#61 - PlayME - Bunny Episode 2

Aroused by inappropriate love, a young woman discovers the power of her own allure. Ever the outsider, she struggles with the social acceptable only to find herself increasingly alone in her desires. Dangerous and disorienting, Bunny is a play about repressive social convention, personal inhibition and desire unleashed.

A Tarragon Theatre production.

BUNNY was commissioned and received its world premiere in August 2016 at the Stratford Festival - Antoni Cimolino, Artistic Director.

Featuring:Gabriella Albino, Maev Beaty, Rachel Cairns, Matthew Edison, Cyrus Lane, Jesse LaVercombe & Tony Ofori. Directed by Sarah Garton Stanley.

Music by Alexander MacSween.

Buy tickets: http://www.tarragontheatre.com/show/bunny/
Plays at the Tarragon Theatre, Toronto, Canada
Feb 21 – Apr 1, 2018
Use the discount code, "bunny20" for a 20% discount.

BIOS:

Hannah Moscovitch - playwright

Tarragon past productions: East of Berlin, The Children's Republic, This is War, Little One/Other People's Children, Infinity. Hannah Moscovitch is an internationally acclaimed playwright whose work have been produced across Canada as well as in the United States, Britain, Ireland, Greece, Japan, Germany, Austria and Australia. Hannah has been the recipient of numerous awards for her work, including the Trillium Book Award, the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, the SummerWorks Prize for Production, both The Scotsman Fringe First and The Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Festival, and the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize administered by Yale University. She is one of Tarragon Theatre's Playwrights-In-Residence. Upcoming Projects: Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story created with Christian Barry and Ben Caplan (Off-Broadway New York 59E59 Theatres), What a Young Wife Ought to Know (2b theatre/Crow's Theatre).

Gabriella Albino

At Tarragon: Debut. Other theatre credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Festival Players), The Penelopiad, As You Like It, Cavalcade (GBTS), In the Heights, Beauty and the Beast, American Idiot, Jesus Christ Superstar (Yes Theatre), Emotional Creature (Nightwood/V-Day). She has worked as an actor developing new Canadian work with Studio 180, Soulpepper, Fu-GEN, Factory Theatre, and Festival Players. Gabriella is currently a member of the Factory Mechanicals, Factory Theatre’s company of emerging actors. She is a recent graduate of the George Brown Theatre School. Upcoming: Mary in Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Mitchell Cushman (Yes Theatre).

Maev Beaty

Maev was last seen at Tarragon in Wide Awake Hearts. In her 18-year professional career she has gathered 50 stage credits from across the country, ranging from new plays (Maev has appeared in 25 Canadian Premieres, including Palace of the End, Proud,Terminus, Passion Play, Parfumerie, Montparnasse and Goblin Market) to the classics (Goneril, Viola, Titania, Rosaline, Hamlet, Helena and Portia, among others). She originated Bunny in her third of four recent seasons at the Stratford Festival. She is a Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award winner, three-time Dora winner and nine-time nominee in both performance and writing. She’s been a proud member of huge theatre ensemble endeavours such as Theatrefront’s The Mill series, Volcano Theatre’s Another Africa (LuminaTO/Canadian Stage) and Nightwood’s The Penelopiad. Next winter she’ll be playing “Hannah Moscovitch” in their play (also created with Ann-Marie Kerr) Secret Life of a Mother at the Theatre Centre.

Rachel Cairns

Rachel trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Theatre credits include The Summoned, Hamlet (Tarragon), Stupid F*cking Bird (Bird Collective), Seeds, Fury (Blythe Festival), Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Cymbeline, Equivocation (Bard on the Beach), Peter and the Starcatcher (Arts Club), Romeo and Juliet (Pilot Theatre, UK). TV credits include: Anne (Netflix), Save Me (CBC), Saving Hope (CTV). She is the creator of three award winning web series, check them out at http://www.rachelcairns.ca/ Up next Rachel will be appearing as Juliet in R&J and Helena in Dream in High Park this summer.

Cyrus Lane

Cyrus is proud to be working at the Tarragon for the first time in Bunny. This winter, he played Scrooge in Ross Petty’s A Christmas Carol: The Family Musical with a Scrooge Loose at the Elgin Theatre. Selected shows from his 6 seasons at the Stratford Festival include The Changeling, Macbeth, As You Like It, Bunny (original production), The Taming of the Shrew, Possible Worlds, Cymbeline, Peter Pan, Titus Andronicus, Richard III and Wanderlust. Happy moving between musicals and dramas, some favourite credits are Twelve Angry Men (Soulpepper – Dora Award, Ensemble), Kiss of the Spider Woman (Talk is Free), Passion Play (Convergence/Outside the March/Sheep No Wool – Dora Award, Ensemble), You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (YPT), The Tin Drum (UnSpun Theatre) and An Inconvenient Musical (Factory). After two seasons at the Shaw Festival, Cyrus acted in several shows for Canadian Stage including Rock N Roll, Habeas Corpus, and Take Me Out. TV credits include Reign, The Border, The Summit, Anne of Green Gables: a New Beginning, and on the Murdoch Mysteries playing Roger Newsome, and now that Roger is dead, his identical twin brother, Rupert. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He sends his love to his wife, writer-comedian Joanne O’Sullivan. They have an 8 year old daughter named Eliza.

