#56 - PlayME - Bang Bang - Episode 2 / 4

A Factory commissioned world premiere.

Featuring: Sébastien Heins, Jeff Lillico, Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah, Karen Robinson and Richard Zeppieri.

A white playwright uses the shooting of an unarmed young Black man by a police officer as a “jumping off point” for his hit play that is soon to be adapted into a major movie. As Hollywood comes knocking for the writer, he makes a surprise visit to the home of the officer involved. With Sandler’s trademark wit, BANG BANG traces the impact of what it means to be inspired by true events.

Buy tickets: https://www.factorytheatre.ca/
Plays at the Factory Theatre, Toronto, Canada
February 1-24, 2018
Use the discount code, "playmepod" for a 10% for PlayME listeners.

BIOS:

Kat Sandler - playwright / director

Kat Sandler is a writer, director and the Artistic Director of Theatre Brouhaha. She has directed twelve of her original plays in the last six years, including Toronto Best of Fringe hits Bright Lights, Punch Up and Help Yourself (winner of the New Play Contest), Delicacy (Summerworks Spotlight Award), and Liver, Cockfight and Retreat (Storefront Theatre). Other directing credits include Big Plans, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Cabaret, and The Goat, or Who is Sylvia. She was a member of the Tarragon Playwrights Unit, where she developed Mustard (Dora Mavor Moore Award, Outstanding New Play), and is currently the Canada Council Playwright in Residence at Tarragon. She was the 2015 recipient of NOW Magazine’s Audience Choice Award for Best Director and Best Playwright. Kat is a graduate of the Queen’s University Drama Program.

Sébastien Heins

Sébastien Heins is an acclaimed actor and playwright. After two seasons in Stratford (The School for Scandal, Timon of Athens, Breath of Kings: Rebellion & Redemption), he is thrilled to be making his Factory Theatre debut in BANG BANG, alongside such a dynamic team, lead by Kat Sandler. He is a founding company member of Outside the March (Mr. Burns, Vitals, Mr. Marmalade), the creator of the one-man show Brotherhood: The Hip Hopera (Toured Canada, NYC, and India), and will return to Stratford this year in The Tempest, as Ferdinand. He thanks his family, friends, and amazing partner Dasha for their love, support, and dedication.

Jeff Lillico

For Theatre: Factory debut. Soulpepper (including Signature Theatre, NYC), Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Shaw Festival, Stratford Festival, Canadian Stage, Mirvish, Buddies in Bad Times, Tarragon, Studio180, Theatre Panik, Musical Stage Company, Theatre20, National Arts Centre, Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre Calgary, GEVA Theater & Charlottetown Festival. Jeff received a Dora award for his work in The Light in The Piazza, and four Dora nominations for Tom at the Farm, Grey Gardens, Our Town & The Glass Menagerie. For Screen: On the Basis of Sex, Designated Survivor, Rocky Horror Picture Show (2016), Copper, Flashpoint, Murdoch Mysteries, Separation, The Ticket.

Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah

Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah is a Dora-nominated, actor, writer, and producer. Since completing the Humber Theatre Performance Program, she has made a point of aligning herself with artists that share her desire to create and tell stories that push our societal boundaries. Notable credits include; Laertes in Ravi Jain’s Prince Hamlet, Claudette in How Black Mothers Say I Love You, Queen Elizabeth I in The Queen’s Conjuror, Black Woman in We Are Proud to Present..., St. Monica in Unit 102’s The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Othello in Go Play Producing’s Othello, and Jessica in Scapegoat Collective’s Cloud.

Karen Robinson

Recent: Prince Hamlet (WhyNot); Measure For Measure & The Winter’s Tale (Groundling). Six seasons at Stratford include Harlem Duet and Shakespeare In Love. Other: The Importance of Being Earnest & Stuff Happens (NAC); The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble (Obsidian); Intimate Apparel (ATP); Doubt (Citadel); da KINK in my hair (San Diego; UK). TV: Schitt’s Creek, Frankie Drake, Shoot The Messenger (CBC); The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu); Mary Kills People (Lifetime); Salvation (CBS); Morning Show Murders (Hallmark); Slings and Arrows (Showcase). Awards: a Dora, an ensemble NAACP Award, a Sterling, and the Best Actress Award at the Salento International Film Festival in Italy.

Richard Zeppieri

For Factory Theatre: River Lady, The Leisure Society, Beyond Mozambique, and 6 Essential Questions. Other theatre credits include: Laurence and Holloman, Girl in the Goldfish Bowl and Carried Away on the Crest of a Wave for Tarragon Theatre. Lady in the Red Dress for Fu- GEN. Zadie’s Shoes at the Wintergarden theatre. Filumena for Stratford. Mr. Zeppieri is a Gemini Award recipient and can next be seen in the feature film Little Italy.