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Toronto, ON – Canadian Stage TD Dream in High Park presents Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare’s timeless
tale of ill-fated lovers and feuding families. Jeff Irving stars as Romeo (Ross Petty’s Robin Hood, Mirvish Productions’
Sound of Music and Canadian Stage/Citadel Theatre’s
The December Man /L’homme de décembre)
Christine Horne
stars as Juliet (The Stone Angel with Ellen Burstyn and KICK
Theatre’s
Miss Julie: Sheh'mah).
The production is
directed by Dora Award-winner
Vikki Anderson
(The Doll House, Coyote Ugly) and runs June 25 to September 5, 2010
(media night: June 29) at the High Park amphitheatre.
Performances run Tuesday through Sunday at 8 p.m. Gate opens at
6 p.m. Admission is PWYC at the gate (suggested minimum donation
$20) and free for children 14 and under.
Family Day Sundays feature free, all-ages,
pre-show activities. Entering its 28th
season,
the
Canadian Stage TD Dream in High Park
is the oldest annual outdoor theatre event in Canada. Since its
inception in 1983, an estimated 1.3 million people have enjoyed
the tradition of theatre under the stars.
For Dream information, contact
416-367-1652 or
canadianstage.com/dream.
Romeo and Juliet
is one of William Shakespeare's most
popular plays and indisputably the world’s best-known love
story. In this present-day, play-within-a play adaptation, the
tragic tale of the young lovers destroyed by their feuding
families is re-told by a group of travelling performers delayed
at the Verona train station. Weary and irritable, tempers flare
and tension ignites a spirited confrontation. In an attempt to
restore calm, the Station Master demands they perform their show
for the other stranded passengers. Reluctantly they bring the
story of Romeo and Juliet to life. Given the freedom to
perform the show in a new and simpler fashion, the actors
interchange roles, comment on each other’s performances and get
caught up in the story as if they are telling it for the first
time. They add music from their iPods, pull a colourful palette
of props and costumes from their suitcases and use all the
elements of the station as their set. In the end, under the
starry Italian sky, they transform the train station into the
medieval city of Verona and the story of the Montagues and
Capulets unfolds.
Romeo and Juliet stars: Jeff Irving (Ross
Petty’s Robin Hood, Mirvish Productions’ Sound of
Music and Canadian Stage/Citadel Theatre’s The December
Man /L’homme de décembre, and a Shaw Festival veteran)
as Romeo, Gregory and others; Christine Horne (The
Stone Angel with Ellen Burstyn, Turn of the Screw
directed by Vikki Anderson for DVxT) as Juliet, Sampson and
others; Clinton Walker (recurring role on Queer as
Folk; Turn of the Screw directed by Vikki Anderson for DVxT)
as Mercutio, Capulet and others; Ron Kennell (The
Tempest, Canadian Stage; Stratford Festival veteran) as The
Nurse and others; Lisa Berry (Intimate Apparel,
Canadian Stage/Obsidian Theatre) as Prince Escalus and others;
Peter N. Bailey (Come Good Rain, Black Theatre
Workshop) as Montague, Paris and others; Caroline Gillis
(Daniel MacIvor’s How It Works, Factory Theatre) as Friar
Lawrence, Benvolio and others; Jani Lauzon (Comedy of
Errors, Canadian Stage) as Lady Capulet, Peter and others;
Jamie Robinson (El Numero Uno, LKTYP; and
Stratford Festival veteran) as Tybalt and others.
Joining director Vikki Anderson are Set and Costume
Designer Jackie Chau, Lighting Designer Arun
Srinivasan, Composer Claudio Vena, Stage Manager
Sandy Plunket and Assistant Stage Manager Kristen Kitcher.
Family Day Sundays, the popular, free,
all-ages program for children, parents and families return
featuring fun-filled activities including backstage tours, an
opportunity to meet the cast, Shakespearean games, workshops
exploring the language of the Bard and more. Held at the High
Park amphitheatre on Sundays, the program runs July 4
to September 5, from 5 - 6:30 p.m., weather
permitting. Registration is required. Registration requests will
be accepted June through September. Contact 416-367-1652 or
family@canadianstage.com
for more information.
Key Bios
Jeff Irving
plays Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. No stranger to
Canadian Stage, Irving played Jean in the Governor General’s
Award-winning play The December Man (L’homme de décembre)
which garnered a Dora Award for Best Production. His
stage credits include Robin Hood in Ross Petty’s critically
acclaimed Robin Hood, the EnvironMental Family Musical
and Rolf in Mirvish Productions’ Dora Award-winning Sound of
Music. Irving is a five-year veteran of the Shaw Festival
where he appeared in Hotel Peccadillo, Mack & Mabel, High
Society, Invisible Man and other plays. His theatre
credits also include Anthony in Sweeney Todd (Citadel
Theatre), Peter in The Diary of Anne Frank (Theatre
Aquarius) and Baby John in Westside Story (Arts Club
Theatre). Irving is originally from Regina and a graduate
of the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria, BC
(2001).
