CABARETse a son sponsor

title sponsor

In tribute to Gloria & Joseph Gilbert

What good is sitting alone in your room?

I’ve always wanted to direct something in this gem of a theatre that would show off how versatile it is. This stage is a wonderfully conceived space, full of secret corners and magic possibilities. When pondering what show I could direct here to really explode and celebrate the space, Cabaret was sug-gested. Immediately I realized how perfect it would be to transform this stage into an underground club in the spirit of a real enter-tainment house—a cabaret—where anything goes. Everything about this production has been imagined anew: the journey you took through the backstage area, the chance to buy a drink or two, and the opportunity to experience a bar that contains echoes of the past as well as signs of the present. Throw in a gifted gang of artists who not only sing, dance, and act, but can also play instru-ments. These multitalented performers—who will be up close—are all part of the celebra-tion of this incredible space.

Cabaret is considered one of the greatest musicals of all time, and in 2019, it takes on a whole new life. I discovered how eerily relevant this musical has become once again, considering the powerful leaders that dominate our world today. Every song and every scene emphasizes an idea that we all now know to be real: when those who take power do so using incredible distractions, all rules of decency and humanity can be challenged, restricted, and thwarted with-out realizing where it will lead. When this

musical was created, it looked back at a time when a certain country was overtaken by a leader who put on display the hatred he felt towards anyone different than himself. He managed to destroy millions of lives. Now, our production of this musical looks to the present, and acts as a terrifying warning: yet again, without notice, evil can slip in and take over. Is history repeating itself? Art is at its most powerful when it reflects back to us the world we live in—here, the result is a classic musical that becomes highly relevant once more.

Our goal with this immersive experience is to celebrate you, titillate you, and remind you of the evil hiding in the shadows — all in one musical bundle. Life is a Cabaret. Which song, what act, are you willing to perform?

dennis garnhum a rtistic director

Each year, through various donations and sponsorships, we are committedto helping our local communities.

We’re proud to be the 2018/2019 season sponsor of the Grand Theatre.

Supporting the arts, locally.

18-1626 The Grand Theatre_Ev2.indd 1 20/08/2018 12:06:49 PM

WELCOME

We would like to acknowledge the history of the traditional territory in which the Grand Theatre operates. We would also like to respect the longstanding relationships of the three local First Nations groups of this land and place in Southwestern Ontario. The three First Nations communities closest in proximity to the Grand are the Chippewa of the Thames First Nation (part of the Anishinaabe), the Oneida Nation of the Thames (part of the Haudenosaunee) and the Munsee-Delaware Nation (part of the Leni-Lunaape).

spriet stage, april 9 to May 11, 2019 opening night april 11

CabaretBook by Joe Masteroff

Based on the Play by John Van Druten and Stories by Christopher Isherwood

Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred EbbOriginal Production Co-Directed and Choregraphed by Rob Marshall and

Directed by Sam Mendes

cast Bobby ISA AC BELL Sally Bowles TESS BENGER Emcee OLIVIA SINCLAIR-BRISBANE Cliff JAMES DALY Max PHOEBE HU Ernst LAWRENCE LIBOR Herr Schultz W. JOSEPH MATHESON Fraulein Schneider CHARLOTTE MOORE Fraulein Kost MARGARET THOMPSON

The company also appear as the Kit Kat club boys and girls, as the musicians, and as all the denizens of this underground club.

production team Director DENNIS GARNHUM Music Director WAYNE GWILLIM Choreographer CAMERON CARVER Set & Costume Designer ALEX ANDR A LORD Sound Designer PAUL FUJIMOTO-PIHL Lighting Designer DANIEL BENNETT Stage Manager K ATERINA SOKYRKO Apprentice Stage Manager ANNA SPENCER

Cabaret is presented by arrangement with Tams-Witmark Music Library Inc., 560 Lexington Ave, New York, New York, 10022.

The videotaping or making of electronic or other audio and/or visual recordings of this production or distributing recordings on any medium, including the internet, is strictly prohibited, a violation of the author’s rights and actionable under United States

copyright law. For more information, please visit www.samuelfrench.com/whitepaper.

t i t l e sp onsor

In tribute to Gloria & Joseph Gilbert

VANCOUVER LOS ANGELES NEW YORK TORONTO

MOTION PICTURE | TELEVISION | ANIMATION

Aaron L. Gilbert & Brenda Gilbert

FOUNDERS

bronstudios.com

In Tribute: Gloria & Joseph GilbertThe Gilbert Family’s roots to London, to the Grand Theatre, and to Cabaret run deep.

