The Steady State Theatre Project

The Steady State Theatre Project presents…

SCRIPT SCRAP

A week-long festival of new theatre.

October 16-20, doors at 7pm
lemonTree {studio} (196 Spadina Ave., lower unit)
PWYC

Join Steady State for our third annual SCRIPT SCRAP festival, showcasing the new works from our Playwright’s Unit, Writers’ Circle and residency program.

Doors open at 7pm, so you can drop in any time to have a cheap drink and catch some exciting new theatre.

Featuring THE COWGIRL CHOIR on October 19!

OCTOBER 16:

Kalamazoo Diaries by NATALIE FINGERHUT
Director: Esther Arbeid
Cast: Ron Boyd, Rebecca Golden, Grainne O’Flynn, Howard Pressburger, Mike Tanchuk, Caroline Toal

Totem by ANDREW GABOURY
Director: Kallee Lins

Raw by ROB SALERNO
Director: Justen Bennett
Cast: James Fanizza, Jason Stroud, Robert Tsonis

OCTOBER 17:

Hackney by YOLANDA FERRATO
Director: Maya Rabinovitch                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Cast: Sandra Crljenica, Mel Hrymak, Rob LaRonde, Liam Morris, Nicole Ratjen, Sashoya Simpson

[play] by MICHAEL BEDFORD
Director: Michael Bedford
Cast: Guy Doucette, Simon Esler, Andrew Gaboury, Kat Letwin, Liam Morris, Daniel Sadavoy, Kristina Schartman

Doing Good by ALAN GORDON
Director: Ulla Laidlaw
Cast: Miceael Bedford, Guy Bradford, David Fournier, Melanie Hrymak, Mirra Kardonne, Rob LaRonde, Kat Letwin, Neil Naft, Jen Neales, Jack Newman, Howard Pressburger

Killjoy by ALEXANDRA LEAN
Director: Jajube Mandiela
Cast: Rebecca Applebaum, Jasmine Chen, Andrew Church, Jeff Ho, John de Leon, Clara Pasieka, Joy Tanner

OCTOBER 18:

Something About the Beat of a Heart by RACHEL GANZ
Director: Alexandra Simpson
Cast: Tom Beattie, Kelsey Goldberg, Andrew Guance, Zachary Knowles, Julia Matias

Grief Circus by CRYSTAL WOOD
Director: Crystal Wood
Cast: Rong Fu, Cheyenne Scott

…and the aeroplanes fall into the sea by ANDREW THOMAS MCKECHNIE
Director: Alexi Pedneault
Cast: Jesse Byiers, Andrew Gaboury, Kat Gautier, Jenna Harris, Richard Lam, Julia Matais, Susannah Mackay, Alex Plouffe, Max Tepper, Ewa Wolniczek

OCTOBER 19:

Crash Heart by LAURA ANNE HARRIS
Director: Darcy Stoop
Cast: Alaine Costa, Laura Anne Harris, Celeste Sansregret

Fantastic Extravagance by LARA STOKES
Director: Jonathan Heppner
Michael Bedford, Simon Esler, Alan Gordon, Anna Grosman, Janelle Hanna, Morgan Norwich, Jen Pogue

Unintentionally Depressing Children’s Tales by ERIN FLECK

OCTOBER 20:

Turn by TAYLOR MARIE GRAHAM

ABC by RAIN CHAN
Cast: Chase Lo, Rong Fu, Benny Min, Lisa Polivka

The Assasination of Rob Ford: Dirty Little Coward by ADAM BAILEY
Director: Andrew Lamb

THE TEAM:

Artistic Producer: Maya Rabinovitch
Company Producer: David Levine
Festival Producer: Pip Bradford
Front of House Manager: Alia Ettienne

Playwright’s Unit Leader: Maya Rabinovitch
Writers’ Circle Leader: Duncan McCallum

THE PLAYWRIGHTS:

Adam Bailey (Playwright’s Unit)
Adam Bailey is a professional theatre creator, comedian and director. He has been part of some of Toronto’s weirder theatrical innovations including The Shameless Dames Comedy Burlesque, The Enchanted Crackhouse, several Lunacy Cabarets as well as a host of productions, including Terrorism and St. Francis Talks to the Birds, with Royal Porcupine Productions. He has trained at Second City, Tarragon Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times, Soulpepper and has a diploma in performance from Sheridan College as well as a degree in Theatre Studies from University of Toronto. He currently works with Dramaway, helping those with special needs learn through theatrical exploration.

