Festival auction lets you bid to be extra in TV show
The Ottawa Citizen
The Magnetic North Theatre Festival is offering a chance to be an extra on the CBC-TV show Republic of Doyle, as well as meet star Allan Hawco and the rest of the Doyle cast in St. John’s. The opportunity is just one deal in the festival’s online auction running until Aug. 19. Other deals include a Newfoundland-themed evening for 10 hosted by NAC president Peter Herrndorf and festival executive director Ann Connors. For more information, and to make bids, go to www.magneticnorthfestival.ca.
Magnetic North Fundraising Auction
Show your support for Canada’s national festival of contemporary Canadian theatre in English – plus get some amazing prizes!
[Source: Magnetic North press release]
Like its polar namesake, the Magnetic North Theatre Festival roves around the country, visiting a new Canadian city every second year and returning to its hosts at the National Arts Centre in between. Designed to raise the profile of contemporary English Canadian theatre at home and abroad, Magnetic North is truly one of Canada’s great artistic success stories.
Meet Private Eye Jake Doyle on set in colourful St. John’s, NL
Flight and hotel accommodations included
A return trip to beautiful St. John’s Newfoundland from anywhere in Canada, where you will visit the set of the popular Canadian television series the Republic of Doyle. Enjoy the opportunity to meet the cast and co-star Allan Hawco, Private Eye Jake Doyle, and perform as an extra on the show. Flight and hotel accommodations are included in this auction package.
Private Eye Jake Doyle returns for a raucous third season of CBC’s Republic of Doyle, solving cases, dodging punches and chasing criminals through the hilly, colourful streets of seaside St. John’s. Allan Hawco stars as the charming and irreverent detective who struggles daily to navigate the complications of running the family P.I. business while keeping his very tangly private life in check.
A Taste of Newfoundland!
A private meal for 10 with special guests and music
Enjoy an evening hosted by Peter Herrndorf, President and CEO of the National Arts Centre, and Ann Connors, Executive Director of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival along with special guests. Let them entertain you and nine of your friends with authentic Maritimes cuisine, drinks and live music and see how they party on the Rock!
This Is What Happens Next at the Great Canadian Theatre Company
[Source: press release]
The Great Canadian Theatre Company (GCTC), in association with the Magnetic North Theatre Festival (MNTF), is pleased to present This Is What Happens Next, created by Daniel MacIvor and Daniel Brooks, a Necessary Angel production, at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre, 1233 Wellington St. West. Following two preview performances on May 24 and 25, This Is What Happens Next officially opens on May 26 and runs until June 12. Performances from June 7 to 11 are also a part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival.
One of the most potent and influential partnerships in Canadian theatre, Daniel MacIvor and Daniel Brooks have reunited in their first collaboration since 2005. Written and performed by MacIvor with direction and dramaturgy by Brooks, This Is What Happens Next is a dark fairytale for adults in search of a happy ending. With the virtuoso juggling of multiple characters that has made him famous, MacIvor takes a journey deep into the Kingdom of Kevin. Accessible only through a magic forest of addiction, divorce, Schopenhauer, The Little Mermaid and the life of John Denver, This Is What Happpens Next is MacIvor’s most autobiographical work to date.
Daniel MacIvor and Daniel Brooks’ previous collaborations include some of the most influential and produced Canadian plays of the last 20 years: Here Lies Henry, House, Monster, and Cul-de-Sac. MacIvor received the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama in 2006 for his collection of plays I Still Love You and in 2008 he was awarded the Siminovitch Prize for Theatre, the largest award in Canadian theatre, for his writing. Brooks received the same award for his directing work in 2001.
In addition to MacIvor and Brooks, the creative team includes a lighting design by Kimberly Purtell with music and sound designed by Richard Feren. The stage manager is Rob Harding. Frequently called, “Canada’s National Festival of Contemporary Canadian Theatre in English”, Magnetic North Theatre Festival is back home to Ottawa for the 2011 season. The Magnetic North Theatre Festival is produced by the Canadian Theatre Festival Society and co-presented by the National Arts Centre English Theatre.
To purchase tickets, please visit www.gctc.ca or call the Box Office at 613-236-5196. For more information about Magnetic North Theatre Festival, along with special performance dates and times, visit www.magneticnorthfestival.ca or call 613-947-7000.