“Dennis was always over at our house”, noted Gloria Gilbert recently, speaking of Dennis Garnhum, the Grand’s Artistic Director. When Dennis attended cch in London, he became fast and furious friends with Shira, one of the Gilbert’s three children and was a fixture at the Gilbert home on St. Anthony Road. The Grand Theatre first presented Cabaret twenty years ago, and the Gilberts fondly remember housing one of the actors from that production.

Joe and Gloria moved to London in 1972 and since then have left their mark on various programs services supporting the Jewish community including work with the National Council of Jewish Women, London Jewish Foundation and London Community Hebrew Day School. They were honoured in 2007 for their community work by the Jewish National Fund.

Joseph, is a retired neuropathologist and former Vice-President, Research at Victoria Hospital. He continues as Chair of the Health Sciences Research Ethics Board at Western University, a position he has held for the past eleven years. Gloria is a celebrated physiotherapist and continues to work in Independent Practice as an educator and consultant. She opened the first pri-vately owned practice in London called The Downtown Clinic, Physiotherapy & Health Counselling.

Joe and Gloria speak passionately about a trip to the site of the Theresienstadt Ghetto, in the Czech Republic, that fueled their desire to learn more and educate others about that piece of history. Specifically, the thousands of Jewish professional and amateur artists that passed through the ghetto and the development of musical works,

theatrical performances, artworks, and poetry readings under unimaginably diffi-cult conditions in the Nazi camp system.

Gloria is quick to point out that from very early ages, they exposed their children, Zvi, Shira and Aaron to the arts — music, opera, and the theatre. As parents with professional backgrounds based in science and medicine, Joe and Gloria speak proudly of their three of their children who have all have pursued careers focussed in various aspects of the creative arts industry.

When Cabaret was announced as part of the 2018–19 Season, Dennis reached out to youngest son, Aaron, one of the co-founders of Bron Studios and asked if he would con-sider honouring his parents, their passion for London, for the theatre and for their ongoing support of the Jewish community in London by sponsoring Cabaret in their honour. There was no hesitation.

In semi-retirement, Gloria and Joe remain active with combined passions for family, travel, learning and education. Joe teaches on a variety of topics, including the relation-ship between music and Judaism, as well as Russian history. The cast and staff at the Grand were given the extraordinary oppor-tunity to hear their valued perspectives on the complex and often misunderstood his-torical context of the story from Cabaret. We thank the Gilbert family for their combined gifts to London and to the Grand Theatre.

SAVETHEDate

SPRIET STAGE

June 13 2019

Grand Gala

2019

I HAVE ADREAM

in support ofMake a Difference Youth Programs and the High School Project

honouring louise pitre

Tickets

$250 ea.

Tables

$2500

development@grandtheatre.com

To book your tickets or to enquire about Sponsorship Opportunities please contact:

PRESENTED BY

Us and Them In 2017, Richard Spencer—an outspoken American white nationalist—took to Twitter in an attempt to claim Cabaret’s “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” as promoting his neo-Nazi values. “Tomorrow belongs to us,” he said. Jason Kander, Cabaret composer John Kander’s nephew, quickly stepped in, pointing out that while the song emulates

Germanic nationalist anthems, it was written specifically for the musical, to critique the dangerous influence of Nazism. Moreover, as Kander points out, the song’s composer is both Jewish and gay. The alt-right leader’s failure to understand the song’s proper context, and especially its irony, is a telling marker of the politics of our time.

