November 30, 2006 -

An NAC English Theatre production in association with the National Theatre School of Canada

Ottawa -- For three weeks, some of the country’s finest actors, in addition to a group of second year National Theatre School students, along with scholars, playwrights and coaches, are working in the NAC rehearsal halls to read, untangle, learn about and explore some of the most exciting work in the history of English-language drama, led by NAC English Theatre Artistic Director, Peter Hinton.  (see below for details of the public reading that will result from this project.)

Working on texts by Shakespeare (Comedy of Errors – in a reading rehearsed and performed by NTS students, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra) and many of his most colourful  contemporaries, including Christopher Marlowe (Dido, Queen of Carthage), Thomas Heywood (A Woman Killed with Kindness, and The Fair Maid of the West), and Thomas Dekker (The Witch of Edmonton and The Honest Whore – co-authored with Thomas Middleton), the company spends its mornings discussing the social, political, cultural and literary backgrounds to the plays, including a brief history of the playwright. In the afternoon, company members perform unrehearsed yet nonetheless fascinating  readings of the plays.  One such reading saw Blair Williams read Aeneas to Matthew MacFadzean’s Queen Dido!  Following the reading, company members discuss their discoveries and thoughts with relation to the day’s work.

Other works to be read include Venice Preserved by Thomas Otway, All for Love by John Dryden, The Lucky Chance, by Aphra Behn, and William Congreve`s The Way of the World.   In effect, this one of a kind, ground-breaking theatrical endeavour is something like a survey course for theatre practitioners, of some of the drama of the greatest creative explosion in English-language theatrical writing.

The Ark began on November 20, with the arrival in Ottawa of the majority of the company members, who include:

Actors
Ben Campbell, Clare Coulter, Diane D’Aquila, Allegra Fulton, Kate Hurman, Marcel Jeannin, Matthew MacFadzean, Kelly McIntosh, Sarah McVie, Manon St Jules, Blair Williams, Todd Duckworth, Tanja Jacobs, John Koensgen, Gareth Potter, and Jane Spidell.

NTS Students
Adam Burgess, Hannah Cheesman, Lindsey Clark, Zarrin Darnell-Martin, Kayla Deorksen, Jake Epstein, Shannon Kook-Chun, Robert Leveroos, Brendan McMurty-Howlett, Noah Reid, Andrew Joseph Richardson, and Bridget Wareham.

The company also includes voice coach Kate Hennig and dramaturg Suzanne Turnbull, Directors Leah Cherniak, Simon Cox, Peter Hinton, and Playwrights Sharada K. Eswar, Alison Lawrence, and NAC English Theatre Playwright in Residence, Daniel David Moses. 

Designer Eo Sharp will soon join the group which is Stage Managed by Laurie Champagne.  Ms. Champagne’s apprentice for this project is Samira Rose.

Guests also joining the company on occasion include director Alistair Newton, director Lynda Hill, playwright Rick Chafe, Carleton University professor of history David Dean and director Steven Schipper.

The Ark will draw to a close on Friday December 8, and culminates in a public reading on Saturday, December 9, at 20:00, featuring the full company sharing readings and discoveries with an audience at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church at Kent and Wellington Streets in Ottawa. Tickets are $20 ($15 for English Theatre subscribers), and are available at the NAC Box Office in person or at the Church on the day of the show.

The Ark is made possible with the support of the NAC Friends of English Theatre, Canadian Actors’ Equty and the National Theatre School of Canada.

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Members of the arts media are invited to contact Laura Denker, Communications Officer for the National Arts Centre English Theatre to make arrangements either to sit in on readings, to interview company members or to attend the public reading on December 9.
ldenker@nac-cna.ca; (613) 947 7000 ext. 389