Michael Bedford (Playwright-in-Residence)
Michael is a performer and playwright. Michael, an Honours graduate from York University’s theatre and philosophy programs, has performed in every incarnation of Maya Rabinovitch’s I Will Not Hatch! from its inception at York University’s playGround series in 2005, to its well-received staging at the Berkeley Street Upstairs Theatre in May of 2013. He is currently developing his absurdist-style [play] as a playwright-in-residence with The Steady State Theatre Project.

In addition to developing this play for Script Scrap, Michael will be directing it, and will be appearing in Doing Good by Alan Gordon and Fantastic Extravangance by Lara Stokes.

Rain Chan (Playwright’s Unit)
Rain Chan is a theatre artist who takes great pleasure in performing, writing, and directing. Most recently, Rain’s play Lullaby for the Abandoned was showcased at the New Ideas Festival and is also part of the Cahoots Theatre Company’s Creators’ Hot House. Rain directedBlondie (InspiraTO Festival), a solo piece developed heavily through movements and gestures. Rain Assistant Directed for Crash (Theatre PasseMuraille), which was the recipient of the Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Her play, Rem, received its first reading at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Eventual Ashes) andThe Cure was showcased at the fu-GEN 6th Annual Potluck Festival. Rain was Stage Manager forDiss (Mixed Company Theatre), which was nominated for the DoraMavor Moore Awards. Along with working in theatre, Rainalso fell in love with clown and bouffon and has enjoys taking classes with various clown teachers. These days, she spends much of her evenings training in aerial arts including aerial silks, static trapeze, and rope.Rainis secretly a big geek and quite proud of the fact.

Yolanda Ferrato (Writers’ Circle)
Originally from Windsor, Yolanda settled in Toronto last year after living and working for nearly six years in the UK, where she produced her own original solo performances (In Hysterics and More than Words) at the Edinburgh Fringe, and worked with leaders in new writing at Theatre 503 where she directed several short plays. She also worked on the UK premiers of several Canadian works with the London Quebec Culture Festival. This past year she spent a month teaching Shakespeare in Italy.

Natalie Fingerhut (Playwright’s Unit)
Natalie Fingerhut is a full-time editor and part-time writer. Her writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Canadian Jewish News, Broken Pencil, Dropped Threads 3: Beyond the Small Circle (Vintage Canada: 2006) and Living Legacies : A Collection of Writing by Contemporary Canadian Jewish Writers, Vol. 3 (PK Press: 2011). She is the author of a blog about books called “What the Redhead is Reading (http://nataliefingerhut.blogspot.ca/). The Kalamazoo Diaries is her first play.

Erin Fleck (Playwright-in-Residence)
Erin Fleck has written and performed her original work in Victoria B.C. with Intrepid Theatre’s UNO Fest, in Toronto with Theatre Passe Muraille (Those Who Can’t Do…), Mixed Company Theatre (Plastico: The Green Show), Theatre Passe Muraille’s BUZZ Festival, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre’s HYSTERIA Festival (Tinker, Those Who Can’t Do…), the Toronto FRINGE! Festival (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Abortion), and the Tarragon Spring Arts Fair (Connect Four).

Erin was nominated for a 2012 DORA Award for Outstanding New Play for Those Who Can’t Do…

As a playwright, Erin is an alumnae of Factory Theatre’s Natural Resources, Theatre Passe Muraille’s Upstarts, TheatreKairos’ Writer’s Circle, Nightwood Theatre’s Write from the Hip program, and has just completed the Stratford Festival Playwright’s Retreat 2013.
As a performer, Erin has worked with Steady State Theatre Project (Double Double, Outstanding Production/Ensemble/NOW Magazine Critic’s Pick Toronto Fringe Festival 2010, I Will Not Hatch, Outstanding Ensemble Toronto Fringe Festival 2009, Edmonton Fringe 2012), Atomic Vaudeville (Toronto Cabaret), Shrimp Magnet Theatre (Man in the Moon), and Clay and Paper Theatre (The Space Between).

