playing at wicked club (1032 queen st. w.).

may 19-21, 25-28, and june 1-4 @ 7:30 (doors at 6:45)

tickets: $25 door / $15 students (online advance tickets for $20 available here)

the story
stay with me. who knows if we’ll still be alive tomorrow?

ten people. ten scenes. ten hook-ups. one big city that never sleeps (alone).

ten seemingly unconnected people lost in a metropolis. rubbing elbows on the subway, walking by one another on the street, dancing beside each other at the same clubs.

ten people go looking for contact under the buzzing lights of a city at night. scene by scene, couples meet, talk, fuck, and talk, and then change partners, repeat. in the final scene the circle is closed. and somewhere, in the shadows of every scene, death is lurking.

the nameless characters of la ronde search for distraction / satisfaction through sex. and then look further.

audience advisory: … la ronde … contains representations of sexual violence.

cast -
the floozie – tyson james
the soldier – milan malisic
the chambermaid – mariana medellin-meinke
the young master – marcel dragonieri
the young wife – lauren gillis
the husband – beau dixon
the sweet young thing – raffaele ciampaglia
the poet – eve wylden
the actress – maarika pinkney
the count – michael david blostein

dj – the tijuana pony show

crew –
director – ted witzel
producers – kerry freek and catherine dunn
dramaturg / assistant director – katie binnersley
stage manager – christopher ross
lighting design – cam davis
costume design – erin telegdi and sj thiessen
choreography – mariana medellin-meinke and maarika pinkney
sound design – tristan johnston
props master / lighting design assistant / video design – una ruud saxvik

adapted by the ensemble from the novel by aldous huxley
directed by ted witzel

playing in the summerworks festival, august 4-14, 2011.

it’s a perfect world—engineered for your happiness by people who know best. no hangovers, no heartbreak; it’s a world without consequence.

it is the year of our ford 632, and love is a thing of the past. humans have been bred in test tubes for centuries to spare them the emotional burdens of love and family. religion is gone, and art too—with no unhappiness, who needs them? everybody is content fulfill their predetermined roles and fill their time off with sex, sports and soma.

of course, the great war did not succeed in eliminating all primitivity. small pockets of ‘savages’ are contained in reservations beyond the reach of civilization. but when a shakespeare-quoting ‘savage’ is brought back to civilization by a vacationing alpha-caste psychologist, he confronts them all with a choice:

is the freedom to be unhappy worth fighting for?

featuring catherine dunn, val cina, marcel dragonieri, eve wylden, reid linforth, and lauren gillis.

directed by johanna schall
dressed by jenny schall

september 18- october 8, 2011.

if ever to the moment i shall say:
“beautiful moment do not pass away!”
then you may forge your claims to bind me
then i will put my life behind me.

FAUST IS BORED. he has studied everything, excels at everything. but for what? so he starts experimenting. drugs, hallucinogens, spirits consumed and conjured. and he ends up with the devil he doesn’t know. everything he wants to be but isn’t.

a pact with the devil, a bet over boredom—give nothing to gain everything.

and along the way, he destroys an innocent life—but does it matter when you’re guaranteed a sequel?

featuring ted witzel, reid linforth, lauren gillis, mina james, marcel dragonieri, and eve wylden.

november 2-19 (wed-sat) 2011 @ 8pm (doors 7:30).

written by max frisch.
directed by lauren gillis.

playing at the imperial pub (54 dundas st. e)

tickets $20 (a limited number of $15 student/artsworker tickets are available each night).

to reserve tickets email tickets@theredlightdistrict.ca.

the story:

in every newspaper it’s the same story: a grubby, homeless peddler has somehow gotten into your neighbour’s attic and set fire to the house. whole towns are going up in flames. if you suspect someone is a “fire raiser”, close your door to them—so say the public service announcements delivered by a chorus of firemen.

so when a homeless ex-wrestler from the (recently burned down) circus walks in your front door and asks for a favour, what do you do? you shouldn’t be hard-hearted or narrow-minded—not every grubby peddler is a fire raiser. but with the attic filling up with mysterious canisters and odd strangers, and dinner table conversation filling up with bad jokes about arson, you really have to ask: when exactly should suspicion become judgment?

consistently on the verge of disaster, the fire raisers tiptoes through the awkward spaces between the fear of acting too soon and the horror of acting too late.

