News

2012 Production To Play London, Kitchener as well as Guelph

Touchmark's board of directors recently approved a two-year plan which will see the company's 2012 production mounted not just at the River Run Centre in Guelph but at the Arts Project in London and the Registry Theatre in Kitchener as well.

Roughly twenty-one performances of a play to be named later will be given in consecutive runs at the three venues within a four-week span, Jan 25 - Feb 19, 2012.

The goal of the new plan is to gain access to a larger audience. "We need to earn a larger proportion of Touchmark's annual revenue from ticket sales in order to operate on a sustainable basis," says Producing Artistic Director Douglas Beattie. "Playing in London and Kitchener as well as in Guelph should allow us to serve all our patrons well into the future."

New Play Workshop Set for January, 2011

Touchmark will workshop a new adaptation of two short plays by early twentieth-century Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello (author of Six Characters in Search of an Author) in the week of January 3, 2011. Reading presentations will be given at the Registry Theatre in Kitchener (Jan 7), at the Arts Project in London (Jan 8) and at Temple Studios in Guelph (Jan 9).

The adaptation will be the latest script by Touchmark's Artistic Director Douglas Beattie (author of Courting Italians and Blessings in Disguise). It will sit in the middle of Touchmark's mandate to produce well-crafted comedies and dramas from a variety of countries and periods with an emphasis on plays not often performed, including those by well-known playwrights.

The cast size for the one-acts will be ideal for a Touchmark production to be mounted later on. Each play requires one woman and two men. The same actors will appear in both plays and have a chance to shine in contrasting roles. The first play is a drama; the second, a comedy.

As with last season's workshop of Courting Italians, the cast and playwright will assemble for three days of rehearsals and rewrites before making the three reading presentations and inviting audience feedback. The playwright will then hone the script and, if all goes well, Touchmark will produce the premier production in a later season, probably 2013.

Touchmark to Tour Holiday Play by Dan Needles

Touchmark's production of The Last Christmas Turkey by Wingfield playwright Dan Needles will be performed in eight different commmunities next December including Guelph, Kitchener and Stratford.

Touchmark patrons with children and grandchildren aged eight and up (approximately) should mark the dates on their calendars - River Run Centre Main Stage, Dec 19; Centre in the Square, Dec 20; Stratford City Hall Auditorium, Dec 10 & 11 - and be sure to take in this rollicking holiday treat.

Two brilliant actor-puppeteers, Christine Brubaker and Eric Woolfe, will bring this charming tale to life under the direction of Touchmark's Producing Artistic Director Douglas Beattie.

The play, which runs a little over an hour, is a streamlined version of the Theatre Collingwood hit which opened in 2005 and was revived in 2007. For more information click on "december tour" at left.

Top Photo: Michael Spencer-Davis A Phoenix Too Frequent 2004
Inset: Italian Playwright Luigi Pirandello in 1934