HarperTrudeau

Joe Clark VS

Media Kit

By Michael HealeyDirected By Miles Potter

APRIL 4 - APRIL 22, 2017

1 @ATPlive @ATPlive AlbertaTheatreProjects

T H E I M P O R T A N T S T U F F

Rating: Show contains strong language and mature content. Suggested for audiences 16+.

Show Run: April 4 – April 22, 2017 No shows on Mondays.

Show Times: Evening Shows: 7:30 PM | Matinees: 2:00 PM

Preview Dates: April 4, 5 & 6

Opening Night & Reception: April 7, 2017 (reception free with ticket). Enjoy a glass of complimentary prosecco courtesy of LaMarca Prosecco, and a catered post-show reception.

Venue: The Martha Cohen Theatre at Arts Commons | 215 – 8 Avenue SE, Calgary, AB

Tickets: $25-72 available at www.atplive.com or 403-294-7402

Parking: • On-street parking nearby (free after 6pm and on Sundays) • Paid underground parking available off Macleod Trail northbound (far left lane)

Media Contact: Ashley Meller Director of Marketing & Communications Alberta Theatre Projects Cell: 587-894-2257 ameller@atplive.com A B O U T 1 9 7 9

IN A NUTSHELL:

This unbelievably funny play takes us inside the corridors of power. It’s a hilarious battle of wits based on true events. Our hero is Prime Minister Joe Clark: young, idealistic, and stubborn. His opponents: Brian Mulroney, Pierre Trudeau, Stephen Harper… pretty much everyone. No matter where you stand, or even if you don’t follow politics, you’ll love these great characters and their sometimes dubious shenanigans.

THE STORY:

The year is 1979, and our hero is Prime Minister Joe Clark: young, idealistic, and stubborn. He’s in his office, deciding if he should put his first budget before Parliament. He knows that if he does he could lose everything. Everyone begs him not to do it: his wife, his colleagues… Brian Mulroney, Pierre Trudeau… They tell him he should pull some strings, make some deals. Compromise. But like we said, he’s stubborn. A hilarious and timely battle of wits about power and conservative politics.

 

2 @ATPlive @ATPlive AlbertaTheatreProjects

 

I M A G E S , S O U N D & V I D E O

To download promotional images and video recordings, please visit www.atplive.com/media

IMAGES (HI RES)

Promotional Images:

Caption: 1979 by Michael Healey at Alberta Theatre Projects April 4 – 22, 2017 Credit: Alberta Theatre Projects

Images and video of the production are available at atplive.com/media

A B O U T T H E P L A Y W R I G H T

Michael Healey is a Toronto-born playwright and actor who graduated from the acting program at Toronto's Ryerson Theatre School in 1985. After working as an actor for nearly a decade, he performed in his own first play; a one-act monologue entitled Kicked, at the Fringe of Toronto Festival in 1996, and toured it across Canada and to Australia. In 1995 he was a member of the acting company at the Blyth Festival, where he encountered the history of The Farm Show, an experience which inspired his own play, the Governor General’s Award-winning The Drawer Boy. The Drawer Boy is one of the most-produced Canadian plays in the country and in the United States. Healey’s other plays have been produced all across Canada, including Theatre Passe Muraille, Mirvish Productions, Tarragon Theatre, Soulpepper Theatre Company, and the Stratford Festival. His previous works that have been produced by Alberta Theatre Projects include The Drawer Boy (2001) and Plan B (2003). Healey is the recipient of the Chalmers Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award, and five Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Best New Play.

3 @ATPlive @ATPlive AlbertaTheatreProjects

A B O U T T H E D I R E C T O R

Miles Potter is a Toronto-based actor and director, and 1979 marks his third production of a Michael Healey play, after Proud and The Drawer Boy. Potter has directed for nearly all of Canada’s major theatres, including the Stratford Festival, National Arts Centre, Soulpepper, The Citadel Theatre, the Blyth Festival, Mirvish Productions, and many productions for the Manitoba Theatre Centre, as well as for Theatre Calgary. He was the Artistic Director of The Belfry Theatre from 1984 to 1986, and has been guest director and teacher at the National Theatre School of Canada, George Brown College, Humber College, Dalhousie University, the University of Ottawa and the University of Missouri. He often collaborates with his wife, actor Seana McKenna, and their productions together have included Medea, Richard III, Orpheus Descending, The Physicists (adapted by Michael Healey) Hedda Gabler, A Streetcar Named Desire and most recently, Theatre Calgary’s The Audience among many others. They are also the proud parents of actor Callan Potter who stars in YTV’s successful series of films Bruno and Boots. Potter’s work has been the recipient of numerous Canadian theatre awards including a Masque Award for best English-language production, a Dora Mavor Moore Award, and a Jessie Richardson Award.

