Announcing our 23.24 Programming
July 27, 2023
asses.masses
By Patrick Blenkarn & Milton Lim Presented by The Theatre Centre. September 22-24, 2023
Media Invited Opening Night: September 22, 2023
“asses.masses has an eminently artistic value through which the notion of theatricality, that of performer, that of dramatic text and that of staging is redefined”
— Federico Irazábel, Artistic Director, Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires (FIBA)
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Supported by the National Arts Centre of Canada’s National Creators Fund
work.txt
By Nathan Ellis Presented by The Theatre Centre. September 27-29, 2023
Media Invited Opening Night: September 27, 2023
★★★★★
The Guardian
★★★★★
Edinburgh Guide
★★★★★
“…poignant, quietly apocalyptic, and full of a sense of the need to resist the forces that are transforming us all into mere electronic cogs in the machine.”
— Joyce McMillan, The Scottsman
In 23.24 fall, The Theatre Centre invites the audience to come together and step into the action
The Theatre Centre announces its 23.24 Fall/Winter Programming, presenting two hugely acclaimed experimental productions work.txt and asses.masses — where audiences are invited to “play”: participating, gaming, and/or actively observing.
asses.masses (Vancouver) by Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim is a 7-hour story-based video game experience that redefines the boundaries of live performance. Each night audiences follow the epic journey of a herd of unemployed asses trying to get their jobs back in a world set on forgetting them.
Brave spectators take turns stepping forward from the crowd to seize the means of production (a video game controller) and become the player. There are no instructions. It is up to both the audience and their self-elected leaders to finish the game—to discover the space between the work that defines us and the play that frees us.
asses.masses has held workshop presentations in Toronto during their Explorations Residency (2021) and Hybrid by Design Festival (2022). The project is a recipient of the prestigious National Creation Fund from the National Arts Centre, awarded to projects which are artistically ambitious, compelling, and have a potential for international impact. asses.masses recently toured to Buenos Aires and Mexico City, and is heading towards a national tour in 2024.
work.txt by Nathan Ellis (UK) designs a welcoming space for collectively processing “working” in capitalist metropolitan cities. There are building blocks, reflections, observations and tasks — the only thing missing here is the labour, and this is where the audiences are invited to step in.
Over the 60 minute duration of the show, audiences will follow prompts from the screen, working and laughing together towards building a shared experience.
Clever, joyful, and surprisingly beautiful— this production has received rave reviews from journals like The Guardian, The Scottsman, Edinburgh Guide (Best of Theatre of the Festival by The Skinny, and Fest Magazine), and is embarking on an international tour, heading to 6+ countries.
“I’m thrilled to bring these two shows that deeply consider live arts’ offer to the live audiences: what can be achieved with a group of people who have agreed to be together, at a specific time and place, for a specific purpose?” says Artistic Director Aislinn Rose.
“Both works in very different ways discuss complex and timely topics around togetherness and labour, but they do so in this un-scary and welcoming way. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not often a big fan of audience participation, but these artists have thought so deeply about the invitations they are making to their audiences, that I have felt compelled to say yes. The consequence? Joy.”
THOTS & PRAYERS, produced by comedian Ajahnis Charley in association with The Theatre Centre. A solo sketch comedy show about the wicked ways white gays rule over queer culture— a deceased twink relives the gayest age, 22, to manufacture new moments and prove that he deserves to be let into Gay Heaven. Running for 4 shows only, September 8 – 9, 2023.
The Theatre Centre’s 23.24 Programming Year also brings back the celebrated Comedy is Art festival, curated by Associate Artistic Director liza paul. The Theatre Centre recognizes comedy as an undersupported art form, and our annual festival offers artists the space, time, resources, platform and funding that comedy deserves. Running from October 24 to 28, the festival will feature shows by comedian, actor, writer and musician Al Val, the award-winning, all-Filipina Tita Collective of Alia Rasul, Belinda Corpuz, Ann Paula Bautista, Maricris Rivera, and Ellie Posadas, and MUSIC THEN COMEDY, an improvised comedy inspired by live music from acclaimed comedian & director Kirsten Rasmussen (The Second City, Schitt’s Creek) featuring Coko Galore, Brandon Hackett, Monica Garrido, Leigh Cameron, Ben Sosa-Wright, and Kirsten Rasmussen, with musician Lane Webber.
