Here For Now Theatre Podcast

Here For Now 2025 Season Preview with Artistic Director Fiona Mongillo

• Joanne Wallace • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Looking to add a little spice to your summer-theatre menu? We’ve got you covered! Here For Now’s artistic director Fiona Mongillo is here to spill the tea about this summer’s fabulous playbill. 

Tune in for casting highlights, quick synopses of each play, and the true tale of what inspired Fiona to found the company in the first place (spoiler alert: she likes difficult female characters!)

You’ll also get all the scoop on HFN’s new theatre space, along with a special announcement about an exciting addition to the company’s repertoire.

Tickets on sale now!  519.272.4368 www.herefornowtheatre.com 

"Here for Now continues to attract world-class acting and directing talent and is a major outlet for new plays by Canadian playwrights. By any measure, Here For Now has established itself as a vital part of Stratford's theatrical landscape."

   - www.stratfordfestivalreviews.com 

Comments? Questions? Send me your thoughts any time. I read everything you write. joanne@herefornowtheatre.com 

Credits: Producer/Host: Joanne Wallace | Sound Design/Engineering: Jim Park 

Music: Zorro: Oh My God, via Epidemic Sound.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey Theater Junkies, I'm Joanne Wallace with Here for Now Theatre. Coming right up, an in-depth interview with our artistic director, Fiona Mangillo. Fiona's going to tell us all about Here for Now's upcoming 2025 summer season. She's got some exciting casting news and a very special announcement. So make sure you stay right to the end. You don't want to miss this. Fiona Manjillo is the driving force behind Here for Now Theater. She's smart and sassy, and she has more ideas and energy than anyone I know. She's put all of that and more into this season, our first one in our new home. I know you're going to enjoy listening to Fiona as much as I enjoyed our chat. So let's go. So Fiona, welcome. Thanks, Joanne. For anybody who's listening who doesn't really know what Here for Now Theater is, what can you can you give us the elevator pitch?

SPEAKER_00:

Ha, the elevator pitch. Well, Here for Now Theatre Company is an the off-Broadway company in Stratford. Our focus is on one-act plays, new works. Um we appeal to non-traditional theater goers because the stories are more accessible and tend to be a faster pace. Uh our plays do not focus on massive production value. We're not traditional in that way. It's really the scripts and the acting. So it's a pretty humble offering a lot of the time. We don't dress it up. Um, but in that way we also have nothing to hide behind. So the work has to be really good because it's that's all there is.

SPEAKER_01:

And I mean, that is what I hear over and over again from audiences that they have never experienced this level of quality and uh intimacy, like they're just in the moment with the actors because the space is quite small. Um, and again, for those of you who don't know, here for no theater has been performing under a tent for the last few years, uh, but this year are moving into a permanent indoor space. So we're also very excited about that. Uh and promise you that it will be just as intimate as the tent because it's small. There's only 58 seats in there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I think you're you're right to point out the intimacy because that's um that we we never want to lose that. Our new theater, as you said, has 58 seats. Um, so you feel like you're in somebody's living room. And that allows for this level of nuance, right? Because if you're in a gigantic theater on a proscenium stage, then you have to push things out. In in in our theaters, you can whisper something. You know, anything that that goes through somebody's eyes is is seen by the audiences. So it's a really intimate experience.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And you said you've told me before that it's intimate for the actors too. And you've been on that stage. So what's it like?

SPEAKER_00:

Again, you can't hide. So you have to get really specific. And if you're calling anything in, everybody's going to know. Um, so there's something incredibly powerful about that and incredibly vulnerable about that.

SPEAKER_01:

We have five super exciting shows on our playbill this year, and there's a lot to discuss about every one of them. So let's get started. Fiona, the first show opening this season is called Stick Around, and it's by Rebecca Northern. And what can you tell us about it?

