Photo Flash: Get A First Look At GHOST QUARTET in Toronto

This fall, Crow's Theatre raises the curtain on their biggest season to date, presenting an unmissable pairing of shows produced in partnership with two of the city's most enterprising independent theatre companies. As the pace of life accelerates and our day-to-day interactions, our lives, even art itself is moved into the ephemeral digital realm, Crow's Theatre's season-opening shows invite audiences to slow down, gather in the dark, and enjoy two distinct productions that celebrate the live experience.

This 2019/2020 season launch is comprised of two works of exceptional pedigree: Annie Baker's 2014 Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork THE FLICK, produced by Outside the March and Crow's Theatre and directed by Outside the March's Dora Award-winning Artistic Director Mitchell Cushman; and Dave Malloy's critically-acclaimed gothic song cycle GHOST QUARTET, produced by Crow's and Eclipse Theatre Company, and directed by Marie Farsi - Crow's Associate Artistic Director for the 2018-2019 season and recent recipient of the Ray Michal Prize for Most Promising New Director.

New to Streetcar Crowsnest and presenting the first musical at the theatre, in the Scotiabank Community Studio Eclipse Theatre Company joins Crow's Theatre to present the cult-hit GHOST QUARTET.

A haunted song cycle about love, death, and whiskey, in this surreal chamber musical from Dave Malloy - Tony-nominated composer of Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812 - a camera breaks and four friends drink in interwoven narratives spanning seven centuries: a warped fairy tale about two sisters, a treehouse astronomer and a lazy evil bear; a retelling of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher; a purgatorial intermezzo about Scheherazade; and a contemporary fable about a subway murder.

Called 'rapturous' and 'intoxicating', GHOST QUARTET is performed by four singer-musicians and incorporates musical styles as varied as gospel, folk ballad, honky-tonk, electropop, doo-wop and jazz and references works as diverse as "Arabian Nights"; the Japanese Noh drama "Matsukaze"; Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"; the animated movie "Frozen"; Grimmsian fairy tales; grisly urban legends; and 19th-century broadsheet murder ballads. This unconventional musical began its life at Brooklyn's storied Bushwick Starr, and went on to be performed at New York's famed McKittrick Hotel before taking the Edinburgh Fringe by storm in 2016.

This production will star Andrew Penner (Sunparlour Players and Harrow Fair), Hailey Gillis (star of Soulpepper's Rose), Kira Guloien (Doctor Zhivago on Broadway, The Who's Tommy at Stratford, and Grey Gardens for Musical Stage Co.) and multi-Dora Award-winning actor and musician Beau Dixon (Soulpepper's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and Harlem Duet). GHOST QUARTET runs October 5 - November 3 (Media night: October 11) at Streetcar Crowsnest (345 Carlaw Avenue) in the Scotiabank Community Studio.

Performances are scheduled Tuesday through Saturday at 8:00pm, with 2:30pm matinees on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays beginning October 12.

Photos by Daliah Katz