Fascism—the term refers broadly to author-itarian right-wing rule. But there’s another important feature to fascist regimes: state-sanctioned exclusion of those identified as “other,” typically part of an ultranation-alist agenda which promotes the interests of one group of people above all others. We’ve seen this ideology in action on numerous occasions: in Germany’s Third Reich, for example. Overtaken by a zealous leader, Adolf Hitler, the country’s Nationalist Socialist Party made quick work of contain-ing and eventually eliminating those groups who did fit the Nazi ideal. Concentration camps were built and used by the Nazis from the very beginning of their regime: Dachau,

the first, opened in 1933, and imprisoned political dissidents, German Jews, Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and those deemed to display “anti-social” behaviour. Before the war had even begun, Germany started imprisoning Austrian Jews from annexed lands, and during 1938’s Kristallnacht—or, the “night of the broken glass,” where Nazi soldiers vandalized and destroyed Jewish businesses and homes in Berlin—the Nazis arrested and jailed German Jews en-masse.

This forced exclusion of a particular identity group was not new: anti-semitism ran ram-pant prior to the Holocaust, and the repeated Russian Pogroms saw persistent violence

C OU N T E R P RO T E S T E R S DU R I NG T H E U N I T E T H E R IG H T 2 R A L LY N E A R T H E W H I T E HOU SE ON T H E ON E-Y E A R A N N I V E R S A R Y OF A W H I T E N AT ION A L IS T R A L LY I N CH A R L O T T E S V I L L E , V I RGI N I A ( AU GU S T 12, 2018.)

“Tomorrow will come when the world is mine; tomorrow belongs to me”

Isaac Bell BobbyFor the grand theatre: Once, Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Dream a Little Dream. theatre credits (selected): Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Thousand Islands Playhouse); The Wedding Singer (Hart House); Once (Neptune Theatre); No Chance in Hell (Toronto Fringe); Legally Blonde (Randolph Academy); The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Randolph Academy).

Tess Benger Sally BowlesFor the grand theatre: The Penelopiad. theatre credits (selected): The Last Five Years (yrg Productions); Girls Like That (Tarragon); Mamma Mia! (Citadel); Grease (Elgin Winter Garden); Chasse Galerie (Soulpepper/Storefront); Top Girls, Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, Philadelphia Story, The Next Whiskey Bar (Shaw Festival); Sunday in the Park with George (tiFt); Anne of Green Gables (Charlottetown).

Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane EmceeFor the grand theatre: Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Footloose (High School Project), Anything Goes (High School Project), Annie. theatre credits (selected): MAMMA MIA! (Rainbow Stage); Beauty and The Beast: In Concert, And Then…She Did! (Angelwalk Theatre); How to Succeed In Business, Shrek! The Musical, Footloose, In the Heights (Theatre Sheridan); Small Wonder (Canadian Musical Theatre Project); The Walk (Incubation Project); Judith (Stratford Springworks Festival). other: Graduate of Sheridan College Music Theatre Bachelor’s degree as of June 2019.

James Daly CliffFor the grand theatre: Debut. theatre credits (selected): Grand Hotel (Shaw Festival); Oh What A Lovely War (Shaw Festival); Master Harold…and The Boys (Shaw/Obsidian); Peter and the Starcatcher (Shaw); Sleeping Beauty (Ross Petty Productions); The Rocky Horror Show (Sudbury Theatre Centre); Next to Normal (Clearwater Theatre). FilM and tV credits (selected): Letterkenny (Comedy Network); Saving Hope (ctV), Republic of Doyle (cBc). other: Graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, www.ggagency.ca/daly, instagram: @jamespatrickdaly

GUEST ARTISTS

isaac Bell

tess Benger

oliVia sinclair-BrisBane

jaMes daly

done against Jewish populations. This is not a history we have left in the past, and it is not limited to a singular group. In 2012, con-flict began between the ethnically Burmese Buddhist majority and the Muslim ethnic minority Rohingyas in Myanmar, resulting in hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas being driven from their homes, and denied citizenship rights. In 2015, the Turkish government began a campaign against the Kurds, including military campaigns in Syria and Iraq, fearing that the Kurds may attempt to establish their own nation state. And in 2016, Donald Trump campaigned for U.S. President on a platform that included promises to ban Muslims from the country and to build a wall to prevent Mexicans (and others from central and south America) from immigrating into the country. It would

“Make America Great Again,” he said.

These are examples of “Othering,” brought to its incendiary extremes. “Othering” refers to a particular mindset: to make someone

an “Other,” you must perceive them as less human than yourself, and less worthy of belonging—an adversary rather than an ally. This particular outlook can be dangerous: it allows for persecution, discrimination, and exclusion in their worst forms.

