Studio 180’s 2010/2011 season announced!
30 March 2010
With performances of The Overwhelming coming to a close it’s time to look forward to our 2010/2011 season which represents a number of firsts for Studio 180.
Next season will see our first production of a musical, our first production of an international work in translation and our first co-production with an independent company in the city.
You can find more in our News and Events section but for now – here’s the scoop.
parade
By Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry
Directed by Joel Greenberg
Musical direction by Paul Sportelli
December 30th, 2010 to January 22nd, 2011
Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs
Co-production with Acting Up Stage Company.
Winner of two Tony Awards for Book and Score, and Drama Desk and New York Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Musical, Parade’s haunting score and moving narrative have been favourites with musical theatre artists and audiences alike since its 1998 premiere and now Studio 180 and Acting Up Stage are proud to present its long awaited Canadian premiere.
In 1913, Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old employee of an Atlanta, Georgia pencil factory was raped and murdered. The young Jewish manager of the factory, Leo Frank, was wrongly accused and convicted of the crime. Considered one of the most sensational trials of the early 20th century, the Frank case pressed every hot-button issue of the time: North vs. South, black vs. white, Jewish vs. Christian, industrial vs. agrarian. Painting Frank as a sexual predator who preyed on young girls, the prosecution manipulated witnesses and tampered with evidence to convince the jury and the people of Georgia that Leo Frank was guilty
Parade recounts the press frenzy and public outrage surrounding Leo Frank’s trial, and his wife Lucille’s crusade for justice amid religious intolerance, political injustice and racial tension.
Featuring a cast of 15 artists playing over 40 roles, the Studio 180 and Acting Up Stage production of Parade will be directed by Studio 180 Artistic Director Joel Greenberg and features musical direction by the Shaw Festival’s Paul Sportelli.
our class
By Tadeusz Slobodzianek – English Version by Ryan Craig
Directed by Joel Greenberg
April 4th to April 30th, 2011
Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs
Produced in association with Canadian Stage
A crowd was standing round laughing and joking as they watched us. I knew them all. They were our neighbours. (from Our Class)
A group of schoolchildren, Jewish and Catholic, declare their ambitions: one to be a fireman, one a film star, one a pilot, another a doctor. They are learning the ABC. This is Poland, 1925. As the children grow up, their country is torn apart by invading armies, first Soviet and then Nazi. Internal grievances deepen as fervent nationalism develops. Friends betray each other and violence escalates, until these ordinary people carry out an extraordinary and monstrous act that darkly resonates to this day.
Our Class is based on true events in the small northern Polish town of Jedwabne: on July 10, 1941, up to 1,600 Jews were massacred, in a pogrom that was for decades attributed to the Nazis. The accusations and counter-accusations of blame continued long after the end of WWII, and in 2001 Polish-born historian Jan T. Gross published a controversial book, Neighbors, revealing that the perpetrators were in fact Polish Roman Catholics and calling into question the degree of German participation. In Our Class, Polish playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek explores the events leading up to the pogrom and its lasting repercussions, following the fortunes of 10 one-time classmates (five Jewish and five Catholic) – amidst weddings, parades, births, deaths, emigrations and reconciliations – from one century into the next.
It’s a big, ambitious season for us and we’re looking forward to all its challenges and delights.
What do you think?
We hope you’re as excited about our big announcement as we are. Let us know what you think!
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