Next Stage

Inspired by evidence found in 2013 that definitively proved the settlers in Jamestown had resorted to cannibalism in the face of freezing temperatures and the onset of starvation, The Starving Time is an exploration of what it really means to be hungry.

The need to fill ourselves up, to consume, to suppress.

A poetic piece of theatrical writing, The Starving Time is lyrical and non-linear. Is this Jamestown? Is this New Canada? Is this another world?

Originally developed through the Alberta Playwrights’ Network and the RBC Emerging Artists Mentorship Program.

PREMIUM CONTENT WILL BE SHOWN AT PUMPHOUSE THEATRE
2140 Pumphouse Ave SW

Premium Content is a play about art, the Internet and their effects on the minds and morals of anyone engaging with them in a sustained way. It’s a play about hazy personal boundaries and hazy romantic entanglements. It’s a play about the difference between a funeral and a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s a play about trying really hard to be really cool.

The Major Matt Mason Collective will be premiering this new play with an ensemble of seven actors. Each night the actors will switch roles to give a new perspective of the gender and power dynamics within the work.

Featuring live video feeds, original animation, immersive design and an ensemble engaging in the impossible, Premium Content is an entirely live performance as up to date as tomorrow.

KARL NIMENI IS NOT DEAD – I KILLED KARL NIMENI is part Dada, part surrealist, part existentialist but mostly this play is influenced by, and structured on, the teachings and research of Karl Nimeni.

Charles Fleming is in crisis; nothing makes sense or allows him to follow the flow of existence. Being is becoming difficult. We meet him in a jail cell, charged with the murder of Karl Nimeni. The only evidence against him is a dream. He speaks to the audience or the jury or his god or himself. His reality has been compromised by his own dreams. We learn that he believes he is innocent because Karl Nimeni murdered him.

On this narrative journey, we meet different versions of Karl Nimeni as understood by Charles, a man he might have never met, and a dancer who represents a primitive longing in Charles, beyond rationality and logic.

Through dialogue, movement, sound and projection, we learn who Charles Fleming truly is, we discover the teachings of Karl Nimeni and we (whoever we are) leave the theatre with more questions than when we arrived. If you ask if Karl Nimeni really exists, you have to ask if you exist first.

KARL NIMENI IS NOT DEAD – I KILLED KARL NIMENI is a night play, a theatrical poem, a moment in time and a narrative dream. It is a play that is more than it seems and less than is known.

**Karl Nimeni is a pioneer and an absent mentor for everyone who goes on to explore the night, dreams and the unclear in his/her own way, between art and science

To Whom Is Curious,

Here in Calgary, for four nights only, to grace us with their seductions and temptations, Dionysus and their cult of followers bring you The COWS – a sparkling spectacular, ice cream dancing, chorus line numbered, presentation of the ages! Why just be mud, when together, we have the chance to be Gods?

The COWS is a 12-person chorus Greek Tragedy about heroes told through the curse of a demi-god, Dionysus, and their place in the duality of all things in the universe.

Inspired from the roots of dirt and the oceans of wheat that is our Alberta home, it is easy to get lost as a hero, especially when there’s more than one. Whose story are we following? Whose happiness is important? Which plot are we even following? You need two to tango and there are two sides to all stories – rationality vs. the forest, chaos vs. all of the dark. We are all heroes of stories untold, but nobody believes in heroes anymore.

Did you know that a cow spends eight hours a day eating, eight hours chewing cud and eight hours sleeping? Cows don’t have to do taxes.

Dionysus is here to embrace us and remind us it’s not all that complicated. We have a gift that even Gods are jealous of…the feeling of sinking your toes deep into sand, standing naked under the sky and kissing!

We invite you to join us. Maybe we have something to offer.

Hope to see you there!

xo

Dionysus and the Diamonds

“In 1985 I was an apprentice with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet by day and learning to be a punk by night. Or sort of a punk. Kinda New Wave. But my mentor had an expansive definition of punk. Outfitted in his anarchy jacket and my head full of his education, I flew from Winnipeg to San Francisco to visit my sort of boyfriend… whom I thought was the love of my life. Shortly after I touched down I realized I was in an abusive relationship.”