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, well, Stick Around is a story about a mother and a daughter who are saying a very short goodbye. Uh, The Only Way They Know How, which is also the funniest way they know how. So this is a dark comedy that Rebecca has pulled strongly from her own life to write. Uh, it's based on a time in her life when she was in her early 20s and her mom was diagnosed with stage four melanoma. And the play is about that last eight weeks between the diagnosis and her passing.

SPEAKER_01:

That sounds really dark. How is that going to be funny?

SPEAKER_00:

It sounds very dark, but it's actually hilarious. I think I think some of the best comedy is born out of the darkest moments because we have to laugh or we will die. Um, and certainly Rebecca talks a lot about her family lineage as being one that the harder the situation, uh, the more they laugh. And that the women in her family always ask each other, her mother, her grandmother, her great-grandmother, what the harder the situation, what can I do to make you laugh?

SPEAKER_01:

And the two characters in this play, they they're using laughter to get through this terrible situation?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think that they, you know, you can really feel the closeness between this mother-daughter duo and the fact that they connect through humor, and that actually a great way of taking care of each other in this difficult time is by making each other laugh. So the dialogue is really snappy. They're really funny, fast-thinking women, and they're a joy to be with.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I read the script actually, and um I like one of the things I love is just this kind of witty repartee, this back and forth zing, zing, zing, and it's so funny. And then on a heartbeat, it turns and it's it's terrible, it's tragic. Um, but I think uh Rebecca had left some notes uh at the beginning of her script where she talks about this um gorgeous pipe rope between harsh reality and the comedy it takes to survive it. Um and I think that's what we're seeing in full force actually in this piece that she's written. Um I think audiences are going to love it. But tell me the story of how uh this play came to be, because it's a brand new script, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so I was looking desperately for a comedy. You know, there were a lot of pitches this year to our company, but a lot of the plays were darker in nature and not a true comedy, not a laugh out loud comedy. Uh so I started asking my friends, and of course I asked Rebecca Northin because she's one of Canada's best comedians. She's a comedic genius, I believe. Uh, and she's written a play. She sent me a play that she had written, a Christmas show, actually, and I love the script. Uh, it wouldn't have worked for us, but uh yeah. So her and I got to talking, and and I said, Why can't I find a comedy? And she said, you know, Fiona, comedies don't age well unless they're really rooted in core human truths. Um, which feels accurate because I do feel like you often feel like something that was funny a couple of years ago is already a little dated. Uh so at that point I asked her, I said, you know, in all of your spare time, can you could do you think you could write me a comedy for to open our season? And of course, in her signature brave way, she said, Yeah, sure, I'll do it. I've got a month. I've got a few hours, I'll write you a play. So she wrote this in a month. Well, she, yeah, I think she she probably spent the better part of a month thinking about it and then wrote her first draft in a month. Now she's at the Shaw Festival, so she's also continuing to work on this with me. I'm working on it dramaturgically over the next few weeks, and we'll be working on it right until we start rehearsal. Can you tell us anything about the casting? Uh so Daniela Vlaskalik, who's been at the company before a couple of years ago, she was in Alewives and she also wrote The Fox for Us. She'll be playing Madge, who's the mum. And then Chantel Hahn is playing Rachel. So that's the character that really is Rebecca. And then there's a third character, the guy with the nice tush. Yeah, the guy with the nice tush. Who plays a variety of other people, and he will be played by Eric Craig. And did you audition his tush? We auditioned just his tush.

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent. All right. You heard it here first, ladies. All kidding aside, and we are not objectifying win men. Um, but these are two fantastic meaty roles for two fantastic actresses. So I don't think anybody's going to be disappointed if they choose to come and see this show, and you should all do it. Um, what do we have next? What's the what comes after or stick around? Forget about tomorrow. Forget about tomorrow. All right. Okay, we don't want to forget about it, so tell me what it's about.

