All posts by Megan Mooney

Megan loves being in the thick of all things theatre, but her ultimate goal is to promote theatre to the world of non-theatre people. It was the same when she was the theatre writer for blogTO, or the Fringe Correspondent for CBC Radio One‘s Here and Now, as it is as the founder of Mooney on Theatre. Her basic belief is that there is theatre/performance out there for everyone to love, they just need to find it. This is not to be confused with the idea that everyone should love theatre for theatre’s sake, in fact, as obsessed as she is with theatre, even *she* doesn’t love all types of theatre.

Old-ish – Toronto Fringe 2019 Press Release

From Press Release
“Riveting storyteller” Susan Freedman returns to the Fringe circuit with her latest one-woman original comedy, OLD-ish. Sprinkled with Freedman’s signature wry sense of humour and boundless enthusiasm for life, OLD-ish chronicles the aging process in all its technicolour glory. Don’t miss your chance to experience OLD-ish, playing July 3-13 at Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace as part of the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival. Tickets are available (beginning June 9) via fringetoronto.com, by phone at 416-966-1062, or at the door.

OLD-ish is about eyeing that final curtain with humour and honesty. OLD-ish’s outlook is optimistic; love, connections and laughter are the keys to aging happily and the best dodge against sickness, both physical and mental. Freedman is having a good time, and takes us along for the ride. But there it is — lurking around the corner. Is it near or is it still far in the future? Who knows? In the meantime, Freedman’s laughing and learning the whole way.

This is Susan Freedman‘s fifth one-woman Fringe comedy, toured on the Fringe circuit last summer to effervescent acclaim. Her four previous shows have had critically acclaimed sold-out runs across the Canadian Fringe circuit. Directed by accomplished actor/writer/director (and Susan’s son) Alan Silverman (Lucifer, Supernatural).


Venue:   Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace
16 Ryerson Ave, Toronto

Performances:  
July 3 @ 6:30pm
July 5 @ 3:00pm
July 7 @ 8:00pm
July 8 @ 3:45pm
July 9 @ 10:15pm
July 10 @ 4:45pm
July 12 @ 5:15pm
July 13 @ 1:00pm
**Please note variable curtain times.

Tickets:
$11 (+ $2 service fee) via fringetoronto.com , by phone at 416-966-1062, or at the door.
Tickets may also be purchased during the festival at POSTSCRIPT, (the patio at the Toronto Fringe), located in the Hockey Rink at 275 Bathurst Street.
Advance Tickets on credit card have an additional $3 per order processing fee.

Night Cows – Toronto Fringe 2019 Press Release

From Press Release

MoonCow Theatre Co. in association with The Toronto Fringe Festival presents

Night Cows

MoonCow Theatre Co.’s production blurs the line between human and animal, mother and daughter, sky and earth, inviting audiences into the milky ecstasy of liberation.

Night Cows begins at dusk. A baby cow, vachette, describes how her mother removes the shackles of the day and society, transforming into a sensual, grotesque, night cow. Her mother opens herself in two, she splits herself in four expanding into the milky way; her daughter riding her back as they go to wake the crows.

A movement poem; performer Eléonore Lamothe, who draws on Pochinko mask and clown technique,
invests her whole body and soul into our cow’s journey through the sky. “Hypnotizing narrative and expert choreography. Lamothe absolutely captivates her audience.” – The Link

Through the Montreal, arts interculturals (MAI) mentorship program, under the guidance of renowned director Micheline Chevalier, emerging Anishinaabe director Katey Lois Wattam, has developed a fantastical contemporary interpretation of Queer Quebecois Indigenous writer Jovette Marchessault’s, seminal yet underperformed text on the 40th anniversary of its inception. She presented her bold vision during a three-night run at the MAI in May 2018, at short feminist works festival Revolution They Wrote in Montreal this past March, and has been developing the work further for Toronto Fringe.

Bringing together Indigenous, Anglophone, and Francophone approaches, the intercultural production asks its audience to imagine: what do liberation and connection feel like today?
Wattam has earned praise for previous productions tackling difficult social issues, such as 2017’s Cherry Docs at Montreal Fringe, which earned her a Frankie nomination for Most Promising English Theatre Company. She is a recent alumni of Black Theatre Workshop’s Artist Mentorship program under the mentorship of Mike Payette. This latest work from the promising director is further proof of her ability to build immersive theatrical experiences with wide-ranging social and historical implications.

Night Cows is a story of Quebec’s past, present, and future; a fantasy built upon reality;
a flight you won’t soon forget.

