Harriet’s House at Hart House Theatre-Pride Guide Out Soon

As an Affiliated Pride Event, Harriet's House will be featured in the 2010 Toronto Pride Guide which will be out very soon. Look for our beautiful ad designed by Lisa Rupchand and order your tickets to our re-scheduled shows on July 2, 3, 4, 2010 at 8 pm.

My reading of scenes from Harriet's House last week at the Representing Motherhood conference at Ryerson went very well and we had an interesting discussion on the challenges of adoptive mothering. I was asked for the name of a good resource on adoptive mothering. One of my favorite books is a memoir called Beyond Good Intentions: A Mother Reflects on Raising Internationally Adopted Children by Cheri Register. Cheri's book is published by Yeong & Yeong Book Company in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Exciting news this week: Harriet's House has been awarded a $700.00 grant from the 2010 Pride Access & Diversity Grants Program, which is supported by Pride Toronto and the Community One Foundatio.

Harriet's House has also found two patrons. Our deepest thanks and appreciation to Mark and Alix Feldman (actor Estée Feldman's parents) for the generous contribution to our show.

All the best,
Tara

New dates for Harriet's House at Hart House Theatre

Due to the closure of the University of Toronto during the G20 summit, Harriet's House will now be performed the following week at Hart House Theatre:

FRIDAY JULY 2, 2010, 8 PM
SATURDAY JULY 3, 2010, 8 PM
SUNDAY JULY 4, 2010, 8 PM

All tickets that have been sold will be exchanged for tickets on one of the new performance nights or refunded.

Contact uofttix.ca or 416-978-8849 for more information.

All the best,
Tara

G20 summit postpones Harriet's House

Last Friday, just as the long weekend was about to begin, the University of Toronto announced that is was going to close for several days during the G20 summit as a security precaution. The University is going to close during the run for Harriet's House at Hart House Theatre.

At our rehearsal yesterday, the artistic team decided that we should try to postpone our production at Hart House Theatre until the following weekend. As soon as folks are back at work on Tuesday, I will talk to Doug Floyd and see if this is possible. If not, we'll see if we can find another theatre that can host the show on the second Pride Weekend: July 2, 3, and 4.

As soon as we are able to reschedule the production I will post our new production dates.

All the best,
Tara

Representing Motherhood: Mothers in the Arts, Literature, Media and Popular Culture

Yesterday the Saturday Toronto Star published an article on the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (MIRCI), which is holding a conference entitled Representing Motherhood: 
Mothers in the Arts, Literature, Media and Popular Culture 
on May 21 - 22, 2010
at Ryerson University in Toronto. The conference of may be of interest for those readers who have been following the development of Harriet’s House
and are interested in issues of mothering and daughtering. I hope to be there myself. For more information go to http://www.motherhoodinitiative.org/representingmotherhood.html

All the best,
Tara

Last Minute Mother's Day's Gifts for Toronto Mothers

If you're looking for a unique gift for mothers in your life, tickets to Harriet's House, a play about mothering and daughtering in a contemporary Canadian family, may be just for the gift you are looking for!

WHAT: Harriet's House
WHEN: June 24, 25, and 26, 2010, 8 PM
WHERE: Hart House Theatre, University of Toronto
HOW MUCH: $18.00 a ticket

THE PLAY:
In this contemporary drama a mother and her three daughters negotiate the challenges and politics of international adoption in a same-sex family. Harriet reluctantly gives 17-year old Luísa permission to return to the Catholic orphanage in Bogotá where she spent three years of her childhood. But when she falls seriously ill, Harriet travels to Bogotá with her new partner Marty to bring Luísa home.

TICKETS: www.utofttix.ca

Happy Mother's Day.

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet's House 15: Our First Rehearsal

The entire cast and artistic team met this week for our first rehearsal of Harriet's House. Director Jocelyn Wickett took us through a reading of the script, a preliminary discussion of how each of the team members were responding to the script, and then did some team building and character building activities. It was fascinating for me as a playwright to sit and listen to the ways the actors described their characters' objectives in the play. Some were similar to the objectives I had in mind when I wrote the play, and some were articulated just a little differently than I would have articulated them and in their difference, layered the objectives in very interesting ways. It was also interesting to hear how each of the actors talked about what was standing in the way of their objectives.

While the cast continues rehearsing the design team is busy creating the set, costumes and lighting. A particular design challenge for set designer Esther Kim and lighting designer Wade Gamble is bringing the scenes staged in Colombia to life on the apron of the stage.

This week our application to become an official Affiliated Event with Toronto Pride was accepted which is great news for the production. Being part of a cultural festival will help get the word about Harriet's House out in new ways. Connected to our desire to to be part of the Toronto Pride Festival is our decision to advertise in the Pride Guide which will come out in early June. Like most independent theatres, Gailey Road had to make some careful decisions about where to put its advertising dollars for Harriet's House. Spending money on an ad in the Pride Guide, which is included in one of the June editions of Now Magazine, was a way to reach out to potential audience members who are looking for ways to celebrate Pride this year. We want people to celebrate Pride with us, at Harriet's House.

This coming week graphic designer Lisa Rupchand, photographer Jake Goldstein and I will be working to complete the press kits for Harriet's House and sending them off to various newspapers, radio stations, and blog sites in town. Since Harriet's House is only running for three performances, pre-peformance publicity will be very important to us.

If you have any suggestions about where we might send our e-press kits, I'd be delighted to hear from you.

All the best,
Tara

Producing Harriet's House 14: We found Harriet!

This week we found the actor to play the lead role of Harriet. Her name is Joanne Latimer and she joins five other terrific women and young women who will perform in our production of Harriet's House this coming June. Our cast and artistic team are:

Harriet: Joanne Latimer
Luísa: Supinder Wraich
Ana: Rebecca Applebaum
Anita: Jorie Morrow
Marty: Julie Burris
Clare: Estée Feldman

Producer: Tara Goldstein
Assistant Producer: Monica Nunes
Production Manager: Gillian Lewis
Stage Manager: Tara Mohan

Graphic Designer: Lisa Rupchand
Photography: Jake Goldstein
Lighting Designer: Wade Gamble
Production Designer: Esther Kim
Sound Designer: Dan Parker

We are thrilled that casting is now complete. Rehearsals begin this week.

All the best,
Tara