Media Contact:
Katie Saunoris, Publicist
416.203.6264 x.146
[email protected]
MEDIA RELEASE
SOULPEPPER’S 2015 SEASON
Toronto, ON – November 4, 2014: Albert Schultz, Founding Artistic Director of Soulpepper Theatre Company, today
announced the company’s 2015 season from January to October: Eleven plays from Canada and around the world; a Studio
Series featuring Ins Choi and Kenneth Welsh; two Partner Presentations with VideoCabaret; and an expanded Concert Series
featuring Slaight Family Director of Music Mike Ross and jazz legend Jackie Richardson.
The season will open in February with Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist directed by Ravi Jain, followed by The
Dining Room by A.R. Gurney directed by Joseph Ziegler. In the spring, several plays will run in repertory, including:
Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce; S. Ansky’s The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds in a new adaptation by award-winning
Canadian playwright Anton Piatigorsky; and the enchanting Eurydice from American playwright Sarah Ruhl.
Soulpepper’s 2015 fall shows will include the world premiere of Pamela Sinha’s Happy Place; the epic ensemble piece Marat/
Sade by Peter Weiss; and Yours Forever, Marie-Lou, by Michel Tremblay in a new translation by Linda Gaboriau.
Returning in 2015 are Soulpepper favourites: Of Human Bondage, winner of seven Dora Awards including Outstanding
Production; Soulpepper’s original musical adaptation of Spoon River based on the Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee
Masters; and a gem from the company’s earliest days, The Play’s The Thing by Ferenc Molnár adapted by P. G. Wodehouse.
“This season is our biggest, boldest, and most diverse one yet,” said Schultz. “The work on our stages looks out to the world
while simultaneously focusing on our national voices. Our oﬀerings are multi-disciplinary and expansive in their scope;
they acknowledge the gifts of our collective cultural past while imagining our creative future as a nation. In 2015 the talented
Soulpepper company will present a full slate of plays from the international and national repertoire, our brand new Studio
Series, and our rapidly growing Concert Series.”
Soulpepper’s 2015 Studio Series is comprised of two one-man shows: Ins Choi channels a homeless man with a peculiar
message from God in Subway Stations of the Cross; and Kenneth Welsh presents a vital performance of The Gospel According to
Mark. Next year’s Partner Presentations will be two works from Toronto’s VideoCabaret: the return of last year’s hit Trudeau
and the FLQ running in rep with Trudeau and Levesque.
In July and August of 2015, Soulpepper will be taking a performance sabbatical as the Young Centre for the Performing Arts
will be a venue for PANAMANIA, presented by CIBC, the arts and culture festival of the Pan Am/Parapan Am Games.
Additional 2015 fall/winter programming will be announced at a later date.
Current Soulpepper subscribers can renew as of November 4 at 1 p.m. New subscribers can book as of November 18, 2014 and
single tickets for 2015 go on sale to the public on November 25, 2014. Soulpepper’s 2014 season continues with: Spoon River based
on Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters; The Four Horsemen Project from Volcano; and the Soulpepper Family Festival
which includes Michael Shamata’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Ins Choi’s Kim’s Convenience and David Ben’s The Conjuror.
Visit soulpepper.ca or call 416.866.8666 for more details.
Media Contact:
Katie Saunoris, Publicist
416.203.6264 x.146
[email protected]
SOULPEPPER’S 2015 SEASON: JANUARY - OCTOBER
Accidental Death of an Anarchist
Dario Fo. Translated by Jon Laskin and Michael Aquilante.
Directed by Ravi Jain
Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo crafts a biting, satirical farce inspired by the bombing of Milan’s Piazza Fontana in 1969. In Fo’s
masterful hands a tragic situation turns into a madcap romp and a powerful act of political theatre.
Accidental Death of an Anarchist runs from January 29 to February 21. Opening night is February 5.
The Dining Room
A. R. Gurney
Directed by Joseph Ziegler
If this furniture could talk, what tales would it tell? A.R. Gurney’s touching comedy weaves together dozens of lives that
intertwine over multiple generations around an everyday dining room table. Six members of the Soulpepper ensemble
seamlessly portray over 50 memorable characters in a virtuoso theatrical experience.
The Dining Room runs from February 5 to March 10. Opening night is February 12.
Spoon River
Adapted by Mike Ross and Albert Schultz. Composed by Mike Ross.
Based on Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters
Directed by Albert Schultz
Edgar Lee Masters’ seminal poems of the dead are brought to vibrant life in this original musical adaptation. Spoon River’s
long-deceased residents narrate their own epitaphs, telling of their lives, loves, losses, and hard-earned truths, in an immersive
portrait of early 20th-century rural America.
Spoon River runs from March 7 to March 28. Opening night is March 10.
Bedroom Farce
Alan Ayckbourn
Directed by Ted Dykstra
Four couples, three bedrooms, and one farce by British comic master Alan Ayckbourn, playwright of last year’s Soulpepper hit
The Norman Conquests.
