Have We Forgotten Yet? play readings Nov 11-15 for Remembrance Day

20Kshow co-creator Craig Francis will be performing in a live stage reading of an important Canadian play "The Refugee Hotel" Nov. 12th. It is one of a 6-play reading series entitled, Have We Forgotten Yet? curated by Imago Theatre to mark the one hundred year anniversary of the beginning of The First World War.

Info and tickets: www.imagotheatre.ca/forgotten

"Have you forgotten yet?…
Look up, and swear by the green of Spring that you’ll never forget."
- British poet Siegfried Sassoon

All performances will take place in the Monument National`s Studio Hydro-Quebec and La Balustrade. A Cabaret of War Poems and Music and a special panel The Artist & War will take place in the Monument National`s Cafe. Note: mature themes and language.

HAVE WE FORGOTTEN YET?

The Sound of Cracking Bones by Suzanne Lebeau
Translated from French by Julia Duchesne & John Van Burek
A co-presentation with Geordie Productions
November 11th at 7:30PM – Studio Hydro-Quebec

The Refugee Hotel by Carmen Aguirre
A co-presentation with Teesri Duniya Theatre
November 12th at 7:30PM – Studio Hydro-Quebec

The Possibilities by Howard Barker
A co-presentation with Scapegoat Carnivale Theatre
November 13th at 7:30PM – Studio Hydro-Quebec

Refuge by Mary Vingoe
A co-presentation with Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal
November 14th at 7:30PM – Studio Hydro-Quebec

Palace of the End by Judith Thompson
Imago Theatre
November 15th at *2:30PM – La Balustrade
Matinee in La Balustrade

Ruined by Lynn Nottage
A co-presentation with Black Theatre Workshop
November 15th at 7:30PM – Studio Hydro-Quebec

SPECIAL EVENTS

Each reading will be followed with an artist talk-back accompanied by a guest speaker.

Friday November 14th, A Cabaret of War Poems and Music will be presented at 10:30PM in The Monument National’s cafe
all proceeds going to War Child.

Saturday November 15th, The Artist & War is a special panel of invited guest speakers who will be joining us at 4:30PM in The Monument National’s cafe to discuss their experiences and thoughts on current events.

Tickets Prices:
Regular: 15$ · Students, seniors, artists: 12$ · 3 readings or more: 10$/per reading
Groups of 10 or more: 10$/ticket

To purchase tickets visit the Monument National’s BOX OFFICE
or call 514.871.2224
1-866-844-2172 (toll-free)

For more information and GROUP BOOKINGS please call Cristina Cugliandro at
514-274-3222
or send an email to cristina@imagotheatre.ca

WATCH: Audiences react to workshop performance of "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea"

This April, KDOONS creators Rick Miller and Craig Francis held a public performance workshop of their new theatrical production Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. The invited guests, who ranged from Artistic Directors to families, gave amazing feedback about what worked for them as an audience. This feedback has been incredibly useful to the creative process and resulted in a streamlined new draft of the script as the production prepares for its production phase in 2015.

We've compiled some of the audience reactions in this video. Rick and Craig send a huge thanks to all those who participated in this process, for your time, and for helping an original new artistic creation. See you in the theatre!

And online: you can also visit the KDOONS sites that live outside the play but use Natutilus crew and other characters to provide entertaining outreach on current water issues as part of the KDOONS "Hydro Empower" campaign: NautilusLeaks.com, ScienceToons.com, H2Ocanada.com, PaddyTheBeaver.com, and GrandFatherFrog.com

Thanks also to the talented, versatile – and brave! – cast of the Workshop performance:

Richard Clarkin as Captain Nemo
Stephanie Baptist as Professor Aronnax
Gil Garratt as Ned Land
Toby Hughes as Jules / Conseil


The 20K Collective presents
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea

Commissioned by the Arts and Culture Program of the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games
with assistance from
Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and Toronto Arts Council

38 years ago: John Lennon apologizes for saying The Beatles are "Bigger Than Jesus"

It was March, 1966 when John Lennon said,
"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity."