As a puppeteer, Erin is a company member of Dutch Uncle Puppetry, whose work has been seen at After Hours@TPM (Gregori’s Phantastik Big Time Show) Canzine 2010, Theatre Passe Muraille’s BUZZ Festival, the Summerworks Festival Fiasco Playhouse performance gallery and Factory Theatre’s LabCab Festival.

Erin will be travelling to New York in November 2013 to perform Those Who Can’t Do… at the All For One Theatre Festival in the West Village.

Andrew Gaboury (Writers’ Circle)
Andrew is a Canadian playwright, performer and educator. He is also an associate director with hub14. Most recently, Andrew has been training in the art of clown with Helen Donnelly (Foo Productions), and has performed at The Foolish Cabaret (2012), the Red Nose District (2013) and the Toronto Festival of Clowns (2013) where he awarded the Mark Purvis Bursary. His writing has been performed at events across the city, such as Theatre Caravel‘s Sea Change (2013),The Four Winds Collective‘s A Night of Lies (2012 & 2011), Living Room Theatre‘s New Art Night (2013 & 2012) and the Summerworks Festival‘s Under 25 Reading Series (2009). Acting credits include: Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing(Shakespeare BASH’d), Giles Ralston in The Mousetrap (Lower Ossington Theatre), Capt. Norrys in The Rats in the Walls (Four Winds Collective). He also maintains a theatre blog, afieldofcrowns.wordpress.com.

Rachel Ganz (Playwright’s Unit)
Rachel Ganz is a Toronto-based playwright. She is the artistic director of Newborn Theatre and is currently attending the National Theatre School for playwriting.

Past writing credits include: Plasterface (Newborn Theatre, 2012), Rhyme, Reason or Otherwise (Hart House Players, 2013), Benji Boy (Inspirato, 2013), Teach Me (Newborn Theatre, 2013)

Huge thanks to Maya Rabinovitch, Dahlia Katz and The Steady State Theatre Project for their support in the development of this piece.

Alan Gordon (Playwright’s Unit)
Alan Gordon is a Producer/Writer/who has been actively involved in Broadcast Network Television and in ALL media – including Live, New and Electronic.

He has written and produced situation comedies in Canada as well as the U.S. He has also produced documentaries for the American History Channel, as well as for CBC’s Biography series.

Alan was also the Creator/Executive Producer of Spring Thaw, a Musical Stage production that toured 25 cities across Canada.

Currently, Alan is finishing post-production of The Just, a documentary for Vision TV about “the 36 Hidden Righteous on whom the World Depends”.
He is also developing a major opinion/rant site: Heaven, Hell or Purgatory.

Taylor Marie Graham (Playwright’s Unit)
Taylor is a Toronto based theatre creator and writer. Her opera the Virgin Charlie was nominated for a Dora Award for Best New Opera / Musical in 2009.

Taylor is currently pursuing her MFA in creating writing from the University of Guelph on the Humber North Campus. You can find out all about her at taylormariegraham.com

Laura Anne Harris (Writers’ Circle)
Laura wrote and starred in Pitch Blond at the 2007 Victoria Fringe Festival where she won the 2007 Critic’s Choice Award for ‘Best Fringe Production.’ Pitch Blond chronicles Judy Holliday’s experience during Senator Joseph McCarthy’s inquisitions. Since then she has performed this production to a sold-out run at the 2008 Uno Festival in Victoria, B.C., the Chutzpah Festival (Vancouver, B.C.), the 2009 Femfest (Winnipeg, MB), the 2011 Oh Solo Mio Festival (London, ON) and the 2013 Next Stage Theatre Festival (Toronto, ON.) Most recently Laura debuted her newest solo show The Homemaker at the Wakefield current TaDa Festival of new works as well as premiered the show in Toronto at the 25th Annual Toronto Fringe. This year Now Magazine listed her as one of the top 10 artists to watch at the Toronto Fringe and The Homemaker was shortlisted as one of the top 20 fringe shows by Best of Fest Uptown. Laura is currently a writer in Steady State Theatre Collectives Writer’s Circle led by Duncan McCallum.

