ATP unveils its 2020-21 season
Alberta Theatre Projects building on revival season
When Darcy Evans was appointed executive and artistic director of Alberta Theatre Projects in May 2018, the company was in crisis. The subscription base and single ticket sales were dwindling and ATP was carrying a sizable debt.
Evans vowed to revive ATP as quickly as possible, eventually restoring it to its former glory as one of Canada’s leading innovative theatre companies.
With the success of ATP’S 2018-19 season and especially the first half of its current season, Evans has put APT back on firm ground. He’s determined to keep excitement at a fever pitch with the six plays he’s chosen for the 2020-21 season.
ATP’S 49th season will open from Sept. 16 to Oct. 3 with the Canadian premiere of Chinese-american playwright Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick, a reworking of Shakespeare’s Richard III set in a contemporary high school.
Tired of being mocked and bullied because of his cerebral palsy, Dick and his best friend, wheelchair user Buck, are determined to dethrone the current student president and seduce the most popular girl in school.
Evans, who will direct this premiere, says it’s electrifying and groundbreaking theatre because “it will feature two actors with the disabilities required by the script. We will conduct a national search for these two actors.”
ATP’S Teenage Dick will be a co-production with The Shakespeare Company and Hit & Myth Productions.
From Oct. 21 to Nov. 1, ATP will host Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre production of Daniel Macivor’s blockbuster new play, New Magic Valley Fun Town.
Evans says the critical and audience response to this tragicomedy about the reunion of a pair of Maritime friends in Cape Breton made it one of the highest-grossing productions in Tarragon’s 50-year history. He adds this show is part of his plan “not only to produce the best theatre Calgary has to offer, but to showcase the best theatre other Canadian companies have produced.”
ATP’S last holiday show, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, became the highest-grossing show in the company’s history, so Evans looked for another family classic to continue the tradition. His choice is J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, which runs from Nov. 17 to Dec. 27. Evans will direct Peter Pan and is proud to announce his entire creative team will return.
Daniel Fong and Anna Dalgleish, who starred in The Lion, will play Peter Pan and Wendy.
Evans promises a barrage of laughter when Toronto playwright Kat Sandler’s Bang Bang takes the stage in the Martha Cohen Theatre from Feb. 3-20.
Haysam Kadri will direct this edgy comedy about a white playwright and his washed-up former child star who descend upon the home of a reclusive former police officer, a black man who accidentally shot a black teen, to have a reading of his version of her story. Evans admits “with a title like Bang Bang and its ripped-fromthe-headlines subject matter, this play doesn’t sound like it should be funny, but it is. ”
From March 17-27, ATP will present the world premiere of Alberta playwright Louise Casemore’s solo show Undressed, which Evans commissioned as soon as he read a 17-page initial treatment shortly after he arrived in Calgary.
“I know Calgary audiences will be as blown away by Louise’s writing and performance as I am,” Evans says. “Louise plays a woman who is auctioning six wedding dresses. When she tries each one on, she becomes the bride who wore it. It’s a play and a performance filled with humour and heart, which will be directed by Jenna Rodgers.”
The ambitious season will close with Theatre Calgary’s former artistic director Dennis Garnhum bringing his runaway hit production of the John Kander/fred Ebb classic Cabaret, which he directed for the Grand Theatre in London, Ont., where he’s the artistic director.
The production was so popular that its run had to be extended twice.
Evans says the Martha Cohen Theatre will be converted into the Kit Kat Club of 1920s Berlin, with nine actors playing all the characters in the show, as well as being the orchestra.
Some audience members will sit along massive tables on which the action of the play will unfold, while others will watch from side seating.
“When Dennis saw how wildly popular this Cabaret was, he contacted me and said it would be the ideal fit for the Martha Cohen, and we more than believed him,” says Evans.
Season subscription renewals and new season ticket packages go on sale Feb. 18 beginning at $140 each. Single tickets go on sale June 1.
Visit albertatheatreprojects.com/subscribe2020-21.