cast:

gillian biedermann – briana templeton
josephine schmitz – courtney lyons
willie eisenring – justin miller
the PHD / widow chalmers / policewoman – mina james
anna, the maid – eve wylden
the fire brigade – marcel dragonieri and alaine hutton

crew:

director – lauren gillis
producers – ted witzel and kerry freek
stage managers – catherine dunn and una ruud saxvik
assistant director / dramaturg – katie binnersley
set designer – paul aloisi
costume designers – erin telegdi and sj thiessen
sound designer – mike conley

the red light district’s quest for justice presents:
the WITCH of edmonton
in trinity bellwoods park, august 2010 (as part of the summerworks theatre festival).

by thomas dekker, william rowley, & john ford.
directed and conceived by catherine dunn & ted witzel.
adapted by the ensemble.

the story:

murder. revenge. witchcraft. bigamy. dancing. champagne.
mother sawyer is an ordinary poor woman living in the small town of edmonton. ostracized and rejected by her neighbours, she is branded as a witch. with no roads left open to her, she embraces their loathsome epithet (and lays claim to its power) by selling her soul to a demonic hellhound.

as sin and perversion burst from every corner of this small community, the witch is put on trial for murders she couldn’t possibly have committed; in this small town, justice is driven by fear (and everybody needs somebody to blame).

in this site-specific modern adaptation, the audience is led through trinity bellwoods park as the sun sets — under the cover of night, the town’s demons come out to play.

cast -
sir arthur clarington – michael-david blostein
katherine – val cina
thorney – marcel dragonieri
somerton – lauren gillis
frank – jonah hundert
mother sawyer – mina james
warbeck – ron kelly
susan – kat letwin
cuddy banks – reid linforth
winnifred – jess moss
dog – ted witzel
carter – eve wylden

crew –
directors – catherine dunn and ted witzel
choreography – brian solomon
costume design – erin telegdi and sj thiessen
stage manager – christopher ross
dramaturg – grace smith
stage crew – andrea kwan, jamie arfin, paul bansal

reviews –
richard ouzounian, toronto star: summer madness
jon kaplan and glenn sumi, now magazine: summerworks’ best – outstanding production
ryan west, torontoist.com: your cheat sheet to summerworks 2010

WOYZECK
              (just over the little dash between yes and no).
at the lower ossington theatre, june 2010.
written by georg büchner.
translated by ted witzel and johanna schall.

directed by ted witzel.
choreography by brian solomon.
with original music by whitney ross barris and zachary gray.

the story.
what does a society do with the members it cannot assimilate?

woyzeck is a poor man struggling to make ends meet in a rapidly changing world. a solider in peacetime, he sells his living body to science, moonlights as a barber, and works evenings at a freak show to support his girlfriend marie and their child.

when she cheats on woyzeck with a higher-ranking officer, visions of the apocalypse invade his mind along with a chorus of voices from the ground-and they tell him to kill marie. again. and again. their din grows harsher and louder until, one day, he does what only seems natural.

the story of a mad man. or a mad world. or both.

crew -
director – ted witzel
dramaturg – johanna schall
producer – catherine dunn
stage manager / props – catherine owen
choreography / movement – brian solomon
music – whitney ross-barris
arrangements – zachary gray
musicians – zachary gray, steve savage, conor hall
costume design – sarah-jane thiessen and erin telegdi
set design – devon bhim
lighting design – linn øyen farley
dance rehearsal director – marianna medellin-meinke
publicity – kat letwin
assistant director – janina kowalski
assistant stage manager – samya kullab
assistant producer – di pfeffer
carpentry – tristan johnston, jiv parasram, martha chomyn, christopher ross
makeup – anj mulligan

interviews -
kerry freek, mondo magazine: interview: the red light district’s ted witzel
glenn sumi, now magazine: preview: woyzeck

THE MISANTHROPE
(or why contempt is sexy)
at the drake hotel, april 2009.

written by molière.
translated by tony harrison.
directed by johanna schall.
dressed by jenny schall.
produced by the red light district in association with mirvish productions.

sponsored by now magazine and the drake hotel.

the story:
they are young. they are rich. they are french. they are cooler than you and you know it.

competition is their drug of choice. (and cocaine, but who’s judging?). who’s got the trendiest shoes, the best hookups, the quickest wit.

