Irresistible Neighbourhoods is a multi-year radio play development project centered on themes of climate and sustainability, which nurtures both emerging and established playwrights to imagine alternative visions for the neighbourhoods they call home. Conceived by Nina Lee Aquino and Judi Pearl
A lonely radio host, broadcasting from a far shore in Newfoundland, inadvertently opens a transmission portal between times. The story that unfolds offers an unforgettable journey from the past, to a life beyond the present, suggesting that everything we need to know is already in the air. Remembering the future is possible for all.
Written by Berni Stapleton
Music Composed by Duane Andrews
Directed by Sarah Kitz
Featuring Deidre Gillard-Rowlings, Anne Hamels, John Koensgen.
Viola: Magali Gavazzi-April, Trumpet/Flugelhorn: Amy Horvey, Double Bass: Paul Mach, Cello: Daniel Parker.
Sound Design and Live Foley: John Gzowski, Dramaturg: Ric Knowles, Climate Dramaturg: Vicki Stroich, Stage Manager: Jackie McCormick
18 Nov 2024
cicadas
In 2035, a podcaster investigating the mysterious disappearances that befell a young family a decade earlier near Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods Park sets the scene for a suspenseful narrative about a very peculiar house. Could a strangely luminous painting unlock long-buried secrets of what flowed beneath their home?
Written by David Yee
Music Composed by Chris Thornborrow
Directed by Nina Lee Aquino
Featuring Erica Anderson, Zach Counsil, Paul Thomas.
Clarinet/Bass Clarinet: Shauna Barker, Cello: Daniel Parker, Piano: Frederic Lacroix, Percussion: Nathan Petitpas.
Sound Design and Live Foley: John Gzowski, Dramaturg: Ric Knowles, Climate Dramaturg: Vicki Stroich, Stage Manager: Jackie McCormick
21 Jun 2024
Proposed Development: 39-Storey Mixed Use Development with Multi-Level Retail and Dwelling Units OR The Cartographers
Centretown, 2044: Twenty years of vertical growth has merged the skyline into an organic life form of its own, teeming with scavengers of all sorts, from raccoons to radio repairmen. In the midst of a power outage, two strangers — Sacha and Oli — traverse the cacophonous ecosystem of a 39-storey tower, all the way from the basement nightclub to its rooftop.
Written by Kel MacDonald and Seth Thomson
Directed by Emily Pearlman
Dramaturg: Ric Knowles
Climate Dramaturg: Vicki Stroich
Sound Designer: Nick Di Gaetano
Coordinator: Jackie McCormick
Featuring: Maryse Fernandes, John Koensgen and Tara J. Paterson
21 Jun 2024
Aquatic Lessons
Val Tétreau is a small Gatineau neighbourhood nestled above a bay on the Ottawa river and to the south of a major thoroughfare street between Hull and Aylmer. In 2044, the community has grappled with increased floods and extreme weather events, but keen community builders have stepped in to make changes. Seven-year-old Benji loves helping his mother, Kate, run the community greenhouse on the tenth floor of their apartment building, but recently experienced an adult-sized tragedy. Saad, a new arrival in the neighbourhood, stays home with his son Ibrahim and struggles to accept a new way of life which wasn't completely his choice. At first, the two parents' differences seem insurmountable, but as the families' lives become more and more intertwined, they find new ways to live together, lead their community forward and help their children grapple with change.
Written by Lily Polowin
Directed by Kristina Watt
Dramaturg: Ric Knowles
Climate Dramaturg: Vicki Stroich
Sound Designer: Nick Di Gaetano
Coordinator: Jackie McCormick
Featuring: Katherine Brett, Ahmed Muslimani and Manon St-Jules
21 Jun 2024
Machines and Moss
Richy, a young cyborg, has been tasked with decontaminating and rebuilding Ottawa decades after the 2026 earthquake precipitated an explosion at the Nuclear Power Plant in the ex-capital. Vanier, once a neighbourhood of Ottawa, is now an independent sovereign community. Many died in the aftermath of the apocalypse, while those who stayed mutated, growing moss and mushrooms on their skins. They became known as Pleasants, plant peasants, able to communicate with trees and plants. As Richy uproots trees and asphalts over plants to erect the cleanest city in the country, Selma, Aminata and Demi—Vanier’s elders—stand in his way. Can these two ways of being co-exist, and at what cost?
Written by Sanita Fejzic
Directed by Kate Smith
Dramaturg: Ric Knowles
Climate Dramaturg: Vicki Stroich
Sound Designer: Nick Di Gaetano
Coordinator: Jackie McCormick
Featuring: Mary Ellis, Sanita Fejzic, Ahmed Muslimani and Joy Mwandemange
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