As well, Residency artists Prince Amponsa & Viktor Likawski, Brandon Ash-Mohammed, Nehal El-Hadi, daniel jelani ellis, Stewart Legere, PJ Prudat & Jonathan Seinen continue their work-in-development. Residency is a structured multi year program providing artists with the necessary support to craft their ideas into finished works. The Theatre Centre Programs its year around the Residency program and the needs of Residency artists. This unique model has produced some of the most compelling Canadian works — most recently, Loss by Ian Kamau has completed its nine-year progress towards a successful World Premiere at The Luminato Festival in June 2023.
Visitors can enjoy the Pollinator Garden around the building, filled with native pollinator plants (Funded by LiveGreenTO, City of Toronto, and cared for by our volunteers, led by volunteer Randy Goldman).
The Theatre Centre continues to be an important cultural venue as rental partners & long term relationship (LTR) partners return to our space. This summer, we welcome back our friends at the Summerworks Festival, Nova Dance, Why Not Theatre, BoucharDanse, Necessary Angel Theatre Company, Aluna Theatre and Shakespeare BASH’d.
Tickets are now on sale for work.txt and asses.masses, with details available at TheatreCentre.org. Tickets to asses.masses & work.txt are Pay-What-You-Can between $15, $30, $45, $60, and can be purchased online or by calling The Theatre Centre box office at 416-538-0988.
For Media Requests related to asses.masses & work.txt:
Emily Jung, Director of Communications, The Theatre Centre.
[email protected] / 416-538-9203
For Media Requests related to Comedy is Art.:
Katie Saunoris, KSPR, [email protected]
Media Gallery – Comedy is Art 2023
23.24 Fall/Winter Events happening at The Theatre Centre
The Theatre Centre Programs are highlighted in yellow
August, 2023
Summerworks Festival (August 3 — 13) SummerWorks expands the possibilities of performance with their 33rd annual Festival, featuring diverse encounters and curious collaborations with artists and creative collaborators from across Canada, and around the world. This year’s Festival programming offers a snapshot of the future of contemporary performance, with full presentations of new work alongside works in crucial stages of development, offering audiences a dynamic choice in how they engage with the Festival.
Details at http://summerworks.ca/summerworks-2023/
DeepEnd Week (August 15 — 19) Nova Dance presents Deep EndWeek: Rest and Reflection, an opportunity for artists to come together and explore various forms of rest and engage in intentional reflection on the recent past.
Details at https://www.novadance.ca
September, 2023
THOTS & PRAYERS (September 8 — 9)
by Ajahnis Charley in association with The Theatre Centre
A solo sketch comedy show about the wicked ways white gays rule over queer culture— a deceased twink relives the gayest age, 22, to manufacture new moments and prove that he deserves to be let into Gay Heaven. Tickets and details coming soon.
work.txt (September 27 — 29th)
by Nathan Ellis Presented by The Theatre Centre
Media Invited Opening Night: September 27th 2023
work.txt designs a welcoming space where people can collectively process “working” in capitalist metropolitan cities. There are building blocks, reflections, observations and tasks — the only thing missing here is the labour, and this is where the audiences are invited to step in.
Over the 60 minute duration of the show, audiences will follow prompts from the screen, working and laughing together towards building a shared experience.
Clever, joyful, and surprisingly beautiful. Do you hate your job? Come work with us.
asses.masses (September 22 — 24 )
by Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim Presented by The Theatre Centre
Media Invited Opening Night: September 22, 2023
Animal Farm meets Aesop’s Fables retold by Franz Kafka, Karl Marx, and Sonic the Hedgehog.
