A warm welcome to Theatre Erindale's new season. This is our second full season, and once again we have offered our audiences a subscription package with substantial savings and Membership privileges. I hope that you will join us for the rest of our season of four exciting and varied plays.

Whether you are joining us for four plays, or one, or any number in between, we appreciate your support for Theatre Erindale and our student actors. Your participation as an audience member is an essential component of our students' development as performers. We are particularly grateful to our Patrons, those of you who make an additional tax-deductible donation to Theatre Erindale when you purchase your subscriptions. Your donations go directly into our Scholarship and Development Fund to benefit our students.

Once again, welcome or welcome back. We're looking forward to continuing our partnership with you as we entertain, move and challenge you with our 1995-96 season.

Nancy Copeland

From the Artistic Director ...

Welcome to the second production of Theatre Erindale's third season! Our first show, Six War Years, which closed on November 5th, broke multiple records for the company. It was the first time an adaptation had been created especially for us, in this case by Co-directors Ron Cameron and Dia Frid, and the play was being refined until the last second. It was also our first multi-media effort, and overall the largest technical challenge the company had yet faced. Yet the audience leaped to its feet at nearly every performance. We were sold out night after night, and, though many on our waiting lists did get lucky, there were dozens of other hopefuls who had to be turned away.

We want to thank you, our audiences, for this tremendous response. It's always nice to find out that you're doing something right. Whether you're a Member, a Patron, or a single ticket buyer, we're delighted to have you with us and we hope to see you often in the future.

The New Year will bring back the inimitable Mimi Mekler with an all-female cast in our production of Michel Tremblay's hilarious masterpiece Les Belles Soeurs, and the mainstage season will end with the rare and outrageous Jacobean melodrama that has twice scored a hit for the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Revenger's Tragedy by Cyril Tourneur. Stay tuned, however, for the exciting details of an Independent Student One-Act Play Festival (including some original work) set for March 26-30, 1996.

The production you are about to see is of Lanford Wilson's powerful early play, The Rimers of Eldritch. (Its author won the Drama Desk Award and went on to write Hot L Baltimore, Fifth of July, Talley's Folly, and Burn This, among many others, not to mention winning a pile of prizes including his recent second Pulitzer for Redwood Curtain.) Our production features the current fourth-year class and introduces several second-year actors to the mainstage. It has enabled us to work for the first time with award-winning Guest Director Jim Millan of Crow's Theatre Company, and his brilliant Associate Director and Designer Vikki Anderson. And it has given us a chance to welcome back Lighting Designer Fraser Kerrigan. The entire project has been a treat to work on. We think you're going to find it fascinating.

Welcome to Theatre Erindale! Enjoy the show!

Patrick Young

From the Co-Directors ...

The prolific American playwright Lanford Wilson wrote The Rimers of Eldritch in the mid-sixties, early in his career. America was in the midst of a radical transformation and the American theatre mirrored this cultural climate of change. Wilson and his contemporaries at the La Mama Experimental Theatre Club in New York, most notably Sam Shepard, had emerged from a tradition of lyrical naturalism shaped by some of America's greatest writers: Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams.

In his stylistic experiment, The Rimers of Eldritch, Wilson embraced the naturalistic tone of the American stage and combined it with the narrative quality of the American film. The play's form embodies many aspects of film technique: editing, flashback and a non-linear time sequence. Using this approach, Wilson forces us to re-examine our assumptions about the characters and the underlying values of his fictional town by rearranging and repeating the events of one year and one trial. The resulting psychological drama allows the playwright to reveal the inner hypocrisies, secrets, denials and truths of the community. His critique of Eldritch ultimately becomes a critique of America itself, at a time the tremors of "youth movement" were being felt across the country in small towns everywhere. It was an era of emerging idealism, led by the American youths and their artists.

Our production is situated on the edge -- somewhere between the world that was (or at least that which exists in our collective nostalgia) and the world America is to become. The play's central message is as apt today as it was in the sixties and the themes still ring true to us. Thus, in our rehearsals we worked toward directness, simplicity and truth.

