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Theatre Calgary’s 57th season, which inventive director Stafford Arima is looking a season of classics, will function legendary works of Tennessee Williams and Noel Coward, in addition to a world premiere of a neighborhood play, a significant hit from Britain, and one of many hottest new performs in North America as we speak.
Coming off an exceptionally standard 12 months for Theatre Calgary, Arima stated he needed to do two issues in programming this upcoming season.
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“Our ‘make theatre accessible for all’ mandate has confirmed most profitable. Not solely are we seeing a rebirth of our viewers, however we’re bringing so many new individuals into the theatre. The $39 tickets have made this doable. Inflation is forcing us to boost that worth to $44, however we really feel that is nonetheless reasonably priced for many individuals,” says Arima.
“It was additionally vital to give attention to recognizable titles, well-known playwrights and acquainted tales. Theatre Calgary has a historical past of sharing basic works on our stage, and it’s important to proceed doing so. We wish individuals to be enthusiastic about making TC their house away from house, and to try this, they need to really feel they know what they’re in for after they e-book a ticket. We wish them to assume, reminisce, however, above all, to really feel, to giggle, and be moved.”
TC will open its season in September with the slapstick farce The Play That Goes Mistaken, now in its twelfth 12 months in London, and seventh 12 months in New York. TC’s former inventive director Dennis Garnhum will direct this play in partnership with Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. Armia calls this hilarious comedy “a mashup of Monty Python and Sherlock Holmes. It’s Noises Off meets The Mousetrap. It’s farce blended with a thriller that may have individuals laughing lengthy after they’ve left the theatre.”
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In October, TC, in affiliation with Arts Commons Presents, will stage Stefano Massini’s epic drama The Lehman Trilogy, which Arima says “is the most well liked title in North America lately. There are productions enjoying, or scheduled, proper throughout Canada. It’s based mostly on the true story of the Lehman household and covers 163 years, from the time three immigrant brothers arrived in America and based an funding agency, to the collapse of their empire in 2008. What’s exceptional in regards to the play is that three actors play a mess of characters. The play gained 5 Tony Awards in 2022.”
A Christmas Carol, starring Doug McKeag as Scrooge, returns for the vacation season. Arima says this lavish manufacturing is a jewel as a result of “it’s 100 per cent Calgarian. It was tailored for us by Calgary playwright Geoffrey Simon Brown, options 20 Calgary-based actors, and as many native backstage crewmembers. I’ve had individuals cease me in grocery shops to thank us for making A Christmas Carol financially accessible so they may lastly take their youngsters and grandchildren. They’re so blissful to have change into half of what’s a Calgary vacation custom.”
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Subsequent January, TC will current Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer-Prize-winning drama A Streetcar Named Want, some of the critically acclaimed performs of the twentieth century. Produced in partnership with the Citadel Theatre, it will likely be directed by Daryl Cloran, who directed each Made in Italy and As You Like It for TC’s present season. Arima says Streetcar “is a superb play to introduce new viewers members to basic theatre. It has been produced on Broadway 4 instances since its premiere in 1947, and TC staged it in 1984 and 2002. It’s one of many most interesting dramas ever written.”
Additionally, a basic, however this time a comedy, is Noel Coward’s 1941 supernatural romance Blithe Spirit, a few man who unintentionally summons the ghost of his first spouse, who is decided to wreck his present marriage. Arima says Coward “is a genius of witty humour, and by including the supernatural factor, he made this play timeless.” TC’s 2022 manufacturing of Oscar Wilde’s The Significance of Being Earnest was a runaway hit, and Arima is assured Blithe Spirit could have simply as a lot enchantment. Nikki Loach is directing a Calgary solid.
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In April, TC will current the world premiere of native Indigenous playwright Sable Sweetgrass’s Awowakii, a up to date tackle drawing-room comedies resembling The Significance of Being Earnest. Arima says Awowakii is a challenge pricey to TC’s coronary heart as a result of “the play has been in improvement since 2021. We’ve got watched it develop, by in depth rewrites, right into a hilarious, however heartfelt and heartwarming, comedy of errors. Alanis King, who’s directing, needs it to be an immersive expertise. She needs the viewers to really feel they aren’t simply watching the story however are part of it, so we’re letting her stage it in One Yellow Rabbit’s Large Secret Theatre.”
TC’s subsequent season will shut with the musical Legally Blonde, which has gone from a success 2001 film to a success 2007 Broadway musical. Arima says “Folks know and love this musical due to the recognition of the movie. The Broadway manufacturing was nominated for seven Tony Awards, and, when it opened in London, it gained the Laurence Olivier Award for greatest musical. It will likely be a becoming near what I believe shall be a slam dunk season that mixes basic titles with basic tales.”
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