A B O U T T H E S E T & P r o j e c t i o n s

Scott Reid is the set and projection designer for 1979. Reid has a long history of designing for ATP, including productions Legend Has It, Venus In Fur, True Love Lies, East of Berlin, Half Life, Oliver Twist, Sitting on Paradise, as well having designed for 16 PlayRites Festivals. He also designs extensively for Vertigo Theatre (Turn of the Screw, I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, Farewell My Lovely, Vintage Hitchcock, In the Heat of the Night, Blithe Spirit, Dangerous Corner, And Then There Were None and Rebecca). Reid has designed for theatres across the country including Theatre Calgary, Soulpepper Theatre Company, the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Calgary Opera, DJD, and the Alberta Ballet.

A B O U T T H E C O S T U M E S

After working on Alberta Theatre Projects’ productions of The Circle, The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, and Butcher, Jennifer Arsenault returns to ATP to design the costumes for 1979. Arsenault holds an MFA in theatre design from the University of Calgary and a BFA in Scenography from the Université du Québec à Montréal, and she has completed assistantships at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, at the Banff Centre for the Arts, and at the Théâtre des Zygomars in Namur, Belgium. She has designed for companies Calgary and across the country, including the Cowtown Opera, Theatre Northwest, Lunchbox Theatre, The Shakespeare Company, Handsome Alice Theatre, Hit & Myth Productions, L'ile Imagin'air, Chromatic Theatre, Vertigo Theatre, Theatre Junction, and Sage Theatre's Ignite! Festival.

4 @ATPlive @ATPlive AlbertaTheatreProjects

A B O U T T H E S O U N D D E S I G N

1979 marks sound designer Thomas Geddes first production with Alberta Theatre Projects. Elsewhere, Geddes has designed for Ghost River Theatre (TOUCH, The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst ), O2 Dance Company, Major Matt Mason, and the Arts Club.

A B O U T T H E L I G H T I N G

Alberta Theatre Projects’ Production Manager David Fraser is the lighting designer for 1979. Fraser has designed sets and lights for many ATP productions, including sets for Buyer & Cellar, Butcher, Playing with Fire: The Theo Fleury Story, The Syringa Tree and The Goat, and lights for The Motherf**ker with the Hat, Charlie Brown, Unity 1918, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the Enbridge playRites Festival from 2005 – 2012. He has also designed for the Edmonton Opera, Vertigo Theatre, and The Shakespeare Company. Fraser’s designs have been nominated for a Jessie Richardson Award, two Betty Mitchell Awards, a SAT Award, and thirteen Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards (winning three). He is also a member of the Associated Designers of Canada, and was the Director of Production and a lighting designer for the 2015 English Canada Exhibit Prague Quadrennial.

T H E C A S T (Alphabetical Order)

Christopher Hunt

Actor “A”

For ATP: Over 20 productions, including: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Half Life, Art, Stones In His Pockets, Respectable, Vigil, Two Weeks With The Queen. Elsewhere: The Audience, The Light In The Piazza (Theatre Calgary); Die Fledermaus (Calgary Opera); Our Town (Caravan Farm Theatre); Calamity Town (Vertigo Theatre); Epiphany (Lunchbox Theatre - director). Film/TV: Heartland, Caitlin’s Way, Shanghai Noon, You Know My Name. Awards: Betty Mitchell Awards: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The 39 Steps, When That I Was, Mesa, Bent, The Cocktail Hour.