Jim Millan, Director

Vikki Anderson, Co-Director and Designer

The Rimers of Eldritch

by Lanford Wilson

The Cast

(in order of speaking)

Movement Coach - Natasha Biljetina

Music Coach - Kyra Bailey

The play spans the Spring, Summer, and Fall of a year in the mid-1960s. It takes place in a small former mining town in the mid-Western USA.

There will be one 15-minute intermission.

The Cast

KYRA BAILEY, 4th Yr. Theatre and Drama Studies
Home Town: Toronto, Ont.
High School: Humberside Collegiate Institute
For Theatre Erindale: The Scams of Scapin - Carle, Zerbinette; 1837: The Farmer's Revolt - Sir Francis Bondhead & others; The Farm Show - wardrobe crew; Pericles - wardrobe crew head; Junior Projects - Stage Manager.
For Other Companies: Pump Boys and Dinettes - Musical Director (Drama Club of Erindale); Waiting for the Parade - Janet; Bells are Ringing - Sue; Guys and Dolls - Sarah; and other wee parts.
Ambition: Still to be the fat lady who sings.
Favourite Saying: "You must do the thing you think you cannot do".-Eleanor Roosevelt

ADALGISA BEVACQUA, 4th Yr. Theatre and Drama Studies
Home Town: Bolton, Ont.
For Theatre Erindale: Scapin - Hyacinte; 1837: The Farmer's Revolt - Lady B. and other roles; Pericles, Prince of Tyre - wardrobe; The Farm Show - set construction crew head.
For Other Companies: Rumors - Chris Gorman and Lend me a Tenor - Maria Merelli (Theatre Showcase Brampton).
Ambition: Clarity of mind.
Favourite Saying: "I wish I were a trinity, so if I lost a part of me, I'd still have two others left to give." - Indigo Girls

GLEN B. BULLEN, 4th Yr. Theatre and Drama Studies
Home Town: Pickering, Ont.
For Theatre Erindale: Scapin - Geronte; 1837: The Farmer's Revolt - Anthony Van Egmund and others; Pericles - set construction; The Farm Show - Front-of-House.
For Other Companies: Grey Milk Thursday - Francis, Death - Al (Sears Festival); When You Wish Upon a Star - Alien, Zero Degrees - Grim Reaper (High School).
Ambition: To be a master chef in the kitchen of life.
Favourite Saying: "No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawn of your knowledge." - Kahil Gibran

JAMES CUNNINGHAM, 4th Yr. Theatre and Drama Studies
Home Town: Oakville, Ont.
For Theatre Erindale: Scapin - Scapin; 1837: The Farmer's Revolt - ventriloquist/Peter; Pericles, set construction and lighting; The Farm Show - set construction and lighting.
For Other Companies: Shilo (T.O. Fringe); Trial by Shakespeare, The Ghost Who Sits in Parliament (U. of T. Drama Festival); The Boyfriend (MMT).
Ambition: To be rich-rich-rich!! (oh yeah...and famous).
Favourite Saying: "The entire world can be set on fire by a single angry man." - Thoreau

LARISA DEZAYAS, 4th Yr. Theatre and Drama Studies
Home Town: Chattanooga, Tennessee
For Theatre Erindale: The Relapse - Mrs. Abigail, Choreographer; 1837: The Farmer's Revolt - Emma, Mrs. Polk, various; Pericles - Choreographer, Assistant Director.
For Other Companies: Night of January 16th - Magda Swenson, Down in the Valley - chorus (CSPA); Pump Boys and Dinettes - Choreographer, Accent Coach (Drama Club of Erindale)
Ambition: To believe in more and take more for granted.
Favourite Saying: "That's not true!"

MICHAEL KESSLER, 2nd Yr. Theatre and Drama Studies
Home Town: Brampton, Ontario
For Theatre Erindale: 'Dentity Crisis - Robert.
For Other Companies: Sifting Through Shadows - Joshua, Man of La Mancha - Pedro (W.S.Z. Academy of the Arts).
Ambition: To work with Mark Hamill and drive my car to the African Lion Safari.
Favourite Saying: OG, You alone, you are everything. Lest We Forget. How dare you sir!

