Tracey Erin Smith's SoulOTheatre Announces Programming

Artistic Director and award-winning solo performer Tracey Erin Smith has announced the programming for SoulOTheatre's inaugural SoulOTheatre Festival. Some of best solo performers from Canada and the United States take the stage from May 23-26 at the Red Sandcastle Theatre in Toronto's Leslieville. As well, the festival features a series of panels and workshops, with experts teaching the public how to do this work themselves.

Smith, along with Artistic Producers Elenna Mosoff and Briane Nasimok, has scheduled four jam-packed days and evenings of hilarious, moving, innovative and provocative solo shows, along with workshops and panels covering everything a performer or prospective performer needs to know about putting on a one-person show.

With seven mainstage productions from top North American performers - including a world premiere from Precious Chong (Precious, like the Adjective) and Charlie Bethel with the Canadian premiere of Beowulf or Gilgamesh, You Decide!, as well as showstoppers from Chris Gibbs (Antoine Feval), Alex Dallas (Goddess), Sarah Murphy Dyson (Naked Ballerina), Diane Johnstone (Desperate Church Wives) and Daniel Stolfi (Cancer Can't Dance Like This) - this new festival features a mighty powerhouse lineup showcasing the mighty art form of the one-person show.

SOULO FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

THURSDAY May 23

9:00am-12:00pm - Master class with Tracey Erin Smith

8:00pm - Festival Gala: Chris Gibbs in Antoine Feval
The story of Victorian London's most overlooked detective.
"deliciously funny" (5 stars) Eye Weekly "full of twists, turns, and gadzooks moments." (5 stars) Now Magazine

British-born comedian Chris Gibbs began his performance career in 1991, working as an acrobat on the streets of London. He's toured extensively as a stand-up comedian and improviser, written and performed five hit, award-winning one-man shows, was a regular guest on NBC's comedy series 'Howie Do It', has played at the Just For Laughs and the Winnipeg Comedy Festivals. He performs every Wednesday with the Canadian Comedy Award-winning The National Theatre of the World.

9:30pm - Gala Party - LOCATION TBA

FRIDAY May 24

9:00am-12:00pm - Master class with Tracey Erin Smith

7:00pm - SoulOTheatre Grad Showcase: Briane Nasimok, Martha Chaves & Jorge Moreira

9:00pm - Daniel Stolfi in Cancer Can't Dance Like This
With comedy at its core, this solo show uses larger than life characters to vividly portray Daniel's experience with cancer. Told mercilessly with a thrill and lust for the finer things in life, Cancer Can't Dance Like This recalls the pain Dan endured during his treatment while embracing his own saving grace - the fine art of comedy.

Canadian Comedy Award winner Daniel Stolfi selected theatre, film and television credits include: Cancer Can't Dance Like This, A Really Bad Play (FroMast Productions), The Dinner (Jason Murray), Inside Out and Off the Hook (pivotal(arts)), The Egyptian Job (National Geographic), Operation Thunder Ball (History Channel),One Day at a Time (bravoFACT/Riverlife Productions), Cock'd Gunns (Tricon Films), Prank Science (Proper Television), I Martin Short Goes Home (Second City TV/CBC), A Trashy Affair (Biz Media).

SATURDAY May 25

9:00am-12:00pm - Master class with Tracey Erin Smith

1:00pm-2:00pm - Panel discussion: Creating & Performing One-Person Shows
with Precious Chong, Rick Miller, Chris Gibbs and Haley McGee

2:30pm-3:30pm - Panel discussion: Directing Solo Shows
with Anita La Selva, Adam Lazarus and Tracey Erin Smith

4:00pm-6:00pm - Workshop: Self Promotion for Performers with Shelley Marshall

7:00pm - Diane Johnstone in Desperate Church Wives
Desperate Church Wives is about unconditional love and is based on the bible story of Prophet Hosea and his harlot wife, Gomer. What would you think about a Holy Man, Minister or Rabbi, marrying a prostitute? Especially if she went back to the stroll! Church women are upset! That ho got to go!

