Tarragon Theatre to Present Mini-Festival of Hannah Moscovitch Plays, 2/20-3/24

Tarragon Theatre presents A Double Bill celebrating the work of acclaimed playwright-in-residence Hannah Moscovitch, with premieres of her plays Little One and Other People's Children. A co-production with Theatre Crisis and Theatre PANIK, A Hannah Moscovitch Double Bill opens February 20 and runs to March 24 (previewing from February 14) in Tarragon Theatre's Extra Space. Tickets range from $27-$53 (inclusive of HST) and are available by calling the box office at 416.531.1827 or by visiting www.tarragontheatre.com.

Other People's Children is directed by Theatre PANIK co-Artistic Director Paul Lampert, while Little One is directed by Theatre Crisis Artistic Director Natasha Mytnowych. For the final week of the run - March 19 to 24 - Little One is replaced by Roseneath Theatre's production of Moscovitch's In This World, directed by Andrew Lamb.

Other People's Children

When Ilana returns to work after maternity leave, she and her husband Ben hire a live-in nanny to care for their young daughter Eva. At first, Ilana is touched by how well her daughter takes to Sati, but soon she begins to question whether Eva is growing too close to her nanny. Is Sati's bond with Eva truly alarming, or is Ilana merely struggling with the hard realities of modern motherhood?

Niki Landau (co-Artistic Director of Theatre PANIK; Tarragon's House of Many Tongues; little tongues for The Fringe 2012; Factory Theatre's Reading Hebron, Criminal Genius; Canadian Stage's Comedy of Errors; Theatre Passe Muraille/Theatre PANIK's Territories; also playwright for Territories, The Corpse Bride and an adaptation of Gone With the Wind premiered this month at the Manitoba Theatre Centre) as Ilana, Gray Powell (Shaw Festival's Hedda Gabler, Present Laughter, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Age of Arousal, Harvey, Born Yesterday, The Circle; Necessary Angel's Hamlet; Company Theatre's Festen) as Ben, and Elisa Moolecherry (SummerWorks/Volcano The Arabian Night; founder of Munich-based BeMe Theatre where she performed in Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), My Mother's Feet, Problem Child, My Zinc Bed and I, Claudia) as Sati star in this unsettling drama.

Paul Lampert, a graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada, has worked with such varied companies as Poland's Teatr BLIK and the InterNational Theatre in Vienna. He directed the national premiere of Oleanna for the Stary Theatre in Kraków, Poland and has directed for theatres across Canada, including three seasons with the Blyth Festival and six seasons with the Shaw Festival. He is the past Artistic Director of the George Brown Theatre School in Toronto and currently teaches acting and directing at York University. For Munich's BeMe Theatre, Lampert directed I, Claudia which toured to Barcelona, Shanghai and Munich.

Little One

Two adopted siblings grow up together in affluent Ottawa. Claire and Aaron love each other with all their hearts. But for some people, loving and destroying are the same thing. This stylish lullaby-nightmare thriller, reworked since making a splash at its SummerWorks 2011 workshop outing, again stars Michelle Monteith (Tarragon's The Little Years; Buddies' Blasted, Dora-nominated; Factory Theatre's The Russian Play, Dora-nominated; Soulpepper's The Odd Couple, Ghosts) and Joe Cobden (Necessary Angel Theatre's Eco Show, Civility; Factory Theatre's Zadie's Shoes, Beyond Mozambique).

Natasha Mytnowych's recent directing projects include Rosa Laborde's Marine Life at SummerWorks, d'bi.young's benu at La Chapelle in Montreal and SummerWorks, Hannah Moscovitch's The Russian Play at Factory Theatre and Magnetic North Theatre Festival and the SummerWorks 2011 version of Little One. She received the Toronto Arts Council Foundation's inaugural Mayor's Arts Award for an Emerging Artist and the Premier's Award for Excellence in the Arts (Emerging Artist). She is currently Associate Artistic Producer at Canadian Stage.

In This World

Roseneath Theatre's production of In This World follows the lives of two teenage girls who share the same high school and volleyball team, but are from two completely different worlds. Bijou is from a privileged background; Neyssa is a recent Jamaican immigrant struggling to fit in.

A complex exploration of adolescence, race, class and sex, Meilie Ng (National Theatre School of Canada graduate, Canadian Stage's The Winter's Tale and Théâtre Français de Toronto's Les Fourberies de Scapin and Les Zinspirés) and Nigerian-born Oyin Oladejo (Humber College Theatre Performance Program, Da Kink in My Hair at Harbourfront Centre) star as Bijou and Neyssa, respectively.

Andrew Lamb is the Artistic Director of Roseneath Theatre and Theatre Awakening in Toronto. A graduate of Concordia University, he trained as a director with Mike Alfreds at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, England and was part of the 2009 Director's Lab at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York. Select directing credits include With Love and a Major Organ (Toronto Fringe), BURIED (Next Stage 2010) and My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding (Mirvish/Fringe Festival 2009).

Additionally, Tarragon's acclaimed world premiere production of Hannah Moscovitch's This is War continues through February 3 at the theatre's Extra Space.

Hannah Moscovitch is the country's most produced young playwright, and has risen to national prominence in the last few years. She has won multiple Dora Mavor Moore Awards and been nominated for the Governor General's Award and the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, among others. Tarragon previously mounted her plays East of Berlin and The Children's Republic, and earlier this year premiered her acclaimed This is War. Other plays include The Huron Bride and The Russian Play. She has been produced across Canada, including Factory Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Great Canadian Theatre Company and at the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, among others, and is currently writing plays for some of North America's most exciting established and experimental theatre companies, including the Stratford Festival and the Manhattan Theatre Club in New York.

The double bill opens February 20 and runs to March 24, 2013 (Previews begin February 14) in Tarragon Theatre's Extra Space, 30 Bridgman Avenue, Toronto, M5R 1X3. Tickets range from $27-$53 (including discounts for students, seniors and groups) AND a Pay-What-You-Can 2:30pm matinee on Saturday, March 16. Tickets are available by calling the box office at 416.531.1827 or by visiting www.tarragontheatre.com. $13 Rush Tickets at the door Fridays (on sale at 6pm) & Sundays (on sale at 1pm) starting February 22.

All plays by Hannah Moscovitch:

Other People's Children - Feb. 14-March 24.
Directed by Paul Lampert
Starring Niki Landau, Elisa Moolecherry, Gray Powell
Set and Costume Designer: Michael Gianfrancesco
Lighting Designer: Kimberly Purtell
Sound Designer: John Gzowski
Stage Manager: Marinda de Beer

Little One - Feb. 14-March 17. (In This World replaces Little One beginning March 19)
Directed by Natasha Mytnowych
Starring Michelle Monteith, Joe Cobden with Kaylie Lau
Set and Costume Designer: Michael Gianfrancesco
Lighting Designer: Kimberly Purtell
Sound Designer: John Gzowski
Composer and Music Director: Lily Ling
Stage Manager: Ashley Westlake

In This World - March 19-24.
Directed by Andrew Lamb
Starring Meilie Ng, Oyin Oladejo
Set and Costume Designer: Lindsay Anne Black
Sound Designer: Verne Good

Tarragon Theatre is known for its creation, development and production of new Canadian work. Now in its 42nd season, more than 190 plays by this country's most pre-eminent writers have premiered at Tarragon. Tarragon presents new plays from all parts of the country, revives significant Canadian plays and produces international work, contemporary and classical. Tarragon is also a pioneer in presenting Quebecois plays in translation. The theatre offers extensive play development programs in a concerted effort to develop the next generation of playwrights and an active outreach and education department. Tarragon received the 2012 Premier's Award for Excellence in the Arts in recognition of producing and developing leading edge and thought-provoking Canadian Theatre, both nationally and on the world stage. Richard Rose is the Artistic Director.

Pictured: Michelle Monteith who stars with Joe Cobden in Little One. Photo credit: Natasha Mytnowych.