Karl Marx once remarked that history repeats itself, “first as tragedy, then as farce.” At first glance, this thought tracks well onto the political scene of 2019—once more, a charismatic leader attempts to use identity as a tactic to exclude the “others”; only this time, it seems like a bit of a joke: the tan, the hats, and the constant media gaffs. But too easily dismissing the events of our times as mere farce is dangerous. After all, tomorrow belongs to whomever steps in to claim it.

MEGH A N O’H A R A educ ation a nd ou treach coordinator

“ON LY A S T RONG G E R M A N Y C A N P ROV I DE E M P L OY M E N T T O I T S P E OP L E” — A N AT ION A L S O CI A L IS T DE MONS T R AT ION I N BE R L I N, 1931.

2019/20 season

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Titanic This London Life The Runner Mary Poppins Fully Committed Room Every Brilliant Thing Grow Between Breaths Honour Beat juno’s reward jeans ’n classics

season sponsor

Charlotte Moore Fraulein SchneiderFor the grand theatre: Robin Phillips’ Grand Theatre Company; Gypsy, You Can’t Take It With You, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Side By Side By Sondheim. theatre credits (selected): The Rocky Horror Show (Dora Mavor Moore Award); Les Misérables, Hairspray, The Wizard of Oz (Mirvish); Annie, Blood Brothers, Marathon of Hope (Drayton Entertainment); Shaw Festival (3 Seasons); Charlottetown Festival (9 Seasons); Gypsy (Neptune Theatre). other: Two solo albums — Friends of Mine - Songs From Canadian Musicals and Long Road Back (all original material), both available on iTunes. charlottemoore.ca

Margaret Thompson Fraulein KostFor the grand theatre: Debut. theatre credits (selected): Holiday Inn, The Little Mermaid, The Drowsy Chaperone, Honk!, Thoroughly Modern Millie (Drayton); Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Perfect Wedding (sFt); Shrek, The Addams Family (Neptune Theatre); Evil Dead: The Musical (Starvox Ent.). other: Graduate of Sheridan College’s Music Theatre Performance program.

Dennis Garnhum DirectorFor the grand theatre: Timothy Findley’s The Wars, Prom Queen: The Musical (High School Project), Chariots of Fire, Beethoven Lives Upstairs, A Christmas Carol. theatre credits (selected): World premiere of musical The Little Prince (Theatre Calgary); Barber of Seville (Florida Grand Opera/Opera Lyra/Vancouver Opera); Timothy Findley’s The Wars (Theatre Calgary/Vancouver Playhouse); Director / Adapter of Lost: A Memoir (Theatre Calgary/Prairie Theatre Exchange/Neptune Theatre); Director / Adapter of King Lear (Theatre Calgary/Bard on the Beach); Carmen, La Traviata (Pacific Opera); West Side Story (Bangkok University); Rat in the Skull (Berkshire Theatre Festival); Stratford Festival (four seasons); Shaw Festival (six seasons). other: Artistic Director of the Grand Theatre since 2016. Artistic Director of Theatre Calgary from 2005–2016. Recipient of a Calgary Award for Community Achievement in Arts and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

dennis garnhuM

lawrence liBor

w. joseph Matheson

charlotte Moore

Margaret thoMpson

Phoebe Hu MaxFor the grand theatre: Debut. theatre credits (selected): Foreign Tongue (Next Stage Theatre Festival); Beauty and the Beast (Young People’s Theatre); Comfort (Red Snow Collective/Native Earth Performing Arts); We The Family (Hart House Theatre); Avenue Q (Lower Ossington Theatre); 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, If We Were Birds (Randolph College/Annex Theatre). FilM and tV credits (selected): Mayday, Paranormal Witness (Discovery); Mail Order Murder (syFy). other: 15/16 Theatre 20 Emerging Artist Conservatory. Graduate of the Ba Program at National Taiwan University. Graduate and Recipient of the Triple Threat Award at Randolph College for the Performing Arts. www.phoebehustudio.com

