Mustard Jan. 3-28 PRODUCTION SPONSOR
Mustard Written by Kat Sandler CREATIVE TEAM Nick Andison Co-Lighting Designer Ashlie Corcoran Director Dorian Foley Fight Director Michael Gianfrancesco Set & Costume Designer Robin Munro Stage Manager Anita Nittoly Associate Fight Director Christopher Stanton Sound Designer Graeme S. Thomson Lighting Designer Christine Urquhart Assistant Set & Costume Designer CAST Conrad Coates Leslie Sarah Dodd Sadie Rebecca Liddiard Thai Tony Nappo Bug Anand Rajaram Mustard Travis Seetoo Jay Cover photo: Anand Rajaram by Jim Ryce. TARRAGON 2017/18 SEASON SPONSOR TARRAGON EXTRASPACE SPONSOR
Director s Note Written by Ashlie Corcoran I am so excited that Mustard is returning to Tarragon Theatre. This is a play that I deeply care about, and I am incredibly pleased that it is going to have another life. This was Kat Sandler s and my first collaboration, and through our process we established a deep affection for each other. She is a wickedly smart, funny, and subversive theatre creator, and she has created a wickedly smart, funny, and subversive piece! At the same time, Mustard has so much heart. At the centre of it, this is a play about love, in all of its wonderful and tricky iterations. It is fantastic to be reunited with the majority of our incredible cast and creative team people who were instrumental in the shaping of this piece. I am also so happy to welcome Travis Seetoo and Conrad Coates into our fold, and of course, am so thrilled to be able to share this piece with all of you. Thanks so much for joining us!
Artist Biographies NICK ANDISON Co-Lighting Designer At Tarragon: as lighting designer: Midsummer (a play with songs), Mustard (2016); as assistant lighting designer: The Realistic Joneses, Wormwood, The Valley, No Great Mischief. Other Theatre: Theatre Smash (as lighting designer: Das Ding), Shaw Festival 2017 (as assistant lighting designer: The Madness of George III, Dancing at Lughnasa, A Christmas Carol), Mirvish (as assistant lighting designer: Butcher), Soulpepper (as assistant lighting designer: True West, Farther West), Thousand Islands Playhouse (as lighting designer: Das Ding, as assistant lighting designer: No Great Mischief ). Other: Graduate of Ryerson Theatre School, BFA Honors. CONRAD COATES Leslie Since 1985, Conrad Coates has acted in theatre, film, television and radio. Conrad s performed in more than 60 stage productions across the continent, including two seasons at The Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Mr. Coates has more than 120 television and film credits to his name. Since 1998, he s been an associate drama teacher and director with SuiteLife: Arts For Youth, a not-for-profit educational and performance community outreach organization. For the past 8 years, along with his commitments to his continuing success as an actor, Conrad is a professor of acting at Toronto s Seneca College. Mr. Coates is a member of the SAG, ACTRA and the CAEA. ASHLIE CORCORAN Director Originally from White Rock, British Columbia, Ashlie Corcoran directs both theatre and opera, working across Canada and internationally. She is the Incoming Artistic Director of the Arts Club in Vancouver and Artistic Producer for Theatre Smash here in Toronto. Ashlie s relationship with Tarragon runs deep she started her career as the theatre s administrative assistant and apprentice stage manager. Later she was an assistant director on No Great Mischief, and after that was the Urjo Kareda Emerging Artist in 2010/11. She directed The Ugly One in 2014. Ashlie was the Artistic Director of the Thousand Islands Playhouse from 2012-2017, where she directed 15 productions. Additional credits include directing Das Ding (The Thing) (Theatre Smash/Canadian Stage/ TIP); The Gay Heritage Project (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre/National Tour); Kiss (Theatre Smash/Canadian Stage/ARC); Me and My Girl (Shaw Festival); Bed & Breakfast (Centaur Theatre, Belfry Theatre) and 10 projects at the Canadian Opera Company. Upcoming: Mamma Mia (Citadel Theatre) SARAH DODD Sadie At Tarragon: Humble Boy, The Fall, Communion, The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs. Other theatre: Company Theatre (Domesticated, A Whistle in the Dark, Marion Bridge Dora Award), Outside the March (Terminus), Nightwood (Age of Arousal, The Penelopiad Dora Award/Ensemble), Factory Theatre (Bingo), Canadian Stage (A Midsummer Night s Dream), Stratford Festival (Treasure Island, Romeo and
