Aphotic Theatre and ITSAZOO Productions present
The Café
DAILY MENU
- This is a choose-your-own-adventure experience. There is no right or wrong. Choose to sit or walk around. It’s up to you!
- Blue circles are for actors. Please do not sit in those spots.
- We invite you in as a voyeur. Please feel free to get close to the actors, but don’t interact with them.
- Don’t worry, the actors won’t interact with you.
- There are 7 scenes on 2 floors. They will each repeat at least 3 times.
- Turn your phone off. No photos or videos, please.
Immerse yourself in the experience.
DIRECTORS’ NOTES
The Café is about our relationship to each other. After many years of isolation we can finally be part of intimate conversations again. The Cafe challenges form and subverts the relationship between audience and performers by encouraging you, the audience, to find your own way through the experience. We invite you to sit close to the scenes you see playing out around you, or move around at your own pace.
In a time of great insecurity for artists, this project has been an opportunity for many diverse voices to gather and create an experience that is at times political, funny, intimate, sexual and ultimately human.
Be curious, have fun, and challenge the way you see and experience theatre.
Chelsea Haberlin & Fay Nass
PRODUCERS’ NOTES
Collaboration is at the heart of The Café. When Fay first approached ITSAZOO about this project, both of our companies were drawn to the concept of slice-of-life stories set in an actual coffee shop. This was a form that could embrace and celebrate potentially infinite intersections of story, language, community, relationship. The end result that you get to witness tonight is an experience brought to you by two theatre companies, two directors, three designers, nine playwrights, and fourteen actors, not to mention a production team of nine who makes sure the entire event runs smoothly and is marketed well.
Like any piece of theatre, the Café exists in the space between people, in a creative conversation between two indie theatre companies, between an actor and a playwright, a designer and a director. And now you, with your presence here tonight, are a collaborator; an individual piece of a whole; a small part of a larger system. Welcome to the team. Welcome to The Café!
Fay, Sebastien & Paige
Aphotic Theatre & ITSAZOO Productions
PLAYS & ARTISTS
50 Cent Lemonade
Playing Wanita: Chelsea Rose
Playing Danny: Frankie Cottrell
Playwright: Kelsey Kanatan Wavey
Father’s Day
Playing Benoît: Joey Lespérance
Playing Peter: Ben Elliott
Playwright: Sebastien Archibald
Submission
Playing Bea: Montserrat Videla Samper
Playing Alex: Jacqueline Korb
Playwright: Fay Nass & Diana Garcia
Anna’s Story
Playing Anna: Genevieve Fleming
Playing Yumi: Yumi Ogawa
Playwright: Manami Hara
Mango Cake
Playing Kwame: Kwasi Thomas
Playing Andee: Meghan Hemingway
Playwright: Omari Newton & Amy Lee Lavoie
Przyjaciółki (Friends)
Playing Lee: Claire Love Wilson
Playing Agnieska: Paloma Kwiatkowski
Playwright: Anais West
Space Aliens and Tropical Ducks
Playing Max: Melissa Oei
Playing Alex: Alison Ward
Playwright: Derek Chan
CREATIVE TEAM
Concept: Fay Nass
Direction: Fay Nass & Chelsea Haberlin
Dramaturgy: Fay Nass & Sebastien Archibald
Stage Management: Jenny Kim
Assistant Stage Management: Liam Kearns
Production Management: Paige Louter
Associate Producer: Claire Love Wilson
Aphotic Assistant Producer: SJ Valiquette
Costumes: Donnie Tejani
Sound: Piotr Wieczorek
Props: Ariel Slack
Box Office/Front of House Manager: Charlie Cooper
ITSAZOO Productions and Aphotic Theatre engage professional Artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the terms of the INDIE 2.2.