Wednesday, June 23, 2010 ~ Dufferin Grove Park
For the fifth year, The Cooking Fire Theatre Festival is offering a special matinee program of outdoor theatre for local school groups. An ideal field trip for grades one and up, students will see two exciting and original shows, and make their own pizzas at the park's outdoor wood-fired community bake oven. Register today! If you're already signed up, find important details below.
11:00am-12:00pm ~ Performances
The Spee Society , Toronto - Host
This year we welcome new host The Spee Society, taking over from our beloved guides Les Trouvères. The Spee Society is another name for performer/creator Kiersten Tough, well known to Cooking Fire audiences in a number of guises. She performed at the first ever Cooking Fire Theatre Festival in Zuppa Theatre's Uncle Oscar's Experiment, then again with Zuppa Theatre in Open Theatre Kitchen in the festival's third year, and then went on to create her solo show, Lear's Shadow, for Cooking Fire 2007. In 2008, she was back at the festival, co-creating Hellooo..., with festival co-artistic director Sarah Cormier. Now we are thrilled to have her back again to host this year's performance extravaganza.
Clyde Umnie Co (Toronto) and NACL (Highland Lake, NY) - The Little Farm Show
Created and performed by Tannis Kowalchuk and Jane Wells
Carrot created by Laura Astwood
All other design elements by Sherri Hay and Tannis Kowalchuk
The Little Farm Show tells the story of an organic farmer named Millicent, and a giant, over-grown carrot hepped up on hormones, who has escaped the industrial carrot farm because she is too big to sell. Realizing her destiny is to be broken up and sold as a bag of ‘mini-carrots’, the Carrot makes a break for it, but soon discovers her freakishness out in society. When the play begins, we see Millicent on her little farm, singing and chatting with the audience, doing her chores, while behind her, as the audience can see but she cannot, a giant figure, slowly approaching, sneaking up as discreetly as possible. When Millicent finally spots her, the Carrot throws herself at Millicent’s mercy. She isn’t asking much, just a nice shower of water for her roots and a bit of soil for her bed that night. She tells her story, and Millicent listens, and comments. Their conversation is part dialogue, part duet, part dance. They trill about the benefits of chemically and genetically enhanced vegetables (shelf-life, yield) and then harmonize on the drawbacks - no taste! Finally Millicent suggests that the carrot stay on the farm with her. She can see that although the carrot has not been built for taste, she has got strength and stamina, and will make a good farm worker. The carrot is thrilled and they stroll off into the sunset.
Théâtre Populaire d’Acadie (Caraquet, NB) and Satellite Theatre (Montreal) - GRUB
A show by Marc-André Charron & Mathieu Chouinard. Assistant everything: Noémie Roy-Lavoie.
“Bread and circuses!” said Juvenal. We’re taking him up on it. GRUB is a theatrical exploration of food in all it’s livelihood, insanity and outrageousness.
In a glorious feast touching sometimes upon the clown, sometimes upon the burlesque, yet always the urge of an empty stomach, this play speaks of food and all it’s substitutes, linking it all by a simple but true fact: eating is killing. May it be animals or veggies, eating links us inevitably to the great circle of life. Like the digestive system and all it’s mechanics, every species serves the planetary lunch. In the great jungle, eat... or be eaten!
Grub is at the same time cuisine, recipes, feasts! It’s also survival, struggle, famine. In a world full of the thirsty and the famished, just how far can we go to sustain ourselves? So come, sit down... is that a stomach we hear?
10:00am-11:00am & 12:00pm-2:00pm ~ Pizza Making
Children - and adults too - get to make their own personal pizza at Dufferin Grove Park's outdoor community bake oven. Roll out your own dough, add sauce and cheese, then watch the staff as they cook the pizzas in the wood-fired oven. Feel free to bring your own toppings and other snacks to round out your lunch!
Classes will make pizza in shifts, so you might have some free time in the park. Dufferin Grove Park is an interesting place: tour the park's native species gardens, visit the Cob Courtyard, or check out the cob benches near the wading pool made by students last year.
space
Performances: $3.50 per student
Performances and pizza: $6 per student FULLY BOOKED
Withdrawal deadline: May 17, 2010
To book, or for more information contact: Sarah at cookingfire@gmail.com
Some Important Details...
- The event will take place on Wednesday, June 23, 2010, with performances beginning at 11am (students will see The Little Farm Show, followed by GRUB).
- Due to scheduling constraints we are unable to schedule a rain date. If, in the event of questionable weather, you'd like to be contacted at a phone number other than the main office, please let us know.
- For those of you participating in pizza making the cost will be $6 per child. For those not making pizza, the cost for the performances is $3.50 per child.
- We don't charge teachers and parents for the performances, but we do charge them for pizza - $2.50 per ball of dough with sauce and cheese.
- For those who aren't making pizza, there's plenty of space in the park for a picnic!
- The pizzas may not be a sufficient lunch for everyone, so please ask your students to pack additional snacks and drinks. There is tap water available at the park but we don't sell drinks during class pizza days.
- Please arrive at the pizze oven 5 minutes before your pizza making slot begins so that we can move things along promptly and hand washing can happen before the pizza making starts.
- Everything is payable the day of the matinee by cash or cheque, and you will be issued receipts upon payment. We will not charge you for children who are unable to attend that day.
comments? e-mail cookingfire@gmail.com
The Cooking Fire Theatre Festival gratefully acknowledges the generous support of:
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