Last week I mentioned in this space I would be attending the annual DAPA season announcement at the Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre in downtown St. Catharines, which was scheduled this year to dove-tail nicely with all the Art City activities going on around the downtown last Saturday. Unfortunately I was unable to stay for the entire presentation, but I was able to get a quick look at what's to come for the 2012-2013 season for those of us who enjoy live theatre and dance throughout the fall/winter/spring season.
For the uninitiated, DAPA stands for the Downtown Alliance for the Performing Arts, an umbrella organization for seven of Niagara's more innovative performing arts companies, all of whom use the space at the Courthouse Theatre for their activities. Missing this year is Lyndesfarne Theatre Projects, one of the larger tenants in the space, as they moved earlier this year to the Seneca Theatre in downtown Niagara Falls. Time will tell if the audience moves with Kelly and her theatre company, and I will be writing more about them in the coming weeks. But the remainder of the companies ulitizing the theatre space at the Courthouse Theatre, Carousel Players, Essential Collective Theatre, neXt Company Theatre, Niagara Dance Company, Stray Theatre, Suitcase in Point and Theatre Beyond Words will all be filling the space with some creative ventures throughout the coming months.
In all, 19 different productions, festivals and special events will be presented, 16 of which will operate out of the Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre. According to Jane Gardner, General Manager of Carousel Players, "This year many of our companies are premiering new work by Niagara writers and choreographers" including Carousel Players themselves, who will be opening their season with Water Under the Bridge on October 13th. It's described as a new participatory play for children set in 1812 and is written by St. Catharines-basd writers Carrie Costello and Michaela Washburn.
Essential Collective Theatre, specializing in producing contemporary Canadian playwrights, will present White Crow by local writer Dawn E. Crysler over two weeks from November 22nd to December 2nd. The play tells the story of a young girl struggling to keep the family farm running while coping with the early onset of her father's dementia.
neXt Company Theatre presents Khalida, a new play written and directed by David Fancy, a professor at Brock University, about a man in flight from the Middle East who finds himself in an oil-producing country in the economic North. The play runs from February 26th to March 2nd at the Courthouse Theatre.
Niagara Dance Company will be expanding its programming of contemporary dance works, workshops and mentorship opportunities for Niagara performers and choreographers with Merge, a new Cultural Capital of Canada project featuring choreography with a theme of "Crossing Boundaries" by local artists Elizabeth Chitty and Artistic Director Mary Jo Mullins. The production runs from November 16th to the 18th at the Courthouse.
Meantime, Stray Theatre presents The Country by Martin Crimp, one of Britain's most exciting playwrights. The story involves a couple who have uprooted themselves and moved out of the city in order to get away from...something. But have they? We'll find out when The Country plays from October 18th to the 27th at the Courthouse.
Suitcase in Point presents a new Sketch Comedy Workshop Presentation that builds on their very popular Cabaret series, which will run February 2nd of next year. They will also be hosting the 5th annual In The Soil Arts Festival in venues throughout St. Catharines from April 26th to the 28th. This is fast becoming one of the premiere spring music festivals in the area, and just keeps getting better every year.
Finally, Theatre Beyond Words presents their ever-popular Potato People: Tales from the Garden 2013 for family audiences from March 8th to 9th next year. They also have a new work in the development stage called Mr. Punch, based on the writings of Neil Gaiman.
All seven professional theatre and dance companies came together in 2008 to form DAPA, in order to develop and promote audiences in downtown St. Catharines in advance of the opening of the new performing arts centre downtown. That venue, of course, has been delayed due to projected cost overruns on the bidding process, so the projected completion date is now the fall of 2015. That can't come soon enough for most of us, but I think everyone realizes we can't afford to screw it up, so if it takes some extra time to get things done right, so be it. The people I talked to Saturday evening remain optimistic about the future of the centre, so that is a good sign. Let's keep thinking positively on this and hope for the best. it might not be the fancy shrine we were first promised, but at least we'll have a modern, purpose-built performing arts centre in the downtown core, and that remains the target.
In the meantime, lots of great theatre and dance await us at the Courthouse Theatre in the coming season, so let's get out and support our performing arts organizations!
September 23rd, 2012.
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