Matthew Edison

At Tarragon: Bunny, Marine Life, An Enemy of the People, Sextet, The Real World?, Forests, Midnight Sun. As playwright: The Domino Heart. Other theatre: Killer Joe, Noises Off, Venus in Fur, Race, Amadeus, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Proof, A Christmas Carol, Loot, Awake and Sing!, The Caretaker, The Real Thing, The School for Wives, The Importance of Being Ernest, The 39 Steps, Lawrence and Holloman, Pride and Prejudice, The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Real Thing. Film and TV: The Detail, Save me, The Girlfriend Experience, Dirty Singles, Rookie Blue, Reign, Saving Hope, The LA Complex, Republic of Doyle, Harriet the Spy, Princess, Flash of Genius, The Wild Girl, Murdoch Mysteries, House Party, Are You Afraid of the Dark?. Other: Matthew received two Dora nominations for his play The Domino Heart and for his performance as Hal in Proof, as well as a My Entertainment World award for Killer Joe.

Jesse LaVercombe

At Tarragon: Bunny, Hamlet, Sequence. Other theatre credits include: The Bakkhai (Marigny Opera House, New Orleans), Our Beautiful Sons (Blyth), S h e e t s (Videofag), A Presence of Monster (PuSh Festival), The Ark: Ibsen on Fogo Island (NAC), Mistatim (Red Sky, Canadian Tour), Hacked (Caravan Stage Company, U.S. Tour). TV: American Gods (STARZ), The Detail (CTV), Salvation (CBS), Mayday (Discovery), Save Me (CBC); Films: Mary Goes Round, The Telephone Game, In Clamatore. Writing credits include: Love Me Forever Billy H. Tender (Videofag, NYC Fringe, Kick & Push), Preacher Man (NTS, Festival of Clowns, United Solo Festival [New York]); Short Films: “Philip” and “Tony” (CFC), “The Things You Think I’m Thinking” (Festivals include: SXSW, Slamdance, Whistler, BFI, CFF); writer and contributing editor for Intermission Magazine; 2017 Writer-in-Residence for Driftwood Theatre; commission for a new musical from YES Theatre. Training: National Theatre School, Canadian Film Centre Actors’ Conservatory. www.jesselavercombe.com

Tony Ofori

Born and raised in Toronto, Tony Ofori is a graduate of both Humber’s Theatre Performance program and York University’s BFA program, later training with Second city to round off his theatrical studies. Some of his latest works include, Best of fringe Kids winner Tick, Harold Green’s production of The Model Apartment (Toronto Centre for the Performing arts), Shakespeare in Action a touring show, and Let’s Go (Theatre Passé Muraille Backspace). Aside from theatre, Tony is also a recording hip hop musician, opening for the likes of Asap Rocky, Massari and Scratch from the roots. Tony is absolutely honoured to be working with Tarragon and is excited to work with such an amazing team to tell this amazing story.

Sarah Garton Stanley - Director

For the Tarragon: Director of Spring Training for 3 years and performer and creator for several Spring Festivals.  Other Theatre: Awkward and Embarrassing Conversations About Difference (Neworld) Kill Me Now (RMTC/NAC) Bunny (Stratford) December Man (L’homme de décembre)(NAC), Caught (TPM) Helen Lawrence (Arts Club, CanStage, BAM, Kammerspiele etc.,) We Keep Coming Back (Polish tour + Asheknaz, Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, Chutzpah) Associate Artistic Director of English Theatre, Co-creator and Creative Catalyst SpiderWebShow Performance Sarah is presently a PhD student in Cultural Studies at Queen’s. Upcoming: Liza Balkan’s Out the Window (Luminato/Theatre Centre) and foldA (SpiderWebShow)

Alexander MacSween

Musician, composer and sound designer, Alexander MacSween, has navigated many musical genres and participated in numerous dance, theatre and film projects. As a composer and sound designer he has worked with Natasha Bakht, Marie Brassard, Daniel Brooks, Paul-André Fortier, Dana Gingras, Brigitte Haentjens, François Girard, Jennifer Lacey, Robert Lepage, Montréal-Danse, José Navas, Necessary Angel Theatre Company, Public Recordings and The Stratford Festival. He is active as a drummer and multi-instrumentalist in the fields of rock, electronic and improvised music, having played with Bionic, Foodsoon and The Nils, and in the duo Detention with Sam Shalabi, as well as in Martin Tétreault’s Turntable Quartet. Alexander has created numerous solo musical performances and sound installations. He is also a teacher, giving workshops in live sound processing for the performing arts in diverse institutions around the world. His latest record, The Squiggle Game, is available on & records.