The Curing Room by David Ian Lee - BSMT-OUTRE
The Curing Room by David Ian Lee - BSMT-OUTRE
The Curing Room by David Ian Lee - BSMT-OUTRE
The Curing Room by David Ian Lee - BSMT-OUTRE
The Curing Room by David Ian Lee - BSMT-OUTRE
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The Curing Room by David Ian Lee - BSMT-OUTRE
February 27-March 3, 2017 (Lethbridge)
March 6-11, 2017 (Calgary)
In the Spring of 1944, seven Soviet soldiers are captured by the Germans in Nazi-occupied Poland, imprisoned naked and without possessions in the empty basement of a monastery - then abandoned by their captors. Stripped of their uniforms and all ties to the world before, the survivors of Colonel Petrov’s Special Reserve Forces abandon and ultimately redefine their concepts of order, society, and human nature. As soldiers of a post-revolutionary Russia how do they reconcile rank, faith, dignity and humanity in such extraordinary circumstances? Powerful, thought-provoking and truly haunting, The Curing Room is a taut, gritty and intense thriller that absolutely refuses to flinch. To up the ante, The Curing Room is inspired by a true story.
Tickets will be available to reserve in January 2017. Stay tuned for more details!
Cast:
Captain Victor Nikolov: AJ Baragar
Senior Lieutenant Ehrenberg: Jay Whitehead
Lieutenant Vasilii Kozlov: Graham Mothersill
Junior Lieutenant Drossov: Grayson Ogle
Private Nils Sekeruk: Marek Wiedman
Private Georgi Poleko: Stuart McDougall
Private Yura ‘Yuri’ Yegerov: Conner Christmas
Creative Team:
Playwright: David Ian Lee
Director: Gail Hanrahan
Stage Manager: Benton Neufeld
Lighting Designer: Lee Burckes
Sound Designer: Aidan Lytton
Special Effects Makeup and Prosthetics: Deonie Hudson
Producers: Kyle Schulte and Ryan Reese
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We intend to create a production for site-specific venues in both cities that is true to the script, which is visceral, dark, daring and evocative. The play itself is based on the true story of seven soviet soldiers locked naked in a cellar during WWII and the lengths they must go to in order to survive. It creates a world that is harsh and unforgiving in its themes, language and tone and through our objective to create this world, we meet the demands of both Theatre Outré’s and Theatre BSMT’s mandates: to create work that is uniquely ‘outré,’ different from the status quo, and that causes visceral experiences by exploring horror and the darker side of human nature.
The primary objective of our co-production of The Curing Room is to produce a high calibre theatre experience for audiences of both Lethbridge and Calgary. We intend to engage artists for this production (a director, a dramaturge, a lighting designer, a sound designer, a props designer and seven actors as required by the script) who reside and work in Lethbridge or Calgary primarily who are both established theatre professionals and those who are early career professionals just entering the theatre community from various training institutions. In doing so, our objective is to bring together artists in a manner that those less experienced might grow and develop through working with more experienced colleagues and that those more experienced will become familiar with those who are just entering the industry. The production will be directed by Calgary trained and Lethbridge based professional director Gail Hanrahan.
Another objective of this production of The Curing Room is to lay the foundation for an ongoing creative partnership between Theatre BSMT and Theatre Outré that benefits both companies equally. Financially and artistically in our current arts economy we intend to find opportunities to benefit one another through fiscal and creative collaboration that exposes the work of artists residing in one community with the audience of another. We intend that through this project, given our mandates, which align in many ways, to create a lasting union between our companies that will benefit both companies and our communities for years to come.
The most obvious intended result to this project is the completed, staged and exceptional production of The Curing Room produced in two Alberta communities. The project would bring together artists, collaborators, and audiences from across Alberta and provide two professional minded and forward thinking companies the opportunity to build bridges between them and form a lasting partnership. As both Theatre Outré and Theatre BSMT make a point of hiring artists who are ‘emerging,’ this project will provide opportunity to those entering the Alberta theatre industry to meet and collaborate with artists from a variety of backgrounds and expertise. They will also work towards establishing themselves as theatre artists with pedigree of experience and working relationships behind them as they move forward in their careers.
Since The Curing Room is a relatively new play, having only been produced worldwide by one theatre company on a successful and acclaimed UK tour, this project would benefit Theatre BSMT and Theatre Outré with potential notoriety throughout and beyond Alberta as the companies collaborating to produce the play’s North American Premiere. Further, the financial benefit of co-producing cannot be underestimated in that this play, in terms of cast size and scope, would otherwise be out of reach either theatre company to produce independently. By collaborating together, we are able to share costs and administrative duties in addition to sharing the work with two Alberta communities and laying the foundation for future collaboration that will benefit both Theatre Outré and Theatre BSMT and the cities we represent. The project will also provide the artists we engage to have their work seen in communities beyond their own and to foster working relationships with artists from across Alberta and beyond.
The project will also benefit the cities in which we propose to produce it. The Curing Room as mentioned above, has never been seen on this continent. We feel it is an important play based on actual historical events that is brutally and necessarily honest. Theatre Outré endeavours to produce work that represents queer art on the fringes of propriety and Theatre BSMT endeavours to produce work that unflinchingly represents the dark, gritty, dirty and unknown. These mandates do not exist elsewhere in our communities and this project will provide Calgary and Lethbridge audiences the opportunity to see a production that is truly unique and unseen in this part of the world.