MoonCow Theatre Co. in association with The Toronto Fringe Festival presents Night Cows
written by Jovette Marchessault
English translation by Yvonne M. Klien
directed by Katey Lois Wattam
starring Eléonore Lamothe
lighting design by Hannah Kirby

Opens July 3, 2019 runs to July 14, 2019 Venue #13 Factory Theatre Studio
Performances:
July 3, 8:15pm July 5, 2:00pm
July 7, 6:15pm
July 8, 4:00pm
July 11, 7:30pm
July 13, 10:15pm
July 14, 2:00pm
Please note that there is absolutely no latecomer seating.

Tickets ON SALE NOW:
Preview (July 3): $6:00
All other shows: $11.00
Venue #13 Factory Theatre Studio is located at 125 Bathurst St, M5V 2R2.

For more information about the show visit www.mooncow.co, our Facebook page.

Purchase online: fringetoronto.com
By Phone: 416-966-1062 In Person: During the festival at POSTSCRIPT, the patio at the Toronto Fringe. Located in the Hockey Rink at 275 Bathurst Street (Dundas + Bathurst).

Night Feed – Toronto Fringe 2019 Press Release

From Press Release

Canvas Sky Theatre in association with CLUNK Puppet Lab and the Toronto Fringe Festival presents:

NIGHT FEED

A PUPPET PLAY ABOUT MOTHERHOOD

July 5–14, 2019 at the Tarragon Theatre Extraspace

Fringe veterans-turned-mothers Sarah Joy Bennett and Ginette Mohr return to the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival with a team of renowned puppet artists, for their new piece NIGHT FEED, running at the Tarragon Theatre Extraspace, July 5–14. Featuring object puppetry, physical theatre, and the stunning design of CLUNK Puppet Lab, Night Feed is a hilarious look at the darker sides of becoming a parent.

As an exhausted new mother nurses in the middle of yet another night, her apartment comes to life; possessions possessed with the demons of fear, self-doubt and anxiety, a chorus of objects and body parts.

Created in collaboration with innovative puppet designer and director Shawna Reiter, as well as guest puppet director Mike Peterson (of Henson Company fame), Night Feed is a post-natal fever dream brought to life. The piece also features original sound and composition by David Atkinson (associate music director, Dear Evan Hansen).

After co-creating a string of Fringe hits, including The Last Man On Earth (Best In Fest, Edmonton Fringe Festival), Snack Music (★★★★★ – CBC), and Fish Face (NNNNN – NOW Magazine), Bennett and Mohr now turn their brand of imaginative storytelling to tackle motherhood, injecting a healthy dose of the bizarre and surreal to make sense of “the most meaningful time of your life”.

“I was not prepared for the loneliness that comes with first becoming a parent,” says creator Sarah Joy Bennett. “To desperately keep myself amused through the exhaustion and isolation, I imagined the dark voices in my head being voiced by objects in my apartment: an aerobics instructor breast pump, a guilt-tripping dust bunny, parenting books chanting spiritual platitudes… When the world shrinks to the size of your couch, you populate it with what’s at hand.”

Canvas Sky Theatre

in association with CLUNK Puppet Lab and The Toronto Fringe presents

NIGHT FEED

Written and Directed by Sarah Joy Bennett

Created in collaboration with Ginette Mohr and Shawna Reiter

Performed by Sarah Joy Bennett, Ginette Mohr and Corinne Murray

Puppet design, puppet direction, and set design by Shawna Reiter

Puppets by Shawna Reiter, Jonathan Davis and CLUNK Puppet Lab

Guest puppetry direction by Mike Petersen

Lighting design by Melissa Joakim

Stage managed by Stevie Baker

Music direction by David Atkinson

 

July 5–14, 2019

Tarragon Theatre Extraspace – 30 Bridgman Ave.

Performances:

July 5th, 8:30pm

July 6th, 7:00pm

July 8th, 6:00pm

July 10th, 2:30pm

July 12th, 6:00pm

July 13th, 10:45pm

July 14th, 2:30pm

 

Please note that there is absolutely no latecomer seating.

Tickets will be available as of June 6. Advance tickets – $11 (+ $2 service charge). Available online at fringetoronto.com or by phone at 416- 966-1062 (Subject to a $3 per order fee).

Tickets available will be available in person as of July 3 at the TORONTO FRINGE FESTIVAL Box Office located at POSTSCRIPT (in the hockey rink at 275 Bathurst Street) from noon – 10pm.

Mourning After the Night Before – Toronto Fringe 2019 Press Release

From Press Release

THERE’S A MONSTER IN THE WATER

Mourning After the Night Before at the Toronto Fringe Festival

Two drowned girls, a perilous love triangle, a mother-less child and a child-less mother. Chloë Whitehorn’s new play tackles the rippling impact of loss and the repercussions of drowning in every way a person can drown. Mourning After the Night Before premiered as a one act play at the Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival last spring where it was praised as “Beautifully and sensitively written, it’s haunting, darkly funny and mysterious.” (Cat McKim, Life With More Cowbell)

“It’s nothing, just a woman drowning.”