RYAN KINGHORN, 4th Yr. Theatre and Drama Studies
Home Town: Burlington, Ont.
For Theatre Erindale: Six War Years - Military Advisor; The Relapse - Waterman, Foretop, Dr. Syringe, Ralph, Chairman, Sir John Friendly, Production Assistant; 1837: The Farmer's Revolt - William Lyon MacKenzie, Fight Choreographer; The Farm Show - Props Crew Chief; Pericles - Set/Lighting Crew.
For Other Companies: Ten Lost Years (Mirror Image Players); Sparks in the Park - Barry (Independent Student Production); The Possibilities - Military Advisor (York Studio); Into the Woods - Assistant Stage Manager, Man of LaMancha - the Duke, Skin the Teacher (Central Players).
Ambition: To truly wake up, and find myself onstage.
Favourite Saying: "No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge" - Khalil Gibran , The Prophet

NORBERT KLISZCZEWSKI, 2nd Year Theatre and Drama Studies
Home Town: Warsaw, Poland
For Theatre Erindale: The Relapse, Scapin, Lion in the Streets-Set and lighting crew; Sparks in the Park - Lighting Designer and various acting roles, 'Dentity Crisis - Lighting Designer (ISP)
For Other Companies: 1949 - Dr Hunter, Charlemagne - Pippin (Cawthra Park S.S.); A Streetcar Named Desire - Lighting Designer (Drama Lab); Electrician (Toronto Dance Theatre).
Ambition: To have someone pronounce my last name correctly.
Favourite Saying: "No!! It's Klish-tev-ski! Really!"

LARA KLYMKO, 4th Yr. Theatre and Drama Studies
Home Town: Perth, Ont.
For Theatre Erindale: Scapin - Argante; 1837: The Farmer's Revolt - Jamie, Winnifred, Tree; Pericles - Set & lighting crew; The Farm Show - Props and Running Crew.
For Other Companies: Godspell - Joanne, Tartuffe - Dorine (P&DCI Drama Club); Anything Goes - Purity (Perth Community Choir);
Ambition: I just gotta dance!
Favourite Saying: Rockin'.

DANIEL PHELPS , 2nd Yr. Theatre and Drama Studies
Home Town: Lindsay, Ontario
For Theatre Erindale: Sparks in the Park - Ben, Chuck; 1837: The Farmer's Revolt - Wardrobe; Scapin - Set and Lights.
For Other Companies: A Midsummer Night's Dream - Flute, Romeo and Juliet - Peter, Gregory (Riverside Vagabond Players); Our Town - various roles (Bethany Outdoor Theatre); Albert's Bridge - Albert (UVI S. S.).
Ambition: To work with Harry and George.
Favourite Saying: "I've got the microwave and corn ... you bring the potatoes".

AMANDA ROLSTON, 4th Yr. Theatre and Drama Studies
Home Town: Nepean, Ont.
For Theatre Erindale: The Relapse - Constable, Tailor, Assistant to the Director; 1837: The Farmer's Revolt - Davis and other roles; Pericles - Front-of-House; The Farm Show - Assistant Stage Manager.
For Other Companies: Coach, Player - Improv Team (Confederation H. S.); various roles - Insight Theatre (Planned Parenthood sponsor); Workshop Leader -Jockvale Drama Club (Jockvale Elementary).
Ambition: Buy a chevette and put racing stripes on it and make Peter learn to drive it.
Favourite Saying: "You can't have everything; where would you put it?" - Stephen Wright

MEREDITH SCOTT, 4th Yr. Theatre and Drama Studies
Home Town: London, Ont.
For Theatre Erindale: The Relapse - Porter, Cupid; 1837: The Farmer's Revolt - Chicken, Derek Mortimer, Margaret; Pericles - Wardrobe; The Farm Show - Assistant Director.
For Other Companies: Lolita's Perspective - Lolita (Graduate Drama Centre); Meet me in St. Louis - chorus (Meadowvale Music Theatre); Skin - Taun (Medway High School).
Ambition: To not be on welfare.