SPEAKER_00:

So Forget About Tomorrow is a play by Jill Daum. It was originally produced as a two-act at the Belfry Theater in 2019. So it's actually already had a production, but we commissioned a redraft of it to turn it into a one-act. So this will be the first time it's seen in a one-act uh form. It's also a semi-autobiographical account of a diagnosis of a loved one. Uh so, but this time it's about Jill's husband, who is the incredible John Mann, uh, the lead singer of the Spirit of the West. Okay. Um, he received a diagnosis quite young when he was 51 of early onset Alzheimer's.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, that is young.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So Jill at that point was in a writing workshop and they couldn't tell anybody that he had been diagnosed because so many people at that point relied, their livelihoods relied on the band. Uh, so they needed to be really careful about how and when they were telling people. Uh so she started writing about this woman whose husband was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. Um, and out of that grew this play. So she felt, I think for her that it was a way of kind of moving towards acceptance and it was a cathartic process to write it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and this this is another wonderful script that is like really enjoyable. Like um, I don't want audiences to think that they're going to be coming and and feeling dragged down and everything by seeing it. Because when when I read it, and I didn't know the story, I didn't know what was going to happen. And I suppose we should tell our audience that spoiler alerts, we're going to tell you everything that happens in these plays. But the first half of it is the main character whose name is Jane, right? Not Jill. And she's got like, she's like a very typical midlife woman. She's got these two adult kids who are, she's trying to launch them and they just won't launch. Um, you know, the son keeps phoning home for money and the daughter keeps phoning home from university going, I don't like it, mummy. And then the best friend is always, you know, coming and dumping her problems on on uh Jane's shoulders. And then in the meantime, she's got this husband who just seems to be not there anymore, which is actually not an unusual experience for a lot of midlife women. We often think that our our partners are not picking up the slack. So that's what I thought the show was about as I was reading it. And then you get into it, and it's it's so much deeper than that. Um, but again, it's like a fantastic and fascinating story, a beautiful script.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think what really hit me when I first read Jill's play was how I felt truthfully carved out those relationships were. I felt like everybody is going to recognize that daughter-mother relationship, that father-son relationship, that employer-employee relationship. And we should also mention that this is a cast of six. So for anybody who knows Here for Now shows, this is the largest cast we've ever had. Uh, so you have the core family, and then you also have two other characters who come into Jill's life uh in a really interesting way. And every single character in the piece has a really interesting arc. Yeah. Um, and specifically the two characters who aren't in the family, they have really interesting and unexpected arc arcs.

SPEAKER_01:

Can you talk a bit about this business of uh transposing this into a one-act play and why that is important for here for now?

SPEAKER_00:

So Peter Pasik is working as the director, and he really worked in a dramaturgical fashion on this with Jill. I supported, but it was really the two of them um making this happen. We felt that this play could benefit from that quality of it's it it just starts and it goes. That you actually don't need an intermission in this story. And I think that sometimes for me personally, if I'm watching a play that I love, I kind of want to just keep watching it. Like I want to see what happens if I'm really invested. And if I'm really bored, I don't want to take 20 minutes and then have to go back. So I feel like it's uh I feel like I really love a one act format myself. I think it's accessible for non-traditional theater goers or for people who aren't used to three and a half hour, you know, big classical pieces of of theater. Um, and I do think you can tell a wonderful story in a really economical way in that in that amount of time. But you there's not a lot of room for extras. So it it does actually force your hand to to be very economical about what you're sharing in that story. And I think sometimes it crystallizes, it crystallizes the plays in a really in a really excellent way.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's a little bit like a short story as opposed to a giant roller coaster of a novel.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And for our shrinking attention spans, I think that's actually a really good thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, it sounds wonderful. Uh, who's going to be in this show?

SPEAKER_00:

So we have a fantastic cast for Forget About Tomorrow. Uh so uh Jeffrey Pouncett, who's been with us for a couple of shows and is a wonderful local actor in Stratford, will be playing Tom. Raquel Duffy, who's a big Toronto actor and lovely woman and brilliant talent, is coming down to play our lead, Jane. Uh Pamela Singha, who is also a wonderful actor in Toronto, is coming to play Lori.