My Fair Lady – The Punk Version is a modern take on Pygmalion. A 19-year-old ballerina becomes the subject of a bet between her boyfriend and the kingpin of the local punk scene, who claims he can corrupt her innocence and teach her to be a jaded but educated punk. Set in 1985 Winnipeg and San Francisco, the play is a brash and sexy-coming-of-age story with a rock n’ roll score that makes the feminist message go down easy.

The Reykjavik Grapevine called it “gritty and compelling – it reverberates with the stirrings of revolution and the spirit of change.” The newspaper offers the synopsis: “ The audience is taken to 1980s Winnipeg and meets Jodie, a wide-eyed ballerina who is just waking up to the world. Then Jodie meets Adam, an older man with a punk-rock attitude. Adam tutors Jodie and introduces her to the underground anarchist movement, helping her to develop her own independent mind against the background of her controlling and oppressive boyfriend.”

The show brims with the best music of that generation, including Patti Smith, Marianne Faithful, The Velvet Underground and The Residents. Based on a true story (or almost truth), the performance blurs the lines between reality and fiction and is an unsettling look at dysfunction and manipulation. This narrative-driven short-story-photo-movement-performance conveys a clear feminist message while exposing the vulnerabilities of all involved.

What happened last night on the dance floor? Two friends attempt to retrace their steps to figure out how it all ended in an explosive fight. In their effort to figure out the facts, both friends shift from self to alter-ego and are met with stunning revelations. BODY SO FLUORESCENT is inviting and outrageous – asking difficult questions about blackness, otherness and relational oppressions.

BODY SO FLUORESCENT returns to Calgary from its premiere at the IGNITE! Festival in June 2017, where it received an overwhelmingly positive response. After tour stops in Stratford and the United States, madonnanera is thrilled to finesse and finalize BODY SO FLUORESCENT at Theatre Junction GRAND.

When sisters Timmy and Tommy find themselves trapped inside the haunted Barrington Hotel, they must rely on the help of the ghostly inhabitants to defeat the vengeful manager and return home in time for dinner. A new play about death, change and growing up, Timmy and Tommy brings a new flavor to musicals and puppetry using satire and a macabre style.

Timmy & Tommy was first created through Chromatic Theatres Greater Forest Lawn Playwrights Intensive and has since has been featured in the International Festival of Animated Objects, Regina Fringe and Edmonton Fringe. The play features original music from local singer songwriter Kathryn Smith (KP Smith) and handmade puppets from theatre creator Ali DeRegt.

Inspired by the influence of paper in all of its forms and it’s affect on our lives and our development. It feeds us information, pays for goods and services, wraps gifts, tells fortunes and can even be craftily folded to become art in itself. A series of boxes and paper products are used to explore how our environment shapes us and encourages us to conform and can ultimately lead to the demise of our creative selves. These items are incorporated into the movement and used as set pieces to invite the audience into this paper-covered world. Quinn and Kyra aim to create a world that will evoke curiosity while they examine and interpret the essence of their movement in relation to paper, space and each other.

ABOUT QUINN & KYRA

Quinn Kliewer and Kyra Newton are two professional dance artists based in Calgary, Alberta. The two have been collaborating for the past year and opening themselves up to new ways of crafting movement. The dancers have produced two pieces of work – I am___. was performed at Decidedly Jazz Dance Theatre as a part of W&M Dance Company’s Artist in Residency program. The second piece, I am Intrinsic, was performed at the IGNITE! Festival of Emerging Artists in June 2017. Next Stage will mark the premiere of their first performance as Incarnatio Dance Collective. These movement artists are excited to present themselves as a new contemporary dance collective with the intention of enriching their community. Their work aligns with the principles of authentic movement and they are inspired by the endless possibilities within improvisational scores and meditative breath practices.