Alexandra Lean (Writers’ Circle)
Alexandra Lean is a playwright, songwriter, improvisor and producer. Alex wrote the book, music and lyrics to the new musical ‘Nobody’s Idol’ which made its debut at the 2013 Toronto Fringe Festival which she produced through with her company. Alex is a graduate of Brock University’s Theatre program where she was the recipient of the ‘F. Janet Doleman Prize in Playwriting’. Alex went on to study Television: Writing and Producing at Humber College. She is a seasoned improviser. Alex has been a part of many improv teams that have traveled and performed at North Carolina’s Comedy Arts Festival, Altanta’s Combustion Festival and New York City’s Del Close Marathon. Forever the student of comedy, she has also taken workshops with some of the masters of improv including: TJ & Dave, Matt Besser and most recently, David Razowsky. Alexandra is delighted to be part of Steady State Theatre Company’s Writer’s Circle for a second year.

Andrew Thomas McKechnie (Playwright’s Unit)
Thomas McKechnie (Performer/Creator) is playwright, performer and producer. He a member of the 2013-2015 Soulpepper Academy as a playwright and is the co-operator of Living Room Theatre. He has written several short plays including Better Worlds, Major Tom’s Last Night on Earth, Brick by Brick and a one-act musical, The Hangoverture with music by Shane Gramlich. He co-operates Living Room Theatre and has helped to produce six renditions of New Art Night. He also plays bass in the folk-punk band, We’re From Out West

Rob Salerno (Playwright’s Unit)
Rob is a playwright, actor, director, producer, and freelance journalist who’s been called a “theatrical rabble rouser” by The Globe and Mail. He holds a Joint-Honours BA from McGill University (Cultural Studies/Political Science) and an MA (Drama) from University of Toronto. He founded Ten Foot Pole Productions in 2007 initially as a home for his playwriting, but eventually expanded it to include producing work by local creators who share his passion for making great and challenging art. His five plays Balls, Fucking Stephen Harper, Big in Germany, RAW, and First Day Back have been seen at festivals across Canada and overseas and have earned critical acclaim and multiple awards. In 2009, Rob completed a residency with the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre Young Creators’ Unit and a stint as the Literary Programs Intern at Canadian Stage Company. His other stage credits include shows at the New Ideas Festival (Alumnae), the Rhubarb Festival (Buddies), and Buzzfest (TPM), and the Festival of Original Theatre (UofT).

His journalism has appeared in magazines and blogs across Canada. His news writing is great practice for telling stories and has given him insight into public relations and communications strategies.

Lara Stokes (Playwright’s Unit)
Lara is a graduate of York University with a double major in Theatre(Playwriting) and Creative Writing, where she was a recipient of the b.p. nichol award in Creative Writing. In her spare time, she teaches grade eight. Lara is so grateful to everyone involved in the development of this piece, especially Maya Rabinovitch and the Steady State Playwright’s Unit.

Crystal Wood (Writers’ Circle)
Crystal Wood is a writer who has worked in print, television and theatre. She studied English literature at the University of Manitoba, and television writing at the Canadian Film Centre.

Since moving to Toronto, Crystal has immersed herself in the Toronto theatre scene by becoming a member of the Canadian Stage GYM Emerging Artist Program, interning for Nightwood Theatre and writing for the popular theatre site Mooney on Theatre (www.mooneyontheatre.com). She has written two one-act plays, and had her short play Stay presented at the 2010 Inspirato Festival. Her first play Release was awarded an emerging playwrights grant from the Toronto Arts Council.

Her other writing work includes working as a story intern for television and copywriting for the web. She was a finalist in the Writer’s Union of Canada’s Short Prose Competition, and has recently completed her first novel.