CBS Chicago has a piece about how, once the remarks hit the U.S. – and Beatles album burnings by Christians ensued – John Lennon issued an apology in August 1966.

“I didn’t mean it the way they said it,” he said at the news conference held at the Astor Tower Hotel on Chicago’s Gold Coast. “It’s amazing. It’s just so complicated. It’s got out of hand, you know. But I just meant it as that.

You can see impressions of John Lennon, The Beatles, and over 50 other baby boomer icons performed by Rick Miller in the new one-man show BOOM, which has its U.S. premiere at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center on September 20, 2014.

Produced by KDOONS and WYRD Productions, this is an explosive solo performance that documents the music, culture and politics that shaped the Baby Boom generation (1945-1969). BOOM takes us through 25 turbulent years, and gives voice to over a 100 influential politicians, activists and musicians. BOOM chronologically documents a historical period stretching from that first ‘boom’ of the Atomic Bomb in 1945 all the way to the Apollo 11 bringing the first human beings to the Moon in 1969. These two iconic moments span 25 of the most tumultuous years in modern history, fuelled by a generation of children with incredible influence due to their numbers, and to the advances of technology and communication. In the BOOM generation, politics and culture merged like never before – and perhaps never again.

Incidentally, this is not the first time Rick Miller has taken inspiration from John Lennon: the WYRD Production Bigger Than Jesus – which explored the history of the real and cultural figure of Jesus through the centuries – has been performed across Canada, the U.S., Australia, Germany and italy. So evidently, John Lennon was wrong.

Read the CBS Chicago story here.

Get info about BOOM at TulsaPAC here.

Buy tickets to BOOM Sept. 20 here.

http://ls4.co/GWx

38 years ago: John Lennon apologizes for saying The Beatles are "Bigger Than Jesus"

It was March, 1966 when John Lennon said,
"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity."


CBS Chicago has a piece about how, once the remarks hit the U.S. – and Beatles album burnings by Christians ensued – John Lennon issued an apology in August 1966.

“I didn’t mean it the way they said it,” he said at the news conference held at the Astor Tower Hotel on Chicago’s Gold Coast. “It’s amazing. It’s just so complicated. It’s got out of hand, you know. But I just meant it as that.

You can see impressions of John Lennon, The Beatles, and over 50 other baby boomer icons performed by Rick Miller in the new one-man show BOOM, which has its U.S. premiere at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center on September 20, 2014.

Produced by KDOONS and WYRD Productions, this is an explosive solo performance that documents the music, culture and politics that shaped the Baby Boom generation (1945-1969). BOOM takes us through 25 turbulent years, and gives voice to over a 100 influential politicians, activists and musicians. BOOM chronologically documents a historical period stretching from that first ‘boom’ of the Atomic Bomb in 1945 all the way to the Apollo 11 bringing the first human beings to the Moon in 1969. These two iconic moments span 25 of the most tumultuous years in modern history, fuelled by a generation of children with incredible influence due to their numbers, and to the advances of technology and communication. In the BOOM generation, politics and culture merged like never before – and perhaps never again.

Incidentally, this is not the first time Rick Miller has taken inspiration from John Lennon: the WYRD Production Bigger Than Jesus – which explored the history of the real and cultural figure of Jesus through the centuries – has been performed across Canada, the U.S., Australia, Germany and italy. So evidently, John Lennon was wrong.

Read the CBS Chicago story here.

Get info about BOOM at TulsaPAC here.

Buy tickets to BOOM Sept. 20 here.

http://ls4.co/GWK

Rick Miller co-hosts "We Are Pan Am" one-year countdown

July 11-12 2014: 20K co-creator Rick Miller joins co-hosts Amanda Martinez and Nicole Brooks to launch the official one year countdown to the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games in July 2015. It's called WE ARE PAN AM, an amazing two-day festival of art and athletics at Toronto's Nathan Phillips Square.

