Information on the Play Play Again in Toronto
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Hither we go once again: pandemic-weary Toronto theatre companies adapt to new Omicron restrictions
As indoor gathering is once over again prohibited, theatres respond by postponing, cancelling and shifting performances online.
"Nosotros're battle-scarred but boxing-gear up."
That's the sentiment shared by Ghislain Caron, executive manager of Théâtre Français de Toronto, equally the visitor responds to new restrictions shuttering indoor performance venues yet again.
January was going to be the big improvement month for live stage performance in Toronto, merely once again companies are adapting their plans.
Terminal Wed, the province introduced measures to curb the rapid increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations. The new restrictions include the closure of indoor theatres for at least 21 days. Rehearsals, forth with livestreamed and recorded performances, can continue if at that place are no spectators in the venue and physical distancing tin be observed betwixt performers.
The regulations came less than three months after the province lifted all chapters limits to indoor venues October. nine.
Some organizations take turned their in-person programming into digital shows or postponed live performances. Tarragon Theatre's production of Rosa Laborde'due south "Light," originally scheduled for Feb. ane to March 5, has been reimagined for movie and will be released in March.
Mike Payette, Tarragon's artistic managing director, says the digital pivot is simply possible because rehearsals and filming are allowed. "Thankfully, our theatres are open up and we are allowed to work in some mode, shape or form and go on our processes," he said. "It's a amend scenario than what we experienced in the get-go shutdown."
Chloé Hung's dark one-act "Three Women of Swatow" volition also accept to wait for its premiere at Tarragon. The play, a bloody portrait of three generations of women as they navigate intergenerational conflicts, calumniating relationships, addictions and murder, was supposed to have its world premiere in March 2020. That was pushed to later this calendar month and has been rescheduled once once more to run Apr 18 to May 15.
Toronto Fringe's Next Phase Festival was too slated to begin in the second one-half of Jan. Some of its programming was already planned every bit digital and Fringe executive director Lucy Eveleigh said the festival is working to see if in-person productions tin exist translated into flick in fourth dimension for the Jan. 19 start date.
"Information technology'south heartbreaking," Eveleigh said. "Nosotros were so looking frontward to being in a room together, to showcase these incredible artists and to connect with our patrons."
At Theatre Passe Muraille, Ho Ka Kei'southward award-winning play "Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land)," scheduled to run alive January. 8 to 29, volition at present be presented digitally February. 23 to 26. "She Spreads," a play past Dead Roads Collective that follows the residents of a small town in Alberta as they succumb to a strange infection, has shifted from Jan. 12 to 23 at Factory Theatre to a digital presentation Feb. 23 to 27.
Coal Mine Theatre's productions of "The Antipodes" and "Detroit," slated to open up in Jan and April respectively, will each at present be delayed approximately 10 calendar week, in hopes that they tin can play to in-person audiences. Meanwhile Crow's Theatre continues to rehearse "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," originally scheduled to outset performances on January. 11, as they expect for more data on the province's reopening plans before naming a new date.
Some theatres have chosen to cancel productions outright. A remount at Tarragon Theatre of Human being Cargo's acclaimed "The Runner" was supposed to be the showtime theatre product to open in Toronto in 2022, but Human Cargo cancelled it on New year's Eve.
The bear witness involves a single actor, Gord Rand, running on a treadmill for big portions of the play and sometimes shouting, a scenario that potentially creates a run a risk of COVID infection for performer and audience members alike. This, and the lack of clear information from the regime nearly how to respond to the Omicron variant, "made information technology, in my stance, very clear and obvious that the safest matter to practice would exist to stop," said Christopher Morris, the show'due south writer and producer. "Not everyone in the visitor felt safe to exist working."
Canadian Stage has cancelled two shows scheduled to open up in January: a phase adaptation of the sci-fi film archetype "Solaris," directed by creative director Brendan Healy, and Red Heaven Performance's dance piece "Miigis: Underwater Panther." Canadian Stage hopes to evangelize the rest of its season equally planned. While not ruling out shifting some productions online if necessary, executive manager Monica Esteves said the "focus right at present is on the reopening of our theatres and preparing to welcome audiences back in March."
Before the government proclamation of new restrictions, Mirvish Productions cancelled a January to March run of Tom Stoppard'south "Leopoldstadt" at the Princess of Wales Theatre and permanently shut down the Toronto production of hit musical "Come From Away."
Mirvish has now postponed other productions in its 2021-22 season and moved several of them into new venues. They plan to offset upwardly again in April, following advice and research from doctors and epidemiologists that suggests that the Omicron variant peaks speedily, "so that past March it may be safe again for social gatherings to return," said John Karastamatis, director of sales and marketing.
Their plans are based on playing to 100 per cent capacity; if simply smaller audiences are allowed, Mirvish will consider each testify's potential for reopening or farther postponement, said Karastamatis.
Théâtre Français finds itself navigating restrictions in ii provinces: its co-product with Le Groupe de la Veillée of "Solstice d'Hiver" (Winter Solstice) by Roland Schimmelpfennig was meant to open Jan. eleven at Montreal's Théâtre Prospero and so play Toronto's Berkeley Street Theatre Feb. 4 to 12. Théâtre Français is moving forward with plans to mountain the testify briefly in Montreal in belatedly January and to proceed the Toronto dates intact, barring further restrictions: "One day at a time, one conclusion at a time," said Caron.
Factory Theatre'southward relative caution in keeping its early 2022 programming virtual rather than face up-to-confront has paid off in that it will be able to deliver shows as planned. "Year of the Rat," four one-person plays written and performed by Augusto Biting, Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, Rosa Laborde and Anita Majumdar, will be rehearsed online and livestreamed from the authors' homes Feb. 24 to March v. It will be followed past "You Can't Get There from Here, Vol. 2," commissioned sound plays released as podcasts in March.
This latest COVID wave has potentially existential consequences for the Assembly Theatre in Parkdale.
The volunteer-run indie venue paid its rent during the pandemic with the support of authorities grants and loans. Assembly was planning to reopen this month with the premiere of Michael Ross Albert's "Two Minutes to Midnight," performed by Cass Van Wyck and Luis Fernandes, who run the theatre. Following the Ontario government limiting audiences to 50 per cent on Dec. 15, they cancelled the product and started an online fundraising campaign to go on the theatre alive.
"We have fought hard for two years to keep the lights on until it is safe to welcome artists back to our space," said Van Wyck, "and nosotros are hopeful that these fundraising efforts will allow us to continue that fight."
Clarification — Jan. 10, 2022: "She Spreads," a play by Dead Roads Commonage, has shifted from Jan. 12 to 23 at Manufactory Theatre to a digital presentation Feb. 23 to 27. A previous version of this story indicated the play will run in the theatre in Feb.
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Source: https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/stage/2022/01/01/here-we-go-again-pandemic-weary-toronto-theatre-companies-adapt-to-new-omicron-restrictions.html
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