It’s just too beautiful, right?
So beautiful that you had to keep it a secret.
Theatre Smash and ARC are proud to announce they are joining forces as part of Canadian Stage’s 2016/2017 season. Theatre Smash and ARC, in partnership with Canadian Stage, will present the North American premiere of KISS by Guillermo Calderón, directed by Ashlie Corcoran.
KISS runs March 28 – April 16, 2017 at The Berkeley Street Upstairs Theatre. Previews March 28 and 29, 2017. Opening Night on Thursday, March 30, 2017.
Two couples meet for dinner to take their minds off the war raging around them. An unexpected profession of love, an untimely proposal, and one kiss later, one of the foursome lies dead on the floor. Chilean playwright Guillermo Calderón’s newest play breaks open cultural barriers as a group of western actors interpreting a Syrian play slowly realize the limits of their own understanding, and the suffocating effect of an oppressive, omnipresent regime.
Ashlie Corcoran and Christopher Stanton say this of KISS: “We are thrilled to tackle this exciting, troubling and timely play. Through our process, two Canadian companies will interpret a Chilean playwright, who, while living in NYC, wrote a ‘Syrian’ play commissioned by a German company. All of this overlap makes the play a thrilling vehicle with which to explore how artistic practices can comment upon current international events – while raising major questions about cultural representation and permission.”
Theatre Smash was established in 2005 and is run by Artistic Producer, Ashlie Corcoran and General Manager, Stacey Norton. Theatre Smash develops and produces Canadian premieres of international contemporary work. Theatre Smash engages audiences with international writing through the exploration of text, movement, space, and design. Theatre Smash also commissions new translations of international scripts into English. Theatre Smash has been nominated for twelve Dora Mavor Moore Awards and is the recipient of two for The Ugly One. Theatre Smash is currently in partnership with Canadian Stage and in association with the Thousand Islands Playhouse to produce the North American premiere of Philipp Löhle’s DAS DING (THE THING) as the first year of the artist in residency program at Canadian Stage, Berkeley Street Theatre.
ARC, led by Artistic Producer Christopher Stanton, is a diverse company of resident theatre artists dedicated to three central pursuits: presenting contemporary international works that have rarely – if ever – been staged in Canada; taking a rigourous, energetic, and innovative approach to re-imagining world theatre classics; and mining international literature to devise original theatrical work. Since 1998, ARC has been nominated for twelve Dora Awards and won two. Their most recent show, Deirdre Kinahan’s MOMENT — staged on two floors of a converted commercial space in Leslieville — was nominated for six awards and found its way onto many critics’ Best Of Stage lists that year. They are currently preparing their next production for November 2016.
Guillermo Calderón is an award-winning Chilean playwright currently based in New York City. The New Yorker recently called him “an authentic genius of the theatre.” In 2006, Calderón won Best Play of the Year as chosen by the Art Critics’ Circle of Chile. He also won three Altazor Awards in 2007, including Best Director and Best Playwright.
For more information, visit www.canadianstage.com or, call 416 368-3110.
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