LUCY a new play by Damien Atkins begins March 5

"Atkins is no ordinary playwright"

- NOW Magazine

 

WORLD PREMIERE

Commissioned and developed by the

CanStage Play Development program

LUCY

By Damien Atkins

Directed by Eda Holmes

Starring Seana McKenna

 

 Lucy is 13 years old; Lucy is autistic. She sees her mother for the first time in years when her father decides to re-marry and start a new life. Lucy is a play about newfound love between a mother and daughter and the revelations it triggers, including a provocative new theory of evolution.

Directed by Eda Holmes (CanStage's Side by Side by Sondheim), Lucy stars Seana McKenna (CanStage's Wit, Boy Gets Girl) as Vivian with Tony Munch as Gavin, Philippa Domville (CanStage's Silver Dagger) as Julia, Brendan Murray (CanStage's Twelfth Night) as Morris and Meg Roe as Lucy.  

 

Joining Ms. Holmes is a creative team which features set and costume designer Teresa Przybylski (CanStage's Twelfth Night), original music and sound designer Marc Desormeaux (CanStage's Written on Water), lighting designer Andrea Lundy (CanStage's Half Life), stage manager Marinda De Beer (CanStage's The Comedy of Errors) and assistant stage manager Krista Blackwood.

 

Damien Atkins has acted on most major stages across the country (including at CanStage in The Glass Menagerie, Amadeus, Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods). He has spent four seasons at the Stratford Festival, both as actor and playwright. The 2001 production of Good Mother, starring Seana McKenna, made Atkins the youngest playwright to have his work produced by the Festival. His other works as a playwright include Miss Chatelaine (Theatre Passe Muraille/Grand Theatre) and Real Live Girl (Buddies in Bad Times/Manitoba Theatre Centre/Grand Theatre), for which he received two Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Best New Musical and Best Actor in a Musical).

 

Seana McKenna (CanStage's Boy Gets Girl, Wit, The Road to Mecca – Dora Award nomination, The Show-off, Odd Jobs, Benefactors) has played lead roles in most major theatres across the country including 15 seasons at the Stratford Festival and two seasons each at the Blyth and Shaw Festivals. Shakespearean roles include Juliet, Viola, Olivia, Portia, Katherina and six Queens (Stratford Festival); Beatrice (Manitoba Theatre Centre); Hermione (Kansas City Repertory Theatre); and Cleopatra (Centaur Theatre). Most recently, Ms. McKenna starred in Orpheus Descending (Manitoba Theatre Centre/Mirvish Productions). She is the recipient of two Dora Awards (five nominations), a Joseph Jefferson Award nomination, a Genie Award and a Jessie Richardson Award.

 

Details PREVIEWS:      March 5-7, 2007   OPENS:            March 8-April 14, 2007    SCHEDULE:     Monday-Saturday 8:00 p.m., Wednesday matinee 1:30 p.m., Saturday matinee 2:00 p.m.   TICKETS:          $20-$55   LOCATION:       CanStage – Berkeley Street Theatre Downstairs, 26 Berkeley Street   BOX OFFICE:  Tickets* are available in person at the CanStage Customer Service Centres, 26 Berkeley St. or 27 Front St. E., by telephone at CanStage 416-368-3110 and online at www.canstage.com.   Rush seats are available for any performance one hour prior to show time. Rush seats are half the regular ticket price. For Monday-night performances only, pay-what-you-can tickets are available in person at the CanStage Box Office beginning at 10:00 a.m. on the day of the performance.   Special Group Rates Available. Contact Odette Nader in Group Sales at 416-367-8243 x477 or onader@canstage.com for more details.                   To enhance your theatre-going experience: CanStage Talk Backs – These informal post-performance question-and-answer periods give you an opportunity to meet the artists immediately following a production. There will be members of Autism organizations (i.e. Autism Speaks, Kerry's Place) at every Lucy Talk Back to answer questions from the audience. Contact Patty Jarvis at 416-367-8243 ext. 245 or pjarvis@canstage.com for details.