Friday, July 30, 2010

Harriet's House: Staged Reading at LeVack Block Restaurant: August 10, 2010

Gailey Road Productions will remount Harriet’s House in conjunction with the Toronto Queer West Arts Festival on August 10, 2010 at LeVack Block Restaurant in Toronto.

Harriet’s House at the Queer West Arts Festival (queerwest.org/queerwestfest.php) follows the recent premiere of the production which took place at Hart House Theatre in July during the 30th Toronto Pride Festival. Over its three-performance run in July, Harriet’s House drew an appreciative audience of 450, was named a “Best Bet” by Eye Weekly, and was featured in an article by Jon Kaplan in Now Magazine.

If you missed Gailey Road's production of Harriet's House earlier this month, here's an opportunity to hear the play read by the same cast who performed the show at Hart House Theatre.

In telling the stories of the six women in Harriet’s House, played by a cross generational and cross cultural “family” of Toronto theatre artists, audiences will be called to question and reflect upon the complexities of identity, the roles of mother, daughter, sister, and partner, and what it means to be different.

Date & Time:
August 10 at 8 pm

Venue:
LeVack Block
88 Ossington Avenue (Dinner at LeVack Block available from 5:30-8:00)Ticket Information:

Admission:
$5.00
Tickets will be available at the door.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Two upcoming conferences for women playwrights

There are two upcoming conferences which will be of interest to women playwrights.

The first is the Women's Playwright International Conference which is going to be held in Stockholm, Sweden in August 2012.

The host of WPIC 2012 is Riksteatern (Sweden’s National Theatre).
The dates of the conference are August 15-21, 2012.
The theme of the conference is The Democratic Stage.

Applications will be available in September 2010 on the Riksteatern WPIC website:
www.riksteatern.se/wpic

For more information you can e-mail: wpic@rksteatern.se


The second conference is called TED Women which is going to be held in Washington, DC, USA in December 2010
.
The conference focuses on sharing ideas of women and girls from all over the world, including theatre artists.

For more information go to the TED website:
http://conferences.ted.com/TEDWomen/program/

All the best,
Tara

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Harriet's House: After the show is over

In the week since Harriet's House was performed at Hart House Theatre, the artistic team has been busy with taking stock on what worked to make the production successful and what could be done differently next time.

In the week since Harriet's House was performed I also began to send the play out to other theatres who might be interested in co-producing a second production of the play with Gailey Road Productions. Over the last year or so, I've been collecting names of Canadian and American theatres who produce women-centred and LGBTQ work. Including the NOW Magazine profile of the play and the comments made by audience members who attended the premiere of the play at Hart House Theatre, I sent out five letters of inquiry to five different theatres.

Finally, director Jocelyn Wickett and I met with Jaclyn Isen of Toronto's Queer West Arts Festival and LeVack Block restaurant in Little Italiy this week to discuss the possibility of producing a reading of Harriet's House in the festival (http://queerwest.org/queerwestfest_official_events.php). The Festival will take place from August 7-15, 2010.

Jocelyn and I are happy to announce that a reading of Harriet's House with the Hart House Theatre cast will take place on August 10, 2010 at 8 pm in the back room of LeVack Block. Tickets will be about $5.00 and all proceeds will go to the cast and director. Levack Block will be serving dinner that night so folks going to the reading can arrive early, have dinner, and then make their way to the reading at 8:00 pm.

LeVack Block is located at 88 Ossington Avenue between Dundas and Queen.

All the best,
Tara

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Harriet's House: Audience Response

Harriet’s House was performed this past weekend and drew 450 people over its three-run performance. The response we got back from the audience was warm, supportive and exciting. We had an standing ovation on Friday night and two curtain calls on Sunday night. People were engaged by the story, resonated with the characters' experiences and wanted to know what happens to Harriet's family . They were also impressed by the cast's performances Here's a sample of what our audience wrote in our guest book:

"Excellent performance by all!"

"Very moving story."

"Lovely to see a play with an all female cast!"

"Hope to see many more."

I want to thank all the members of the artistic team for their commitment to the production and their professionalism.

A special thank you needs to go out Jocelyn Wickett whose directorial vision and work with the actors was a major force behind the warmth and heart of Harriet’s House.

A second special thank you needs to go out to Louise Cowin who hosted our opening night reception in the glamorous Hart House Theatre lobby. The reception gave us all an opportunity to connect with our audience and to celebrate our accomplishment with them.

A third special thank you goes out to Carl Goldstein who became the publicist of Harriet’s House at the end of June and helped Monica Nunes and I promote our production in ways we hadn't thought of before.

Finally, a fourth special thank goes out to Mark and Alix Feldman and Richard Goldstein for their generous contributions to this production of Harriet’s House.

It takes many, many people to mount a play and Gailey Road Productions has been blessed with supporters.

All the best,
Tara

Friday, July 2, 2010

Harriet's House Opens Tonight

After weeks of auditions, rehearsals, rescheduling due to the G20, Harriet's House is set to open tonight! The play has received coverage in NOW Magazine from Jon Kaplan and was selected as one of EYE Weekly's Best Bets for this weekend.

Check out:

http://www.nowtoronto.com/stage/story.cfm?content=175732

And:

http://www.eyeweekly.com/bestbets/article/96215

In celebration of Pride Weekend, folks wanting to see Harriet's House this weekend can quote the promotion code PRIDE and buy their tickets for $10.00. Promotion code tickets are available by phone or in-person at the Hart House box office only. There are plenty of tickets left for all three performances at Hart House Theatre:

FRIDAY JULY 2, 8 PM (opening reception)
SATURDAY JULY 3, 8 PM (talk back night)
SUNDAY JULY 4, 8 PM

The show is only 70 minutes long so you can come to the show and continue to celebrate Pride Weekend afterwards.

To purchase tickets on-line go to: www.uofttix.ca
To purchase tickets by phone call: 416-978-8849

All the best,
Tara