SPEAKER_01:

As the crazy best friend.

SPEAKER_00:

As the crazy best friend. And hot off the press, Kevin Bundy is coming to play Wayne. Oh. Our sexy grandpa.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, this is the character whose nickname has been sexy grandpa for a while because we didn't have an actor. We have wonderful Kevin Bundy coming. So we're thrilled. Okay, you heard it here first. Here for No Theater this summer, you're gonna see Kevin Bundy playing sexy grandpa. All right, uh, let's just move on then to uh the third show on our season, which is uh again a new script from uh uh Beverly Cooper this time, another wonderful Canadian playwright, and it's called Humor Me. Uh so what can you tell us about this?

SPEAKER_00:

So Beverly has been working on this play for quite some time. Uh, I know that she wrote it a few years ago and then she kind of put it on the back burner and sent it to me last year to consider for our season. Uh it's a play about a woman who has lost her sense of humor and she enters a scientific study into the humor and the brain in an effort to get her sense of humor back. Um, so the play explores laughter from a lot of different angles. There's a lot of funny jokes. Oh, yeah, there's a lot of really unfunny jokes. There's a lot of funny really unfunny, there's a lot of cringy jokes. Um and it's really at its core, it's about two lost souls named Leo and Evelyn who need each other to navigate the world. So they cut they come into each other's lives and they both help each other see the world in a different way.

SPEAKER_01:

It's kind of weirdly meta, too, because it's again, it's a comedy about a woman who's lost her sense of humor. So it's like a sort of exploration of itself and an exploration of the the concept of humor. What is it? Why do we need it? Why do we have senses of humor? Are we still who we are if we lose that ability to laugh? And I think that Evelyn is struggling with that. And and Leo is struggling with his own demons because he's he's this nerdy grad student who's been trying to get his his thesis or his dissertation finished for, I don't know, decades.

SPEAKER_00:

A solid eight years.

SPEAKER_01:

Eight, yeah, eight long years. And um, there's these scenes where he, I think our audiences again will really enjoy this because there's these scenes where he puts the electrodes on Evelyn's head and puts her in the machine. And then he, I don't know how the actor is going to be doing it, but he reads these series of terrible jokes to try and elicit laughter from her. And um it will be it will be interesting to see how the actors manage to handle this because I I imagine this is going to be hysterically funny and the audience will be like rolling in the aisles, and whoever's playing poor Evelyn will not be able to laugh.

SPEAKER_00:

This was we we did a workshop reading of it a couple of days ago, and poor Martha Farrell. Ooh, Martha Farrell. Yeah, wonderful Martha Farrell, who's also been with us. She was in 47 a couple of years ago. Uh, but she was trying so hard not to laugh, specifically when she had to, you know, use funny voices or or do funny things. And that is gonna be a real challenge of this piece.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh again, not something that anybody wants to miss. Who's gonna be be playing Leo?

SPEAKER_00:

So that will be Gregory Prest. It's a beautiful actor as well. And the two of them are just they're just wonderful together.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Um and I do think the play, you know, it's the the why of it, why today, why right now, it's like with everything that's going on in the world, um it's it really is looking at, you know, why, why we need to keep our sense of humor, why that is so important, why that's so necessary uh to survive, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, in that way, it's an interesting sort of uh bookend piece with stick around because Rebecca's exploring that uh same issue, using humor to survive, you know, the a a really terrible tragedy that happens to all of us when we lose our mothers. But uh that one is primal for so many people.