5 @ATPlive @ATPlive AlbertaTheatreProjects

Jamie Konchak

Actor “B”

For ATP: The Red Priest, The Apology, The Penelopiad, Oliver, Heartbreaker, The Romeo Initiative, Why Freud Fainted, Vincent in Brixton. Elsewhere: (Recent credits) CRIME: Does Not Pay (Downstage Theatre), Liberation Days, The Tempest, Joan: By Fire, As You Like It (Two Planks and a Passion); A Christmas Carol, The Great Gatsby (Theatre Calgary); The Floating Mouse (The Green Fools); Calamity Town, Farewell My Lovely, The Huron Bride (Vertigo Theatre); reasons to be happy, reasons to be pretty, Gruesome Playground Injuries (Ground Zero/Hit & Myth). Awards: 3 Betty Mitchell Awards for outstanding Performance, 1 Critter award for Outstanding Solo Performance and 2 Robert Merritt Awards for performances in Nova Scotia. Jamie is currently collaborating on numerous creative projects including, inVISIBLE with Handsome Alice. She is a member of the band CUTEST KITTEN EVER and lives in Calgary.

Phillip Riccio

Joe Clark

For ATP: Debut. Elsewhere: The Test, Festen, A Whistle in the Dark (The Company Theatre); The Seagull, Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love (Crow’s Theatre); Harper Regan (Canadian Stage); Translations, Hamlet, The Wild Duck (Soulpepper Theatre); Mr. Marmalade (Outside The March); Cripple of Innishmaan (Centaur Theatre); Tempest Tost, Henry IV part I and II (Stratford Festival) Director: Domesticated, Speaking in Tongues, Through the Leaves (The Company Theatre). Film/TV: Ransom, Saving Hope, Flashpoint, Republic of Doyle, Rent-a-Goalie, Diary of the Dead, Hotel Congress, My Family’s Secret. Awards: Toronto Critics Theatre Award (The Test). Philip is the Co-Artistic Director of The Company Theatre in Toronto www.companytheatre.ca and the publisher of Intermission Magazine www.intermissionmagazine.ca

The Exchange events give audiences and artists the chance to connect and celebrate the art of live theatre. Most are free with the purchase of a ticket.

Tuesday, April 4, 5 & 6 – After the Show MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT | FREE WITH TICKET Talk about the world premiere of 1979 with internationally celebrated Canadian playwright Michael Healey. Thursday, April 6 – 6:30pm PIZZA NIGHT AT ATP | FREE WITH TICKET Join us for a conversation with 1979 playwright Michael Healey and director Miles Potter, and enjoy Papa John’s Pizza with special beer samplings from Big Rock Brewery. Hosted by Artistic Director Vanessa Porteous.

6 @ATPlive @ATPlive AlbertaTheatreProjects

Friday, April 7 – After the Show CELEBRATE OPENING NIGHT! | FREE WITH TICKET Mingle with the artists, talk about the show, and celebrate with a glass of prosecco compliments of La Marca. Post-show reception generously provided by An Affair to Remember. Tuesday, April 11 – 7:30pm THAT $10 TICKET THING Presented by TD Calling all students! Buy a ticket to the show for only $10 and be entered to win a door prize. Stay afterwards to meet the cast. Student ID is required. Tuesday, April 11 – After the Show MEET THE CAST | FREE WITH TICKET Join us for a conversation with the cast of 1979. Sunday, April 16 – 1:00pm AFTERNOON TEA | FREE WITH TICKET Enter the halls of Canadian political power and the true tales of 1979. Hosted by Artistic Associate Laurel Green. Enjoy a cup of gourmet Tea Trader tea and a delicious pastry from Sidewalk Citizen. Thursday, April 20th – 6:00pm COCKTAILS IN THE COMMONS | $35 ATP’s Sommelier Michael Bigattini of Willow Park Wines & Spirits hosts an exclusive cocktail tasting inspired by the fascinating figures of Canadian politics in 1979. Paired with delicious hors d’oeuvres, enjoy a toast with the cast after the show. Saturday, April 22 – After the Show HARRY AND MARTHA COHEN AWARD | FREE WITH TICKET Honouring a distinguished Calgarian for their significant and sustained contribution to theatre in our community.

A B O U T A L B E R T A T H E A T R E P R O J E C T S

Alberta Theatre Projects is a Calgary-based, not-for-profit, professional theatre company that celebrates the art of live theatre. From its home in The Martha Cohen Theatre at Arts Commons, the company produces world-calibre shows with a focus on new works of theatre, plays by Canadian playwrights, and contemporary theatre from around the world. It is also a national leader in new play development and dramaturgy.

www.ATPlive.com Twitter: @ATPlive Instagram: @ATPlive Facebook: AlbertaTheatreProjects