Eric Coates News

Canadian playwright Kat Sandler's Bang Bang is part of the Great Canadian Theatre Company's 2019-2020 season. It is a show that addresses controversial topics, including gun violence, police brutality, mental health, and the court of public opinion.

Who gets to tell your story? Kat Sandler's Bang Bang is a dark comedy that tackles the representation of policing and race in contemporary culture. Lila (Cassandre Mentor) is a Black cop who shot an unarmed Black man. That event has been interpreted by Tim (Phillip Merriman), a white playwright whose wildly successful play a?oeinspired bya?? Lila's story has taken some liberties with the facts.

After over a decade of successful Prismatic Arts Festivals hosted in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Prismatic is expanding the Festival to Ottawa September 12-22, where the Festival will be hosted with Ottawa's largest independent theatre company, Great Canadian Theatre Company (GCTC). 

With one preview and three gala performances under their belts, the cast of the 20th Annual GCTC/CCLA Lawyer Play have cause to celebrate.

From June 5th to June 8th, Great Canadian Theatre Company and the County of Carleton Law Association will be presenting the 20th Annual Lawyer Play Fundraiser. A cast of 23 local lawyers and judges will perform War of Two Worlds, a new work and adaptation by GCTC's Artistic Director and Managing Director, Eric Coates and Hugh Neilson, with apologies to Orson Welles. The production is a radio-play-within-a-play, following an ensemble of voice actors in the late 1940s as they attempt to save their radio station while recreating Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds.

The Prismatic Arts Festival, Canada's premier multi-arts festival to exclusively feature the work of Indigenous artists and artists of color, will be hosted, September 2019, in Halifax and Ottawa with an extensive line-up of performances, industry events and important new initiatives. 

Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells) is a daring two-hander that asks whether an intimate relationship with glaring power imbalances can be anything but coercive. It depicts a relationship between a 15-year-old high school student and her English teacher, exploring questions of consent, sex and power. Written by Toronto-based playwright Rose Napoli, it was nominated in 2018 for a Dora Award for Best New Play, highlighting Napoli's unflinching honesty in difficult territory. It is on the GCTC main stage with two previews on April 30 and May 1 and an opening night on May 2. It runs until May 17, 2019.

Today, Ottawa's Great Canadian Theatre Company unveiled programming for its 2019-20 season, rolling out the red carpet for five plays (and one multi-disciplinary festival) guaranteed to bring down the house. Next season, audiences will be treated to plays that have proven to please. From a debate between four women on feminism and religion to a hard-hitting comedy about a police shooting to a Dora Award-winning collaboration between a queer theatre-maker and an Inuk artist, there's a lot to like at GCTC in 2019-20.

It's 1968. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has just delivered a speech that is now known as "I've Been to the Mountaintop."  When he returns to his room at the Lorraine Motel, King is visited by Camae, a mysterious maid whose charm disarms the civil rights leader. He doesn't know it, but this will be the last night of his life. This is the setup of The Mountaintop. Throughout the play, writer Katori Hall's witty and intelligent dialogue exposes the man behind the movement.

A heartfelt comedy about "being out" in small town Ontario, Mark Crawford's Bed and Breakfast is bringing dozens of hilarious characters - played by only two actors - to the GCTC stage.  When Brett inherits the family home, he and Drew move out of quick-paced Toronto to set up a B&B in a sleepy little Ontario town. What follows is a madcap journey through renovations, family skeletons, and finding a place to call home. In partnership with Arts Club Theatre Company (Vancouver), Ashlie Corcoran directs this production starring Mark Crawford and Paul Dunn.

Ghastly. Haunting. Stunning. Three Edwardian-era ghosts rise from the clutches of their clawfoot bathtubs, drenched in water, to tell the haunting story of their murder by one man: George Joseph Smith … their husband. This is the premise of The Drowning Girls- based on the true-life story of 'The Brides of the Bathtub'- the latest play at the Great Canadian Theatre Company written by the trio of Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson, and Daniela Vlaskalic. Director, TACTICS Founder, and GCTC's former Metcalf Foundation Artistic Direction Intern Bronwyn Steinberg leads an all-Ottawa powerhouse cast: Katie Ryerson (Ordinary Days, Generous and Janet Wilson Meets the Queen), Sarah Finn (This is War), and Jacqui du Toit (Hottentot Venus).

