Curtain call: A month-by-month peek at Winnipeg’s upcoming theatre season Save the dates By: Randall King Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Sep. 28, 2018

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This article was published 28/09/2018 (2317 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Theatre is transitory. Once you see it, it is gone forever, save for the memories and feelings it provokes.

The upcoming 2018-19 theatre season in Winnipeg is a transition year, thanks to the exit of two important artistic directors, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre kingpin Steven Schipper and Prairie Theatre Exchange’s Robert Metcalfe.

Metcalfe is replaced by Thomas Morgan Jones, who collaborated with Metcalfe to program PTE’s new season. Schipper stays on as A.D. until May 2019 and his replacement at Royal MTC will be announced soon.

The legacy of those two artistic directors cast a long shadow over the new season. In the meantime, the theatre year sees better representation of women, as directors, as playwrights (both PTE and Royal MTC kick off with shows scripted by female playwrights) and as central characters, ranging from the Dashwood sisters of Royal MTC’s Sense and Sensibility, to the famed sex therapist of Becoming Dr. Ruth at Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, to the magical juvenile heroine of Royal MTC’s musical offering Matilda.

Mark down your calendars. Here’s how the year plays out:

OCTOBER

Prairie Nurse (Oct. 3-21, Prairie Theatre Exchange)

Winnipeg has the largest Filipino population (by percentage) in Canada, and in its first production of the year, PTE offers a reason for them — and everyone else — to catch a prairie-specific story of the immigrant’s experience in this play by Marie Beath Badian, based on the experiences of her own mother. It focuses on Penny and Puring, two young women who arrive from the Philippines in 1969 to take a two-year contract as nurses in a small Saskatchewan town.

Comet in Moominland (Oct. 12-29, Manitoba Theatre for Young People)

Leslee Silverman, the founding artistic director at the MTYP and an important woman in Winnipeg’s theatre scene, returns to the house she built at The Forks to direct a production of the signature MTYP production of this adaptation of a children’s book by Tove Jansson. Presented on intricate table-top sets with toy-sized characters, it’s a work that puts the “play” in play.

Sense and Sensibility (Oct. 18 to Nov. 10, Royal MTC Mainstage)

Winnipeg playwright Ellen Peterson was commissioned by Royal MTC to adapt Jane Austen’s beloved novel of the Dashwood sisters and their struggle to find love and happiness in the male-centred England of the early 19th century.

Becoming Dr. Ruth (Oct. 27 to Nov. 4, Winnipeg Jewish Theatre)

For WJT artistic director Ari Weinberg, no casting process was required for this one-woman show about Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the famed sex therapist who delighted radio and TV audiences with her frank, no-nonsense advice. The play by Mark St. Germain examines the shocking back story of the diminutive Westheimer, a child of the Kindertransport, a Holocaust survivor and an Israeli army sniper. To fill the role, Weinberg sent the script directly to Mariam Bernstein, a Winnipeg actress short of stature but long on Dr. Ruth-ian chutzpah.

NOVEMBER

Vietgone (Nov. 1 to 17, Royal MTC Warehouse)

Playwright Qui Nguyen’s stylish history of his own parents’ escape to America after the fall of Saigon incorporates contemporary notes of hip hop and kung fu movies.

Still/Falling (Nov. 2-4, MTYP)

Aimed for kids aged 13 and older, this touring drama is an examination of teen depression and anxiety, produced in conjunction with Vancouver’s Green Thumb Theatre.

Mary’s Wedding (Nov. 7-18, Theatre Projects Manitoba)

Observing the 100-year anniversary of the end of the First World War, this drama centres on a young English immigrant on the Prairies and her romance with a farmer.

Happy Place (Nov. 7-25, PTE)

Winnipeg-born playwright Pamela Mala Sinha offers a story of seven women living together in an in-patient care facility for women dealing with trauma. It feels like an especially pertinent story given the recent news surrounding the investigation of a certain Supreme Court justice nominee stateside.

It’s a Wonderful Life: The Radio Play (Nov. 22 to Dec. 15, Royal MTC Mainstage)

First presented on the mainstage in 2009, this adaption of the Frank Capra Christmas classic by Philip Grecian frames the story of suicidal banker George Bailey as a radio play, complete with an onstage Foley artist providing sound effects.

Empire of the Son (Nov. 28 to Dec. 9, PTE)

The first of a sub-series of three solo plays at PTE by Vancouver’s Tetsuro Shigematsu is an autobiographical story of a first-generation Canadian’s relationship with an immigrant parent, who was born in Japan and witnessed the cataclysmic destruction of Hiroshima in 1945.

The House at Pooh Corner (Nov. 30 to Dec. 30, MTYP)

Another signature piece for MTYP, this adaptation of the world of A.A. Milne sees young Christopher Robin leaving Pooh and his other friends in the Hundred Acre Wood to go to school.

DECEMBER

Reefer Madness (Dec. 6-16 Winnipeg Studio Theatre)

Talk about topical. This rollicking musical take-off on the notorious anti-pot propaganda movie arrives just in time for the legalized legislation in Canada in October. OK, maybe not just in time, but given the subject matter, a time lag is to be expected.

MunschTopia (Dec. 20 to Jan. 6, PTE)

PTE’s annual holiday tradition sees playwright Debbie Patterson once again mine kid author Robert Munsch’s collection of storybooks and somehow yield kid-friendly fun.

JANUARY

Matilda: The Musical (Jan. 10 to Feb. 2, 2019, Royal MTC Mainstage)

This hit musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1988 children’s novel is about a smart little girl with unusual powers who is forced to reckon with her own negligent parents and the monstrous headmistress of her school.

