Snout at The Realtors Expanse Movement Arts Festival
Saturday, March 10 at 7pm
The Westbury Theatre, TransAlta Arts Barns

In the dark, I hear the wolf. He is digging his snout into the belly of the sun. He tears through her rays and feasts on her kindness and generosity. He nibbles on her love and he eats her light. She doesn’t scream. She’s been waiting for this. In my dream, I know: she’s been waiting for this. The wolf, he tells her he protects his loved ones, but really, the wolf betrays her secrets, spills them out onto the street for everyone to see.

Written by Megan Dart
Directed by Beth Dart
Choreographed by Ainsley Hillyard
Starring Nikolai Witschl, Richard Lee, Cole Humeny & Amber Bissonnette

A study of the roles women put on and take off in and out of the home, The Kitchen Sink Project spans the decades and brings together a collection of deeply moving, hysterical, bizarre and heartbreaking (her)stories inspired by the kitchen sink.

To date, more than 75 stories have been gathered from around the world. Catch the Keys is inviting women of all walks of life to share their stories and join the conversation. Stories collected will be transformed into a multidiscplinary stage work in Catch the Keys’ 2013 season. Featuring readings by Morgan Smith and Mary Hulbert.

The Kitchen Sink Project
Saturday, January 21 @ 4:00pm-5:45pm
Basement, Hudson’s On Campus Pub (11113 87 Avenue)

Catch the Keys is making its first trek down Highway 2 to take part in the Site Specific Spectacular hosted by our friends and yours, Swallow-a-Bicycle, as part of the 26th annual High Performance Rodeo.

Dancers in a freight elevator? Acrobats in the boiler room? Actors on a rooftop?!

Welcome to the Site-Specific Spectacular, a mini-festival featuring performances in the most bizarre locations imaginable. In four distinct tours, more than 50 artists will climb the heights of the Calgary Tower and explore the depths of the EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts.

Catch the Keys takes on the Calgary Tower in the first of four tours, featuring a performance by Ainsley Hillyard of Good Women Dance Society and Colin Matty, actor and member of Breath in Poetry’s Team Edmonton, the 2011 Canadian Festival of Spoken Word Champions.

TOUR #1: Needle in the Sky
January 12-14, Calgary Tower
Thursday-Saturday: 7:30, 8:30 & 9:30 pm
Saturday: 1:00 pm

Tour Guides: Mark Ikeda & Richard Lee

Featuring:
Catch the Keys Productions
Kaely Dekker
Kristin Eveleigh
Elaine Weryshko
Patrick Quinn
Humble Wonder Theatre
Jennifer Roberts

Get your Site Specific Spectacular Passports before they’re gone!

Read what the Edmonton Journal had to say about Dead Centre of Town

Read what The Gateway had to say about Dead Centre of Town

Catch the Keys Productions presents the fifth annual
Dead Centre of Town: Twisted
Avenue Theatre (9030 118 Avenue)
Thursday, October 27 at 9pm
Tickets $12, available at the door
Starring: Stuart Hoye, Adam Keefe, Christine Lesiak, Vincent Forcier, Colin Matty,
Steve Pirot, Zvonimir Rac, Morgan Smith & Nikolai Witschl

Dead Centre of Town is Catch the Keys’ annual interactive historical Halloween theatre experience. Dead Centre of Town has taken place in such haunted locations as The Globe Bar and Tap House (2007), which was once a mortuary, The ARTery (2008) which lives on the only complete and unaltered pre-World War One streetscape in Edmonton, The Iron Horse, which was the first train station on the south side of the river (2009), and New City Suburbs, which was once a Vaudeville theatre before becoming one of Edmonton’s first moving picture houses (2010).

BEWARE: Dead Centre of Town ain’t for the faint of heart, kittens. Performances contain extreme violence, ghastly gore and unsettling themes, and are intended for an 18+ audience only.

Catch the Keys is proud to provide stage management and publicity support to Edmonton’s public reading of controversial play Homegrown by Catherine Frid.

Homegrown Controversy:  Edmonton joins in on Canada-wide readings of controversial play

Edmonton theatre community takes cautious approach to controversial play

The Summerworks Affair: Cheap shots at the expense of artists

Join the discussion Friday, July 15 at 8pm at the Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts (11731 93 Street). Featuring Michele Brown, Michael Peng, Jamie Cavanaugh, Jason Chinn and Scott Schpley. Directed by Garett Spelliscy. 

Public Reading of Controversial Play Provides Canadians Opportunity to Make up their Own Minds

(Edmonton: July 11, 2011) – Leading theatre artists from across Canada are banding together to respond to a national controversy by staging simultaneous public readings of Catherine Frid’s Homegrown, a story of a Toronto lawyer/writer who meets and befriends a prisoner accused of homegrown terrorism – one of the so-called “Toronto 18.”

During its first production at the 2010 Summerworks Theatre Festival, Homegrown was the centre of political attention; Andrew MacDougal, spokesperson for the Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Office, was reported saying “we are extremely disappointed public money is going towards funding plays that glorify terrorism.” While critics strongly disagreed, citing the play an intelligent examination which neither supports nor romanticizes terrorism, but rather raises important questions about the government’s involvement, Summerworks Theatre Festival lost its federal funding for the 2011 season. Negative sentiments for both the festival and the play on behalf of the government were further compounded by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s recent remarks, saying “we actually don’t believe in festivals and cultural institutions assuming that year after year after year, they’ll receive government funding from the Government of Canada.”

In the vein of The Wrecking Ball – a grassroots political arts awareness campaign simultaneously held across the country during the 2008 and 2011 elections – theatre companies from more than five provinces will stage simultaneous public readings of Homegrown in an effort to provide audiences an opportunity to become informed and answer the question “What’s all the controversy about?”

Edmonton’s theatre community will respond with the expected passion and commitment. The reading, being held at the Stollery Gallery at The Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts on Friday, July 15 at 8pm, will see local actors Michele Brown, Michael Peng, Jamie Cavanagh and Jason Chinn as directed by Garett Spelliscy take on the controversial script.

“The professional community in Edmonton has been very supportive of this project,” says director Garett Spelliscy, “I’m an indie guy and I have no real resources of my own, but senior industry professionals like Michael Clark, Keltie Brown, Eva Cairns, Elizabeth Ludwig, Kim McCaw and Caroline Howarth have all come forward with personal endorsements, support and advice. They encouraged me to approach this with curiosity, rather than judgment and accusations. I think the result is an evening that reflects Alberta’s independent spirit; a discussion rather than a rally, an artistic inquiry, not a protest.”

A demonstration to show support for fellow Canadian artists, and foster informed dialogue about the issues surrounding this controversy, the reading will initiate discussion with Edmonton theatre-goers.

“We want to start a conversation among artists and audiences about issues this controversy has raised,” continues Spelliscy. “These issues seem to concern the stability of funding for the arts, attitudes towards public funding, freedom of expression, and the role of the arts in Canadian society. This is a national debate, and one we hope Edmontonians are eager to participate in.”

A public reading of Homegrown by Catherine Frid
Stollery Gallery, Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts (11731 93 Street) Friday, July 15, 2011 at 8pm
Michele Brown, Michael Peng, Jamie Cavanaugh & Jason Chinn
Directed by Garett Spelliscy
FREE admission*

*Audiences are encouraged to donate to The Summerworks Theatre Festival, or two shows at Summerworks involving Albertan artists

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