Bedroom Farce runs from May 1 to June 20. Opening night is May 8.
Of Human Bondage
Vern Thiessen. Based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham.
Directed by Albert Schultz
Winner of seven Dora Awards, including Outstanding Production, Outstanding New Play, and Outstanding Direction,
Soulpepper’s acclaimed production returns. Of Human Bondage is an epic tale of lust, obsession, and the pursuit of beauty
adapted for the stage for Soulpepper by Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Vern Thiessen.
Of Human Bondage runs from May 2 to June 20. Opening night is May 4.
The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds
Anton Piatigorsky. Based on the play By S. Ansky.
Directed by Albert Schultz
The most celebrated play of Yiddish literature is presented in a new adaptation by award-winning Canadian playwright Anton
Piatigorsky. Boundaries between the natural and supernatural worlds dissolve as ill-fated pledges and untimely deaths ensnare
two families in this tale of powerful young love and spiritual possession.
The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds runs from May 14 to June 18. Opening night is May 21.
Media Contact:
Katie Saunoris, Publicist
416.203.6264 x.146
[email protected]
Eurydice
Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Alan Dilworth
Sarah Ruhl, one of the ﬁnest living American playwrights, adapts the myth of Orpheus from the perspective of his wife,
Eurydice, in this playful and profound contemporary retelling. Ms. Ruhl’s magical play about the joys and trials of living and dying invites the happiest kind of commemoration.
-The New York Times
Eurydice runs from May 19 to June 18. Opening night is May 28.
The Play’s The Thing
Ferenc Molnár. Adapted By P. G. Wodehouse.
Directed by László Marton
Soulpepper revisits one of its greatest productions from the company’s earliest days with a fresh take on P. G. Wodehouse’s
deeply funny adaptation of Molná r’s celebrated take on theatrical life.
The Play’s the Thing runs from September 2 to October 14. Opening night is September 9.
Happy Place
Pamela Sinha
Directed by Alan Dilworth
Happy Place, the second play of Dora Award-winning playwright Pamela Mala Sinha, explores and celebrates the courage,
compassion and humour of seven women living amidst each other in the most extraordinary circumstances. Why are they
there? How did they get there? And, are we so diﬀerent from them?
Happy Place runs from September 4 to October 17. Opening night is September 10.
Marat/Sade
The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed By The Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under The
Direction Of The Marquis De Sade
Peter Weiss. Translated by Geoffrey Skelton. Verse Adaptation by Adrian Mitchell
Directed by Albert Schultz
Albert Schultz directs a huge Soulpepper ensemble in this rich, highly theatrical, and rarely performed 20th-century
masterpiece.
Marat/Sade runs from September 11 to October 17. Opening night is September 22.
Yours Forever, Marie-Lou
Michel Tremblay. Translated By Linda Gaboriau.
Directed by Diana Leblanc
This is Soulpepper’s ﬁrst production of the man widely considered to be Canada’s greatest writer for the stage. Soulpepper
Founding Member Diana Leblanc, who has had a long and fruitful association with Tremblay as both an actor and director in
French and English, takes the helm of this penetrating look at the history of one Québec family.
Yours Forever, Marie-Lou runs from September 14 to October 17. Opening night is September 23.
Media Contact:
Katie Saunoris, Publicist
416.203.6264 x.146
[email protected]
STUDIO SERIES
Subway Stations of the Cross
Ins Choi
Soulpepper Academy graduate and Resident Artist Ins Choi (Kim’s Convenience) channels a homeless man with a peculiar
message from God. An unpredictable, mashed up meditation on the sacred and the everyday, Subway Stations of the Cross is told
through the songs, stories, and poetry of a nameless vagabond.
Subway Stations of the Cross runs from March 18 to March 29. Opening night is March 22.
The Gospel According to Mark
Kenneth Welsh
The most seminal work of the English language is the sublime King James version of the Bible (1611). Here, with astonishing
vitality, master actor Kenneth Welsh (Under Milk Wood, Leaving Home) gives a verbatim performance of the Gospel according to
Mark.
The Gospel According to Mark runs from March 18 to March 29. Opening performance is March 22.
PARTNER PRESENTATIONS - VIDEOCABARET
Trudeau and Levesque
The History of the Village of the Small Huts, 1971-1982
MICHAEL HOLLINGSWORTH
The visions of Pierre Trudeau and René Lévesque are irreconcilable; the conﬂict is a comédie noire. Combatants, allies, and spies
include: PQ Minister Claude Morin and his RCMP handlers; Police informer Poupette and her lovers in the FLQ; the Queen and
a Gang of Premiers; plus Maggie Trudeau and The Rolling Stones.
Trudeau and Levesque runs from April 25 to June 13. Opening night is May 2.
Trudeau and The FLQ
The History of the Village of the Small Huts, 1963-1970
MICHAEL HOLLINGSWORTH
As the centenary of Canada’s Confederation approaches, Québec separatists crank up the violence. On a stage lit by terrorist
bombings, Professor Trudeau pirouettes to power. The acid-tripping rock-throwing ‘60s are conjured by a master storyteller
with the magical stagecraft of the VideoCabaret ensemble and the Dora Award-winning performance of Mac Fyfe as Trudeau.
