iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.

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/By Mae Smith / Mar 10, 2020

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Crow’s Theatre has released the details on their 2020/2021 season following the announcement that they would be partnering with The Musical Stage Company to produce Natasha, Pierre, and The Great Comet of 1812. Alongside the Tony Award winning musical, Crow’s season—the 5th at their Streetcar Crowsnest location—features a Sondheim musical, a remount of a Stratford Festival production, a 20th Anniversary presentation of I, Claudia and a number of contemporary works and reimaginings.

“Our 20.21 season brings together some of our country’s most acclaimed theatre artists in works that celebrate the untamed spirit of youth, the determination of the individual to be seen as they are, and those that are called to wake up to the promise, and responsibility, of a more conscious life,” says Crow’s Theatre Artistic Director Chris Abraham.

Running in conjunction with the regular series, Crow’s is programming a Kids Series of productions which will take place in the theatre’s Scotiabank Community Studio.

“It was essential in our planning for the 20.21 season to strengthen and grow our programming, operations and audience reach,” says Crow’s Theatre Executive Director Sherrie Johnson.  “Chris and I were determined to curate a season with opportunities and ambition, while building a dynamic cultural hub in the east end with a loyal audience base.”

Crow’s Theatre’s 2020/2021 Season

A Crow’s Theatre Production

I, CLAUDIA

Written and Performed by Kristen Thomson. Directed by Chris Abraham.
September 29 – October 25, 2020 | Guloien Theatre

One of Canada’s most celebrated theatrical creations, this extraordinary, multi-award-winning one-woman show returns for its 20^th anniversary, reuniting beloved performer Kristen Thomson with director Chris Abraham. Wrenchingly sad and thrillingly funny, I, CLAUDIA casts a spell of rare power. Since its premiere in 2001, Thomson’s Dora Award-winning masterwork has toured the world, been adapted into a Gemini-award winning film, and charmed audiences everywhere. In this virtuoso solo mask performance, Thomson, a “heart-stoppingly honest comedian” (Globe & Mail), brings to life the precocious 12 ¾-year-old Claudia as she faces the myriad mysteries of adulthood.

 

A Crow’s Theatre and Arts Club Theatre Company Production

DANCE NATION

By Clare Barron. Directed by Meg Roe. Choreographed by Crystal Pite.
November 10 – December 6, 2020 | Guloien Theatre

An army of pre-teen competitive dancers plot to take over the world (and win Nationals) in Clare Barron’s “barbaric yawp of a play” (Vulture) about the unbridled wildness of being a girl at 13. Meg Roe, director of the 2018 hit MIDDLETOWN, takes the helm of DANCE NATION, joined by Vancouver-based choreographer Crystal Pite (Kidd Pivot), a “dance genius who stages the impossible” (Guardian). Hilarious, fast-paced and ferocious, DANCE NATION will hit you hard.

 

Crow’s Theatre presents the Stratford Festival Production

BIRDS OF A KIND

By Wajdi Mouawad. English Translation by Linda Gaboriau. Directed by Antoni Cimolino.
January 5 – 30, 2021 | Guloien Theatre

A family is torn between blood and belonging in BIRDS OF A KIND, Stratford Festival Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino’s “cinematic swirl of a production” (Globe & Mail). Weaving together multiple languages and divergent worlds of experience, this powerful contemporary drama probes to the very heart of who we are – or think we are. Wahida, an Arab-American woman, and Eitan, a Jewish geneticist, fall in love in New York City. They travel together to Israel to meet Eitan’s estranged grandmother – who holds the key to a long-buried family secret. But it takes a terrorist bombing for that shattering secret to emerge.

 

A Crow’s Theatre and Musical Stage Company Production

NATASHA, PIERRE, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812

By Dave Malloy. Directed by Chris Abraham. Choreographed by Kimberley Rampersad.
January 26 – February 14, 2021 | Winter Garden Theatre

Hailed by Entertainment Weekly as “a stunning, blazingly original musical” and by the New York Times as “a heaven-sent fireball,” NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 is an electrifying Broadway musical. A radically contemporary adaptation of a selection of Tolstoy’s acclaimed 1868 novel ‘War and Peace,’ this 12-time Tony-nominated musical brings a passionate, romantic and high-stakes Moscow to life through a groundbreaking score that mixes indie rock, pop, Russian folk, electronic dance music and classic Broadway.

 

YES Theatre in Association with Crow’s Theatre

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG

By Stephen Sondheim. Directed by Mitchell Cushman.
February 11 – 28, 2021 | Guloien Theatre

Stephen Sondheim’s misunderstood masterpiece, reinterpreted by YES Theatre’s creative team. Manhattan, 2021. An elderly man revisits a familiar rooftop to contemplate decades of misspent friendship, fame and fortune—as well as the traffic below. Dora award-winning immersive director Mitchell Cushman returns to Crow’s after his acclaimed productions of JERUSALEM and THE FLICK, this time teaming up with the explosive wunderkinds of Northern Ontario’s premiere musical theatre company, YES Theatre. Experience a stripped-down reclamation of one of the all-time great musicals—a searing take on the value of friendship, and the cost of throwing it away.