Lawrence Libor ErnstFor the grand theatre: Debut. theatre credits (selected): American Idiot (Arts Theatre/West End); Footloose (International Tour); Grease (Winter Garden, Toronto); Brighton Beach Memoirs (Harold Green); Once (The Citadel). FilM and tV credits (selected): Teacup Travels (cBBc); God Help the Girl (British Film Company); Skins Season 2 (e4). other: Graduate of The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

W. Joseph Matheson Herr SchultzFor the grand theatre: Could You Wait?, The Spitfire Grill, For The Pleasure Of Seeing Her Again. theatre credits: (selected): The Rocky Horror Show (Magnus); The Angel And The Sparrow (Segal Centre); The Times, They Are A’Changin’, The Jazz Singer (hgjt); From Here To Eternity (Mgr); The Little Prince (Theatre Calgary); Stratford and Shaw Festivals; Jersey Boys (DanCap); Miss Saigon, TOMMY (Mirvish); Ragtime (LivEnt); Hank Williams LIVE – 1952 (performed cross-Canada). FilM and tV credits (selected): Orphan Black, Murdoch Mysteries, Odd Squad. other: Writer/co-writer for The Times, They Are A’Changin’; Could You Wait?; Sketching Sunshine (toV); On The Rocks (tpM); Hank Williams LIVE - 1952; Laughing Matters (Fst). www.joematheson.com

phoeBe hu

katerina sokyrko

anna spenceralexandra lord

daniel Bennett

paul FujiMoto-pihl

Wayne Gwillim Music Director, Orchestral Adaptation For the grand theatre: Debut. theatre credits (selected): Several seasons with the Shaw Festival and Stratford Festival as key-board programmer and electronic music designer. Associate conduc-tor of Strictly Ballroom, Kinky Boots, Les Misérables, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music (Mirvish Productions); Music director and orches-trator for Mary Poppins (Young People’s Theatre); Conductor for The House of Martin Guerre - in concert (Charlottetown Festival). other: Originally from Saskatchewan, Wayne is a graduate of University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music.

Cameron Carver Choreographer For the grand theatre: Shrek, Elf, Miarcle on 34th Street, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. High School Projects: West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Oklahoma, Fiddler on the Roof. theatre credits (selected): As Director — Little Mermaid (Theatre Royal Bath — uk Theatre Award 2018); The Addams Family, The Wizard of Oz (St. Lawrence College); As Movement Director/Choreographer

— La Strada (The Other Palace — Dir. Sally Cookson), The Trojan Women (Bristol Old Vic Theatre — Dir. Sally Cookson); Manhattan Parisienne (The Other Palace — Alain Boublil). other: Graduate of Sheridan College and The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (Ma Theatre Directing) www.cameron-carver.com and instagram: cam_carver

Alexandra Lord Set & Costume Designer For the grand theatre: Debut. theatre credits (selected): Rose, Bed and Breakfast, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Goat (Soulpepper Theatre Company); World After Dark (Shannon Litzenberger Dance); The Philosopher’s Wife (Paradigm Productions); Shades (Esie Mensah Productions). FilM and tV credits: Born in the Maelstrom (Art & Essai). other: Co-Founder of Triga Creative. www.trigacreative.com

Daniel Bennett Lighting Designer For the grand theatre: Sound and Lighting Designer, Beethoven Lives Upstairs; Interim Technical Director 18–19; Apprentice Technical Director 17–18. theatre credits (selected): Lighting Designer: Paprika Festival 2018, Ten Creative Ways to Dispose of Your Cremains (Neoteny Theatre); These Peaceable Kingdoms, we could be clouds (National Theatre School). Sound Designer: Specimen (Griffin McInnes); Much Ado (National Theatre School); Plucked (SummerWorks Performance Festival). Production Manager: Extremophiles (SummerWorks Performance Festival) upcoMing: Production Manager: Other Jesus (Public Recordings/ew&Fco/Festival Transamériques)

Paul Fujimoto-Pihl Sound Designer For the grand theatre: Over 30 productions as Technical Director, including The Mountaintop, Silence, Buddy Holly. theatre credits (selected): As Technical Director- 5 seasons at Tarragon Theatre; 2 seasons at Blyth Festival. other: Paul attended Humber College for Theatre Technical Production, is the Chair of the Ontario Section of citt/icts, serves on the Program Advisory Committee for Fanshawe College’s Theatre Arts — Technical Production Program, and is director of tdarts, which provides professional development opportunities to Technical Directors. Paul has also mentored the last five Apprentice Technical Directors here at the Grand.