The epic 7-hour story based video game experience asses.masses pushes the boundaries of live performance, as the audiences follow a community of donkeys in their quest to take their jobs back from human industrialization of their farms and mines.
Brave spectators take turns stepping forward from the herd to seize the means of production and become the player. It is up to the audiences and their self elected leaders to make decisions — collectively discovering the space between the work that defines us, and the play that frees us.
October 2023
Comedy is Art. (October 24 — 28th)
Curated by liza paul
The Theatre Centre’s 23.24 Programming Year also brings back the celebrated Comedy is Art festival, curated by Associate Artistic Director liza paul. Running from October 24 to 28, the festival will feature shows by comedian, actor, writer and musician Al Val, the award-winning, all-Filipina Tita Collective of Alia Rasul, Belinda Corpuz, Ann Paula Bautista, Maricris Rivera, and Ellie Posadas, and MUSIC THEN COMEDY, an improvised comedy inspired by live music from acclaimed comedian & director Kirsten Rasmussen (The Second City, Schitt’s Creek) featuring Coko Galore, Brandon Hackett, Monica Garrido, Leigh Cameron, Ben Sosa-Wright, and Kirsten Rasmussen, with musician Lane Webber.
The Theatre Centre recognizes comedy as an undersupported art form, and our annual festival offers artists the space, time, resources, platform and funding that comedy deserves. Join us to declare: Comedy is Art! Additional artists and tickets on sale date to be announced.
trés loin (Oct 11 – 15): BoucharDanse premieres très loin, which marries dance, visual art, music and sound to explore dissociation, roads to recovery from childhood trauma and the search for resilience. Details to come.
November 2023
Letters From Max: a ritual by Sarah Ruhl and Max Ritvo (November 10 to December 3). Necessary Angel Theatre Company will produce the Canadian Premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s new play, a stunning New York Times Critic’s Pick that brings to life the profound connection and friendship between playwright and MacArthur Fellow Sarah Ruhl, and her student, poet Max Ritvo. Letters From Max: a ritual will be directed by Necessary Angel Artistic Director Alan Dilworth. Details at NecessaryAngel.com
Why Not Theatre: New Work In-Development exploring the climate crisis.
December 2023
The Theatre Centre’s Residency Showing and Holiday Party (details to come)
January 2024
Shakespeare Bash’d: Shakespeare BASH’d returns to The Theatre Centre Incubator, after their successful run of The Tragedy of King Lear last winter. They will be doing a rarely produced play, to be announced this fall, that will be given the bare bones BASH’d treatment. Details to come.
On the Other Side of the Sea, A Fisherman, a Civil servant, a beach, six days…oh, and a DOG! Aluna Theatre presents On the Other Side of the Sea, winner of the Casa of the Américas literary award for drama by Salvadorian playwright and poet, Jorgelina Cerritos under the direction of Soheil Parsa, with Beatriz Pizano and Carlos Gonzalez-Vio and scenography by Trevor Schwellnus. In this one act play Jorgelina Cerritos examines identity, not as a cultural construct, but rather as an existential angst. Details to come.