the way to the top is knocking down and cutting up whomever stands in the way-socializing isn’t a pastime, it’s a way of life, a career, a tooth and nail catfight to the highest rung, no matter who you have to throw under a bus to get there.

but one of them won’t compete anymore-he’s already the best at hating everyone and everything. the audacity of honesty is his weapon, and contempt is his sex appeal. and he is in love with one of them, and so the whole delicate balance collapses. but where can you go to be honest and free? there is no such place – u-topia = “no place.”

a play about nothing that ends with a slap and an exit that shatters a world.

crew -
director – johanna schall
assistant director – catherine dunn
producer – pia kleber and ted witzel
stage manager – cat owen and jiv parasram
costumes – jenny schall
lighting designer – cameron davis
sound design – zachary gray
publicity – mirvish productions

METHUSALEM or the eternal bourgeois

at the (former) whippersnapper gallery, january 2009.

written by yvan goll.
directed by ted witzel.

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!
YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE EXCEPT YOUR CHAINS!

robots. dance numbers. goulash. che t-shirts. teen pregnancy.

comrades! proletarians! are you feeling downtrodden and oppressed? are your children freezing? do your mothers have no coal for their stoves? this january, the red light district offers a balm for your calloused souls. with the corporate support of the learning achievement centre (and without the permission of the marxist-leninist party of canada), the red light district dutifully presents the methusalem family as examples of bourgeois gluttony and capitalist depravity. methusalem’s shoe factory is built upon the very bones of his workers: his profit is your loss, his wealth is your poverty. here we show him for the pariah he is, and invite you to revolt against the class system which crushes our working class between the upper and nether millstones of capitalism and patriarchy.

stand with us in solidarity as we fight against the powers that tyrannize the very spirit of humanity, and friends, join in the cry for the new revolution:

SHIT! PETROLEUM!! FREEDOM!!!

free che-shirts for all.**
**some restrictions may apply

crew -
director – comrade ted witzel
stage manager – comrade kat letwin
propaganda – comrade maarika pinkney
enlightenment – comrade zachary gray
proletarian labour – comrades alexi marchel and janina kowalski
choreography – emma walker, comrade maarika pinkney
costumes – sarah-jane thiessen and erin telegdi
design and publicity – comrade zachary gray

IVONA princess of burgundia*
*an awkward fairytale for coldhearted times
at the gladstone hotel, august 2008.

by witold gombrowicz.
directed by ted witzel.

MEET IVONA. she’s kind of quiet. and not terribly vivacious. or even that pretty or smart or nice. actually, she’s not anything. she’s kind of sick and smells bad. in fact she’s so devoid of any redeeming qualities that people who meet her want to smash her face in with a brick. but for whatever reason, prince charming (well, actually his name’s philip but he’s charming enough) has decided to marry her. the king and queen are reasonable people, so naturally they try to be accepting, but with the ladies-in-waiting panicking and the king beginning to sputter nonsense, one simple truth slowly becomes clear:

IVONA MUST DIE.

isobel – hilary connell
simon – ted witzel
cyprian – teague russell
innocent – zachary gray
checkers – kat letwin

las meninas – eve wylden, valerie cina, and mina james

crew -
director – ted witzel
assistant director – catherine dunn
stage manager – cat owen
assistant stage manager – alaine hutton
costumes – sarah-jane thiessen and erin telegdi
photography – paddy-jane
design – zachary gray

titus andronicus!

at the helen gardiner phelan playhouse, september 2007.

written by william shakespeare and heiner müller.
adapted by the red light district.

NEW VICTORY RAVAGES ROME

rape. mutilation. bumfights. murder. revenge. roadkill. cookery.

returning to rome in triumph with the defeated queen of the goths and her sons as prisoners of war, titus andronicus’ fortunes take a bloody turn for the worse when the new emperor takes the captive queen as his wife. coliseum violence with a clown as mc.

a group of homeless people gather in a decimated alleyway to retell shakespeare’s bloodiest tragedy. or most gory farce. barely any survivors. refreshments will be sold.

also featuring: alex champlin, tom davis, kevin kline, kat letwin, sonia lindner, reid linforth, briana templeton, mike vitorovich, and sarah warren.

crew -
director – ted witzel
stage manager – cat owen
assistant stage manager – sophie paterson
costumes – sarah-jane thiessen and erin telegdi
publicity – zachary gray
set construction – tristan johnston