From the TO2015 website: "Come down to Nathan Phillips Square for free live music from headline artists as part of PANAMANIA, presented by CIBC.
But that’s not all. With world-class athlete appearances, the unveiling of the Cisco TORONTO 2015 Countdown Clock, amazing fireworks and a delicious selection of Pan American foods — WE ARE PAN AM will get you excited about the Games."

This is Rick's third job hosting with Pan Am since his co-creation with Craig Francis "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" (20kshow.com) was awarded a commission by PANAMANIA, the Arts & Culture component of the Toronto 2015 Games.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Behind The Scenes: Richard Feren

Richard Feren : Sound Design

Richard has been creating music and sound scores for Canadian theatre, dance and film since 1992. He also composes his own music and his first album, Rapture, was released on CD in 1997 under the name Crimescene, followed by The Mill, released in 2009. In 1998, he released Descent of Ishtar, a suite of middle-eastern-influenced music, commissioned by the Arabesque Dance Company for a stunningly beautiful production that envisioned the Dance of the Seven Veils as a colourful kabbalistic journey for an ensemble of belly dancers.
Richard’s selected sound designs and compositions can be heard in You Can’t Take It With You, Royal Comedians, Endgame, Oleanna, Fronteras Americanas, A Month in the Country, White Biting Dog; Antigone, Raisin In The Sun, The Real Inspector Hound, Black Comedy, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, The Chairs, King Lear, Phèdre, Betrayal, The Guardsman, King Lear, Loot, Mirandolina, Platonov, What the Butler Saw (Soulpepper Theatre); The Mill (parts 1-4) (Theatrefront); My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding (Mirvish Productions); Cul-de-sac, In on It, You Are Here, Monster, Here Lies Henry, The Soldier Dreams andExcerpts From The EMO Journals (da da kamera); Revisited (2B theatre); This Is What Happens Next, Half-Life, Insomnia, The Eco Show (Necessary Angel); Russell Hill, The Good Life, The Designated Mourner and Faust (Tarragon Theatre); Arigato Tokyo, Blasted, Silicone Diaries, Steel Kiss/Gulag, Live With It, Eternal Hydra (Buddies In Bad Times Theatre); THIS,Blue/Orange, Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) and The Soldier Dreams (Canadian Stage Company);Unidentified Human Remains and Dali (Crow’s Theatre); The Satie Project (Dancemakers); Possible Worlds, This Hotel(Theatre Passe Muraille); History of the Village with the Small Huts: Trudeau and the FLQ and The VideoCabaret News(VideoCabaret).
Upcoming sound design credits include Angels in America, Entertaining Mr. Sloane (Soulpepper Theatre Company).

Richard’s feature film work includes Robert Lepage’s Possible Worlds and Daniel MacIvor’s Past Perfect. He has also composed scores for various short films and videos, most recently Miklat by Rita Leistner and Small, Stupid and Insignificant by Valerie Buhagiar. He has also crafted music for several websites, flash animations and industrial videos and wrote a new original score for the classic silent horror film Nosferatu.

Richard has won seven Dora Mavor Moore Awards, received the Pauline McGibbon Award in 1999 and was shortlisted for the 2012 Siminovitch Prize.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Behind The Scenes: Itai Erdal

Itai Erdal : Lighting Designer

Itai has designed over 150 shows for theatre and dance companies in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Tel Aviv, Berlin, London and New York. Some of the companies he worked with include The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Vancouver Playhouse, Actor's Repertory Company, Alberta Theatre Project, Modern Baroque Opera, and The Jerusalem Lab.

Itai has been nominated for seventeen theatre awards:
Winner of the Sam Paine award 2003
Winner of the ADC's Jack King award 2005
Winner of a Dora Mavor Moore award 2007
Winner of Jessie Richardson awards 2009 and 2011.

Happy Canada Day, eh!

KDOONS Network celebrates Canada Day! July 1st marks the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a single country called Canada within the British Empire with four provinces (the Province of Canada was split into Ontario and Quebec).