I had the pleasure of being invited to attend the premiere of The Great Canadian Theatre Company's production of Kate Hennig's The Virgin Trial, directed by Eric Coates. Although this production is the sequel to Hennig's The Last Wife, the play stands on its own so no prior knowledge is needed. The play is set in modern times, but the characters and events are from the Tudor era. English history buffs will particularly enjoy the story as it is partially based on factual events with some speculation thrown in, which makes for a fascinating crime drama.

Lauded as one of Canada's most exciting playwrights, Kate Hennig is back at the Great Canadian Theatre Company with The Virgin Trial: the sequel to her 2016-17 smash hit The Last Wife. In The Virgin Trial, Hennig reimagines the story of young Elizabeth I as a modern day crime drama, full of political and sexual intrigue in the Tudor court. Directed by GCTC Artistic Director Eric Coates (Ordinary Days and Gracie), The Virgin Trial runs on the GCTC stage from September 11 - 30.

The world premiere of a new multi-disciplinary artistic collaboration is coming to the Studio Theatre of the Great Canadian Theatre Company. Raising Stanley / Life With Tulia uses storytelling, painting, and video to beautifully illustrate the journey from puppy to working guide dog for the blind. A collaboration between blind storyteller Kim Kilpatrick (disability rights activist and host of CKCU's Welcome to My World), painter Karen Bailey (the artist behind the Right Honourable Michaelle Jean's unconventional official portrait), and director Bronwyn Steinberg (Artistic Director of TACTICS and the upcoming GCTC production The Drowning Girls), Raising Stanley / Life With Tulia offers a fully accessible experience with a visual effects video of Karen's paintings and audio descriptions integrated with Kim's performance. Raising Stanley / Life With Tulia runs in the Studio Theatre of the Great Canadian Theatre Company from July 26 - August 5.

Pianist Stephen Hough's Dream Album, which casts him in the role of performer, composer, and transcriber, is released by Hyperion Records on Friday, June 1. This recording is the seventh in a series of “Album” releases from Mr. Hough that began with The Piano Album in 1993 and continued most recently with the French Album in 2012. Like all of his Albums, Mr. Hough's Dream Album juxtaposes works by different composers, in this case 27 short pieces—mostly less than five minutes apiece—by over a dozen composers, including Liszt, Dvo?ák, and Sibelius. As if from a dream, this collection is a free association of musical thoughts that bear personal meaning for Mr. Hough—from favorite encores, to pieces from his childhood, to works written for friends. Pre-orders are currently available via Amazon and iTunes.

Lawyers are known for prosecuting and defending, but for four special nights they'll be in the spotlight playing villains, victims and criminals. The Great Canadian Theatre Company with the County of Carleton Law Association will be presenting Agatha Christie's The Rule of Three from June 6th to June 9th - three one act plays featuring a cast of 23 lawyers and judges for their 19th Annual Lawyer Play Fundraiser.

After making a stop in Ottawa, Michael Healey's razor-sharp politically charged satire 1979 begins previews in Niagara-on-the-Lake on May 20. Several unplugged performances of the Eric Coates-directed production are scheduled at the Court House Theatre and Royal George Theatre before the production settles in the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre beginning October 1.

The Shaw Festival proudly announces casting for Artistic Director Tim Carroll's first season. The Shaw's 2017 ensemble is a mix of new faces and Festival favourites - each actor ready to entertain and excite audiences in this season's 11 productions.

The Shaw Festival is pleased to announce the playbill and directors list for the 2017 season; the company's 56th and the first led by Artistic Director Designate Tim Carroll.

Tarragon Theatre has announced the six Canadian playwrights nominated for the RBC Tarragon Emerging Playwright Prize, one of Canada's most prestigious prizes for new artists. The prize has a value of $8000 and includes a year's worth of dramaturgical support from Tarragon Theatre, as well as a public reading during the theatre's annual Play Reading Week. The winner will be announced in May, 2016.