Katerina Sokyrko Stage Manager For the grand theatre: Silence (nac remount), The Ladies Foursome, PlayWrights Cabaret 2017, Julius Caesar (High School Project), The Taming of the Shrew (High School Project). theatre credits (selected): La Traviata, La Boheme, Les Feluettes, The Magic Flute (Pacific Opera Victoria); Million Dollar Quartet, The Secret Mask, Alice in Wonderland (Theatre Northwest); Selfie (Young People’s Theatre); 1837: The Farmers’ Revolt, The New Canadian Curling Club, The Pigeon King, Mr. New Years Eve (Blyth Festival); Missing (Pacific Opera Victoria/City Opera Vancouver); Much Ado About Nothing, Julius Caesar (St. Lawrence Shakespeare Company); Twelfth Night (nac); Stag and Doe (Festival Players of Prince Edward County); The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro, Tosca, The Magic Flute, Madama Butterfly, The Pirates of Penzance, Cinderella (Opera Lyra Ottawa). upcoMing: Assistant Stage Manager for Jumbo and Team on the Hill (Blyth Festival).

Anna Spencer Apprentice Stage Manager For the grand theatre: Prom Queen: The Musical. theatre credits (selected): The 39 Steps (Capitol Theatre); The Barber of Seville (Opera 5); Hound of the Baskervilles, King fisher Days, Stage Kiss (Festival Antigonish); Oksana G. (Tapestry Opera); The Chocolate Soldier (Toronto Operetta Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Highland Arts Theatre); L’Elisir d’Amore (Opera York); Les Misérables, Chicago, Into the Woods (Savoy Theatre). other: Graduate of Production Program at Ryerson University.

wayne gwilliM

caMeron carVer

OPEN MAY - OCTOBER Within these walls murderers, children as young as 7 years old, debtors unable to make payment, those suffering the ravages of mental illness, petty thieves and drunkards would all sleep under the same roof. Visit the Huron Historic Gaol and discover the stories of inmates and staff who lived at the Gaol between 1841 and 1972.

HURON HISTORIC GAOL 181 Victoria St., N Goderich www.HuronCountyMuseum.ca

Gaol2019.indd 1 2019-02-21 5:30 PM

HURON COUNTY MUSEUM110 North Street, Goderich www.HuronCountyMuseum.ca

HURON COUNTY MUSEUMApril 9, 2019 to Nov 3, 2019 Hang on to your hat and shake the dust off your boots, this exhibit will blow your socks off! Say it with Style is a quirky look at fashion idioms and expressions, featuring clothing, textiles and accessories from the Museum’s own collection.

2019_GrandTheatre_Ad.indd 2 3/6/2019 12:15:51 PM

coMpass New Play Development is dedicated to creating and premiering new work on the Grand’s stages. This program is dedicated to igniting imaginations by bringing a modern, unconventional, and brand new sense of theatre engagement to London.

Starlight Tours is a musical drama based on events reported in Saskatchewan in the early 2000s that trace back to the 1970s. A series of investigations revealed a practice by the Saskatoon police of taking First Nations people to the city limits and abandoning them at the side of the road in the dead of winter. The practice became known as “starlight tours.”

We are thrilled to announce that Andrea Menard will be joining Starlight Tours as the book writer. Menard is a singer-songwriter, writer, and actor. A passionate advocate for reconcili-ation and unity among nations, she conveys the richness of her Métis culture through her live performances, recordings, and television appearances. She has released four award-winning albums: Simple Steps, Sparkle, Lift and The Velvet Devil, which was adapted for TV in 2006, and earned Andrea a Gemini nomination for her performance. Unreservedly engaged with the world, Andrea dedicates her work to the empowerment of the Indigenous and feminine voice.

We are excited and honoured to welcome Andrea to Starlight Tours.

P HO T O B Y K R IS T I N E C OF SK Y

STARLIGHT TOURS

de V el opM en t sponsor ed By

2019 Featured Authors: Mona Awad, Anthony De Sa, Alicia Elliott, Amy Jones, Andy McGuire, K.D. Miller, Nino Ricci, Anakana Schofield, Ian Williams, and Joshua Whitehead

www.AliceMunroFestival.ca

AMF2019.indd 1 2019-02-21 5:24 PMDundas St.