New Magic Valley Fun Town (Jan. 23 to Feb. 10, 2019, PTE)

Playwright Daniel MacIvor brings this new work to PTE for its world première in collaboration with Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre. It’s about a man, his ex-wife and their adult daughter gathering in a Cape Breton Island trailer park to rehash the past with a visitor.

Torn Through Time (Jan. 25-Feb. 3, 2019, MTYP)

This world première of an MTYP production tells the story of a girl doing a homework assignment that inadvertently summons three heroic Canadian women from history into the present… as their 10-year-old selves. Writers Frances Koncan, Cherissa Richards and Carrie Costello will each write for their chosen heroines.

A Doll’s House (Jan. 31 to Feb. 16, 2019, Royal MTC Warehouse)

Henrik Ibsen, the Norwegian “father of realism” will be the featured artist of the 2019 Master Playwright Festival. His proto-feminist work centres on Nora, a woman scandalously dissatisfied with her bourgeoise lot in life.

FEBRUARY

Intimate Apparel (Feb. 2-10, 2019. WJT)

This drama by Lynn Nottage focuses on an African-American seamstress of the early 20th century who specializes in creating undergarments for socialites and prostitutes. Her search for love pushes her into marriage with a charming Caribbean islander, but her heart really belongs to a Jewish shopkeeper, for whom mixed-race marriage would be forbidden.

887 (Feb. 8-10, 2019, Royal MTC Mainstage)

Quebec playwright Robert Lepage’s one-man performance piece looks back at his own childhood home in the Quebec City of the 1960s. A hot ticket, this plays for three performances only.

A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Feb. 21 to March 16, 2019, Royal MTC Mainstage)

Royal MTC will effectively accommodate its own double-shot of Ibsen with this sequel to Ibsen’s work by contemporary playwright Lucas Hnath. The play imagines a meeting between estranged couple Nora and Torvald 15 years after Nora closed the door on the relationship.

What If Romeo and Juliet (Feb. 15-24, 2019, MTYP)

A touring production from Montreal’s DynamO company presents an alternate reality of the Shakespeare tragedy, wherein the hate between the fighting Montagues and Capulets has a shot at a non-tragic resolution.

Mom’s the Word: Nest 1/2 Empty (Feb. 27-March 17, 2019, PTE)

The third Mom’s the Word play from Vancouver’s Mom’s the Word Collective writes the final chapter in a collective story of the madness of motherhood.

Made in Italy (Feb. 28 to March 16, 2019, Royal MTC Warehouse)

A personal cultural history written and performed by Farren Timoteo, recalling the son of a recent Italian immigrant growing up in Jasper, Alta., in the 1970s.

MARCH

Pippin (March 7-16, 2019, Winnipeg Studio Theatre)

The Tony Award-winning musical by Stephen Schwartz is reimagined by WST with a stellar local cast.

Dragonfly (March 14-24, 2019, Theatre Projects Manitoba)

Playwright Lara Rae tells an autobiographical story of her gender odyssey, interpreted by two actors, one male, one female.

The Polar Bears Go Up (March 15-24, 2019, MTYP)

This touring show is from the U.K.’s Unicorn Theatre, ironically coming to a province known for its polar bears. It is geared to ages three to eight.

Finding Wolastoq Voice (March 21-31, 2019, PTE)

A dance/theatre hybrid by Natalie Sappier is about a young woman who finds her way forward by finding the voice of her ancestors. This is the second show in PTE’s Leap Series.

Boom X (March 21 to April 13, 2019, Royal MTC Mainstage)

This sequel to Rick Miller’s Boom (which played the mainstage in 2016) continues precisely where Boom left off — at Woodstock. Playing more than 100 characters, Miller carries us through a baby-boomer history encompassing 1969 to 1995.

APRIL

John (April 4-20, 2019, Royal MTC Warehouse)

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker wrote this story of a troubled couple trying to confront their issues in a bed and breakfast in Gettysburg, Pa.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (April 5-14, 2019, MTYP)

Boom’s Rick Miller is behind the visual video-projection bang of this adaptation of the Jules Verne science-fiction classic, for audiences aged eight to 13.

After Jerusalem (April 6-14, 2019, WJT)

The final show of the WJT season is Aaron Bushkowsky’s romantic comedy pairing a middle-aged school teacher from Canada on a Christian pilgrimage to Israel with a Russian-Israeli soldier. Featuring Sharon Bajer and Toby Hughes.

What to Do with Albert? (April 10-28, 2019, PTE/Cercle Molière)

PTE again collaborates with Winnipeg’s Théâtre Cercle Molière on a bilingual world première by Danielle Séguin-Tétreault about a recent widower that opens at Cercle Molière in French before moving to PTE for an English production, a formula that worked well for last season’s Ginny Collins-penned drama The Flats.

How It Ends (April 17-28, 2019, PTE)

Finishing off PTE’s Leap Series is Winnipeg playwright Debbie Patterson’s personal examination of end-of-life choices.

The Cottage (Apr. 25 to May 18, 2019, Royal MTC Mainstage)

This is the world première of the first play by Winnipeg writer Jake MacDonald, which places three dissimilar siblings in the family cottage to determine which of them will inherit it to honour the wishes of their ailing, elderly mother.

MAY

Red Earth (May 8-18, 2019, Theatre Projects Manitoba)

A bold initiative by TPM sees the simultaneous launch of a science-fiction epic about the colonization of Mars and a companion graphic novel by GMB Chomichuk.

JUNE

Strike: The Musical (June 2019, Rainbow Stage)

Rainbow has so far only announced one of its two shows to open next year in the Kildonan Park venue, but artistic director Carson Nattrass, acting on a promise to showcase Canadian works, proves as good as his word with this production of the Danny Schur-Rick Chafe musical, produced 100 years after the Winnipeg General Strike events in which it’s set. A movie adaptation of the play is also planned for a 2019 release.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing