WELL BORN to Play Artscape Youngplace

Well Born, a new play by Celeste Percy-Beauregard, chronicles an expectant mother who must confront her past in order to embrace her future. What she discovers about her birth parents however, does nothing to put her fears about her own pregnancy to rest. Well Born explores the themes of otherness, new motherhood, and preconceived notions associated with Down syndrome through a deeply personal and, at times, darkly comic lens.

Selected by Nightwood Theatre as the opener of their National Play Reading Series in the 2014 New Groundswell Festival and shortlisted for the 2014 Toronto Fringe Festival New Play Contest, Well Born premieres February 25-March 6 at the Artscape Youngplace (180 Shaw St.).

Celeste Percy-Beauregard is an emerging Toronto playwright and the Artistic Director of SoCo Theatre, the theatre company mandated to produce socially conscious theatre that staged the 2012 Fringe hit ENGLAND. When asked about the heart of her first full length play, she responds: "Well Born is not about right or wrong, nor is it about pro-life or pro-choice. It is about the human desire to fit in."

On board to stage this new Canadian play are creators of the 2015 Fringe sold-out hit The Philanderess: Sophia Fabiilli (co-producer and leading role Elizabeth) and Michelle Alexander (co-director and dramaturge), in addition to an incredible team of artists, almost all of whom are women. When asked how Well Born is different from The Philanderess, Fabiilli notes: "Celeste's play is much darker. It's weird and gut-wrenching, but I think it will have audiences gut-laughing, too."

"Celeste has created a very human, very honest portrait with her characters. They are flawed and yet so vulnerable and real. Moreover the material speaks to a broader community than just the standard theatre going audience." - Kelly Thornton, Artistic Director, Nightwood Theatre

MICHELLE ALEXANDER (Nightwood Theatre's Associate Artistic Director) is dramaturge and co-directs the production with DARWIN LYONS (Paprika Festival's Artistic Producer). SOPHIA FABIILLI (The Philanderess) stars as the mother-to-be Elizabeth with MICHAEL MUSI (Liver and Retreat, Theatre Brouhaha) as her husband Chris. In search of answers after receiving troubling prenatal test results, Elizabeth seeks to find her birth mother only to be haunted by a life-size plastic baby doll, played by NIKKI DUVAL (Paul Gross' Hyena Road), until she eventually finds a connection to her past through LYNNE GRIFFIN (Curtains; Strange Brew; Stratford and Shaw Festivals; Storefront Theatre). Well Born is CELESTE PERCY-BEAUREGARD's writing debut.

BY: CELESTE PERCY-BEAUREGARD

CO-DIRECTORS: MICHELLE ALEXANDER & DARWIN LYONS

CAST: NIKKI DUVAL, SOPHIA FABIILLI, LYNNE GRIFFIN, MICHAEL MUSI

Artscape Youngplace, Studio 109

180 Shaw Street, Toronto, ON

Thursday, February 25 at 8:00 pm (opening)

Friday, February 26 at 8:00 pm

Saturday, February 27 at 2:00 pm* and 8:00 pm

Thursday, March 3 at 8:00 pm

Friday, March 4 at 8:00 pm

Saturday, March 5 at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm

Sunday, March 6 at 8:00 pm

*Relaxed Performance: The 2:00 pm performance on Saturday, February 27 will have a relaxed attitude toward noise and movement from the audience. Patrons who meet any challenge attending the theatre (including but not limited to Parents with Babes in Arms and individuals with an Autism Spectrum Condition) are encouraged to attend. This performance is also open to the general public.

Tickets:

$25 general admission, $20 arts worker to select performances

PWYC for Relaxed Performance (Saturday, February 27 at 2:00 pm)

Tickets go on sale January 1st, 2016

SoCo Theatre