The Situation We Find Ourselves In Is This (Workshop Presentation)

TORONTO, ON @ The Theatre Centre
September 22, 2018

A moving, funny, potentially messy evening about the final days playwright Matt MacKenzie spent with beloved Canadian dramaturge Iris Turcott. 

“Staring up at the ceiling—which is what Iris did when she was searching for inspiration, she began speaking about her playwrights and their plays. Like we were staring into the Cosmos, it was as if each of Iris’s writers was a solar system, with each of their plays a planet, or debris, within those systems. Jumping from writer to writer, from play to play, from character to character, she painted an incredible picture. One only Iris could paint, of Canadian theatre, of the essential stories we tell each other.”

Iris Turcott had a direct impact on hundreds of artists and worked with most of Canada’s leading playwrights. Her steadfast belief in the power and necessity of art was something she spoke passionately about until the end.

After The Fire by Matthew MacKenzie

”THEY SAY THE FIRE’S STILL BURNING.  BENEATH THE GROUND.  THEY SAY IT COULD STAY BURNING, FOR YEARS.”

PUNCTUATE! THEATRE IS PLEASED TO PRESENT AFTER THE FIRE BY MATTHEW MACKENZIE.

SET IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE FIRE THAT NEARLY DESTROYED FORT MCMURRAY IN 2016, AFTER THE FIRE IS A DARK COMEDY CENTRED AROUND TWO COUPLES WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN DEEPLY AFFECTED BY THE DISASTER. 

“AFTER THE FIRE MAY HAVE ONE OF THE GREATEST SURPRISE ENDINGS EVER IN A CANADIAN PLAY- AND CERTAINLY HAS ONE OF THE MOST CANADIAN SURPRISE ENDINGS EVER TO A PLAY... IT IS ALSO GOOD WRITING THAT ALTERS YOUR PERCEPTION OF ALL OF THE CHARACTERS, THE STATE OF THEIR RELATIONSHIPS - AND MAYBE FORT MCMURRAY AS WELL.”

— J. KELLY NESTRUCK, GLOBE AND MAIL (4.5/5)

Bears Tour 2019

Co-Produced with Alberta Aboriginal Performing Arts and Dreamspeakers Film Society

A multi-disciplinary dark comedy about the Trans mountain Pipeline, Bears asks what the hell it is we think we're doing here in Wild Rose Country.

The Belfry Theatre      Toronto, ON          January 29-February 24, 2019    

Factory Theatre           Victoria, BC         February 28 - March 17, 2019       

“I’D NEVER SEEN A PIECE THAT SPEAKS TO ISSUES FACING CANADA’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AS EFFECTIVELY AND BEAUTIFULLY AS BEARS DOES.”

— JERRY SADDLEBACK, CREE ELDER AND DEAN OF CULTURAL STUDIES AT MASKWACÎS COLLEGE

A Pyretic Productions Co presented By Punctuate

Blood Of Our Soil by : BY LIANNA MAKUCH

Inspired by personal accounts from war-torn Ukraine in 1944 and true stories from the country’s current conflict.

After generations of conflict, a new crisis opens old wounds.

Blood of Our Soil packs a punch. – Amy Strizic, My Entertainment World

Punctuate! Theatre's Artistic Producer, Matt MacKenzie, joined Pyretic team Lianna Makuch and Patrick Lundeen on their research trip to Ukraine in 2018. Serving as a dramaturg on the process and Punctuate as a co-presenter, Matt and the Punctuate! team were so proud to see this indie production knock the socks off the audience and media in Toronto.

Bears by Matthew MacKenzie

In association with Alberta Aboriginal Performing Arts

A multi-disciplinary dark comedy about the Trans mountain Pipeline, Bears asks what the hell it is we think we're doing here in Wild Rose Country.

“I’d never seen a piece that speaks to issues facing Canada’s Indigenous peoples as effectively and beautifully as Bears does.”

— Jerry Saddleback, Cree Elder and Dean of Cultural Studies at Maskwacîs College

Cast and Crew coming soon!

Minosis Gathers Hope by Christine Sokaymoh Frederick

THEMES AND IDEAS OF THIS STORY INVOLVE UNDERSTANDING AND COPING WITH CHANGE, RACISM, INDEPENDENCE AND INTERDEPENDENCE. WITH THIS PLAY, PLAYWRIGHT CHRISTINE SOKAYMOH FREDERICK WISHES TO PROVIDE A UNIQUE WAY FOR CHILDREN TO COME TO TERMS WITH THE DILEMMAS OF THEIR INNER LIVES: AN UNDERSTANDING THAT IS VITAL FOR ALL CANADIANS WHOSE CULTURES TOUCH, EVOLVE AND INTERWEAVE.

