Mark Lawes, Executive Artistic Director of Theatre Junction GRAND, announces a new season of international theatre, dance and music which will feature leading performing artists from around the world gracing the stage at Calgary’s culturehouse of contemporary live arts. “In the past few years I have been working closely with theatres and artists in Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia to create an opportunity for audiences in Calgary to come face to face with pioneers of contemporary live art,” says Lawes. “Through the work of the artists this year, I hope to create opportunities for real encounters -- the kind that provoke confrontations and propel both parties into new territories so that they might see the world differently and share new dreams.”

The 09/10 season opens its doors to the world by including shows from Quebec, Toronto, Australia, and Belgium. The season opens September 22^nd with Orpheus and Eurydice by the luminary Compagnie Marie Chouinard from Montreal. Theatre Junction GRAND has presented Chouinard twice before to sold out audiences – first in 2006 with bODY-rEmix / gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS and again in 2008 with The Rite of Spring. In October, hippies and punks unite when STO Union from Wakefield, Quebec, performs 7 Important Things, an exploration of the impacts of the major counter-cultural movements of the 20^th century through the eyes of George Acheson, now in his mid-fifties, who actively participated in both movements.

In November, Theatre Theatre Junction then teams up with Toro

nto’s Crow’s Theatre for the Canadian premiere of the highly lauded psychological thriller, The Country, written by Martin Crimp and directed by Chris Abraham. The show plays in Calgary November 17-28, with Toronto dates in 2010 to be announced. Lawes, who also performs in the show, says, “By tackling the knife-like writing of Martin Crimp we will be offering Calgary the chance to be confronted with one of the great writers of contemporary theatre.”

February sees the return to Calgary by award-winning Australian photographer-storyteller William Yang with China, a meditative journey of reflection on the meaning of culture and belonging. Also in February and from the land down under, Splintergroup performs roadkill, a terrifying ride into the world of a couple who break down in the middle of the Australian outback and find that their greatest danger is not their isolation. In March, Theatre Junction GRAND celebrates the Calgary debut of acclaimed American choreographer Meg Stuart (currently based out of Belgium) who borrows from theatre, visual arts and music improvisation. Meg and her company Damaged Goods perform their latest work, Do Animals Cry, March 10-13, which includes six dancers addressing the family dynamic, with tension and unspoken comfort. The 09/10 season concludes in April by letting loose with the hilariously versatile and amazingly skilled Spaghetti Western Orchestra as they recreate the unforgettable classic Ennio Morricone film scores by using over 100 innovative musical instruments – a sure-fire Western themed hit for Calgarians.

Theatre Junction’s Resident Company of Artists also keep busy in the new year as they tour last season’s new creation, On the Side of the Road, to Toronto in Marchas part of Harbourfront Center’s World Stage. Before the company embarks on its first national tour, they will remount the show, Mar 3-5, giving those who missed its premiere last March, another chance to see the show which The Calgary Herald gave four stars and called, “a smart, big hearted, sexy, strange, hallucinatory, Franco-Western Canadian piece of cottage country mythology”. The show also recently received a Betty Mitchell Award nomination for ‘Best Sound Design’.

Written by :

Kindah

 

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