STAY-AWAKE-A-THON

SYNOPSIS
It’s the night of White Oak Secondary’s annual Stay-Awake-A-Thon: a fundraiser where students get to stay up all night in the school playing dodgeball, watching the entire Hunger Games franchise, and eating so many chips. But as the event creeps deeper and deeper into darkness, the sleep-deprived student body takes the night into their own hands, turning to primal self-governance and hurtling into a pressure cooker of chaos before the sun comes up. Intense, funny, and frightening, Stay-Awake-A-Thon explores what it means to come of age in a sociopolitical hellscape and a world about to implode.

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
Initial research and creation for Stay-Awake-A-Thon was made possible by an Ontario Arts Council grant recommended by Carousel Players. Inquiries about the play can be directed to Michael Kras, or to Ian Arnold at Catalyst TCM.

a how-to guide for the not-yet-viral

SYNOPSIS
Hannah is reaching the end of high school, and while her friends and peers are looking ahead to college applications and career prospects, she’s fighting for one thing only: to become famous on TikTok. Furiously uploading videos to the popular social media app on a daily basis, Hannah is desperate for a video to catch fire and go viral. But when a video finally does pop off - while featuring a friend who didn’t consent to it being posted - Hannah is suddenly and rapidly thrust into a dizzying new world with a faceless global community of millions watching her as her life, and real life relationships, begin spiralling out of control. Featuring a vibrant electro-pop score, a how-to guide for the not-yet-viral is an intimate and immersive chamber musical about the euphoric highs and unsettling lows of social media, and the true cost of internet fame.

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
Early development of a how-to guide for the not-yet-viral - co-created with composer Stephen Ingram - has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council through the Theatre Projects program as well as grants recommended by Talk is Free Theatre, Suitcase in Point, and Carousel Players. The musical entered deeper development through residency at Theatre Aquarius in the 2022/2023 theatre season, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Inquiries about the play can be directed to Michael Kras, or to Ian Arnold at Catalyst TCM.

rip it out of my THROAT

SYNOPSIS
Mona, Bradley, Hunter, and Peyton - the four members of White Oak Secondary’s elite vocal quartet - have gathered for a dress rehearsal on the eve of the most important regional competition of their high school careers. With massive cuts to the school’s arts budget hovering over them, this may be the quartet’s final year ever if they can’t prove their worth by taking home the big trophy. As the quartet waits in their school auditorium for their choir director to arrive, they reckon with explosive anxieties about their futures, relationships, self-worths, and voices on a planet in crisis.

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
Writing for rip it out of my THROAT has been funded by Ontario Arts Council grants recommended by Theatre Aquarius, Tottering Biped Theatre, and Theatre Direct as well as an OAC Theatre Projects creation grant. Original choral music will be composed by Benjamin Kersey. Early creation and development of the play was supported by Essential Collective Theatre under the dramaturgy of Colin Bruce Anthes through residency in the 2020/2021 season, also funded by the Ontario Arts Council.

Inquiries about the play can be directed to Michael Kras, or to Ian Arnold at Catalyst TCM.

The Start-Up

SYNOPSIS
Blast Off! is Hamilton’s buzziest new start-up advertising firm, with a small, overworked team of young talent that keeps things running as they fuel up with copious complimentary coffee and kombucha on tap; and the occasional game of ping pong.

But as hustles, side-hustles, and side-side-hustles become an all-encompassing means of survival and the lines of work and play begin to dangerously blur, can these young Hamiltonians get ahead in their careers without losing grip on themselves? Oh, and why the heck does their adorable downtown office keep quaking violently like it’s about to explode?

Fiercely funny and bracingly current, The Start-Up is a play about internalized capitalism, success, failure, hustle culture, loneliness, free beer, dental care, and OnlyFans.

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
Creation and development of The Start-Up has been generously supported by a Theatre Projects creation grant from the Ontario Arts Council and an Explore and Create grant from the Canada Council for the Arts with dramaturgical support from Joanna Falck. The play has also been developed in residence at Caravan Farm Theatre in Armstrong, BC through the 2023 National Playwrights Retreat.

Inquiries about the play can be directed to Michael Kras, or to Ian Arnold at Catalyst TCM.