LULU v.2 // because bad things happen to bad girls
adapted by ted witzel & the ensemble.
featuring texts by: salvatore antonio, margaret atwood, rose cullis, susanna fournier, sky gilbert, hesiod (sort of), evalyn parry, russell smith, aurora stewart de peña, & whoever that john guy was who wrote the book of revelation.
directed by ted witzel. dramaturged by mel hague & brendan healy. designed by helen yung. performed by mayko nguyen, lyon smith, and nicole st. martin. assistant directed by daniela pagliarello.
act five: london. december. 1888. it’s raining. it’s christmas. it’s the end of the world.
a goddess with 7 faces meets a myth with no face in an attic in east london. she’s an ordinary girl and he’s an ordinary serial killer and he’s going to do the ordinary and butcher her, while another woman screams, unheard.
this second part in the LULU series deconstructs lulu’s death at the hands of jack the ripper. is it inevitable? a literary imperative and a mythic rebalancing of natural forces? or just a sadly-all-too- common statistical outcome? how do pleasure, shame, excess, and consequence intersect in the horrific final pages of wedekind’s text?
ted witzel
director
(taedon witztl doesn’t live here anymore).
ted makes plays. usually they’re by dead people. not always. right now he does that in toronto. he has also done it in vancouver, montreal, berlin, paris, milan, stuttgart, ingolstadt, baden-baden, and bad hersfeld, which is a small town with a lot of sheep in it. well, near it. he has a company where he makes plays with friends, called the red light district. ted has a so-called spider-plant on his desk that is taking an awfully long time to make spiders.
helen yung
production design
helen makes installations, interactions & interventions. she designs environments and practices marginalia. she writes secret tumblrs. she’s recently taken to running. helenyung.com
mayko nguyen
performer
mayko nguyen – select theatre credits: helen lawrence (canadian stage), passion play (otm/convergence theatre/sheep no wool – dora nomination outstanding performance ensemble), carried away on the crest of a wave (tarragon theatre), offensive fouls (hustle n’ bustle theatre – dora nomination best tya production).
lyon smith
performer
lyon smith is a toronto based actor and award winning sound designer. select acting credits include the drawer boy for theatre passe muraille, danny king of the basement for roseneath, macbeth for modern times, tumen then for autumn theatre and what i learned from a decade of fear for aluna/la mama. select sound credits: venus in fur, macbeth and the game of love and chance for canadian stage, ecce homo’s of a monstrous child, the final savage land for sore for punching you and proud for the GCTC. lyon is the resident sound designer with sore for punching you. lyon is also a gemini nominated voice actor and is the voice of many popular cartoon characters.
nicole st. martin
performer
nicole is titillated to work along side this wild and creative team. she last appeared as eurydike in cole lewis’ production of anne carson’s antigonick at summerworks and is currently in production for the feature film, monday night shakespeare, directed by ted atherton. some other credits include; hunger artist in enough rope (summerworks), cristina in the little crickets (summerworks), titania in a dream in the square’s (london UK) production of a midsummer night’s dream and hedda in hedda gabler (drama centre, london UK). this is her virgin voyage into the rhubarb festival and she couldn’t be happier about it.
daniela pagliarello
assistant director
daniela pagliarello (bfa york acting 2013) played arturo ui in ted witzel’s critically acclaimed the resistible rise of arturo ui. her next project is playing ‘marguerite’ in the new canadian play i am marguerite with alumnae theatre. she is excited to continue working as assistant director on the lulu variations with herr direktor witzel. she currently resides nowhere.
wesley mckenzie
sound
wesley mckenzie is a toronto based lighting and sound designer. previous sound design credits include: the misunderstanding (lester trips); the vagina monologues (vagina monologues at york university); wounds to the face (theatre@york). wesley has also worked as an assistant sound designer with canadian stage. previous lighting design credits include: elvis’s toenail (toronto irish players); assistant designer for bella the colour of love (harold green jewish theatre company); 2014 inspirato festival; the three muskateers (lakeshore collegiate institute); the beggar’s opera (theatre@york). wesley is looking forward to working as the resident lighting designer at the classical theatre festival in perth, ontario this summer.
this production is made possible through the generous support of:
as part of the 36th annual RHUBARB festival at buddies in bad times theatre
transgressions in performance
february 11-22, 2015
festival director mel hague
associate festival director cole alvis
festival sponsor TD bank group
media sponsor NOW magazine
thank yous:
thanks to mel hague and cole alvis, to everyone who participated in lulu v.1 (salvatore antonio, keith barker, sedina fiati, susanna fournier, sky gilbert, billy merasty, aurora stewart de peña, & david yee), NOWHERE gallery, lemontree creations, the toronto arts council, the ontario arts council, native earth performing arts, the cabaret company, and especially to brendan healy and everyone at buddies in bad times for their generous and extensive support of this project.