MAGNETIC NORTH THEATRE FESTIVAL IS EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THE PROGRAMMING OF THE 2011 SEASON IN OTTAWA
The 2011 line-up for the Magnetic North Theatre Festival has been announced, and it promises to bring home to Ottawa an array of theatrical activity in June. The unique festival, which alternates between Ottawa and a different Canadian city each year, comes home to Ottawa June 3-11. Festival passes and tickets are now available for purchase through the National Arts Centre Box office at 53 Elgin Street or at 613-755-1111, or through Ticketmaster at 1-888-991-2787.
Opening the festival is YICHUD (Seclusion) by Theatre Passe Muraille in producing partnership with Convergence Theatre. Written by Julie Tepperman and Directed by directed by Aaron Willis and Richard Greenblatt. YICHUD (Seclusion) drops us into the centre of an orthodox Jewish wedding, and does it in ways that are hilarious, complex and pose tough questions about our relationships to tradition and authority. The performance runs from June 3-6 and will be taking place at Academic Hall at the University of Ottawa. Tickets for this performance are $40.
Magnetic North Theatre Festival is proud to announce An Evening with Cathy Jones. This one night performance featuring the star of This Hour has 22 Minutes will be on Saturday, June 4 at 8PM. Tickets for this event are $50.
Magnetic North invites festival attendees to join us at the National Arts Centre Fourth Stage on June 9 in the afternoon for a stage reading of The Ministry of Grace, a new play by Tara Beagan, the NAC English Theatre’s Playwright in Residence for 2010/11 and Artistic Director, Native Earth Performing Arts, Inc. That evening, join Magnetic North staff, board and our 2012 Calgary hosts at the Festival Bar @ Club SAW to celebrate our next festival destination.
Magnetic North Theatre Festival will be presenting a play from Halifax’s Zuppa Theatre Company, 5 Easy Steps (to the end of the world). It is the night of the end of the world and three friends lock themselves in a pawn shop basement with plans to go out with a bang. 5 Easy Steps (to the end of the world) is one part painful mediation on the past, present and future and two parts dance party. Featuring choreography from Mwendo Dance Company and music from members of the Heavy Blinkers, 5 Easy Steps (to the end of the world) runs from June 3-6 at Arts Court. Tickets for this performance are $40.
We are proud to announce that we are once again partnering with the Great Canadian Theatre Company this year to present a Necessary Angel production of This is What Happens Next. The one man show from the imaginations of Toronto theatre icons Daniel MacIvor and Daniel Brooks features MacIvor as multiple characters in a fairytale that takes us through the dark forest of addiction, divorce, Schopenhauer, The Little Mermaid and the life of John Denver. This is What Happens Next is showing at the GCTC from June 7-11. Tickets are $40 and are sold at the GCTC and NAC box office.
Magnetic North is delighted to present Kawasaki Exit, the latest boundary busting creation from Calgary’s One Yellow Rabbit. Written by Blake Brooker, Kawasaki exit is equal parts mystery and love story, and is inspired by the dark side of Japanese social networking sites. Performed in Japanese and in English, from beginning to end and then from end to beginning. We are very excited to be presenting this legendary company hailing from our 2012 destination, Calgary, Alberta from June 7-10 at the National Arts Centre Studio. Tickets for this performance are $40.
Magnetic North 2011 will be presenting Nina Arsenault’s one woman tour de force The Silicone Diaries, from Buddies in Bad Times theatre in Toronto. In The Silicone Diaries, Arsenault recounts her transformation from an awkward male to a staggering hour glass bombshell. She provides us with a peek in to the personal obsessions of those driven to transform their bodies, while at the same time, engaging in a frank exploration of the contradictions associated with the quest for beauty. We are thrilled to be sharing Nina’s story from June 8-11 at Academic Hall at the University of Ottawa. Tickets for this performance are $40.
Magnetic North will be presenting a play that is truly for all ages. KISMET one to one hundred from The Chop is a multi-media performance that explores our relationship with fate and destiny. Using transcripts, photos, video and audio excerpts from one hundred interviews with one hundred people from across the country between the ages of one and one hundred, The Chop pieces together a narrative that is both universal and individual. The Chop is a dynamic company from Vancouver helmed by recent Siminovitch Award protégé Anita Rochon, and we are very proud to welcome them to the Arts Court Studio June 9-11. Tickets for this performance are $40.