SPEAKER_00:

But yeah, like humor is it's a through line, right? Through the whole season, we have a that's a real theme. It's like you laugh or you die. So we're gonna laugh.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm Joanne Wallace. I'm chatting with Here for Now Theatre's artistic director, Fiona Mangillo. There's lots more to come, so stay with us. But first, a reminder: tickets are on sale right now for this summer season and they are selling briskly. You can get yours by visiting www.herefornowtheater.com or by calling the box office. I'll leave that number for you below in the show notes. Now, in just a moment, Fiona and I are going to dig into the final two shows of the summer season. And she also has the scoop on our two-play limited engagement series and our staged readings and post-show chats. And yes, that special announcement I promised is coming. So let's get back to my chat with Fiona Mangillo. Welcome back. I'm Joanne Wallace. I'm chatting today with uh Fiona Mangillo, artistic director of Here for Now Theater. And we've just heard about three incredible shows you're going to be able to see here this summer. And we have two more to discuss. Um the first one is something called The Rules of Playing Risk. So I love this script so much, but tell us about it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a wonderful play written by Kristen Da Silva. Uh so the play's about a grumpy old grandpa, pretty isolated, out on his own, and he receives a letter saying that his grandson is getting shipped out to spend the summer with him. And so the play's about the two of them getting to know each other and navigating each other in the first week, weeks after his grandson arrives.

SPEAKER_01:

And he's he himself is recovering from uh a heart attack or something. So there's a third character in in this uh show, too, right? It's uh what's her name? Maggie?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, Maggie. So Maggie, who's played by Lauren Bowler. Okay, a Here for Now favorite.

SPEAKER_01:

And she's uh uh a PSW. She's a PSW. So she's take she's caring for him.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so she was an emerge nurse and then found the pressure was too great, and then so became a PSW and is a really interesting character in her own right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and so again, like this super snappy dialogue, so funny, like laugh out loud, uh just you know, uh I there's no other way of describing it, just the witty repartee. Um and uh okay, so then the grandson arrives, and what happens?

SPEAKER_00:

The grandson arrives, and then the two of them are basically trying to sort out how to relate to each other. The grandson is clearly at a moment in his life where something has gone terribly wrong. Don't want to give it away. Yeah. Um and this essentially, I think, is a bit of a redemption play because I think it gives this play is about absent fathers, right? We see, we know Garfield, we learn in the play that Garfield, who's the grandfather, his father was in the war and was so traumatized by the war that he wasn't present. And then Garfield was unable for his own reasons to be there for his son, and then his son for his own reasons was not able to be there for Garfield's grandson. So it's the story of absent fathers and the trauma that gets passed down from generation to generation. But in this moment of this this grandson returning, of Brandon returning to Garfield, he has an opportunity to recognize that pattern and to make it right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and he and he does, and there's just this glorious moment that's just like I just burst into tears when I read it. Um, particularly since I know who's going to be playing Garfield. Do you want to share that with us?

SPEAKER_00:

So Garfield will be played by the luminous Scott Wentworth.

SPEAKER_01:

Scott Wentworth as a grumpy old grandpa. And like, come on, people, please come and see this. You don't want to miss this play. Um, yeah, it's just incredible. Um, and who's gonna be playing Brandon?

SPEAKER_00:

So Brandon is going to be played by a young actor who's 14 years old. The character is 14 years old as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00:

His name is Dominic Moody. Okay. He lives in London, Ontario, so he's gonna be driving in to do the work. Uh, but he has worked at places like the Stratford Festival, and he's quite an instinctual actor.

SPEAKER_01:

And you told me uh when we chatted about this earlier that you had been planning to cast somebody older because it's just it's such an emotionally heavy role.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

And this kid walked into the audition and nailed it? What?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's exactly what happened. We we were on the hunt. We thought we would cast somebody 17, 18, uh, just because the um the requirements of the role, the subtext, the nuance, and simply the amount of lines and the scenes, uh, we felt was a a big ask for somebody that young. But Dominic just immediately and instinctually understood a lot of what was going on, wasn't playing it really earnestly, was playing the subtext and had a real sense of the character right away. So we're so excited to have him.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I cannot wait for this one. Um, but now is this a show that we commissioned or what's the story there?

SPEAKER_00:

No, so the rules of playing risk was already written. Kristen sent it to me last year to review. Um, and it actually had been produced once on through Theater Orangeville during the pandemic, but never on stage. It was produced um like on film because of the pandemic.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so they did a digital They did a digital version.

