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Nightswimming presents
City of Wine by Ned Dickens
May 5-9, 2009 – CITY OF WINE Festival performances
The Festival will feature two complete runs of the cycle at
Theatre Passe Muraille.
For tickets and further information,
click here: FESTIVAL
TICKETS (www.artsboxoffice.ca) or call
416-504-7529
Performance Schedule -
Cycle #1:
May 5 - 4pm - Harmonia; 8pm - Pentheus
May 6 - noon - Laius; 4pm - Jocasta;
8pm - Oedipus
May 7 – noon - Creon; 4pm - Seven
Cycle #2:
May 7 - 8pm - Harmonia
May 8 - noon - Pentheus; 4pm - Laius;
8pm - Jocasta
May 9 - noon - Oedipus; 4pm - Creon;
8pm - Seven
cycle 1: $12 /show; $60 /full cycle of 7
plays
cycle 2: $20 /show; $100 /full cycle of 7 play
City of Wine is a seven-play cycle by
Kingston playwright Ned Dickens that Nightswimming has beendeveloping
in a special partnership with more than 150 students and educators
at theatre training institutions across Canada.
This national project offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for
students to participate directly in the development and production
of a new play in partnership with leading theatre artists and their
fellow students across Ontario and the country. To accomplish this
we have established relationships with the following theatre training
programs:
Sir Wilfred Grenfell College (Corner Brook, Nfld); Concordia University
(Montreal); George Brown College Theatre School (Toronto); Humber
College Performance Training Program (Toronto); York University
(Toronto); Studio 58 (Langara College, Vancouver) and Simon Fraser
University, Contemporary Arts (Vancouver).
City of Wine is Ned Dickens’ theatrical
cycle about the ancient Greek city of Thebes – best known as
the home of Oedipus. The cycle comprises seven plays: Harmonia,
Pentheus, Laius, Jocasta, Oedipus, Creon
and Seven. The plays are written to complement each other
and form a rich tapestry when performed together. They are timely
commentaries on leadership, ideal for large ensembles and schools
– plays that combine the traditions of classical theatre with
the dynamism of contemporary writing.
This project is bringing together students from across Canada to
develop, rehearse, produce and present Ned’s seven plays. A
central element of this initiative is Nightswimming’s plan
– never before attempted on this scale – to take Ned and
Nightswimming staff Brian Quirt and Naomi Campbell into each school
to workshop the plays with the students, and in doing so to offer
the students a remarkable opportunity to participate in the creation
of a major new work of theatre as part of their training.
As part of this process, for example, Nightswimming
conducted a week-long workshop of all seven plays in October 2007,
with a stellar cast of 19 Toronto actors including Damian Atkins,
Earl Pastko, Jordan Pettle, Julian Richings, Karen Robinson, Allison
Sealy-Smith and Pamela Sinha. Ned revised the plays during a residency
at the National Theatre School of Canada (October 2007) and a workshop
with students at George Brown College Theatre School (December 2007).
Additional workshops have weree held in Vancouver at Studio 58 and
Simon Fraser University.
This collaborative educational process will culminate in 2008-09
when the seven plays will be produced by seven of the schools (Grenfell
College, Concordia, Humber College, George Brown College, York University,
Studio 58 and SFU). See Production Schedule below.
In addition, Nightswimming has commissioned
a French-language translation of Harmonia by University of
Ottawa playwright Michel Ouellette. The
National Arts Centre (Ottawa) has co-commissioned with Nightswimming
the play Laius and has been an ongoing partner in the development
process.
In May 2009, Nightswimming will produce the
City of Wine Festival, an ambitious, innovative national
event presenting the seven school productions at Theatre Passe Muraille
in Toronto, enabling audiences to view the entire cycle in sequence
for the first time ever. The Festival will also feature a session
exploring performance training in Canada and a symposium on the
issues of leadership and civic responsibility that are central to
the plays.
City of Wine will have a significant impact on students,
audiences and the training of a new generation of theatre artists.
It will challenge students to work at the highest standard possible
in collaboration with professional artists and institutions, and
offer them not only mentorship, but bring them in contact with their
fellow students from across Canada. The scale of this endeavour
is unprecedented, but together we will make this remarkable gathering
a reality.
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Great-West Life,
London Life and Canada Life
have made a three year commitment as the Research and Workshop
sponsor for our City of Wine project. We thank them for their
generous and extended commitment to Nightswimming.
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City of Wine Accommodation
Sponsor:
Annex
Quest House
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CITY OF WINE – Master Schedule of Productions
HARMONIA directed by DD Kugler
SFU Contemporary Arts, Vancouver
Jan 3 - rehearsal begins
Feb 25 - open
Mar 7 - close
PENTHEUS directed by Tatiana Jennings
Humber College, Toronto
March 9 - rehearsal begins
April 11 - open
April 18 - close
LAIUS directed by Eda Holmes
George Brown College, Toronto
Jan 5 - rehearsal begins
Feb 4 - open
Feb 14 - close
JOCASTA directed by Craig Hall
Studio 58, Langara College, Vancouver
Feb. 17 - rehearsal begins
March 19 - open
April 5 - close
OEDIPUS directed by Ursula Neuerburg-Denzer
Concordia University, Montreal
Feb. 10 – rehearsal begins
April 2 – open
April 5 - close
CREON directed by Jillian Keiley
Sir Wildfred Grenfell College, Memorial University, Corner Brook
Sept. 8, 2008 – rehearsal begins
November 26, 2008 – opening
November 29, 2008 – closing
SEVEN directed by Sarah Stanley
York University, Toronto
City of Wine Festival
May 5-9 – CITY OF WINE Festival performances
The Festival will feature two complete runs of the cycle at
Theatre Passe Muraille.
