Acadian shore in this gripping new play. Between the oldest and youngest lie a chasm of generational and cultural differences – language, accent, tradition, values and dreams.

In the Lorraine “Fritzi” Yale Gallery in the Upper Lobby of the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre, fine art is paired with fine theatre. In a unique artistic partnership, Don Monet of Cube Gallery curates six exhibitions of contemporary artwork by local visual artists. The artwork takes its inspiration for the stages of the human life and the plays in the 2008-09 season. The gallery is open during regular box office hours.

In addition to mainstage productions, GCTC is partnering with the National Arts Centre’s BC Scene to present Theatre Replacement’s BIOBOXES, directed by Maiko Bae Yamamoto and James Long, in its Studio Theatre April 22 –April 25, 2009. “BIOBOXES is a collection of six bilingual, one-on-one performances that take place in a most intimate theatre — a box worn on the actors' shoulders,” Johnson reveals, “This a truly unique and exhilarating performance experience created by six of Vancouver's most adventuresome, culturally diverse artists through an interview process with first generation Canadians of their same culture.” Limited tickets are available for this show to subscribers in April 2008 on a first-come, first-served basis, with remaining tickets going on sale on July 14, 2008.

The community has raised a remarkable 90% of the 11.7 million dollars needed to build the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre. Another 1.1 million dollars will complete the capital campaign. In honour of the generous gift made by The Minto Foundation to GCTC’s Making it Greater Capital Campaign, GCTC is pleased to name one of its two new dressing rooms after The Minto Foundation.

Acoustic Waves returns to GCTC for a second season in the new cultural space. Co-presented with the Ottawa Folk Festival, concerts are scheduled on Sundays, September 21, November 2, December 7, 2008 and January 18, March 8 and April 26, 2009. These concerts will feature both the celebrated and the rising stars of the Canadian music scene.

The 10th Annual Lawyer Play is Lost in Paradise by Ian Stauffer, and runs May 27 - 30, 2009. This production featuring lawyers as actors is a fundraiser in support of GCTC and its charity partner.

Show times for GCTC shows are weekdays, 8 p.m., Saturdays, 4 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., and Sunday, 2 p.m. Student matinees, sponsored by TD Canada Trust,  are at 12 noon on selected dates. Pay-what-you-can shows are the first Sunday of each run.

Subscriptions to the 2008-2009 season and offer savings of up to 17% off single tickets prices, available before July 13th. After July 13th, single tickets range from $10 per ticket for RUSH Hour tickets for students to $42 (price includes a $3 facility surcharge) for evening tickets. Acoustic Waves tickets are on sale by phoning (613) 236-5196.

Box Office hours during non-performance weeks are Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., and Sunday, 12 p.m. – 4 p.m.. For performance weeks, hours are Monday to Saturday, 10 am. – 7 p.m., and Sunday, 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. 

For further information, visit www.gctc.ca.

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Media Contact:
Laurie Murphy
Marketing & Communications Director
Great Canadian Theatre Company
300- 1227 Wellington Street West
Ottawa ON K1Y 0G7
613 236-5192 x 229
publicity@gctc.ca
www.gctc.ca