A Spontaneous Theatre production by Rebecca Northan

A Workshop Production Presented by the Grand Theatre and the Stratford Festival

One audience member.  One love story.  Ten beats per line.

OCTOBER 11 to 13 – SOLD OUT

LONDON, ONTARIO, October 3, 2018 - The Grand Theatre is thrilled to present on the McManus Stage AN UNDISCOVERED SHAKESPEARE, a Spontaneous Theatre production created, directed by, and featuring Rebecca Northan. This workshop production, presented by the Grand Theatre and the Stratford Festival, will spontaneously create Shakespeare's ’lost play‘ based on one person’s real-life romantic adventures – and all in iambic pentameter. The Title Sponsor for AN UNDISCOVERED SHAKESPEARE is rTraction.

In AN UNDISCOVERED SHAKESPEARE, we find William Shakespeare experiencing writer’s block and searching for his muse to deliver inspiration. At each performance, a willing patron will find themselves invited on stage to sit down with the Bard and share their personal love story.

Northan, an award-winning actor and improviser, returns to the Grand Theatre with 6 of Canada’s top improv talents, following last year’s hot-ticket run of BLIND DATE – another fun and fearless improvisational production that included a willing audience member to play “the date” on stage.

With 30 years of improv experience under her belt, Northan continues to reach for something big, poetic, truthful, and dangerous in her work.

“Our goal of elevating an average person’s love story to ‘Shakespearian heights’ has been truly moving,” said Northan. “You will see us careening between success and failure in any given moment. Shakespeare is teaching me to be a better and more humble improviser.”  

AN UNDISCOVERED SHAKESPEARE is currently in development through the COMPASS New Play Development Program and the Stratford Festival Laboratory. COMPASS is dedicated to creating and premiering new work on the Grand’s stages, and bringing a modern, unconventional, and brand new sense of theatre engagement to London.

“The McManus Stage is the perfect room in which to explore and play,” said Dennis Garnhum, Grand Theatre Artistic Director. “We get to experience a true work in progress; a production in the early phase of development.”  

The Grand Theatre gratefully acknowledges Season Sponsor BMO Financial Group.

Due to the high demand for AN UNDISCOVERED SHAKESPEARE, all four shows from October 11 to October 13, 2018 are sold out.

About the Grand Theatre – World Curious. London Proud.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Dennis Garnhum and Executive Director Deb Harvey, the Grand is a leading cultural hub located in the heart of downtown London, Ontario. The Grand offers diverse, relevant, and original stories from around the globe through collaborations with national and international performing arts organizations and is committed to developing, producing, and premiering original stories through COMPASS New Play Development program. The Grand supports educational programming with The High School Project, the only program of its kind in North America, and 100 Schools, a community initiative that brings professional theatre to London-area schools at no cost. The Grand’s season runs from September to May.

For more information please contact:
Ashley Roberts, Communications Manager, Grand Theatre
aroberts [at] grandtheatre.com (aroberts[at]grandtheatre[dot]com)

519-672-9030 ext. 247

AN UNDISCOVERED SHAKESPEARE

A Spontaneous Theatre production by Rebecca Northan

CAST

Raoul Bhaneja
Belinda Cornish
Ijeoma Emesowum
Bruce Horak
Kevin Kruchkywich
Rebecca Northan
Sophia Perlman

PRODUCTION TEAM

GUEST ARTISTS

Raoul Bhaneja
Actor
For the Grand Theatre:  Debut. Theatre Credits (Selected): Hamlet (solo), Life, Death and The Blues, Disgraced (Hope and Hell Theatre Co./Off-Mirvish); others include the Stratford and Blyth Festivals, Soulpepper, Neptune, PTE, and several world premieres at The Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. Other: Raoul is a Gemini, Dora and Canadian Comedy Award nominee and as a teenager began improvising in the Canadian High School Improv Games and performing Shakespeare on the streets of Ottawa with A Company of Fools. A graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada, he has appeared in almost 100 different television and film projects. He is also leader of the Maple Blues Award-winning band Raoul and The Big Time, semifinalists in the 2018 International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN.