Trudeau and the FLQ runs from May 12 to June 13. Opening night is May 14.
SOULPEPPER CONCERT SERIES
The Soulpepper Company, Slaight Family Director of Music Mike Ross and special guests present a series of original musical
experiences full of joyous and evocative songs and storytelling.
A Moveable Musical Maritime Feast
P.E.I.’s Mike Ross and his musical guests celebrate the extraordinary musical life of Eastern Canada.
February 15 at 2:30 p.m., February 20 at 7:30 p.m., and February 22 at 3 p.m.
The Nina Project
Three of Canada’s greatest vocalists – Jackie Richardson, Shakura S’Aida and Kellylee Evans – celebrate the life, legend, reach
and relevance of Nina Simone. February 16 at 7:30 p.m. and April 3 to April 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Media Contact:
Katie Saunoris, Publicist
416.203.6264 x.146
[email protected]
American Pie - A Songbook Investigation
An investigation of the meaning and musical references of Don McLean’s folk-rock anthem, from Buddy Holly to Dylan to
Joplin to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. February 27 at 8 p.m., March 1 at 7 p.m., and March 8 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Route 66 - The Heartland
A multi-artist journey through the heartland of America on the backs of Woody Guthrie, John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac and the
blues. Music Director Mike Ross. March 17 at 7:30 p.m., March 20 at 7:30 p.m., March 24 at 7:30 p.m. and March 25 at 1:30 p.m.
New Orleans - The Big Easy
A multi-artist celebration of the city that gave birth to Louis Armstrong, Lillian Hellman, Jelly Roll Morton, Dr. John, and jazz
itself. April 10 at 7:30 p.m., April 11 at 7:30 p.m. and April 12 at 1:30 p.m.
SOULPEPPER’S WEEKLY CABARETS
Soulpepper’s series of weekly Cabarets will continue at the Young Centre every Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. Each Cabaret runs
for 60-90 minutes and features a diﬀerent guest artist or ensemble in an intimate and conversational setting.
Tickets to Soulpepper productions at the Young Centre are available by calling the Young Centre Box Oﬃce at 416.866.8666 or
by visiting soulpepper.ca. Current Soulpepper subscribers can renew their ticket packages as of Nov. 4, 2014 at 1 p.m. New 2015
subscribers can book packages as of Nov. 18, 2014 and single tickets for 2015 go on sale to the public on Nov. 25, 2014.
Located in its multi-venue home the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto’s Distillery Historic District, Soulpepper
is Toronto’s largest theatre company. Founded and guided by artists, under the leadership of Artistic Director Albert Schultz
and Executive Director Leslie Lester, Soulpepper has an integrated mission which includes: industry-leading youth outreach
initiatives; the Soulpepper Academy, Canada’s only multi-year paid professional training program for theatre artists of all
disciplines; and a year-round diverse repertory season which is grounded in the classics and committed to the creation of new
works, new forms, and innovative practices.
Soulpepper gratefully acknowledges annual operating support from the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, and
the Canada Council for the Arts.
Support for all Music Programing is provided by the Slaight Family through the Slaight Family Music Program. Mike Ross
is the inaugural Slaight Family Director of Music. Lead Support for the Soulpepper Academy is provided by the Michael and
Karen Vukets Family Foundation, with additional support from the RBC Foundation and Hal Jackman Foundation and the
Canada Arts Training Program at the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Soulpepper is grateful for the Major Sponsorship Support of:
TELUS – Lead Sponsor Youth Outreach
Scotiabank – Lead Sponsor Soulpepper Youth Academy
TD Bank – Lead Sponsor Stage Play and Studio Series
CIBC – Lead Sponsor Soulpepper Family Festival
SunLife – Lead Sponsor Rush Program
Support for Soulpepper Productions is provided by:
3Macs: Bedroom Farce
Gretchen Ross: The Play’s the Thing
Middleﬁeld
Polar Securities: Of Human Bondage
Eli & Phil Taylor
Rob Cudney: A Christmas Carol
Diane Blake + Stephen Smith: Spoon River
Media Contact:
Katie Saunoris, Publicist
416.203.6264 x.146
[email protected]
Slaight Family: The Conjuror
Tickets for Soulpepper productions range from $89 to $29.50. Tickets for the Soulpepper Concert Series start at $29.75. Tickets
for the Weekly Cabarets and Studio Series start at $20. Tickets for the Partner Presentations range from $56 to $26. $24 tickets
are available for Arts Workers. $24 tickets for Soulpepper productions are also available for 21-30 year-olds at stageplay.ca.
StagePlay is sponsored by TD Bank Group. The $24 Rush Ticket / $5 Youth Rush program is sponsored by Sun Life Financial.
Ticket prices include a Young Centre facility fee, service charge and HST. Pricing is subject to change.
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