Projects announced for HATCH: emerging performance projects 2005-2006

TORONTO, October 4, 2005–Harbourfront Centre is pleased to announce the lineup for the 2005-2006 HATCH: emerging performance projects season.  Stori Ya, Days of Mad Rabbits, Down The Main Drag and She Said Saffron are the title projects scheduled to be presented this season. HATCH runs from November, 2005 through March, 2006 with all productions performed at Harbourfront Centre’s Studio Theatre. Tickets prices vary between productions. Check www.harbourfrontcentre.com/hatch for information and updates.

Tina Rasmussen, Harbourfront Centre’s Director of Performing Arts, says, “Entering into its third year, HATCH is a key initiative in Harbourfront Centre’s mission to develop local artists and their unique practices. Our partnership provides resources and professional assistance to a new generation of engaging and innovative contemporary creators."

HATCH continues to expand its scope, this year including creators whose work both intersects with and expands theatrical tradition through dance and physical performance. This season’s selected participants offer diverse and thought-provoking works; from a surreal story interpretation through dance, to the emotional strength of the solo performance, the first half of this season shines the light on boundary-pushing new performance. All those interested in the process of theatrical invention in theatrical invention will enjoy following the progress of these unique performances and artists.

THE SEASON LINEUP:
November 7-13 -  Stori Ya Collective in association with Upstage Productions, Stori Ya
A compelling one-woman drama written in English, Swahili and Nyamwezi featuring Dora
Award-winning artist Rhoma Spencer. Joan M. Kivanda fresh, bold script focuses on a woman whose life has been caught up in gender, racial and social constructions that follow her from Tanzania to Canada. Stori Ya is directed by ahdri zhina mandiela. Performances are November 8-12, 8 p.m. and November 9, 10, 12, 13 at 2 p.m..  Tickets are: $20/Adults, $15 Students and Seniors and $10/Groups 10 or more.

December 1-4 – Lucy Rupert /Blue Ceiling dance projects, Days of Mad Rabbits
Days of Mad Rabbits , choreographed by Lucy Rupert, dissects Lewis Carroll's famed Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to affirms the individual's power to overthrow the upside-down world. Days of Mad Rabbits channels Lewis’s elusive and ubiquitous Mad Hatter and White Rabbit, as well as film icons Peter Lorre and Charlie Chaplin, exhumed and fragmented through a series of duets for dancers, puppet, and piano. Performance features Noah Keneally, Caroline Niklas-Gordon, Barbara Pallomina, and Lucy Rupert. Performances: December 1-3, at 8 p.m., December 4 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $17.

The second half of the HATCH: emerging performance projects takes the Studio Theatre stage in the third week in February. 

Week of February 20-26 – Collective Architecture, Down the Main Drag
A disarmingly charming, wonderfully inventive play, filled with tremendous heart and humour, by emerging Quebecois playwright Steve Laplante, is presented by one of Toronto's most intriguing young ensemble companies. By cleverly transposing the hero’s epic journey from the mythic to the everyday, M. Laplante reminds us of how very mythic our everyday actually is. Down the Main Drag is a comic and touching example of how necessary the process of dealing with death renders our lives more livable.
Performance dates, times and ticket pricing yet to be determined.

Week of March 6-12 – Girl Can Create/Lisa Pijuan-Nomura, She Said Saffron
Created in the summer of 2003 She Said Saffron is revised and mounted as an expanded, hour-long dance-theatre work. A young woman recounts stories of food, family and first kisses, all taking place in her first generation in Canada family. Combining movement and text and riffing on many tangents, a family paella is made during this production. Performance dates, times and ticket pricing yet to be determined.   

HATCH and Harbourfront Centre

The programme, now in its third season, provides venue and professional production assistance to selected Toronto performing arts companies who exhibit promise through a project in development. Each participating company is offered the Studio Theatre venue.  Located inside York Quay Centre, the Studio Theatre is a proscenium arch theatre with a seating capacity of 196. The assistance package also includes technical production and assistance, box office backing and administrative assistance, marketing and media relations support, a one-week production run at Harbourfront Centre and professional development assistance with an eye towards the artists’ future endeavors. The ultimate goal is to strengthen Greater Toronto’s performing arts community by investing in and nurturing local players at various stages of their professional development.

Tickets for HATCH: emerging performance projects are available through the Harbourfront Centre Box Office. Ticket prices vary. Public information and tickets call 416-973-4000. For information check the website at: www.harbourfrontcentre.com/hatch <http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/hatch> ...

A Brief Listing of previous HATCH: emerging performance projects

Season One: 2003-2004

December, 2003––Nation of Aslan / Players by Nature, richardthesecond

December, 2003—emergency.exit, not for all this

March, 2004—Theatre Asylum, The Trials of John Demjanjuk: A Holocaust Cabaret

March, 2004—Suitcase In Point, Be Wearing Wolf

Season Two: 2004-2005

November, 2004--Pull'it Out Theatre, Fish Eyes

February, 2005–definition:blood, Wash Me Clean

March, 2005--Babes in Chains Collective, Klank

-30-

 
Harbourfront Centre Media Contact:

Bill Bobek; 416-973-4428
wbobek@harbourfrontcentre.com