“[CHRISTINE SOKAYMOH FREDERICK] IS AN INSPIRING ARTISTIC LEADER AND AN IMPORTANT VOICE IN EDMONTON’S CULTURAL COMMUNITY...”

— DARYL CLORAN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE CITADEL THEATRE

CAST AND CREW COMING SOON!

Bone Wars by : Matthew MacKenzie

Music by Laura Raboud in collaboration with Stefan Kijek and Allyson MacIvor

Directed by Chris Bullough

Choreography by Amber Borotsik
Bone Wars is an exciting multi-disciplinary, family-friendly, wild-west comedy from Matthew MacKenzie. Bone Wars won a Sterling Award for Outstanding Production for Young Audiences in 2017.

When eleven year olds Tickailia, Dawn, Chelsea, Rudeger and their babysitter / Palaeontology PHD candidate Lequian are forced to abandon their canoe trip down the Red Deer River and take refuge in an abandoned mine in the Badlands to wait out a tornado, they become embroiled in a historical quarrel; who was the greatest Palaeontologist of them all?

Digging up past disagreements and grievances in the same way they dug up bones from the Cretaceous and late Jurassic periods, Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope—the world’s most legendary dinosaur bone hunters, vie for Palaeontology supremacy. Who discovered the most dinosaurs? Who made the most laughable errors? Who cheated and lied the most? Who made the most allies/enemies? Tickailia and company play unwitting judge and jury, with a host of wild west characters called upon to be the pathological Palaeontologist’s witnesses.

This Is War by Hannah Moscovitch

Director Glenda Stirling

Production Designer Alison Yanota

Sound Designer Misha Hblenicov

Stage/Production Manager Julie Ferguson

Producer/Publicist Sheiny Satanove

Technical Director Maria Burkinshaw

Associate Production Designer Kai Villneff

Sergeant Stephen Hughes Telly James

Master Corporal Tanya Young Andreéa Jorawsky

Private Jonny Henderson Evan Hall

Sergeant Chris Anders Joe Perry

The Silence Project

 Artistic Consultant & Lighting by Beth Dart

Created and Performed by:

Julie Ferguson

Liz Hobbs

Elliott James

Andréa Jorawsky

Sheiny Satanove

Dirt by Ron Chambers

'Dirt is a darkly comedic yet scathing examination of the value our society places on the lives of our most vulnerable members,' says Elizabeth Hobbs, Director. This dark and gritty crime thriller centres on Murphy, a local degenerate who is accused of killing his girlfriend. Zealous police detective Falkin, and his partner Kiddo, place Murphy under a bizarre house arrest, where he is to be monitored by another welfare recipient, Greta. 

Directed by Liz Hobbs

Produced by Sheiny Satanove

Stage Managed by Julie Ferguson

Set & Costume Design by Syd Gross

Lighting Design by Alison Yanota

Sound Design by Mish Hlebnicov

Featuring: Jeff Page*, Rebecca Starr*, Elliott James, Andréa Jorawsky, Cliff Kelly

*Appears courtesy of Canadian Actors Equity Association

Solo Studies: Translations by Entrelacement Dance

Entrelacement Dance presents Solo Studies / Translations – a new dance work that is inspired by the translation of movement into words and back again. This piece is an extension of the presentation “Solo Studies” of December 2012 and includes the work of all seven dancers in the company.

Entrelacement Dance is a company of pre-professional, emerging dancers and brings a youthful and energetic perspective to the dance scene in Edmonton. 

Directed by Tatiana Cheladyn

Featuring McKenzie Heykin, Kylie Kennedy, Nick Kim, Yasemin Morais, Elsa Rankin, Richelle Schadeck, and Astrid Sparks

Stage Managed & Lighting Design by Julie Ferguson

East of Berlin by Hannah Moscovitch

Winner of Two Sterling Awards! Outstanding Independent Production & Outstanding Director

Hannah Moscovitch's East of Berlin tells the story of Rudi, a loyal son whose life is thrown into upheaval when he discovers that his father was an SS doctor at Auschwitz.  Questioning redemption, love, guilt, and the sins of the father, East of Berlin follows Rudi's journey as he comes face-to-face with a frightening past that was never his own.  

Co-Produced by The East/West Collective

Directed by Simon Bloom

Set & Lighting Design by Nick Blais

Costume Design by Megan Koshka

Stage Managed by  Andrea Murphy

Technical Direction by Julie Ferguson

Set Construction by Brendan Neary

Featuring:

Jamie Cavanagh

Andréa Jorawsky

Matthew Hulshof

The Juvyline Cubangbang Show by Jake Prins

Directed by Katie Hudson

Stage Managed by  Becca Barrington

Production Design by Marie Muggeridge

Featuring:

Mark Vetsch

Colin Matty

Marlee Yule