THEATRE NEWS: Factory season announced;
Could you be an Idiot?;
Penelopiad plays at Buddies
18 MAR/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

Playwright/performer Rick Miller will be the first at bat in the Factory Theatre's 2011-12 season, announced Thursday by Artistic Director Ken Gass and Managing Director Sara Meurling — and he's hoping to bat in a triple.

Miller will start off with a pre-subscription run of WYRD Production's acclaimed staging of MacHOMER, the officially launch the season with the WYRD/Necessary Angel production of BIGGER THAN JESUS, following it up with a revival of WYRD/Necessary Angel's HARDSELL, reworked with director Daniel Brooks for this Factory remount. Also on tap in the season ahead, is an all new production of Tomson Highway's acclaimed comedy/drama, THE REZ SISTERS, directed by Ken Gass, which is slated to follow up Miller Time on the mainstage.

Ronnie Burkett then takes over, returning to the Factory Theatre for the Toronto première of PENNY PLAIN, a new work from the the internationally acclaimed Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes. Anosh Irani's MY GRANNY THE GOLDFISH, featured as part of Factory's CrossCurrents Festival in 2009, will close the season in its Toronto première.

A new work from Newfoundland's Artistic Fraud titled OIL AND WATER, written by Robert Chafe, featuring an a cappella score by Andrew Craig and directed by Jillian Keiley will headline Factory's Performance Spring 2012.

Subscriptions, priced from $85 to $175 are available March 31. For information, call 416-504-9971.

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Open Call auditions will be held Sat. March 26 at Roy Thomson Hall for the recently announced Toronto engagement of AMERICAN IDIOT. Producers are seeking male and female rock singers in their early to late 20s to be a part of the production that is slated to run at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, Dec. 28 through Jan. 15, 2012.

For further information on the auditions, visit http://www.facebook.com/americanidiotbroadway , or call 212-719-9393x360.

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Nightwood Theatre will offer up a Toronto production of Margaret Atwood's THE PENELOPIAD at Buddies In Bad Times in January as part of its 2011-12 season, it was announced Thursday. With direction by Kelly Thornton, sets and costumes by Denyse Karn and lighting by Kimberly Purtell, Nightwood's production of Atwood's response to the Odyssey is slated to open Jan. 12 and run through Jan. 29.