Christine Horne plays Juliet in her Canadian Stage debut. Stage credits
include the governess in Turn of the Screw (directed by
Romeo and Juliet’s Vikki Anderson for DVxT), the starring
role in Miss Julie: Sheh'mah (KICK Theatre) for which she
received a 2009 Dora nomination for Outstanding Female
Performance, Twelfth Night (Resurgence Theatre Co.),
Bluebeard (Toronto Fringe), and The Seagull
(Wordsmyth). As the Artistic Co-Director of The Thistle Project,
she co-created and performed in Gorey Story which
received four 2007 Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations including
Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Production. Her screen
credits include the young Hagar Shipley in the feature film
The Stone Angel which earned her a Vancouver Film Critics
Circle nomination for Best Supporting Actress, the Geraldine
Page Best Actress Award (Method Fest, California) and the UN’s
Time For Peace Film Award for Supporting Actress and she will
star in the upcoming feature The Untitled Work of Paul
Shepard. Television credits include Desdemona in Othello
(CBC Television and CBC Radio One), Little Films About Big
Moments (TMN), and guest appearances on Flashpoint
(CTV) and The Dresden Files (Sci Fi Channel/Space).
Originally from Aurora, Ontario, Christine is a graduate of the
Acting program at York University (2004).
Vikki Anderson is an award-winning theatre director,
designer and producer. She is the successful candidate of
Canadian Stage’s Directors Development Initiative, selected from
over 80 applicants across the country to direct this season’s
Canadian Stage TD Dream in High Park. Anderson is the founder
and artistic director of Toronto’s DVxT Theatre Company which
has received 14 Dora nominations and 9 Dora Awards. Anderson’s
directorial credits include the world première of Adam Pettle’s
Mosley and Me at Canadian Stage (2003),
Happy Days starring Martha Burns for Soulpepper
Theatre Company (2003), St. Christopher at Theatre Passe
Muraille (2005), the multi-award-winning productions of
The Doll House (7 Dora Awards including Outstanding
Production, Direction, Female Performance, Male Performance, Set
Design, Costume Design and Sound Design, 2001) and Coyote
Ugly (2 Dora Awards for Outstanding Female Performance and
Sound Design, 1998), and most recently The Last Five Years
at The Grand Theatre (2010) and The
Turn of the Screw at the Campbell House Museum
(2009). She was also Assistant Director for the Stratford
Shakespeare Festival productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
and Hamlet in 2008.
About Canadian Stage
Founded in 1987 with the merger of CentreStage and Toronto Free
Theatre, Canadian Stage is one of Canada’s leading
not-for-profit contemporary theatre companies. Led by Artistic &
General Director Matthew Jocelyn, Canadian Stage produces and
showcases innovative theatre work from Canada and around the
world, allowing its audience to encounter daring work guided by
a strong directorial vision and a 21st-century
aesthetic. The company prides itself on presenting
trans-disciplinary work and work in translation that pushes the
boundaries of form and style. The company reinforces the
presence of Canadian art and artists within an international
context through work that mirrors the for the public and
investing in the cultural diversity of Toronto. Canadian Stage
has a long-standing commitment to education and enhancement
programs art form by nurturing and developing theatre
professionals while producing thought-provoking theatre and
quality entertainment in Toronto, one of North America’s largest
theatre centres. For more information, refer to
canadianstage.com.
title Sponsor: TD Bank Financial Group
CANADIAN STAGE TD DREAM IN HIGH PARK PRESENTS
ROMEO AND JULIET
DATES:
Previews: June 25 -27;
opening date is June 29;
continuing to September 5, 2010
TIMES:
Tuesday – Sunday at 8 p.m.
Gate opens at 6 p.m.
(No performances on Monday.)
LOCATION:
Amphitheatre in High Park at Bloor St. W. & High Park
Ave. Directions from High Park subway station: Enter park from
Bloor St. Follow the road to Grenadier Café. Continue east on
the foot path opposite the parking lot marked by a sign.
TICKETS + INFO:
PWYC at the gate. Suggested minimum $20 for adults. Children 14
+ under free. 416-367-1652 or
canadianstage.com/dream.
FAMILY DAYS:
Free, all-ages, pre-show activities at the Dream site
Sundays, July 4 to Sept. 5, from 5 - 6:30 p.m. Registration
required. Registration accepted June through September. Contact
416-367-1652 or
family@canadianstage.com.
PLEASE NOTE: DOGS AND SMOKING ARE NOT PERMITTED ON THE DREAM
SITE.
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