Juliet, The Breathing Hole, The Importance of Being Earnest, House of Atreus, Richard III, The Swanne, Merchant of Venice, The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull, Macbeth, Private Lives). Selected TV credits: Anne, Reign, Rookie Blue, Murdoch Mysteries. Upcoming: Comedy of Errors, Paradise Lost (Stratford Festival). DORIAN FOLEY Fight Director At Tarragon: Mustard 2016. Other fight director credits include: St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival (Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet), Single Thread Theatre Co (Famine, Henry V, Othello, Zastrozzi), Queen s University (Lear, Drums in the Night, Old Enough to Kill), Stratford Festival (as Fight Captain: The Lark, Henry VIII, Macbeth, The Adventures of Pericles). MICHAEL GIANFRANCESCO Set & Costume Designer At Tarragon: Little One, Other People s Children. Michael has designed for theatres across Canada including the Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, Canadian Opera Company, National Ballet of Canada, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Opera Atelier, Tarragon Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times, Canadian Stage Company, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, The Grand Theatre, Citadel Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Segal Centre, Centaur Theatre Company, Acting Up Stage, Studio 180, Against the Grain, Young People s Theatre, Neptune Theatre, Queen of Puddings Music Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Ross Petty Productions, Canadian Rep Theatre. Michael s set design for Cabaret at the Shaw Festival was featured at the Prague Quadrennial for Performance Design and Space in 2015. He is a recipient of the Virginia and Myrtle Cooper Award in Costume Design from the Ontario Arts Foundation. REBECCA LIDDIARD Thai Select theatre credits: Cue 6 Theatre (Kate and Sam Are Not Breaking Up - Dora Award nomination Outstanding Female Performance in a Supporting Role), Women in War Project (Electra in Bosnia, Iphegenia); Ryerson Theatre (Summerfolk, The Piper, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside). Film & TV: Alias Grace, Houdini & Doyle, Slasher, Reign, The Detail, For Love & Honor, Saving Hope, and Francine Zuckerman and Deb Filler s award-winning short Mr. Bernstein. You can catch Rebecca as Morality Officer Mary Shaw on the new CBC series, Frankie Drake Mysteries. ROBIN MUNRO Stage Manager At Tarragon: Marine Life; (ASM): Much Ado About Nothing, Waiting Room, An Enemy of the People, The Valley. Other theatre credits include: (stage manager): Three seasons with Nova Scotia s Two Planks and a Passion Theatre; I m Doing This For You (Soulpepper); I, Claudia (Talk Is Free Theatre - Tour); S/W, The Charge of the Expormidable Moose (One Little Goat Theatre); The Death of Mrs. Gandhi and the Beginning of New Physics (Everything But The Bard) Macbeth: Walking Shadows (Shakespeare in the Ruff); True (Criminal Theatre); (ASM): Incident at Vichy, Twelve Angry Men (Soulpepper); Little Women (Theatre New Brunswick); Sultans of the Street (YPT); New Jerusalem (Harold Green Jewish Theatre).
TONY NAPPO Bug At Tarragon: The Real World, The Summoned, God in Need of Help, The Golden Dragon, Alias Godot, Little Mercy s First Murder, Side Man, Motel Hélène. Other theatre credits include: Why Not Theatre/ Mirvish (Butcher), Mirvish/Studio 180 Theatre (God of Carnage) Outside The March (Murderers Confess at Christmas Time), Canadian Stage (Another Africa, The Cosmonaut s Last Message), Luminato (The Africa Trilogy), Canadian Stage/Nightwood Theatre (Wild Dogs), Next Stage Festival (Sudden Death), Factory Theatre (Problem Child, The Gwendolyn Poems, Home is My Road), Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Hosanna), Crow s Theatre (The Seagull, The Dirty/Beautiful, Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love), Theatre Calgary (A Streetcar Named Desire), Shakespeare By The Sea (Much Ado About Nothing), Centaur Theatre (Paradise by the River). ANITA NITTOLY Associate Fight Director Anita has been working in the world of theatrical and filmic violence since her discovery of stage combat while attending Humber s Acting for Film & TV program. Since graduation, Anita has worked acted aggression on stage with the Blyth Festival (2014: Fight Director of Kitchen Radio, Stag & Doe), the Canadian Opera Company (2014/15/16: Assistant Fight Master of Don Quichotte, Die Walkure, Carmen), and the Stratford Festival (2013: Assistant Fight Director and 2017: Associate Fight Director). She has most recently worked on The 39 Steps at Centaur Theatre in Montreal. Anita is also the Stage Combat Instructor at the National Theatre School in Montreal, and with the Academy of Dramatic Combat in Toronto. Anita also works as a stunt performer for film and TV (selected credits: Dark Matter - lead double, KIN -stunt actor, Designated