About asses.masses creators Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim
Patrick Blenkarn (co-creator) is an interdisciplinary artist and director of performance. His recent works feature sustained investigations into the history and function of the book, the politics and imperialism of the English language, and critiques of nationalism. His projects have recently been featured in film festivals, galleries, and performance festivals, including Risk/Reward (Portland), SummerWorks (Toronto), rEvolver (Vancouver), the Festival of Recorded Movement (Vancouver), and RISER Project (Toronto). Patrick has a degree in philosophy, theatre, and film from the University of King’s College and an MFA in interdisciplinary art from Simon Fraser University. He is the co-creator of culturecapital and the lead archivist of videocan, a video archive of Canadian performance.patrickblenkarn.com
Milton Lim (co-creator) is a Vancouver-based artist whose output spans performance, new media, dance, installation, and video art. His work is engaged with global politics, the cataloguing/archiving/indexing of public data, and resource allocation. These thematic interests are bolstered by a continued interest in game mechanics, typography architecture, and high-frequency content. He holds a BFA (Hons.) in theatre performance from Simon Fraser University. He is Co-Artistic Director of Hong Kong Exile, an Artistic Associate with Theatre Conspiracy, the recipient of the 2016 Ray Michal Prize for Outstanding Body of Work, a previous Artist-in-Residence with the PuSh Festival (2016 – 2018), one of the co-creators behind the performing arts economy trading card game culturecapital, and a key archivist behind videocan. miltonlim.com
About work.txt creator Nathan Ellis
Nathan Ellis (he/him) is a writer for stage and screen. After studying English at Oxford, he started writing as the Alchymy writer-in-residence at the North Wall in Oxford, with a play directed by Iqbal Khan. He was then Embassy Scholar on the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama Scriptwriting Masters, graduating with Distinction. While on his Masters, he wrote his first play No One Is Coming to Save You, which opened in Edinburgh in 2018. This play was called a ‘blazing debut’ in The Guardian and went on a national tour in 2019. In 2019, he made work.txt, a play with no actors, at the Yard Theatre as part of their Live Drafts programme of new work. This opened at the Soho Theatre in 2022. It received four stars in The Guardian and The Scotsman, as well as an OFFIE nomination. He is a current member of the BBC Writersroom Drama Room. He is represented by Giles Smart at United Agents and currently based between London and Berlin.
About Comedy is Art curator liza paul
liza paul is a writer, curator, artistic leader, director and producer who loves laughter, life, music, family, stories, all things bashment, impromptu dancehall-flavoured a cappella street jams, and pum-related non sequiturs. she has trained at the second city’s improv conservatory and was selected to join their 2017 bob curry fellowship program. liza is the co-creator of pomme is french for apple, which earned best of fringe toronto in 2012 and toured internationally to the edinburgh fringe and new york city’s nuyorican poets cafe and joe’s pub at the public theater in manhattan. she has worked extensively in theatre and radio with ciut 89.5 fm, soulpepper theatre company, anitafrika! dub theatre, bCurrent, and the watah theatre. liza writes for television (from ontario, with love (tvo); big brother canada (global)); directed sketch comedy show don valley girls for the 2022 riser festival and is the creative producer for indie production company paul watson productions inc. she is currently the associate artistic director at the theatre centre where she curates the comedy is art festival and is working to continue programming as many comedy shows by women of colour as possible. liza also co-directed, co-imagined, co-produced (paul watson productions and why not theatre) and performed MASHUP PON DI ROAD by bahia watson, a travelling bashment circus variety show that hit the streets of toronto for its world premiere in little jamaica july 2022.
About LTR
LTR (Long Term Relationship) is a long-term partnership that invites non-venued companies to make The Theatre Centre their home for several years. The Theatre Centre provides companies with the space to create and produce, and – vitally – the stability to make long-term strategic decisions. After finding a permanent home in 2014 The Theatre Centre wanted to open the space to as many artists as we could.
Our Café/Bar
The Theatre Centre Café/Bar has recently reopened, re-activating the beloved community hub. With the reopening The Theatre Centre also welcomed Baker-in-Residence Akash Swar, who has been designing a delicious rotating menu of scones, treats, and sandwiches.
The Theatre Centre Café/Bar is open daily (hours below), and opens until late on show days.
Monday – Friday 8:30am-6pm
Saturdays – 9am-6pm
Sundays – 10am-6pm
Thank you
Thank you to the Theatre Centre’s Major Programming Supporters: Toronto Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, The Government of Canada, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Toronto Arts Foundation, BMO Financial, Metcalf Foundation, The Slaight Family Foundation, Kingfisher Foundation, The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation.
About The Theatre Centre
The Theatre Centre is a nationally recognized live-arts incubator and community hub. Our mission is to offer a home for creative, cultural and social interactions to invent the future.
We make work that spans disciplines and genres; work that pushes the boundaries of what is considered “art”. Our programming and our role as a community space are inextricably linked. Art is not made in a silo: it is connected to the world around it.