The Short Works Festival

Statuary

Statuary is a contemporary retelling of the highly-romanticized Pygmalion myth from the perspective of his statue-turned-wife, Galatea. Combining passages from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and contemporary dialogue, this two-person play explores the issues of consent control and agency in abusive relationships.

Content warning: domestic abuse, sexual assault.

Director's note: I have always been somewhat perturbed by the androcentric nature of literature. Up until recently stories were written by men for men and about men. Women would come and go as a means of serving men and fulfilling their desires, but were never fully fleshed out people themselves. I wanted to subvert this by giving the female, quite literally, a voice. A chance to depict what reality may have looked like beneath a poet’s sweet nothings. A chance to discuss core issues that, despite strides we have made, have transcended time. - Taylor Paskar

Cast and Production Team

Pygmalion: Samson Mills

Galatea: Maryam Nour

Narrator: Noah Labrance

Playwright, Director: Taylor Paskar

Stage Manager: Alicia Magliocco

Costume, Prop, Set & Lighting Designer: Isabel Gelfand

Lighting Assistant: You Chen Zhang

Sound Designer: Kaylie Rennebohm

Fight Director: Natasha Perry-Fagant

GARBAGE PARIS

GARBAGE PARIS exemplifies just how hard it is to have conversations in contemporary society. Exploring the intricacies of misogyny, queer culture and power dynamics, we want to know what makes you uncomfortable.

Old men? Vagina jokes?

Director's note: GARBAGE PARIS is a piece that shows us both good and bad examples of how we can talk about the things that make us feel uncomfortable. This show explores messy conversations of power dynamics and misogyny in queer culture. We hope that these difficult conversations continue to be had. - GARBAGE PARIS Team

Cast and Production Team

Collaborator: John O’Neil

Collaborator: Caitlin Stever

Collaborator: Gabrielle Banville

Collaborator: Callum Pfohl

Collaborator: Keira O’Shea

The Killing of A Sacred Duck

The Killing of A Sacred Duck is an exploration of what it’s like to be a young woman growing up in a world in which sex is so often tied to violence. It is an exploration of the grey zones of our sexual experiences, and an inquiry into the sacredness of a child’s body.

In this audience interactive production the audience will make choices along the way.

Will Delilah “Quack like a duck?” or “Hide behind her feathers?”

Content warning: violence, sexual assault

Director's note: Last spring Madison and I decided we wanted to make something together. Then we rifled through old bits of writing we had collected and shared them with one another, imagining the stories that could evolve in the hot summer months to follow. We knew the subject matter we chose would be easier to face through fiction. Heather O'Neill taught us that. No we've developed scenes in rehearsal that within a three night run will never be shown because there are a thousand possible combinations for the performance. Thousands of grey zones. A story will always be different and will never be told the same. - Jonathan Stern

The creation of this play was heavily influenced by Heather O'Neill and her depictions of violence in The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, and Lullabies for Little Criminals. It is our hope that by playing out some of the grey zones of the human sexual experiences on stage that we may begin to unpack and address them. - Madison Phyper  

Cast and Production Team

Delilah: Naomi Levy

Hunter: Théodore Viadero

Unity: Cyndy Bastien

Hope: Lydia Frampton

Comfort: Dean Persons

Co-Playwright, Co-Director: Madison Phyper

Co-Playwright, Co-Director, Set & Projections Designer: Jonathan Stern

Stage Manager: Shaylah Mahoney

Costume Designer: Julie Fournier

Sound Designer & Composer: Neusha Taherian

Dance and Movement Consultant: Danae Trejo