 

Crow’s Theatre presents

CLIFF CARDINAL’S CBC SPECIAL

An Imaginary Force and VideoCabaret Production. Created and Performed by Cliff Cardinal. Directed and Dramaturged by Karin Random.
February 11 – 28, 2021 | Scotiabank Community Studio

Imagine if Cliff Cardinal was commissioned by the CBC to create his own variety special.

Join ”the utterly charming” (NOW Magazine) Cliff Cardinal as he shares his original dark and catchy folk songs; miraculous stories of familial resilience; legends of Turtle Island survival; and new contributions to the ongoing mythology of the Canadian experience. CBC SPECIAL is Cliff’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to his Dora Award-winning solo show, HUFF, and teams him once again with longtime collaborator, director and dramaturge Karin Randoja.

 

A Crow’s Theatre and Arts Club Theatre Company Production

TEENAGE DICK

By Mike Lew. Directed by Ashlie Corcoran.
March 23 – April 18, 2021 | Guloien Theatre

Shakespeare meets ‘Mean Girls’ in Mike Lew’s uproarious riff on RICHARD III.  Richard Gloucester is junior class secretary, third in line to holding absolute power as senior class president. But he’ll never win a popular vote: whether due to his cerebral palsy, or his frequent soliloquizing, is up for debate. Revenge, puppy love, and politics, combine for a high school election of Shakespearean proportions. TEENAGE DICK has captivated audiences from New York to London. Crow’s Theatre will co-produce this new Canadian production, directed by Arts Club Theatre Company Artistic Director Ashlie Corcoran.

 

Crow’s Theatre presents La Fille du Laitier’s production of

MACBETH MUET

Created by Jon Lachlan Stewart, Marie Hélène Bélanger. Based on the play by William Shakespeare.
April 14 – May 2, 2021 | Scotiabank Community Studio

Inspired by the visual language of silent film, this wordless adaptation of MACBETH flirts with boisterous theatrics and melodrama, drawing audiences into a frantic and hilarious race for power. An accelerated, visceral and bloody deconstruction of this famous tragedy, MACBETH MUET breaks down how one of Shakespeare’s most famous couples is slowly pulled apart by the murder they commit. Backed by an intense soundtrack jumping hilariously through a score of famous pop songs and classical tracks, the actor-puppeteers blast through a highly choreographed feat of physical theatre, where human lives are as disposable as styrofoam cups.

Crow’s Kids Series

Crow’s Theatre presents a Macromatter production

FRAGILE

By Robert Leveroos.
November 14 – 15, 2020 | Scotiabank Community Studio

Fragile is an experience in which we can be mesmerized by what is not said, allow time to slow down and dream a little bit – together. 

Through detailed two and three-dimensional paper models and simple live animation, FRAGILE calls forth an intimate space that reimagines our relationship to scale. Fragile invites us to look carefully at the intricate mechanisms of the everyday. Characters from three generations face pivotal moments in their lives — growing up, growing older, and saying goodbye. The work is precise — assembled and disassembled before your very eyes.  

 

Crow’s Theatre presents a Spyder Theatre Company Production

SPYDER’S QUEST TO SAVE THE WORLD

By Deborah Adelman. Directed by Robyn Stevan.
December 4 – 6, 2020 | Scotiabank Community Studio

One of the biggest hurdles to taking action, is knowing what to do.

Help! Glaciers are melting! Forests are burning! Cities are sinking! Radioactive Spyder strikes again in this exciting sequel, Spyder’s Quest to Save the World. Enjoy this action-packed musical as Spyder and her friends tackle climate change. Embark on a journey through redwood forests and an encounter with a magic lamp. An upbeat, inspiring, save-the-world musical for all ages!

 

Crow’s Theatre presents a WeeFestival Production

OLD MAN AND THE RIVER

By Lynda Hill and Thomas Morgan Jones. Directed by Lynda Hill.
December 19 – 23, 2020 | Scotiabank Community Studio

A beautifully designed puppetry work performed without words to an enchanting musical score, the production has received unanimous praise from children, parents, grandparents, and teachers for its artistry and its story of newfound friendship. Old Man and the River is the perfect introduction to theatre for the very young and their grownups. This show features interactive pre-show and post-show audience engagement created especially for this age group. Old Man and the River is recommended for children 3 years and up.

WRITTEN BY

Mae Smith

Mae Smith is a former associate editor for Intermission Magazine. She is a lighting designer, props builder, stagehand, and sometimes-critic. Outside of theatre, she is a crafter and a Pisces.

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