Tarragon Theatre Announces Original Works Play Reading Week, 11/19-11/28

The Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, known for its development, creation and encouragement of new work, has announced the lineup for its annual Play Reading Week which will run from November 19 to 28, 2009. In all, nine original works will be given a reading by professional actors. This year's offerings will include the following theatrical works:

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19 AT 8PM

Beatrice Chancy
by George Elliott Clarke
directed by Richard Rose

Beatrice, the daughter of a black slave woman and her white master, is sixteen and just returned from a convent school where she was sent "to copy white ladies ways".  She is the apple of her father's eye until her declaration of love for a slave sparks a monstrous act.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20 AT 8 PM

Mother of Him
by Evan Placey
directed by Kelly Straughan

It could be a morning like any other as Brenda cooks breakfast for her two sons, but eight year-old Jason's refusing to go to school and teenager Matthew is under house arrest upstairs. As Brenda struggles for justice for her son, she learns it's the laws inside the house that matter most.
Winner of the inaugural RBC Tarragon Under 30 Playwriting Competition.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21 AT 8 PM

Smuggling Buddha
by Nicolas Billon
directed by Richard Rose

When Anna asks her children, Colin and Elizabeth, to return home right away, they expect the worst. As always, animosity between the siblings quickly surfaces, but after Anna's unexpected announcement, brother and sister must face some truths that have remained obscured for years - and deal with their mother's impossible decision.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23 AT 8 PM

Wide Awake Hearts
by Brendan Gall
directed by Richard Rose

Wide Awake Hearts is a nightmare about love and fidelity set against the backdrop of the Toronto film industry.  Four nameless characters are ripped from one scene into the next against their will and before they are ready, blurring the fine line between fiction and reality.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24 AT 8 PM

Spine
by Michelle D'Alessandro Hatt
directed by Richard Rose

A family is caught in the crossfire of gang violence after a mother and son witness a stabbing outside Christie Subway Station. As threats and fears loom large inside and outside their urban home, it is clear their lives will never be the same again.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25 AT 8 PM

Carried Away On The Crest of a Wave
by David Yee
directed by Richard Rose

Set in the years following the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Carried Away on the Crest of a Wave is a play about causality and the interconnectedness of things. From a hitman in Bangkok, to a priest in Tamil Nadu, to a housewife in Utah, it asks what happens when the events that tie us together are the same that tear us apart.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26 AT 8 PM

Incendiaries
by Jane Maggs
directed by Richard Rose

He saves her, she burns him, he plays her a song he wrote, she teaches him all humans are capable of all things. And after a life altering irrevocable act, they divide on an issue. She realizes all humans are not capable of all things at the precise moment he realizes they definitely are.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27 AT 8 PM

The Attic Sequel
by Jennifer Brewin, Leah Cherniak, Ann Marie Macdonald, Alisa Palmer and Martha Ross
directed by Alisa Palmer

This follow up to the acclaimed The Attic, The Pearls and Three Fine Girls opens twenty years later as the sisters reconvene for a family crisis.  Jayne and Jojo will do anything to rescue Jelly, but end up rescuing themselves instead in this painfully funny look at family intimacy and the surprising truths of middle age.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28 AT 8 PM

Bethlehem
by Aaron Bushkowsky
directed by Richard Rose

Ari, who needs a better job to keep his wife in money, ends up being the foreclosure specialist for a bank only to foreclose on his wife's ex-boyfriend - a man she never "got over".  A funny, dark comedy about betrayal and interest rates

All readings will take place in the Near Studio. Tarragon Theatre is located at 30 Bridgman Avenue, Toronto. Admission to the readings is free, and no reservations are taken. For more information, please contact the box office at 416-531-1827 or visit the Tarragon Theatre website here.

Play Reading Week is an annual event hosted by the Tarragon Theatre. Each year, the theatre invites writers into its Playwrights Unit, where they work to develop a new play. The creative process is overseen by artistic director Richard Rose and literary manager Andrea Romaldi. The plays are treated to various readings throughout the year in which the playwright is able to receive constructive feedback of their work. The process culminates in Play Reading Week, where each play from the unit receives a public reading by professional actors.

Tarragon Theatre is well known for its development, creation and encouragement of new work. Over 170 works have premiered at Tarragon. Playwrights who have premiered their work here include Morwyn Brebner, David French, Michael Healey, Joan MacLeod, Morris Panych, James Reaney, Jason Sherman and Judith Thompson among many others.