For tickets and further information, click here: FESTIVAL
TICKETS
(www.artsboxoffice.ca) or call 416-504-7529
.............................................................................................
Ned Dickens
As a Playwright Ned’s staged credits include: OEDIPUS
(Under the Gardiner Expressway by DIE IN DEBT. 2 Dora Mavor Moore
Awards including Outstanding Production); BEO’S BEDROOM
(YOUNG PEOPLE'S THEATRE, GRAND LONDON, NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE, &
THEATRE NEW BRUNSWICK; Dora Award, Chalmers Award nomination); ICARA
(ANANKE THEATRE. Dora Award nomination. NOW Magizine's top ten of
2000.); THE STAR CHILD (A libretto for THE CANADIAN CHILDREN"S
OPERA CHORUS, Harbourfront Centre. John Greer, Composer); HORSE
(THE THEATRE CENTRE). For Television: six episodes of the highly
successful ROLL PLAY series (Treehouse). For CBC Radio Drama:
BEO’S BEDROOM, LUKE AND THE BIG CIRCLES (Gold
Medal, The New York Festivals), CHEESE MAGIC, and LUKE
AND THE TERRIBLE THING.
Ned was a regular contributor to RICHARDSON’S
ROUNDUP on CBC Radio 1. Ned taught high school for seven years.
He has also taught Creative Writing at St Lawrence College, served
as Playwright in Residence at the National Theatre School and at
Nightswimming, amongst others, and designed and delivered innumerable
workshops for groups including the Toronto District School Board,
Queens University, George Brown College, the Green Party of Canada,
and various corporate clients. He lives in Kingston with his wife
and two children.
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City of Wine
is the epic story of the citizens and city of Thebes – birthplace
of wine and home of the god Bacchus.
Through these stories, Ned speaks
about power in a way that places the common citizen front and centre
in the debate about democracy, political decision-making and the
individual. I can think of no better time for such themes and I
can think of no better person than Ned to write about them. –
Diana Belshaw, Humber College
Ned’s plays tell one of the most important stories in Greek
mythology. Most of us are familiar with the tales of Troy and the
Trojan War, and are well versed in the story of Oedipus. But few
are aware of the rich and provocative story of Thebes that began
with the founding of Thebes by Cadmus and Harmonia.
City of Wine follows the city from its beginnings to its collapse,
tracing its development from community to society, to culture and
concludes with the last gasp of Theban civilization. Ned’s
most exciting innovation is his rejection of the Greek chorus in
favour of a representative community of Thebans. As we progress
through the plays we repeatedly return to a tavern called The Heifer,
where a collection of Theban citizens react to and argue about the
actions of the city’s famous rulers.
The scope of this initiative is
very exciting to us – big and visionary – like the cycle
of stories themselves. As the plays come together, so too do the
top theatre schools across Canada, providing a rare opportunity
for research, discussion, observation, and cross-pollination of
training practice and play creation. – Kathryn Shaw, Artistic
Director, Studio 58
The story of Thebes is the story of how a community is founded,
built, sustained and led. It is about leadership, and about how
the citizens of a community live with that leadership. It is a set
of stories vital to a nation like Canada that is constantly assessing
what we should demand from our leaders. It is a story that is not
consumed with war, but with how to maintain a civil society; it
asks us to reconsider how we accept newcomers into our midst, and
it forces us to look at the internal tensions that stretch the tolerance
of every society.
To develop this massive, 12-hour story, we have created a national
collaboration featuring some of the best minds in Canadian theatre
including Peter Hinton, Maureen Labonté, Diana Belshaw, DD
Kugler, James Simon, Eda Holmes, Sherry Bie, Jillian Keiley, Kathryn
Shaw, David Hudgins, Brian Drader and Sarah Stanley.
Nightswimming will remain responsible for the theatrical development
of the entire cycle. We will hold classes and workshops at each
school to work on each play. In doing so, we will expose students
to Ned’s writing, to our play development process and to the
creation of a substantial new work.
City of Wine will provide our students
with enriched opportunities for learning, a larger vision of Canadian
theatre training, contacts with artists and schools and a unique
opportunity to participate in a longer-term project with truly national
reach.
– Edward Little, Concordia University
This is a unique project – nothing like it has ever occurred
in Canada. But it is filling a particular challenge in theatrical
training: how best to expose students to the complex world of creating
a new play in collaboration with a playwright and dramaturg. Because
we are addressing a specific need, Nightswimming has been able to
bring the finest Canadian training programs on board. They are interested
in the project as a learning model that they could potentially repeat
with other playwright/artistic development organizations in the
future. It will not only be a remarkable learning opportunity for
the students in their final year of theatre school, but will also
educate them about life in the real world of Canadian theatre. It
is both training and professional development; and it will have
a substantial impact on a generation of
new artists.
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