JOE TIRONE, 4th Yr. Theatre and Drama Studies
Home Town: Bramalea, Ont.
For Theatre Erindale: The Relapse - Sir Tunbelly Clumsey; 1837: The Farmer's Revolt - Samuel Lount, Edward; The Farm Show - wardrobe crew head; Pericles - wardrobe.
For Other Companies: Grease - Sonny (S.T.A.); Impromptu - Ernest (Theatre Showcase Brampton)
Ambition: Happiness is my role model, may she lead the way.
Favourite Saying: "Then I said 'Are you afraid?' and he said, 'yes'. And then I didn't cry anymore. Because he smiled."- T. Findley, The Wars.

YVETTE FOSTER - Assistant Stage Manager, 1st Yr. Sheridan Technical Production
Home Town: Haliburton, Ontario
For Other Companies: Picnic at Hanging Rock - Set Design (H.H.S.S. Drama Club); My Darling Judith (Highland Summer Players).
Ambition: To become a Technical Director.

KARLA MILLER - Head Electrician, 2nd Yr. Sheridan Technical Production
Home Town: Bathurst, New Brunswick
For Theatre Erindale: Six War Years - Electrician/Lighting Operator; 1837: The Farmer's Revolt - Assistant Stage Manager.
For Theatre Sheridan: The Philadelphia Story - Electrician/Scenic Painter; A Midsummer Night's Dream - Electrician/Scenic Painter; Cabaret - Seamstress/Dresser; The Club - Seamstress/Dresser.
For Other Companies: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum - Head Electrician, There Goes the Bride - Head Electrician, The Blue Castle - Head Electrician (Oakville Summer Theatre).
Favourite Saying: Are you on glue?

JONATHAN J. VAN HOFFEN - Audio Technician , 2nd Yr. Sheridan Technical Production
Home Town: Grimsby, Ontario
For Theatre Sheridan: Six War Years - Audio Designer; Philadelphia Story - Audio Board Operator; Cabaret - Electrician; The World Goes Round - Carpenter.
For Other Companies: The Summer Show, The Highschool that Dripped Gooseflesh - Technical Coordinator (Niagara Falls Summer Players).
Ambition: To be a lighting/sound designer for a large Canadian company.

SANDRA DAINA KALNINS - Lighting Board Operator, 1st Yr. Sheridan Technical Production, B.A. in Drama Studies, Glendon College, York University, 1995
For Glendon College: Christmas at the Ivanov's - Lighting Designer; Seed - Costume Designer; Lysistrata - Mask and set crew.
For Other Companies: Summerworks production of Radio Man - Assistant Stage Manager (Radio Man Play Company).

JIM MILLAN, Director
Jim founded Crow's Theatre in 1983 which has since produced over 30 new works and tours in Canada and abroad. His first play, Dali, won a Dora Award for Best Production in 1985. Outside of Toronto, he has directed productions in Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Mexico City. In the past few years he has created, among others, Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love by Brad Fraser which premiered at the Poor Alex in January 1990 and has since gone on to international success (15 countries and still counting) and a feature film. A Short History of Night by John Mighton won both the Chalmers and the Governor-General's Award. His play Serpent Kills was published by Playwright's Union Press last year and has been performed in Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal, Edinburgh Festival (Scotland), Singapore, Dublin and this spring in Vancouver. Come Good Rain, which he dramaturged and directed for George Seremba has recently won the Dora for Best Play. The production toured to Ireland, England and Los Angeles where it was nominated for an N.A.A.C.P. Award. Next year, it will tour Europe and Africa. He is presently rewriting his new play, Born in the Grave, which will premiere in the Theatre Centre in February.

VIKKI ANDERSON, Co-director & Designer
After graduating from the University of Calgary, Vikki settled in Toronto, where she has been active with Crow's Theatre as an Artistic Associate and designer. Recent design credits: WX with John Oswald & Holly Small, Autumn Leaf Performance, and Hole in My Heart, Crow's Theatre. Previous credits in Calgary included: Quartet (director-designer), My Sister in this House (dramaturge) and The Rock Garden (director-designer). Upcoming design projects include: Born in the Grave, Crow's Theatre, and The Anxiety of Immortality, Autumn Leaf Performance.