HARVEST V

Village Scene Productions presents the 5 th season of

HARVEST V - The Montreal LGBT International Theatre Festival
A celebration of the contribution of LGBT culture to the performing arts in :
theatre, music and dance ... An abundance of divers talent on stage.

STEAMY HOT SUMMER NIGHTS PROGRAM :

This season gets off to an early start with two touring productions:

LADY IN WAITING
Written and performed by Charles Hayter
Directed by Mat Howard
Production assistance: Alix Stirling
Dramaturgical Consultant: Judith Thompson
Original music by Alex Eddington

Cabaret Mado, 1115 Ste-Catherine east. ONE NIGHT ONLY! Monday, July 21, 9pm.

A gender-bending solo show presenting a bubbly cocktail of wit and sass with even a little medical ethics thrown in.

This Play from Fifth Ventricle Productions will be presented as an official Toronto Pride event June 26, 27, 28 at 8pm. St. Andrews United Church (corner of Bloor and Church). Performed across Canada since the world premiere at Harvest's 2nd season September 2005 at T.S.C. LIW is the official VSP Harvest V selection for the 6th edition of the N.Y.C. Fresh Fruit Festival: The Kaufman Theater Algonquin Theater Group, 123 E. 24th Street, $18, July 19th, 9pm, July`20, 10pm.

"BATHHOUSE: THE MUSICAL!"
  Tim Evanicki and Esther Daack, Orlando, Florida
(Currently touring across the U.S.A.)

The Canadian production premier
directed by Corey Castle & musical director Shayne Gryn,
opens in Montreal August 2008.
Musical adult comedy 'all male burlesque' review. English, 90min.

This rib-tickling, ass-slapping, toe tapping all male revue promises to be a rousing, carousing, musical montage featuring all of your favorite bathhouse icons.   Join Billy as he visits the bathhouse for the first time. He's looking for love but soon realizes that the other patrons are looking for something else, something a little more temporary! The Play is a camp musical comedy for mature audiences with adult themes, and plenty of scantily clad men!

So it's your first day at " Bathhouse: The Musical !"   Feeling a little scared, flustered and aloof? Join 4 actors in 4 towels with 4 doors on stage; Billy, Maurice, Teddy and David in this all male burlesque new musical adult comedy review...   " Bathhouse: The Musical!" for a fun romp and exciting good time.

See you at the Baths!

Geordie Space, 4001 Berri (south of Duluth).
Previews 9pm: July 30, 31, August 1 & 2.

BATHHOUSE The Musical!
Coming this summer to a city near you!
Montreal Pride Celebrations: August 13, 14, 15, 16. 17. (venue T.B.A.)
Ottawa - Quebec - Toronto -   August 08.

The season five programme consists of two official categories : Professional and semi-professional : international, national, and local. We accepted productions with a 45 to 100 minutes duration and we assign each, 1 to 6 performances.

DAVID - A back alley encounter in Montreal's Gay Village.

The original collaboration by Bryn Symonds and Joseph Bembridge played to sold out crowds during Harvest   2006 and was remounted in April 2007 by Stewart Productions. Acclaimed as the 'Top 5' play in by the public in the Montreal Mirror 2007 poll.

Village Scene Productions
Montreal, Québec.

Adaptation in French and directed by: Davyn Ryall
  Multi-média production assistance by: Atif Siddiqi
Dramatic-comedy. Solo multi-media performance. French. 60min.

Nick doesn't know it yet, but Friday night he's working his way through all these positions:
His past and future are coming together in the present.
The Play explores characterization and themes delivered by a slightly jaded and sympathetic brat called Nick, who is in the process of understanding himself and his environment. He tells us the story of a back alley sexual encounter with a man called David. 'David' is about sex.

But not just sex as in who's having it and with whom.   Sex as in: What is sex? What does it mean? Why do we have sex? Sex as in lust. Sex as love. Sex as power. Sex as self-worth.
Sex as self-destruction. Sex as status. Sex as failure.

6 performances. , October 7 - 12; Theatre Ste-Catherine.
Extended for 4 performances to October 18 th at TBA

FLUID
by Erika Kate MacDonald
Pack Of Others productions
 Brooklyn, New York
directed by Sophie Nimmannit; Original beats produced by Matt Walsh
One (1) Woman solo performance. English. 60 min.

Exploring the issues surrounding "bisexuality". Fluid is a feisty and vulnerable piece
of entertainment. The play takes the audience into and beyond the hetero/homo binary, expanding on gender and what might constitute legitimate "queerness".

2 performances. October 8 to 12.   At T.S.C.

Lay Down And Love Me Again
by James Howell

Halifax, Nova Scotia
  English. Solo-performance art. 50 min.

The Play stretches the limits between theatre, storytelling and spoken word.
Described as "sit down/stand-up comedy". Kevin, longs to stage a solo show but is at home in his pajamas. He performs anyway, through over-the-top lines and performance the show takes the piss out of posturing, self-confessing solo shows, including taking a few digs at coming out stories. The tone is playfully absurd. The appeal is the language and rapport developed between performer and audience.

The Play fits a "gay" sensibility by way of irony, absurdity irreverence and an attack on all things earnest. The central character's tendency to blame family and religion for his problems can be seen as a sly comment on the certain aspects of coming out. All the characters pomposity and self-obsession can comment on contemporary culture in general. Mainly though, it is just good for a laugh.