After 18 years of raising a child, Lucy (Mary Wall) doesn’t know who she is beyond the identity of “mother” to Pippa (Brianna Riché). When Drew (Dave Martin) moves them to a small coastal town to recover from a tragedy, they meet Everett (Jack Morton) and his “aunt” Fenwick (Loriel Medynski) who are also struggling with the tragic loss of Everett’s mother. There is an instant connection between Everett and both Lucy and Pippa.

“MILF. That’s a compliment right? But a cougar… A predator of male flesh, powerful and hungry. Well, god forbid an older woman appreciates the same embodiment of the male form that she did when she was younger.”

Producing partners Chloë Whitehorn and Cat Ratusny previously brought the BEST OF FRINGE hit Love, Virtually to the Toronto Fringe Festival. A mystery born of the depths of the water and the anguish of mental instability, directed by Heather Keith Mourning After the Night Before is a compelling new work delving into the trauma of suicide and the survival of those left behind.

“Water below and water from above and in the middle, that’s where all life is.”

Trigger warning: suicide and mental health

Mourning After the Night Before @ the Toronto Fringe Festival
Venue #8: Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse
Wednesday July 3 @ 9:45pm Friday July 5 @ 4:15pm Saturday July 6 @ 4:45pm Monday July 8 @ 7:45pm Thursday July 11 @ 2:45pm Saturday July 13 @ 10:15pm Sunday July 14 @ 5:45pm
Media members please note: absolutely no latecomer seating.
Tickets: $11 @ door, $13 in advance 416-966-1062 www.fringetoronto.com

Monica vs. The Internet – Toronto Fringe 2019 Press Release

From Press Release

RAGE SWEATER THEATRE PRODUCTIONS in association with the TORONTO FRINGE FESTIVAL

MONICA VS. THE INTERNET: TALES OF A SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR

One Filipina. Thousands of racist internet trolls. One deep
dive into the comment section.

This is Monica vs. The Internet.

“[Monica Ogden] is the worst looking asian I ever saw. Filipinas are supposed to look hot, not feminist.” – Troll

From award winning storyteller and accidental comedian Monica Ogden comes a show that sheds light on activism in the age of the internet, mixed-race identity, and why white feminism is like Lays chips.

Pick of the Fringe WINNER – Bravest Show Victoria Fringe Festival 2017

“ SHARP, INCISIVE, FUNNY, WELL-CONSTRUCTED, AND DEVASTATING ” – Janis La Couvée

An all new version of the sellout show Monica vs. The Internet: Tales of a Social Justice Warrior from KP Thomas ( 2016 Youth Poet Laureate of Victoria, 2015 Youth Slam Champion, Victoria African & Caribbean Cultural Society Recognition Award Recipient ) and Monica Ogden (Guest Panelist at Emerald City Comic Con , Geek Girl Con , Outstanding Ensemble Pick of the Fringe WINNER – Victoria Fringe Festival 2016).

From Lilang’s immigration (Grandma in Illocano), her mother’s rise to stardom as Miss Kapuskasing, to navigating racist internet comments as a feminist YouTuber, Monica finds herself in the reality of intergenerational trauma, and coming to terms with how it affects the lives of the Filipina women who raised her. Monica vs. The Internet is a multi-media storytelling/stand-up show that will leave you in tears, both the laughy kind and the heart ones.

After winning the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals lottery, Rage Sweater Theatre Productions, a company of artists who belong to queer, Black, Filipinx, non-binary, disabled, communities of colour, are embarking on a six city tour to share and lift up underrepresented voices. #FringeofColour #FilipinxFringe

RAGE SWEATER THEATRE PRODUCTIONS in association with the TORONTO FRINGE FESTIVAL

MONICA VS. THE INTERNET: TALES OF A SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR

Directed by KP Productions
Written and Performed by Monica Ogden
Tarragon Theatre Solo Room (30 Bridgman Ave, Toronto, Canada)
Wed July 3, 6:30pm, Fri July 5, 10:00pm, Sat July 6, 3:15pm, Sun July 7, 6:45pm, Tues July 9, 5:00pm, Thurs July 11, 8:00pm, Fri July 12, 5:15pm, Sat July 13, 1:30pm

No latecomer seating
Purchase tickets online: fringetoronto.com
By Phone: 416-966-1062
In Person: During the festival at POSTSCRIPT, the patio at the Toronto Fringe. Located in the Hockey
Rink at 275 Bathurst Street (Dundas + Bathurst).