SPEAKER_00:

So this will be its live stage premiere. Oh, that's exciting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And Kristen is a playwright in residence, right, at Theater Orangeville. Yeah, she is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

She is. Um she writes, she writes a lot. Like she's a wonderful Canadian playwright.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it again, everybody should come and see this. Um, and what have we got coming up for our last show?

SPEAKER_00:

Our last show is not a comedy. It's called Apples in Winter by Jennifer Fawcett. So this is a monologue play. The protagonist is a woman named Miriam, and she's making her son a pie. She's making him an apple pie. But the twist is that her son is on death row and he's going to be executed in seven hours. So this play is really about motherhood. It's about complicated grief. Uh, and Miriam is a woman who is the mother of a monster. This is a woman who in the media we often demonize as, you know, a bad mother. You got something wrong. If your child behaved like this, there's something wrong with you. And further than that, a woman who can't grieve the loss of her son. Because if if your son committed this crime, then you don't get to have grief. Uh, you don't get to feel pain. So it's a really complicated and difficult situation. Uh, luckily for us, Miriam is a really sparkly and fun and engaging protagonist. So the play doesn't feel like you're being dragged through the mud. You you're really with her, you really root for her. And and her examinations of motherhood are a real light touch. Um, she's not she's not coming to these big profound conclusions. She's simply letting you into this experience, which is incredibly complicated. Two rituals at the same time. You know, the ritual of making food for your child, which is so primal. Yeah. And then the ritual of putting somebody to death. Coexisting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Um also there's going to be um some interesting business going on while Miriam is talking to the audience about her experience. What's she going to be doing on stage?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So there are very specific instructions with this play that you need to bake a pie and it really needs to happen. So she will be baking a pie and a delicious pie for the duration of this play. And we had to install a special oven in the new theater. There is a new plug for an oven so that this pie can be baked in real time.

SPEAKER_01:

So our audience will be smelling this pie.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, and hopefully purchasing the pie.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yes. Now what? How you said we were going to auction off the pie?

SPEAKER_00:

I think we should raffle off the pie. Because I think they're going to be getting hungry through the duration of this play as well.

SPEAKER_01:

And that will be also on a curious juxtapos juxtaposition because like you're when I read this script, again, so, so moving. And you're you're grieving along with Miriam, and and for the fact that she can't grieve openly, but at the same time, you're smelling this pie and wanting that that sweet, nurturing, you know, like mom's apple pie. There's nothing more homey than that.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it's interesting, right? Because hunger and and and satiating hunger is so primal and death is so primal. It's like this very, in a lot of ways, this very, this play that gets underneath all of the conceptual things because it's kind of hitting you, it's hitting the core of of the human experience.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, speaking of the core of the human experience, uh, talk to me a bit about the core of the here for now experience, because you said there was a a particular reason this sh this script resonated uh with you when you read it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um so firstly, I should say that Hope and our friends at Hope and Hell brought it to us. So it is an in association with Hope and Hell Theatre Company. Uh, but when Raul sent me the script, I immediately was drawn to it. A, because the writing is, I think, brilliant. Jennifer Fawcett's a wonderful Canadian playwright who has not had her work produced in Canada, uh, which I think happens frequently. This is an award-winning play that's been produced all over the States and even in England, but hasn't had a Canadian production. That's crazy. Like, why does that happen? I feel like sometimes we have a tough time embracing our own talent. Um, so so sometimes people have to make it somewhere else a little bit before they before they're recognized here. Uh, but it's a real bone that I I, you know, I have a real bone to pick with that. I think it's really important to recognize and uphold and our our own talent. And and I think Jennifer Fawcett's an incredible writer. But the real reason that I was drawn to this script is that it really called me back to the roots of why I started Here for Now Theater Company, which was that when I was in my early 20s and I started this company, I was going out to audition for a lot of ingenue roles. And I felt like it was really interesting in the plays that I was reading and thinking about and auditioning for we could forgive the male characters for a lot. They could be really problematic and we can still love them, but uh the women had to be had to be better, they had to be good, they had to be lovable, they had to be wise for us to love them. And we do have our unlovable female characters out there for sure in the canons everywhere, but but we don't like them. We love to hate them, right? But you mean like Lady M? Yeah, exactly. So, so I was really drawn to the idea of finding plays that centered on women who would be perceived as difficult or complicated, or in in this situation, complex situations where we want to judge them and dismiss them. And and we can't put them at the center of a story, give them the same amount of nuance and attention and and time and empathy that we would give the male characters.

