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Sat May 23, 2009 at 8 pm

 

Theatre +...
a theatrical double-bill
based on
two fascinating texts

 

Les Manouches presents
“One Night, the Rain”

Artword Theatre presents
“Langston Hughes vs Joe McCarthy”

  All tickets $10 at the door
For info, call Artword's office 905-548-0341
performed at The Pearl Company, 16 Steven St, Hamilton

Les Manouches presents
"One Night, the Rain" a theatrical adaptation of the short story "Maria dos Prazeres" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, created and performed by director/performer Aktina Stathaki and pianist/composer Jerome Simeon, with chorus performed by members of the Artword Theatre Ensemble (Paula Grove, Valeri Kay and Tanis MacArthur)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, (1928- ) a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. In 1982, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Les Manouches (Aktina Stathaki and Jerome Simeon) was formed in 2008 to create original performance from short stories, testimonies, poetry, and scientific texts. They explore the techniques of storytelling and theatre, combined with dance, improvisation, and live music. Aktina explains their approach: "We represent our multicultural environment, the languages we speak, our cultural backgrounds, our approach to the arts. We want to create cross-culturally, with texts that represent aesthetic styles and thematic concerns from the whole world."

Aktina Stathaki has worked as an actress with the National Theatre of Greece (where she also studied acting). In Toronto she performed in "Market of Tales", an Artword Theatre and AfriCan Theatre Ensemble production, and has worked with trey anthony productions. For the Graduate Centre for Study of Drama at University of Toronto, she has directed Lorca's "The Love of Don Perlimplin and Belisa in the Garden" and "The Song of Arete", a devised performance based on a Greek folk poem. Jerome Simeon is a pianist and composer. He has worked as a free-lance musician in his hometown Paris and in New York where he currently lives.

The adaptation by Les Manouches of the Marquez story includes additional texts by poets such as Cavafy.

 

Artword Theatre presents:
"Langston Hughes vs. Joe McCarthy" Is poetry subversive? In 1953 U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy thought so.

A dramatic reading that weaves testimony from the McCarthy Committee hearing with poems by Langston Hughes, renowned poet of the Harlem Renaissance, assembled and directed by Ronald Weihs, performed by Donald Carr and Matthew Green, and members of the Artword Theatre Ensemble (Paula Grove, Valeri Kay and Tanis MacArthur)

Langston Hughes (1902-1967), born in Joplin Missouri, was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance, the flowering of African American cultural and intellectual life during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1953, he was called before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations led by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Artword Theatre has just completed its first season in Hamilton (after a 12-year history of making theatre in Toronto). The season included four original plays: You Are What You Do (a musical play abour working people), Rascals and Numskulls (a new play about Hamilton's first white settler UEL Robert Land), Sunamabeach (a new show by Charly Chiarelli), and Tobacco Troubadour (a new play based on the songs of J.P. Riemens with script by Ronald Weihs), soon to go on the road to tobacco country just west of Hamilton. And we're planning our 2009-2010 Hamilton season. Artword is also developing a company of Hamilton-based actors, the Artword Theatre Ensemble, that includes Paula Grove, Valeri Kay, Tanis MacArthur, Gordon Odegaard, Nea Reid and Ryan Sero.

Donald Carr is an actor, dancer and storyteller from Toronto. In 2004 he played the lead role in Artword Theatre and AfriCan Theatre Ensemble's production of Wole Soyinka's "Death and the King's Horseman". His show "The Full Nelson" was directed by Ronald Weihs in 2005.

Matthew Green of Hamilton is making his Artword Theatre debut.

This double-bill has been coordinated by Artword Theatre, with lighting and stage management by Judith Sandiford.

at The Pearl Company, 16 Steven Street, Hamilton $10. Call 905-548-0341.

For more information about The Pearl Company, visit www.thepearlcompany.ca.