PUENTE THEATRE

WORLDPLAY 2018

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April 15th @ 8pm:  Ruby Moon  by Matt Cameron  (Ausralia)

                                                               Directed by Andrew Barrett

 

Ruby Moon

 

In Flaming Tree Grove, life appears to be picture perfect. Security and privacy are coveted and seclusion is its own reward. Until the day when little Ruby sets off to visit her grandmother at the end of the cul-de-sac and is never seen again. The neighbourhood fractures into grief and suspicion in the search for answers to a terrible deprivation and potential crime. Then a parcel arrives on her parents' doorstep... but where is Ruby, and who knows what happened to her?

Matt Cameron is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. His plays include: "Tear from a Glass Eye", (winner of Wal Cherry Play of the Year Award with productions by Playbox, Black Swan and London's Gate Theatre, where he was nominated for Evening Standard Awards); "Footprints on Water", (winner of British Council International New Playwriting Award with productions by Neonheart, Griffin and La Mama); "Mr Melancholy", (winner of ANPC/New Dramatists Award with productions by Griffin, La Boite, Chameleon as well as in New York, Paris and Poland); and "The Eskimo Calling", (produced by Neonheart at Malthouse Theatre and Belvoir B Sharp). For the Melbourne Theatre Company: "Poor Boy", (featuring the songs of Tim Finn, nominated for Victorian Premier's Literary Award and co-produced by Sydney Theatre Company); "Hinterland", (nominated for NSW Premier's Literary Award); "Man the Balloon", (nominated for Victorian Premier's Literary Award); and a short play "Whispering Death". "Ruby Moon" was nominated for Queensland Premier's Literary Award and produced by MTC, STC, QTC, State Theatre of SA, Playbox, Neonheart as well as in England, Japan and Switzerland. Screen credits include: "Seachange", "Crashburn", "Newstopia", script editor for "Kath & Kim", and co-creator/co-writer/director of AWGIE award-winning "Introducing Gary Petty".

Andrew Barrett is a queer multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Victoria, BC. He is a creator, performer, teacher, director, and administrator. He received his BFA in Theatre from the University of Victoria with a focus on direction, physical theatre, and performance design, and has pursued contemporary dance training through the Victoria School of Contemporary Dance since 2010. He is a recent recipient of a BC Arts Council’s Early Career Development Grant for a mentorship project in Artistic-Director-Training with Atomic Vaudeville’s Britt Small. He has worked for and been affiliated with numerous companies in Victoria over the past seven years, including the likes of SNAFU Dance Theatre, Atomic Vaudeville, and Intrepid Theatre. He has operated as Theatre SKAM's Communications Coordinator since January 2017. As a teacher, he has taught theatrical movement and creation for SKAM's SKAMpede Young Company and its School of Performing Arts, the Pacific Design Academy’s Acting for the Screen program, and has done workshops through Impulse Theatre, for the poets of Victoria Festival of Spoken Word, and the students of the Gulf Islands School of the Performing Arts, for which he is an alumnus.

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April 22nd @ 8pm:  Blink  by Phil Porter(Great Britain)

                                                 Directed by Pat Rundell

 

Blink

 

This is the tale of Jonah, Sophie, and a fox called Scruffilitis. It's a love story. A dysfunctional, voyeuristic and darkly funny love story, but a love story all the same. 

Phil Porter is a multi-award-winning playwright and librettist. His work has been produced at Manchester Royal Exchange, Northampton Theatre Royal, The Unicorn Theatre and The Royal Opera House. His plays include "Vice Versa" (RSC), "The Man With The Hammer" (Plymouth Theatre Royal), "The Christmas Truce" (RSC), "Blink" (Soho/nabokov), "The Cracks In My Skin" (Manchester Royal Exchange, Bruntwood Award winner) and "Stealing Sweets and Punching People" (Theatre 503/Off-Broadway). Edits/adaptations include Moliere’s "The Miser" (West End, with Sean Foley), "Middleton’s A Mad World", "My Masters" (RSC, with Sean Foley), Shakespeare’s "The Tempest" (RSC/Little Angel) and Janos Hay’s "The Stonewatcher" (National Theatre). Plays/libretti for young audiences include "Moominsummer Madness" (Polka/Northampton), "The Flying Machine" (Unicorn Theatre), "Smashed Eggs" (Pentabus, winner of Arts Council Children’s Award) and "Pinocchio" (Royal Opera House). 