SPEAKER_01:

So those are the five shows that uh that comprise our main season. But there's two other shows that our audiences can see that you're bringing in as limited engagements, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so we've always had a limited engagement series, but that used to be a catch all term for reading a new play or bringing something in or something we were half building. But now, what the limited engagement series is, is presentation of other companies' plays. So they're plays that have already been built. But we're hosting them for a limited amount of time. Okay. And we have two of them this season, yes? We have two of them. Our first one is called Space Age Motel, written by Booth Savage, the one and only. The one and only Booth. Uh, and starring Booth and his wife Janet Lane Green. Uh, this is a really fun play. Um, and you get to it's quite sexy, it's raunchy, and for people who know Janet and Booth, uh, they'll want to see this. Okay. And there's three, four performances? Four performances. We might add a couple because it's already selling out. Okay. Uh, so we're gonna see if we can do that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. All right. And what's the second one?

SPEAKER_00:

The second one is called Bangs, Bobs, and Banter, and it's by a West Coast artist named Joanna Rennelli. Joanna and I went to school together at UBC, and she is a wonderful actor. And she has written a show based on her experiences as a hairstylist. So she was a hairstylist? She was a hairstylist at one point. All right. And she has written uh through the various characters that she's met, she's written this really funny play.

SPEAKER_01:

And I was uh working with her to write the show copy for this, and she wanted me to make sure that our audience is understood. There are ten characters in this play, but she plays all of them.

SPEAKER_00:

She plays all of them.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's it's just one of these tour de force things where you're watching one actress roll seamlessly from one character to another, and there's like an increasingly complicated web of secrets that every different character is coming with a different piece of this story. So uh we are saying that this is like the perfect show for girls' night um because it's just going to be so funny. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's gonna be very much a laugh out loud, just enjoy yourself comedy. And Joanna's a wonderful character actor, so it's it will be a real privilege and joy to see her up close.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's gonna be fun. And we also have um like an official reading series this season this summer, too, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so this year, as a new works company, we decided that we needed to be doing a play reading series. Uh, and so this year we have four new plays that we are reading on Monday nights. It's pay what you can tickets. Again, those are already selling quite quickly, but they're going to be plays that we're just workshopping and developing that maybe in our future seasons uh that we think are interesting scripts.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and they are they sound super interesting. There's two uh plays by uh Steve Ross.

SPEAKER_00:

Which are already in massive demand. I think both of them are already sold out. Oh we might see that. I know we might have to add. But one's called Early Genius uh and one is called Wolf. Both are fabulous. We also have a play that is currently being written called Monte Cristo by Roy Lewis.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and I I mean I understand this play is is changing. It could be something completely different by the time the audience comes to see it, but whatever it is, it'll be great. When I spoke to Roy, it was about um he was reimagining uh the great French playwright Alexander or writer, novelist, I guess, Alexandre Dumas, who wrote The Three Musketeers and whatnot, um, and how he might have come to write the Count of Monte Cristo. And he's imagined that he's writing it to try and impress his true love, who's trying to like leave him, and he's like, No, if you stay, I'll tell you what happened. So he's a bit like Shaher's ad. So whatever it is, it'll be great. Yeah. And what's the last one?