2 performances. October 8-12, 2008. At T.S.C.

The Curative

by Thom Bryce
White Raven Productions,
Toronto 401 Montreal

With: Freya Ravensbergen & Cory Bertrand

Drama. English. 70min.

The Play deals with the increasing presence of pharmaceuticals in our daily lives, and imagines an apocalyptic future where a pill can control sexual desire.
As homosexual desire has historically been equated with illness and/or disease, the text explores themes that are closely connected to gay and lesbian communities.   The Curative delves into the need to become "normal" that countless gay, lesbian, and transgender men and women experience, and raises questions regarding the genetics of sexuality.

WHAT'S THE POINT?!
New York City, N.Y.
With: Hector Coris, Patrick Garrigan and Eadie Scott
Music by Alan Cancelino
Lyrics by Hector Coris

Directed by Collette Black.
Choreography by Susan Haefner
  Musical comedy review. English. 70min.

This new Play is a sequel (of sorts) to What's Your Problem?! The show is an irreverent revue about modern life, Broadway, relationships, medical miracles and a no-good villain named "Dirty Sanchez"! The show pokes fun at internet dating, gay animals, disastrous one-night stands, questionable heterosexuality, and Mel Brooks. It's fun! It's gay(ish)! If you saw our last show (What's Your Problem?!) at  TSC during Harvest #3, you'll really love this one. The company performed at Harvest #3 in 2006 at TSC where it won most notable   ensemble and musical performance. 3 performances. October 8 - 18, Dates, times and venue T.B.A.

Four Ways 'Til Rain
by T. Berto
Director Amanda Lockitch
Pencil-neck Theatre Guelph, Ont.
English. Drama. 75min.

The play is, in essence, a series of 11 monologues and dialogues by 6 men whose lives interconnect with each other. It has had enthusiastic response from audiences. A number of them claimed that they got to see someone like them selves, for the first time, on a Canadian stage. This is perhaps because the characters in the play are mostly NOT metropolitan people, nor persons that move within a queer subculture. They are queer men that live in the spaces they've found or made to be comfortable, and that integrate with the circumstances of where and who they are surrounded by.

This Play received workshops in Kitchener, one dramaturge by David Oiye the Artistic Director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre Toronto. It was performed as part of Kitchener's first Queer Theatre Festival March 2008. Scene one was published in Gay Monologues and Scenes: An Anthology , by Playwrights Canada, edited by Sky Gilbert.

3 performances. October 8 - 18. Date, time and venue TBA .

Guillaume et James: une histoire d'amour désuni
"William & James : a tale of unrequited love."
Village Scene Productions
Montreal, Qc .

The French version of the original " William & James " by Robert Tsonos (Montréal-Tokyo), Adaptation in French by Genevieve St-Jean, directed by Davyn Ryall. Christian Bugden returns to reprise his role as James. Drama. French. 100min.

Before there was Brokeback Mountain ... Before there was Truman Capote ...

Before there was Oscar Wilde ... There was William & James

Guillaume et James: une histoire d'amour désuni takes place in 19 th century Victorian England at a countryside estate out side of London. A social encounter between two aristocrats leads to a bizarre living arrangement. Trading financial and domestic security, the agreement locks the men in a battle for dependence, power, and control...an intriguing provocative tale examining the complexities of relationships and the definitions of love. Heightened language, a playful repartee, and a considered delivery give this play it's edge and appeal .
Presented in Montreal 40 times in English and French during the 2006 Out Games and DiversCité and Harvest #4; The Play received most notable original text for playwright Robert Tsonos and lead actor for Christian Bugden. At the Fresh Fruit Festival off-off Broadway in July 2007 at the Cherry Lane Theatre it received best Play for playwright Robert Tsonos.

Touring: 2008 - 2009 Dates, times & venues (s) T.B.A.

We are pleased to announce that this Harvest V is an official associated event of the Fondation BBCM Black & Blue (B&B) Festival. This will help the Harvest grow and flourish by reaching 'OUT' to a larger and younger audience. The B&B Gold Pass will include complimentary access   to   Harvest V productions presented during the B&B (October 8 to 14, 2008). And as an added benefit the Gold Pass gives the bearer a 25% discount off the regular ticket price of performances presented on all other dates during the Harvest V 2008 season.

We are very proud to be able to offer this opportunity to these artists to tell stories that represent our lives on stage. We hope that you will take full advantage of this seasons' abondance of talent and encorage the artists' hard work. In addition to individual tickets per-performance we offer a choice of   two Harvest festival passes : The Half-Rainbow 45$ (3 performances) and The Rainbow 85$ (6 performances). A very limited quantity of both are available as of July 15 at Priape : Montreal and Toronto locations. For more information on the sproductions please visit our web site www.villagescene.com Reservations for individual performances contact: tickets@villagescene.com or call the VSP production office at 514 656-3420.

Harvest V 2008 partners to date :

Montreal 2008 Pride Celebrations; BBCM: Hot & Dry and Black & Blue; Société de Développement Commercial du Village; Fugues; Image+Nation XXI; Priape; QDF; ELAN; CGLM.