Survivor, 12 Monkeys, Murdoch Mysteries). ANAND RAJARAM Mustard At Tarragon: Much Ado About Nothing. Other theatre credits include: work as an improviser, actor, playwright, director, musician, puppeteer, teacher, & performance artist with VideoCabaret, CORPUS, Second City, The Stratford Festival, Canadian Stage, Odyssey Mask Theatre, Puppetmongers; As playwright: Hys Unauthoryzed Lyfe & Tymes, Communist Til Payday, Cowboys & Indians. Film & TV: Deepa Mehta s Beeba Boys, Look Again, God and Country, Harriet the Spy, My Own Country, Men With Brooms, Suits, Working The Engels, The Jon Dore Show, Majority Rules, You Are Here, Suck, Old Stock, Across The River To Motor City, and Vikram Dasgupta s award-winning short Calcutta Taxi. KAT SANDLER Playwright Kat Sandler is a writer, director and the Artistic Director of Theatre Brouhaha, where she has directed twelve of her original plays, 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). She was a member of the Tarragon Playwrights Unit, where she developed, Mustard (Dora Mavor Moore Award, Outstanding New Play), wrote and staged an adaptation of The Donnellys with Tarragon and Scarborough Arts, and is currently Tarragon s Canada Council Playwright in Residence. 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. Kat will direct her newest play, Bang Bang, for Factory Theatre in February 2018. TRAVIS SEETOO Jay Theatre (Selected): 1837: The Farmers Revolt, Pygmalion, Juno and the Paycock, Lady Windermere s Fan, Cabaret, Me and My Girl, Guys and Dolls, Sweet Charity (Shaw Festival), Jack in Into the Woods (Thousand Islands Playhouse), The Pirates of Penzance, You re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Stratford Festival), West Side Story (Citadel), Rolf in The Sound of Music (Theatre Aquarius), Sleeping Beauty (Ross Petty Productions), Dear Santa (Upper Canada Playhouse), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Moonpath). Training: Banff Centre/Citadel Professional Training Program, Slate Family Academy, (Shaw Festival). Upcoming: The title role in The Magician s Nephew and Erik in Grand Hotel at Shaw Festival in 2018. CHRISTOPHER STANTON Sound Designer Christopher is a performer, director, writer, sound designer, and composer. He was recently seen in Will Eno s Title and Deed, part of Tarragon s Workspace season. His stage work has taken him across Canada to Toronto, Edmonton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Montreal and internationally to New York, Bogotà, Munich, Brisbane, Dublin, and Vienna. He has been nominated for 13 Dora Awards across disciplines, winning twice (for direction in 2017, and for performance in 2011). Stanton is also the Artistic Producer of Torontobased indie performance company ARC. www.onebandoflight.com, www.arcstage.com GRAEME S. THOMSON Lighting Designer At Tarragon: Wormwood, The Valley, Scorched, Leo, The Oxford Roof Climbers Rebellion, No Great Mischief, Three in the Back, Two in the Head, On the Verge, Blood Relations, Member of the Wedding, among others. Other theatre credits include: Mirvish (The Heart of Robin Hood), Soulpepper (True West, Farther West). Other: Recipient of Five Dora Awards (including Outstanding Set Design for The Collected Works of Billy the Kid; Outstanding Lighting Design for Remnants). CHRISTINE URQUHART Assistant Set & Costume Designer Christine Urquhart has worked as a designer in the UK, Europe, New Zealand and Australia; an itinerant designer seeking to work with incredible collaborators. International favourites include: Medea (Zen Zen Zo), The Wholehearted and The Island (Massive Company/National Theatre Scotland), Die Fledermaus (Welsh National Opera), Potatostamp Megalomaniac (Pressure Point Theatre) and Call of the Sparrows (Proudly Asian Theatre). In Toronto: Stupid f*cking Bird (Bird Collective), Dancocks Dance and Hogtown (Hogtown Collective), The Good Doctor Holmes (Theatre Passe Muraille), What Linda Said, The Nails, Reality Theatre, Rootless and Divine (Summerworks) and Grimly Handsome (Theatre Animal). This year she has designed in the feature film; Language, an experimental, multi lingual reimagining of King Lear and horror film, Lifechanger. In the new year she is designing Good Morning Viet - Mom and Jonno in Next Stage Festival. www.urquhartdesign.com
On stage this February Tarragon Theatre is an active member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT), the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), Creative Trust Working Capital for the Arts, and Theatre Ontario, and engages professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors Equity Association under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement.