Theatre Projects Manitoba is delighted to announce our 33rd Season – We Get By with a Little Help From Our Friends: A Year of Partnership! This winter, in an exciting first, TPM is partnering with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre to present Governor General award-winner, David Yee’s newest play, among men, the story of Canadian Poetry legends, Al Purdy and Milton Acorn, building Al’s iconic A-frame cabin, and how all three changed Canadian literature forever.
Alongside longtime friends of ours, Walk&Talk Theatre Company, TPM is co-producing the world premier of a new musical this spring; End of the Line. In Walk&Talk’s biggest project to date, we take a raucous look at the idea of the flood myth and what grows anew when the world is washed away.
Finally, our rural outreach project finds new pathways as we travel to Southern Manitoba for our Live Art Trade Route, that will be carrying us and our motley crew of artists, throughout this season committed to partnership & community-first work.
When I took this job at TPM I was asked about my vision for the future of Theatre Projects and without hesitation I said “partnerships.” Theatre is always a collaborative artform so why shouldn’t our producing models also be collaborative? Now more than ever we really do get by with a little help from our friends, and I’m so delighted to be spending our 33rd season with these two wildly different companies on these two wildly different shows that, for all the ways they are different, are both fundamentally about how our friendships help us find our way into our true selves.
–Suzie Martin, Artistic Director
among men
By David Yee
Directed by Suzie Martin
A Co-Production with Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre
Tom Hendry Warehouse – 140 Rupert Ave.
January 24th – February 10th, 2024
In 10 years, Al Purdy and Milton Acorn will become celebrated Canadian poets, but for now, they are just two broke men drinking whiskey and fighting with a wood-fire stove.
This heartfelt and crude drama makes cussing sound like poetry (and coffee taste like whiskey) as the two men struggle to build an A-frame cottage, while dismantling the narrow notion of 20th century masculinity. On the precipice of greatness, and a hangover, the poets must wrestle with a darkness that fights back to turn everything into something greater than it is.
Two iconic Manitoba theatre companies come together for the first time ever to tell the story of two iconic Canadian poets coming together in a pivotal moment in their lives and their art form.
I am so thrilled to simultaneously make my TPM and MTC Warehouse directorial debuts with this cracklingly funny and poignant play about two guys spending long winter nights trying to stay warm while wrestling with their burning need to create something beautiful and lasting—I mean what could be more perfect for Winnipeg in January?
–Suzie Martin, Artistic Director
Tickets for among men are available through the Royal MTC Box Office.
Warehouse Season Subscriptions (including among men) are on sale now.
Single tickets on sale soon!
END OF THE LINE
Created by Walk&Talk Theatre Company
Written by Ben Townsley
Music/Lyrics by Duncan Cox
Movement Score by Tanner Manson
Directed by Andraea Sartison
A Co-Production with Walk&Talk Theatre Company
Asper Centre for Theatre and Film – University of Winnipeg – 400 Colony St.
May 3rd – May 12th, 2024
End of the Line is a new musical that tells the story of Heart City – a coastal community destroyed in an instant as a dam breaks and a river crashes through countless lives on its way to rejoin the sea. We follow the interwoven stories of eight strangers and their subtle self discoveries as they discover their most authentic selves just before they are destroyed. With one final party, we celebrate the life and the death of Heart City. A new piece of theatre filled with catchy songs & thoughtful lyrics, bursting at the seam with evocative & hilarious text, and brought to life with innovative staging and choreography. The performing ensemble is filled with Winnipeg’s fiercest young performers who are making waves as they hit the scene: singer-songwriters, opera singers, dance artists and more!
End of the Line has been a labour of love from everyone involved. Walk&Talk is so excited to be a part of this iconic moment with Theatre Projects Manitoba as their first premier of a new musical! This show pulls on all the right heartstrings and plays them to create earworms that will get stuck in your head. This is everything you want in theatre: laughs, good music, and a loveable-but-gross pool salesman.
-Tanner Manson, Artistic Producer – Walk&Talk Theatre Company
Tickets for End of the Line available HERE.
LIVE ART TRADE ROUTE
A Theatre Projects Manitoba Initiative
On Location in the Red River Valley
The Live Art Trade Route will trek new paths on the foundation laid by TPM’s award-winning Interlake Chautauqua; making new connections and trading artistic expressions with Southern Manitoba! The crux of this rural arts outreach project has always been the reciprocal flow of artistic exchange between urban and rural Manitobans. Live art will be co-created, relationships discovered & nurtured, and stories shared between settler, newcomer & Indigenous folks.
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Theatre Projects Manitoba is a professional, non-for-profit organization focusing on the creation and presentation of theatrical work seeded and harvested in Manitoba. Since 1990, TPM has developed the voices of the region, sharing stories that have a connection to communities that reside on Treaty 1 Land, and passionately supporting their growth of these projects and relationships.
