The Winnipeg and National Wrecking Ball presents...
Election ’08: Green Plan vs. Rain Man
Or: Harper Hates Minorities
Election ’08: Green Plan vs. Rain Man
Or: Harper Hates Minorities
Winnipeg and National Wrecking Ball Media Contact:
Michael Rubenfeld, 416-830-2559, rubenfeld@yahoo.com
The writ has been dropped, and, too lazy to bend down and pick it up, our Prime Minister has decided to call an election. And so, The Wrecking Ball swings into action to bring you a one-night-only event (Monday, October 6, 2008) of bracing political theatre from some of the county’s hottest artists!
Come witness the throw-down between Harper’s haircut and Dion’s personality-like public interface. Come find out why Jack Layton’s moustache and Elizabeth May have never been seen in the same room. Come and thrill to the sounds of the third round of parliamentary musical chairs in four years. Most of all, come and find out why in this election the stakes are higher and the consequences more fraught than ever before.
Montreal, meet Victoria; Winnipeg, meet Halifax.
Artist, meet artist. Let the coalitioning commence!
Artist, meet artist. Let the coalitioning commence!
The Wrecking Ball is an event of fresh and steaming new political theatre that has been matching playwrights and performers with world events for the past five years. And, for the first time (and not a moment too soon), Winnipeg joins a single night of Wrecking Balls swinging right across the nation!
Wrecking Ball events are scheduled to happen on the same night across the country in cities (or 'niches', as Harper might say) from Halifax all the way to Victoria. They will be linked up through the most sophisticated (that is to say, cheapest) technological means available, which will create a tide of political inspiration and action from coast to coast to coast to coast to coast! To coast!
Cities include Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Halifax, where playwrights will all face the only two Wrecking Ball rules:
1) PLAYS MUST BE BASED ON CURRENT WORLD EVENTS--RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW.
2) PLAYS MUST BE WRITTEN IN ONE WEEK. THEN REHEARSED BRIEFLY AND THROWN RAW BEFORE A HUNGRY AUDIENCE.
A hand-picked coterie of Canadian playwrights will create brief, explosive plays inspired by the election: the candidates, their policies, and which party hasn’t bought enough carbon offsets for their belching campaign buses and piggish jets. The playwrights have complete free rein over what they choose to write – The Wrecking Ball’s only goal is to challenge and provoke. Each city will present plays from local artists as well as those from their national brethren. Or sisteren. And, all the plays will be no more than a week old, so you know the theatre’s gonna smell fresh!
Proceeds from these PWYC events will support the Department of Culture. Check them out (or oot, as we say in this country) at www.departmentofculture.ca.
At the Wrecking Ball Nearest You...
The Winnipeg event includes plays by Judith Thompson, members of The Royal Liechtenstein Theatre Company , Ellen Peterson, and Michael Nathanson. Check it out on Monday, October 6, 2008 at the Prairie Theatre Exchange’s Colin Jackson Studio (Unit Y300 – 393 Portage Avenue) at 8:00 p.m. PWYC.
About The Wrecking Ball
The Wrecking Ball was founded in Toronto in November 2004 to address a nagging imbalance: too much theatre in our politics, not enough politics in our theatre. There have been six Wrecking Balls cabarets to date, all of which sold out, proving there is an undeniable appetite for politically charged work in this fine land!
Past writers for The Wrecking Ball include: Jason Sherman, Judith Thompson, Karen Hines, Norm Foster, David Young, Michael Healey, Morwyn Brebner, Daniel MacIvor, Hannah Moscovitch, Andrew Moodie, Claudia Dey, Morris Panych, d’bi.young, Linda Griffiths, and many others. COLDAX, a series of political play readings at the Tarragon in the spring of 2004 was such a hit that The Wrecking Ball presented The Silencing of Rachel Corrie at the Tarragon’s Spring Arts Fair in 2005. Check out the website for more information about political theatre throughout the world: www.thewreckingball.ca.
The Winnipeg Wrecking Ball: Election ‘08 is ONE NIGHT ONLY PERFORMANCE
Join us on Monday, October 6, 2008
Box Office opens at 7:00pm
Show starts at 8:00pm
Prairie Theatre Exchange, Colin Jackson Studio
Unit Y300 – 393 Portage Avenue
3rd Floor, Portage Place
Prices: Pay what you can (no advanced sales)
All proceeds will go to the www.departmentofculture.ca
Winnipeg and National Wrecking Ball Media Contact:
Michael Rubenfeld, 416-830-2559, rubenfeld@yahoo.com
For information about other Department of Culture (Winnipeg) events, contact:
Department of Culture (Winnipeg)
Milena Placentile, departmentofculture.winnipeg@gmail.com