Belinda Cornish
Actor
For the Grand Theatre:  Debut. Theatre Credits (Selected):  Her relationship with Shakespeare includes 9 seasons with the Freewill Shakespeare Festival; as an improvisor, she has been a core company member of DieNasty: The Live Improvised Soap Opera for more than a decade, as well as performing with the renowned English company, Extempore Theatre, and she has completed twenty-two 50-hour improv marathons without sleep. She is a Canadian Comedy Award and Canadian Screen Award nominee. Other: Belinda is thrilled to be embarking on this terrifying ship in such exceptional company. She is also a playwright — she’s even won some prizes — and her next play, a circus adaptation of Dante’s Inferno imaginatively entitled Inferno, will be premiering in Edmonton next January.

Ijeoma Emesowum
Actor
For the Grand Theatre:  Debut. Theatre Credits (Selected): The Changeling, As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Hamlet, Macbeth, Hay Fever (Stratford Festival); The Devil’s Disciple, The Women, Ragtime, Guys and Dolls, A Man and Some Women (Shaw Festival). Select Film and TV Credits: Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Antony and Cleopatra, Timon of Athens (Stratford Festival HD). Other: Stratford Festival Birmingham Conservatory 2016/17, BFA University of Windsor.

Bruce Horak
Actor
For the Grand Theatre: Debut. Theatre Credits (Selected): Bruce has been a part of the spontaneous theatre team since 2010. He has won numerous awards for his work as an actor, writer, and director.  Other: Bruce is originally from Calgary, Alberta where he trained in theatre and Improvisation. When not creating new works and performing onstage, he devotes his time to painting.  His works can be seen at www.brucehorak.com.

Kevin Kruchkywich
Actor
For the Grand Theatre: Debut. Theatre Credits (Selected): Paradise Lost (Stratford Festival); Romeo and Juliet, The Glass Menagerie, The Wars (Theatre Calgary); Death of a Salesman, The Wars (Playhouse); The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Red Priest (Globe); Hedda Gabler (Persephone); The Taming of the Shrew, Henry V, Falstaff (Bard On The Beach); Office Hours, Look No Hans (Drayton); The Secret Annex, The Philadelphia Story (MTC); The Drawer Boy, Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Belfry); Wit, Aberhart Summer, Respectable (ATP); Boeing Boeing, Mesa, The School For Scandal (Arts Club); The Woman In Black (Chemainus); Guys and Dolls (Gateway); Macbeth (theatre nomad- England/South Africa tour); Good Night Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet (BeMe- Germany).

Rebecca Northan
Actor/Director/Creator
For the Grand Theatre: Blind Date. Theatre Credits (Selected): Rebecca is an actor, director, producer, and all-round theatre maker. She is best known for her hit show, Blind Date, which has toured across Canada, the US, and played London’s West End in the UK, as well as off-Broadway. She is a pioneer in ‘spontaneous theatre,’ a hybrid genre of structured theatre and improvisation that she continues to develop through a variety of projects, casting audience members in lead roles. Rebecca is a regular panel member on CBC Radio’s Because News. She has guest hosted This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and has appeared in the feature films The Rocker and Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. Rebecca also teaches improvisation at the Canadian Film Centre and the Stratford Conservatory. She has also worked as an actor across Canada and has won several awards, including several Canadian Comedy Awards and Dora Mavor Moore Awards.

Sophia Perlman
Actor/Musician
For the Grand Theatre: Debut. Theatre Credits (Selected): The Tale of a Town Canada - Music Director (national tour, Fixt Point), Medalta on Strike - Music Director/Sound Designer/Associate Dramaturge (Fixt Point). Other: Sophia Perlman is singer, musician, songwriter, arts facilitator, choral conductor, music director and educator. She is known primarily for her work as a jazz, blues and improvising musician. When not performing, she finds a wide range of work rooted in her belief that music is everyone’s birthright, and that anyone can sing. She currently teaches contemporary music at Mohawk College in Hamilton. www.sophiaperlman.com

Renate  Hanson
Stage Manager
For the Grand Theatre: A Streetcar Named Desire, Cabaret. Theatre Credits (Selected): 13th season at Stratford Festival-assistant stage manager of King John, Christina, The Girl King, Hirsch, Do Not Go Gentle, Cyrano de Bergerac, Zastrozzi, The Trojan Women, Love’s Labour’s Lost, King Lear, A Delicate Balance, Coriolanus, Don Juan, As You Like It, The Lark, Timon of Athens, King John, Troilus and Cressida, Antony and Cleopatra, Henry VI: Revenge in France, The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet, The Trials of Ezra Pound, Good Mother, Elizabeth Rex, Medea and Titus Andronicus. Other theatre includes work with Manitoba Opera, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, and Neptune Theatre.  Other: Graduate of  National Theatre School of Canada. “For Dad.”