The new KDOONS Theatrical Production "BOOM" features Rick Miller's impressions of several great moments in Canadian history: see a short segment about the Maple Leaf flag and the year 1965, as well as other moments, on HeritageMoment.com

Dominion Day, and later Canada Day, was the date set for a number of important events through the history of the country:

• the flooding of the Saint Lawrence Seaway (1958)
• the first colour television transmission in Canada (1966)
• the inauguration of the Order of Canada (1967)
• the establishment of "O Canada" as the country's national anthem (1980)

to name a few.

People across the country organize celebrations for Canada Day, usually outdoor events like parades, carnivals, festivals, barbecues, fireworks, and free shows or musical concerts.
So to all our friends in Canada, get outside enjoy the sun, and Happy Canada Day, eh!

http://ls4.co/F2U

KDOONS production BOOM premieres at the Mirvish 2015 Season!

From the creative team behind MacHomer and Bigger Than Jesus, comes an explosive solo performance that documents the music, culture and politics that shaped the Baby Boom generation (1945-1969). BOOM takes us through 25 turbulent years, and gives voice to over a 100 influential politicians, activists and musicians. It's a mind-blowing experience for audiences of all generations.

KDOONS and WYRD Productions present BOOM: written, directed, and performed by: RICK MILLER
January 15 - February 1, 2015 at the Panasonic Theatre in Toronto
Part of the Mirvish Theatre Off-Mirvish series
Book the Off-Mirvish series now!

"Astonishing.... BOOM is not simply a superlative theatrical experience, but I’d venture to say that it will change the way we think of historical-docu period plays from now on."
- Jessica Goldman, CBC radio

The entertainment doesn't stop at the theatre: BOOM also includes the online History video series on the Kidoons Network, HeritageMoment.com !

What is Off-Mirvish? Off-Mirvish is the Mirvish second stage series, bringing Toronto audiences adventurous new ideas and stimulating new experiences in theatre. The Toronto Star calls the series "The most exciting event on the Toronto theatre scene!". Join us for our third Off-Mirvish season for three intimate and exciting, hilarious and moving productions showcasing the best in new, cutting-edge comedy and drama! The Toronto Star calls the series "The most exciting event on the Toronto theatre scene!". Join us for our third Off-Mirvish season for three intimate and exciting, hilarious and moving productions showcasing the best in new, cutting-edge comedy and drama!


http://ls4.co/EiM

NASA: West Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt Has Begun And Is Unstoppable

A new study by researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, finds a rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in an irreversible state of decline, with nothing to stop the glaciers in this area from melting into the sea.

The study presents multiple lines of evidence, incorporating 40 years of observations that indicate the glaciers in the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica "have passed the point of no return," according to glaciologist and lead author Eric Rignot, of UC Irvine and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The new study has been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

These glaciers already contribute significantly to sea level rise, releasing almost as much ice into the ocean annually as the entire Greenland Ice Sheet. They contain enough ice to raise global sea level by 4 feet (1.2 meters) and are melting faster than most scientists had expected. Rignot said these findings will require an upward revision to current predictions of sea level rise.

VIsit NASA.gov and see this great background article on The "Unstable" West Antarctic Ice Sheet: A Primer

http://ls4.co/ENY

NASA: West Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt Has Begun And Is Unstoppable

A new study by researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine, finds a rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in an irreversible state of decline, with nothing to stop the glaciers in this area from melting into the sea.

The study presents multiple lines of evidence, incorporating 40 years of observations that indicate the glaciers in the Amundsen Sea sector of West Antarctica "have passed the point of no return," according to glaciologist and lead author Eric Rignot, of UC Irvine and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The new study has been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

These glaciers already contribute significantly to sea level rise, releasing almost as much ice into the ocean annually as the entire Greenland Ice Sheet. They contain enough ice to raise global sea level by 4 feet (1.2 meters) and are melting faster than most scientists had expected. Rignot said these findings will require an upward revision to current predictions of sea level rise.

VIsit NASA.gov and see this great background article on The "Unstable" West Antarctic Ice Sheet: A Primer

http://ls4.co/ENV