Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts

AT THE AGE OF FORTY,Molière made the biggest mistake of his life, and by doing so gave life to one of his best pieces. He married Armande Béjart, a young girl who would cheat on him and publicly insult him, just like Agnès, who in L’École des femmes, destroys the man who wants to make her his prisoner, forbidding her from the world, her thoughts, her feelings.
Premiering on December 26, 1662, L’École des femmes can be considered the first great classical comedy.We learn that at the school of love, there are the gifted and the dunces. Love is a great teacher for those who are open to learning and a stern judge for those who think they know it all. In the art of love, innocence, youth, and women always get the top marks, while men fall off the honour roll.

Written by Molière
With 8 actors
Director Diana LEBLANC
A PRODUCTION BY THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS DE TORONTO

America Like You’ve Never Seen It Before.

SIXTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, Abraham Lincoln died April 14, 1865, while attending the theatre. One of the actors assassinated him. Ever since, this incident has fascinated theatre people.
It inspired Larry Tremblay to write Abraham Lincoln va au theatre and offer a caustic meditation on America.
With his tragicomic sense – full of coincidences, identity crises, and mythic characters – Larry Tremblay has written a piece in which a much-admired director hires two actors, Laurel and Hardy, and suggests that they re-enact Lincoln’s assassination, reconstructing the chain of events of that infamous evening. A seemingly impossible task, but when it is learned that the assassination took place in a theatre, it takes on a whole other dimension.We witness American society being called into question, at once so beautiful and so ugly.

Written by Larry Tremblay
With Patrice DUBOIS, Maxim GAUDETTE, Benoît GOUIN, and Étienne COUSINEAU, Frédéric-Antoine GUIMOND, Sasha SAMAR
Director Claude Poissant
A PRODUCTION BY THÉÂTRE PÀP (MONTRÉAL)

Lord Loam has modern ideas about his household; he believes in treating his servants as his equals - at least sometimes. His butler, Crichton, still believes that members of the serving class should know their place and be happy there. But when the Loam family is shipwrecked on a deserted island with the self-reliant Crichton and lady's maid Tweeny, the strict Edwardian class system is put to the test.   First performed in 1902 and wildly popular, Barrie's play is a comment on the illogical nature of social class distinction.

The 6th Annual Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival is a celebration of the best live, scripted comedy from Toronto, across Canada and the US.

Visit the website for full Festival programming (to be announced September 2010)

Venues:

Comedy Bar - 945 Bloor St West (at Ossington)
Lower Ossington Theatre - 100A Ossington Ave (at Queen)
The Second City - 51 Mercer St (Blue Jays Way/King)

DRESSED IN HIS TRI-COLOUR HOCKEY SWEATER, cap askew, Fridolin is an impish boy who says out loud what everybody else is thinking quietly. This enfant terrible draws a critical portrait of Canadian society with humour and insight. His mischievous and twinkling chronicles do more than bear critical witness to a transformation in Québec society: they speed it up.
Gratien Gélinas, nicknamed “The Father of Québec Dramatic Art,” created the character of Fridolin for radio in 1937, then for theatre the following year. Les Fridolinades immediately became revues or series of sketches, songs, parodies, and monologues on such varied topics as the second-class status of French-Canadians and WorldWar II.

Written by Gratien GÉLINAS
With Michel SÉGUIN, Lina BLAIS, Nathaly CHARRETTE, René LEMIEUX and Jocelyne ZUCCO
Director Perry SCHNEIDERMAN
A COPRODUCTION BY THÉÂTRE FRANÇAIS DE TORONTO AND THÉÂTRE LA CATAPULTE (OTTAWA)

Back by popular demand to the Factory Studio Theatre is the  Dora Award  winning  Spent !  Spent is a new Canadian play, highly acclaimed for its fast paced, intelligent and poetic social commentary on the greed that caused the financial crises.

Nominated for 3 Dora awards (including best new play) and winner of the Dora for best performance in a featured role, SPENT is a must see for anyone who has been effected by the financial crisis and needs a good laugh.

On September 26, 2008, two high-powered executives went to sleep with their hopes and dreams tucked safely in the bank. The next morning they woke to find everything gone! Was it a dream or a nightmare? It was a crisis! Watch as these two hapless execs fumble around trying to make sense of the absurd market they’ve crashed landed into. Their debts are high, their options have taken a downturn and they’re  Spent !

Don’t miss the show that had Paula Citron raving “Spent is first class theatre from powerhouse creators”.

The Alis are back! This time, Ali and Ali creators turn their idiosyncratic brand of post-identity satire to a whole new world: the global economy has tanked (sort of), the President of the World’s middle name is Hussein and in Canada, five Arab/Muslim men continue to be held with no charges, and no access to the evidence against them. How do you make sense of all that?

 

“... the funniest exposition of American foreign policy ever devised. But it’s not only funny, it’s also troubling and poignant.” – Seattle Post

 

“... the best Canadian political play of the 21^st century, and the funniest.” – Vancouver Province

One of Shakespeare's most beloved comedies gets a bold new production.

Catch one of Toronto's favourite sketch comedy groups as they say goodbye after a decade of absurdity, hilarity and really bad wigs. The Understudies are Rob Knox, Paul Levia and Justin Skinner.

Alumnae Theatre Company presents Daniel MacIvor's YOU ARE HERE, a marvellous and poetic dark comedy which introduces us to Alison, a woman wondering what it all meant.

MacIvor refers to YOU ARE HERE as “a one-woman show with twelve characters”.   For the record, there are eight actors, seven of whom portray the various people who touch Alison’s life.   As she looks back on her choices, her lovers and friends, we are exposed to all the contradictions and confusions, ecstasies and agonies of a life lived, and what it means to be happy in all this messiness.   Directed by Paul Hardy, featuring Jamieson Child, Joseph Cochrane, Cameron Johnston, Seema Lakhani, Will O'Hare, Alyssa Quart, Mike Vitorovich, and Tabitha Keast as Alison.

Talkback with director & cast following Sunday matinee, October 3.