Pat Rundell is a Victoria based actor, director, educator, and producer. Pat received his formal training at The American Musical & Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles, California. From 2010-2016 Pat was Kaleidoscope's Artistic Associate, and became Kaleidoscope's Studio Principal in 2015. Selected acting credits include: "Gruff" (Puente Theatre), Hunter in "[title of show]" (Urban Arts - Pick of the Fringe and "M" Award Winner for Best Musical), Mozart in "Amadeus" (Kaleidoscope), The Baker in "Into the Woods" (Urban Arts), Rooster in "Annie" (Black Box), Edgar in "Nevermore" (Urban Arts), Bilbo in "The Hobbit" (Kaleidoscope), CB in "Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead" (Black Box), Brad in "The Rocky Horror Show" (Kaleidoscope), and Orin in "Mourning Becomes Electra". Selected directing credits include: "The Addams Family", "Singing' in the Rain", and "Pinkalicious" (Kaleidoscope), "A Christmas Story: The Musical" (VOS), and "Nevermore", "Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh", "Treasure Island", "WILDE", and "Peter Pan" (Urban Arts). Design credits include projection design for Kaleidoscope's "Munsch-ercise", "Robinson & Crusoe", "The Addams Family", and VOS' "Spamalot". Pat is the founder and Artistic Director of Victoria based ad-hock theatre company Urban Arts. 

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April 29th @ 8pm:  Scorch  by Stacey Gregg (Northern Ireland)

                                                     Directed by Karin Saari

 

Scorch

 

A touching and provocative story of first love though the eyes of a gender-curious teen, Scorch was inspired by recent UK cases of 'gender fraud'. For those who feel they're not living the right life, online is a place to be yourself. Out in the real world, though, things can be very different. Stacey Gregg's play for a solo performer premiered at the Outburst Queer Arts Festival, Belfast, in 2015, co-produced by Prime Cut, MAC and Outburst. It won the Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play and the Writers Guild of Ireland ZeBBie Award for Best Theatre Script. It was presented in Paines Plough's Roundabout at the 2016 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won a Fringe First Award. It then toured Ireland.

Stacey Gregg is from Belfast and is a writer and performer for stage and screen. Her plays include "Scorch" (Outburst Queer Arts Festival, Belfast, 2015; Edinburgh Fringe, 2016); "Shibboleth" (Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 2015); "Override" (Watford Palace Theatre, 2013); "Lagan" (Ovalhouse Theatre London, 2011); "Perve" (Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 2011; BBC Radio Drama Award 2012) and "When Cows Go Boom" (Abbey Theatre, Dublin 2008).

She co-created an interactive web installation for CRASSH (Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities).

Television work includes "Raw" (RTÉ), "Spoof or Die" (Channel Four) and "The Frankenstein Chronicles" (Rainmark).

Karin Saari is a graduate of the Atlantic Acting School's Conservatory Program and will graduate from the University of Victoria with a BFA in Theatre this spring. She has collaborated with Vino Buono, directed shows for the Student Alternative Theatre Company, the Victoria Fringe Festival and most recently a mini play for the Belfry’s Spark Festival. 

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May 6th @ 8pm:  Metamorphoses  by Mary Zimmerman  (USA)

                                                                Directed by Matthew McLaren

 

Metamorphoses

 

Called by Time the "theater event of the year," Mary Zimmerman's "Metamorphoses" brings Ovid's tales to stunning visual life. Set in and around a large pool of water onstage, Metamorphoses juxtaposes the ancient and the contemporary in both language and image to reflect the variety and persistence of narrative in the face of inevitable change. Nominated for three 2002 Tony Awards, including "Best Play," "Metamorphoses" earned Zimmerman a Tony for "Best Direction of a Play."

Mary Zimmerman is a professor of performance studies at Northwestern University. She has adapted-directed "The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci", "The Odyssey", "The Arabian Nights", "Eleven Rooms of Proust", and "Journey to the West". She is a MacArthur Fellowship recipient, an ensemble member of Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company, and a Manilow Resident Director at the Goodman Theatre.

Former Editor-in-Chief of Showbill Canada, Matthew McLaren was born and raised in Victoria, BC. For over two decades, he's had close ties to the theatre community, collaborating with Theatre Inconnu, Langham Court, Theatre Skam, Blue Bridge and Atomic Vaudeville. A Graduate of UVic's Theatre Program, he made his professional directing debut in 2016 with a production of Mark Harmon's "Bad Jews" (Theatre Inconnu) at Langham Court. In Ontario, Matt's had the pleasure of working with SummerWorks and The InspiraTo Festival staging new work. You can check out Matt's next production, Ariel Bronz's "The Tenant Haymovitch" at Theatre Inconnu, opening May 1st.