SPEAKER_00:

The last one is called Not Just Empty Space by a young writer, a young playwright named Sarah Pittman, who's currently at the National Theatre School. Uh, she had pitched this play just through our website, and I read it, and I just thought, this is fascinating. It's not formulaic at all, it's unexpected. It you I don't want to give anything away about it because actually I think the joy is how many turns it kind of takes you on and where it lands. Uh but I just think it's a really interesting piece of of writing by a young playwright who has a ton of potential.

SPEAKER_01:

Awesome. And I think like just a reading series is so special, like because you're you're there in the house, kind of participating in in the the development of the of the piece because uh the you know, the writer will be there, the actors will be there reading the roles, just sitting on chairs in front of Mike Stance. Um But yeah, it's an opportunity for the writer to judge the audience's reaction. Well, are they getting it? Do they like it? Do they hate it? Are they laughing at the wrong places or whatever? So it's it's an amazing opportunity for people who are really interested in seeing how theater is developed that they can take advantage of uh here at Here for Now Theater. Oh, and there's also going to be a talk back, like right, they'll have a chance to chat after the reading with the creative team.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. And I think one of the reasons we specifically wanted to host a reading series is because we have audiences that are so engaged in the work and uh a lot of really wonderful artistic minds who come to everything that we do. And we think that this will be an invaluable exercise for us to see what's landing, what isn't, what we could potentially workshop and develop. Uh, we just think we have the right audience base for that kind of work.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, our audience is amazing. Um, and if you haven't joined it yet, please come out. Um, they're an amazing group of people who are are really um bought into what we're doing and and helping us in all kinds of ways. And and this is one of them in helping with the reading series.

SPEAKER_00:

And then we've also added in our talkback. Um so our talkbacks will be happening throughout the summer and are actually generally attached to our five main productions. So those are post-show chats. Post-show chats. Okay. And I will often be talking with playwrights, actors, director, creative team. Um, and sometimes we're gonna be bringing in people from the community as well, experts from the community if the play is touching on specific themes. Um, so that's gonna be, I I imagine those are gonna be some fruitful and interesting conversations.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and you can find out which shows have a talk back attached to them um by checking the calendar uh on our website or in the brochure when you can get your hands on it, which will be soon. Um, but they're generally on Tuesdays, is that right? Talkback Tuesdays. Right, just like Taco Tuesdays.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. And uh some all of the shows have at least one, some of them have two.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow, Fiona, thanks for telling us all about this. It sounds like such an amazing season. But before I let you go, um, I hear there's something else that our listeners might be interested in hearing about um coming up later this year.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so as this is our first season in our brand new magical, spectacular building, yeah, uh, we will also be running a full-scale winter season as well, which will be teased in our programs. So if you pick up our program, you can see some information about those shows. Um, but it's gonna be really exciting. You're gonna see a lot of familiar faces, and there's even a really beautiful Christmas show.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um, and this is something that uh when I speak to patrons who live here in Stratford are so excited because yes, we have a cornucopia of amazing theater in this town, but not in the winter. Um this will really be something else. Do you have any last words for us?

SPEAKER_00:

No, just I hope that you can come out and join us.

SPEAKER_01:

I do too. Thanks, Fiona.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you, Julianne.

SPEAKER_01:

Just a reminder: tickets are on sale right now for all of these shows, and you can get them online by visiting our website, which is www.herefornow theater.com. Once again, tickets are on sale right now for everything except the winter season. Those tickets will go on sale September 8th, so mark your calendars. Our brand new indoor theater is located at 24 St. Andrews Street, right in downtown Stratford. If you know Stratford, this is behind our Heritage Courthouse and across the street from our much treasured Carnegie Library. Again, get those tickets right now at www.herefornow theater.com. Or you can call us at 519-272-4368. And I know you probably don't have a pencil right now, so I will leave that number for you in the show notes. I so hope you can join us for this amazing season. I'm gonna be there at every show. Until then, I'm Joanne Wallace. Thanks for listening.