Open 7 days a week for private functions and banquets

Two private party rooms

All functions welcome day or night

We cater office or home parties

Book your next function with us. Call 519- 673- 0990

10am – 5pm10am – 5pm10am – 5pm10am – 5pm

Follow the red signs to fi nd artists studios. Only some studios accept credit cards. Others will accept cash or cheque. 519-842-6151 • www.oxfordstudiotour.ca

MAY 4 & 5, 2019

OXFORDStudio Tour12th Annual

Immersive Theatre“Immersive” has become a ubiquitous term—a simple Google search yields ref-erences to film technology like 3d iMax, motion effect chairs, Vr glasses, art exhibits, restaurants, concerts, and—of course—the-atre. This new genre of art and entertain-ment is becoming quite a phenomenon; but, what exactly does it mean for something to be

“immersive”?

Immersive experiences surround the audi-ence, and invite you to plunge yourself into the story. In contrast to traditional theatre, where the action happens up on a stage, in immersive theatre, you step—intellectually, emotionally, but most importantly, phys-ically—into a world separate from your own. In theatre, the most commercially successful example of immersive theatre is Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, which has been running in New York since 2011. Immersive theatre often happens in non-theatre spaces: for example, Sleep No More encompasses a

5-storey warehouse in Chelsea, which has been turned into the 1930s era McKittrick Hotel. There, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth takes place all over the building, in real time. Audience members wander the space, wearing ghostly masks, and encounter performers, scenes, and shreds of the story, as they move through the space. Often, actors will interact with audience members, pulling them into the action and responding to their presence. The space is more interactive than a traditional theatre set, allowing audiences to thoroughly look through and examine every inch of space including dresser drawers, wardrobes, filing cabinets, bookshelves—if you’d like, you can spend your whole visit rifling through Lady Macbeth’s doctor’s notes.

Traditionally, there is distance kept between audience and art—the theatre’s fourth wall, the space between the seats and the stage, the television or movie screen, and so on. By

contrast, immersive art forms aim to elimi-nate that distance, to not only bring the spec-tator close to the work of art, but actually, to pull them inside of it. The audience becomes a character in the story through their interac-tions with and responses to what’s happening all around them. In immersive theatre, the audience plays an active role in the perfor-mance—you are part of the story.

There have been several recent examples of Canadian immersive theatre: in 2015, Sheridan College staged Brantwood, a site-specific musical that took place in a school, and allowed audiences to travel back through time, a class reunion that took place over the whole building, and across decades. In 2018, Talk is Free theatre created The Curious Voyage, a secretive experience that took a small number of audience members through a performance experience that began in Barrie, Ontario, and travelled all the way to London, uk, for a visceral musical experience of international scope.

The success of immersive technologies on the mass media market indicates a cultural desire to be absorbed by worlds other than our own, to experience the unavailable, the unachievable, and the impossible. This is a trend that manifests not only in technolog-ical advances such as Oculus Rift and 3d iMax films: live tweeting, “breaking news” coverage, and point-of-view, or individual perspective-based personal entertainments similarly attest to this desire to feel involved—to be a participant rather than merely a spec-tator. Putting the audience at the heart of the work, immersive theatre allows us to fulfill our desire to feel deeply about and connect intimately to the art we experience.

MEGH A N O’H A R A educ ation a nd ou treach coordinator

OP P O SI T E: SL E E P NO MO R E AT T H E MCK I T T R ICK HO T E L , N E W YOR K . T H IS PAG E: SH E R I DA N’S C A N A DI A N M U SIC T H E AT R E P ROJ E C T ’S P RODU C T ION OF BR A N T WO OD .

“The ultimate feel-good tale of love conquering all.” the guardian

TIT LE SPONSOR

The global smash-hit musical!

April 23 to May 11 Spriet Stage

Music and Lyrics by Benny Andersson and Björn UlvaeusAnd some songs with Stig AndersonBook by Catherine JohnsonOriginally Conceived by Judy CraymerCo-production with the Charlottetown Festival