"Check it out! It is why the Fringe was created. Simple, site specific, no lights, just great acting. The scene where Diane Johnstone plays with her ear wax while stripping is worth the price of admission alone." - MooneyOnTheatre.com

Diane L. Johnstone, a native of Fairfield County, Connecticut, resides in Toronto. She experienced a life of sex, drugs and the Holy Ghost, naively praying her way out destruction. Now an ordained Minister, pursuing her joy of acting, she has trained with The Second City, David Rotenberg and Hollywood actress, Tasha Smith (Tyler Perry's, For Better For Worst). Stage credits: Da Kink in My Hair (Toronto and Atlantic Fringes), her solo-shows Bourgee-Bush Woman, (Pick of the Hamilton Fringe 2008 - "A performance you don't want to miss" - VIEW and 4NNNN & Critic's Pick).

9:00pm - Charlie Bethel in Beowulf or Gilgamesh, You Decide! CANADIAN PREMIERE.
U.S. solo theatre star Charlie Bethel has crafted each of the centuries-old epics "Beowulf" and "Gilgamesh" into rich, entertaining one-hour presentations. On Friday evening, the audience will vote for Bethel to perform one of them and that will be the show he performs. The themes of these tales are timeless," says Bethel, "they remind us of the impermanence of life, the certainty of uncertainty, and the courage required to engage in the simple act of living."

"a compelling performance [in] a subtle and riveting one-man show." - Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Charlie Bethel is a theatre artist from New York. He's performed his solo works in nearly every state, a few Fringes and many regional theatres across the U.S. His other solo shows are Tom Thumb, or the Tragedy of Tragedies, Seven Poor Travellers and The Odyssey. In preproduction these days are solo versions of Eros and Psyche and The Kalevala.

11:00pm - Alex Dallas in Goddess
Goddess is a funny and poignant coming of age story set in 1970s London and Cyprus. Sandra, at 17, uncovers family secrets that question her sense of self and her relationship with the strangers that make up her family. An hilarious journey through adolescence and sexuality, Sandra wonders where her real roots are and who the mysterious Uncle Mike really is?

"Alex Dallas is a true Goddess at this festival" ¬¬-CBC Radio, Vancouver.

Alex Dallas was a member of the infamous female comedy troupe Sensible Footwear for 18 years. Goddess is the first in a trilogy of autobiographical one-woman shows, and was aired on CBC Radio's DNTO.

SUNDAY May 26

9:00am-11:00am - Master class with Tracey Erin Smith

11:00am-12:30pm - Master class showing - 6 students present their work

1:00pm-2:30pm - Workshop: SoulOTheatre Teaser Workshop - The public is invited to come out and try it!

3:00pm-5:00pm - Panel: The Healing Power of Solo Theatre with Tracey Erin Smith, Andrea Thring and Sage Tyrtle

7:00pm - Sarah Murphy Dyson in Naked Ballerina
The Naked Ballerina: _naked [ney-kid] adj. unclothed; defenseless; unprotected; exposed.

Discover the darkness behind the curtain, as a ballet dancer brings you backstage into her world of blood, sweat and secrets._Illusions of perfection onstage and off are shattered as she seeks the courage to expose her truth to herself and to the world. The Naked Ballerina was honoured for Outstanding Performance and Outstanding Direction at the 2010 Toronto Fringe Festival.

"Šthere are moments of brilliance in the script, and Murphy-Dyson proves as magnetic an actor as she is a dancer." - Glenn Sumi, NOW Magazine

Sarah Murphy Dyson, a former Royal Winnipeg Ballet first soloist, is a Gemini award-winning actress whose career includes television, film, stage, stunts, and a past life as a professional ballet dancer.

9:00pm - Precious Chong in Precious, like the Adjective WORLD PREMIERE
With a counter culture drug icon as a father, two older half sisters that are black, a Chinese grandfather, and a mom who is young and sexy, Precious tries to answer the question: what was it like growing up a Chong?

"If we handed out Oscars at the end of the Fringe, Toronto's Precious Chong would certainly be a front-runner for Best Actress (not to mention Best Name). A powerhouse performer with total command of her considerable talent, Chong transforms herself wholly and completely in six vignettes, each a portrait of aching loneliness." -CBC Radio, Toronto, on Zdenka Now!

Precious Chong has performed her solo shows off-Broadway, in Los Angeles and across Canada. She most recently starred in the Canadian premiere of Theresa Rebeck's solo show Bad Dates at MTC's Warehouse and toured it through Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario. She performed her hit solo show Zdenka Now! at the Toronto Fringe 2009.