Artistic associate Marcus Youssef: “What’s so thrilling for me about this year’s festival is the national conversation happening inside of it. Exciting young artists like The Chop and Zuppa are talking to genre and scene-definers MacIvor and the Rabbits; Siminovitch Protégé winner Anita Rochon bumps up against directing legend Daniel Brooks. We have shows and artists from Halifax side by side with their 3000 miles away neighbours from Vancouver (and points in between). There is a show about what 100 Canadians, urban and rural, eastern and western think about fate plus a show that tells the story of a full-op gender switch plus a show that takes us into the centre of an orthodox Jewish wedding. This festival is Canada, here, and now, in all its messy, contradictory glory. I can’t think of a better way to get to know each other a little better.”
A special component of the festival is the Magnetic Encounters, which brings the audience as close to the art as possible. In the form of many events, talks, installations, interventions and performances, Magnetic Encounters link the audiences to the main stage performances of the festival. Highlights of this year’s Magnetic Encounters include a lesson in Music and traditional Jewish wedding celebration on June 5 to compliment YICHUD(Seclusion) as well as a Karaocalypse night at our Festival Bar @ Club SAW on June 7 where festival goers are invited on stage with Zuppa to sing songs about the end of the world. Montreal artist Alexis O’Hara will be performing In the Heat of LaNuit on June 8 at our Festival Bar @ Club SAW. As herself and as her alter-ego Guizo, Alexis transfuses drag, cabaret, pop music and spoken word with a tongue-in-cheek musical treatise on our modern day obsession with feelings. Tickets for Alexis O’Hara are $10. On June 10, festival goers are invited to join Magnetic North and The Chop at the Arts Court library in a Workshop on Being Yourself on Stage then head over to the National Gallery for a lecture on the Female Form, Beauty and Art with Nina Arsenault. Don’t forget to join us each evening at the Festival Bar @ Club SAW beginning at 9pm for more fun and great conversation.
Encounters curator Kris Nelson: “With a Karaoke concert, a lecture on beauty and aesthetics and workshops devoted to dancing and performing, there’s something for everyone to think on or try out for themselves this year. Extra special for Ottawa is the Human Library project. Dozens of local residents will become human books – revealing their thoughts, opinions and life stories to book lenders in one-on-one conversations. We’re hoping the Encounters will help build a community of festival-fans and adventurous art lovers in the city.”
Magnetic North Theatre Festival is delighted to announce that for the first time, we will be hosting a Human Library June 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11 at the Rideau Centre Western Walkway. Ottawa locals and festival artists become human books sharing their personal stories, beliefs and experiences in this exciting, interactive project. This one-of-a-kind experience brings strangers together for personal, humorous and touching interactions. Working just like a real library, visitors borrow and return books – the twist is that in The Human Library the books are people and visitors will have a candid conversation with the people on loan. Our Human Library is full of human books that are experts in a variety of fields and come from a diverse range of experiences and backgrounds. Created by Stop the Violence for the Roskilde Music Festival in Denmark and presented all over the world and across Canada, The Human Library makes new bonds, breaks down stereotypes and generally gets people together.
Compass Points is a unique program for post-secondary students and emerging artists from across Canada, which offers a first-hand introduction to the professional theatre industry. This year’s program will be organized in consultation with students from Ottawa. Compass Points includes workshops, panel discussions and social events designed to inspire participants to chart their own course in Canadian theatre and runs in Ottawa from June 6-10.
Magnetic North Theatre Festival hosts an Industry Series, a professional symposium dedicated to building networks and sharing the wealth of knowledge amongst festival delegates. Since 2004, Magnetic North’s Industry Series has had a significant impact on the community, the forum and the way we work together. Delegates from around the country and the world will be in Ottawa through the course of the festival soaking in what the region and Magnetic North have to offer.
Executive Director Ann Connors: “We extend our thanks to our public partners at the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Ottawa; our corporate sponsors and donors and our private donors and to the countless volunteers who, all together contribute the resources vital to this Festival’s success. And at the heart of the festival is you, our audience. As the festival travels back and forth across this large nation, and in the process grows and diversifies, it is always the audience, and the prospect of showing you something you’ve never seen, that rests at the heart of what we do. The coming years will see another new and exciting stage of Magnetic North’s development. More Canadian audiences in more Canadian communities will be exposed to more Canadian theatre artists, all with a brand new Artistic Director, and a new bold visioning of what Canadian Theatre is and could be.”
Frequently called, “Canada’s National Festival of Contemporary Canadian Theatre in English”, Magnetic North Theatre Festival is excited to be coming home to Ottawa for the 2011 season. The Magnetic North Theatre Festival is produced by the Canadian Theatre Festival Society and co-presented by the National Arts Centre English Theatre.
For more information about Magnetic North, visit http://www.magneticnorthfestival.ca/, call 613-947-7000 or visit our office at the National Arts Centre in downtown Ottawa. Festival passes and tickets are now on sale through the National Arts Centre box office at 53 Elgin Street or at 613-755-1111, through Ticketmaster at 1-888-991-2787, or online at http://www.magneticnorthfestival.ca/.
The Magnetic North Theatre Festival wants you!
Become a part of our energetic volunteer team and connect with other like-minded theatre lovers from across the country, while lending invaluable support to this exciting national celebration of contemporary Canadian theatre. The Festival will take place in Ottawa, Ontario from June 3-11, 2011.
Once again, The Magnetic North Theatre Festival (MNTF) will be looking for 150 enthusiastic volunteers to make this one-of-a-kind showcase of national theatre a great success. Your time and energy will assist MNTF in operating this outstanding festival, while supporting some of Canada’s finest theatre artists. You can look forward to an entertaining and rewarding experience.
For more information or to become a volunteer visit the MNTF website BECOME A VOLUNTEER section or contact Wendy Turpin at (613) 947-7000 Ext. 264.
MAGNETIC NORTH THEATRE FESTIVAL’S FIRST 5 à 7 FUNDRAISER!
Join us for a glass of wine and mingle with industry performers and fellow patrons of the Arts to kick-off this year’s Magnetic North Theatre Festival!
Don’t miss your chance to bid on a variety of fabulous items in our live and silent auction, including a trip to the set of popular Canadian television series the Republic of Doyle to meet co-star Allan Hawco.
WHERE: Club SAW (SAW Gallery) – 67 Nicholas Street, Ottawa
WHEN: Thursday, May 19 2011 from 5:00pm-7:00pm (doors open at 4:45pm)
TICKET PRICE: $35 (includes a complimentary beverage)
» Click here to find the downloadable ORDER FORM to purchase tickets for this entertaining event!
Have a blast supporting Canadian theatre!
Join Magnetic North on Thursday November 11th at 7PM at the Mayfair Theatre for a showing of the classic 1984 film Ghostbusters. Proceeds from ticket sales will help support the festival’s 2011 season.
Tickets are $12, or $10 for students/seniors/Mayfair members. They will be on sale at Mayfair Theatre and will sell out fast!
The Magnetic North Theatre Festival is coming home to Ottawa June 4-11 2011.
The Magnetic North Theatre Festival is the premiere festival of new Canadian theatre. Like the Magnetic North Pole itself, the festival moves around the country, treating Canadians to excellence in English theatre from across Canada. Magnetic North gives us the opportunity to share our stories, to interpret our history and our times, and to explore how we see the world.
Ann Connors Named Acting Executive Director For The Magnetic North Theatre Festival
The Magnetic North Board of Directors is pleased to announce that long-time Festival Managing Director Ann Connors will assume the role of Acting Executive Director immediately. She will serve as Executive Director until the Board appoints a new Artistic Director to replace out-going Artistic Director Ken Cameron in 2011. “Ann has been a part of Magnetic North almost since its inception and has served as Managing Director of our past three festivals” says board chair Dale Turri. “She continues to be a strong leader and brings a wealth of knowledge, not only of the festival, but of the broader communities – national and international – that this festival serves.” Read more
Magnetic North Theatre Festival
he Magnetic North Board of Directors is pleased to announce that long-time Festival Managing Director Ann Connors will assume the role of Acting Executive Director immediately. She will serve as Executive Director until the Board appoints a new Artistic Director to replace out-going Artistic Director Ken Cameron in 2011. “Ann has been a part of Magnetic North almost since its inception and has served as Managing Director of our past three festivals” says board chair Dale Turri. “She continues to be a strong leader and brings a wealth of knowledge, not only of the festival, but of the broader communities – national and international – that this festival serves.” Read more
Ken Cameron steps down after three years at helm of Magnetic North Theatre Festival
Artistic Director, Ken Cameron, has decided to return to his first love – writing – after three years at the helm of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival.
“We are sorry to be losing Ken but respect his desire to return to the creation, rather than curation, of art.” says Dale Turri, chair of the board of directors. “The board and staff recently completed an extensive strategic planning process that has strengthened our mandate and we remain absolutely committed to the presentation of the best in Canadian theatre to communities from coast to coast to coast. Ken has been a key player in this process and has left a legacy for which he can be very proud.”
