2014-2015

The 2014-2015 season

ATC: 44 Plays for 44 Presidents (7, 12 Sept)

AUDITIONS

DUE TO EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES, “SLICES” HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
HOWEVER WE HAVE A BRILLIANT SHOW LINED UP. PLEASE SEE BELOW.

Steve Challens‚ who previously directed the hilarious Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) for the ATC‚ will be holding auditions for the equally madcap 44 Plays for 44 Presidents‚ to be performed in the Studio January 22-24 and 28-31‚ 2015.

44 Plays is a riotous romp through the entirety of US history. It was first performed in 2002‚ but has been updated to bring us all the way to Obama!

We will need a minimum of five adults of any age — or gender! Any of the roles can be played by either men or women and the director will be casting based on group chemistry and spirit.At the same time both silly and very smart‚ this fast-paced script will give you the opportunity to play multiple roles — and play with a whole lotta props! We would encourage our Improv Sunday peeps to come out of the woodwork for this one‚ but auditions are open to everyone.

AUDITION DATES AND LOCATION
WAREHOUSE – RUE WAELHEM 73, SCHAERBEEK 1030
Sunday 7 September from 14.00 – 16.00
Friday 12 September from 20.00 – 22.00
For more information and to confirm your audition date, please email the director:stephenchallens@gmail.com

Theatre Open Day (14 Sept 2014)

The Warehouse Studio Theatre & Rehearsal Rooms,
Rue Waelhem 69a/73, 1030 Brussels
14 September 2014

  • Free performances from the ATC, BSS, ECC, ETC and ITG
  • Presentations on theatre skills – including make up, sound and lights.
  • Visits to the workshop and costume and props store
  • Sign up to take part in future productions

On Sunday 14 September we will launch the new season with another Theatre Open Day at the Warehouse, from 2.00pm to 8.00 pm. Performances – of 20-30 minutes each – start at 3.00 pm.

Last’s year’s event proved very popular, and we are hoping this year it will be even better.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

We urgently need volunteers to help make this day as successful as last year’s. If you can spare an hour of your time – to help set up or clear up, serve in the bar or cafe, or staff the info desk, kindly sign up to our Doodle timetable or email  open-day@theatreinbrussels.com.

ATC: Doubt (21-25 Oct 2014)

Doubt: A Parable is the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play that mesmerizes the audience in a conflict of consciousness and convictions. Set in 1964, an era of great controversy and modernity in the Catholic Church, allegations flare tempers and question beliefs when the priest of St Nicholas Church and School is accused by two nuns of having an inappropriate relationship with the school’s only black student. Filled with intense drama and rich text, the play explores much more than the guilt or innocence of the accused but rather is a beautifully crafted exploration of the loneliness, the darkness and the pain caused by doubt.

Tickets available here.

ETC: Don Juan… and the Stone Guest (4-9 Nov 2014)

This is the tragi-comic life of Don Juan, told as a continuous story through excerpts of the plays of 3 European dramatists:

Dom Juan by Molière, a comedy in a modern English translation by Neil Bartlett, with surtitles in French: directed by Michelle Ryan

The Stone Guest by Pushkin, a romance performed in Russian, with surtitles in English, directed by Christine Marchand

El burlador de Sevilla by Tirso de Molina, a drama performed in Spanish, with surtitles in English, directed by Diana Cardona

At the start, Don Juan commits a terrible crime, which comes back to haunt him at the end ; but not before he has seduced several women, forcefully expressed his shocking views on life, been chased into exile, shown courage in the face of danger, and generally driven his companion (called Sganarelle, Leporello, or Catalinon according to the play) to despair.

The Warehouse Studio Theatre, rue Waelhem 69A, 1030 Schaerbeek.
4th-8th November 2014 at 20.00, 9th November at 14.30.www.europeantheatreclub.eu
Tickets €15 (€11 for 10 tickets or more):

tickets.etcetera@gmail.com or Tel : 0493 07 24 38

ATC Improv: Rocket Sugar Factory & Friends (22-23 Nov 2014)

22 & 23 November, 8pm
The Warehouse Studio Theatre, Rue Waelhem 69a, 1030 Schaerbeek
€10 entry

Rocket Sugar Factory is the North American power-duo, Jim Libby (USA) and Jacob Banigan (Canada). They spend most of their time together touring all over. Their influence on the already fresh and vibrant scene in Europe is well known: as innovators, as consummate performers and all around good guys. 

The list of places RSF has performed sold out shows sounds like a dream vacation: Berlin, London, Zurich, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Hannover, Oslo, Milan, Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Hamburg, Ljubljana, Memphis, Seattle, Atlanta, and Edmonton. They play Improv because it can be Fast and Funny, Serious and Stupid, Unforgettable and Disposable, Disgusting and True, Ridiculous and Sublime. 
Over their combined 35 years in impro, Jim and Jacob have played thousands of shows, worked with the top improvisers around the world, and have won many international competitions.

Saturday show

First up, The Ghost Sheep & guests will warm you up with the help of the ATC’s delightful guest improvisers.

Jim and Jacob will then take centre stage with their improv duo, Rocket Sugar Factory!

Lastly, we will welcome guest improvisers from Belgium and beyond for a legendary IMPROV Jam!

Sunday show

We will invite our enthusiastic workshop attendees and ATC Improv members to perform some fast paced shortform games, under the direction of Jim and Jacob.

Next, The Ghost Sheep and Rocket Sugar Factory will bring down the house with a grand weekend finale. What they will perform will be a magnificent, improvised surprise…

Two nights. Four class acts. Plenty of surprises. Don’t miss it!! Attend the facebook event here.

Sign up to the workshops here.

ITG: Dolly West’s Kitchen (9-13 Dec 2014)

The ITG presents Dolly West’s Kitchen by Frank McGuinness.
Bronks Theatre,9-13 December 2014

Directed by Isabel Walsh

Dolly West returns from Italy during World War Two to live with her family in Buncrana, Co. Donegal.  The lives of the unhappy West family  are transformed by the arrival of Dolly’s former lover, now in the British Army and two American GIs.

Tickets available here

ATC: Spoon River Anthology (14 Jan 2015)

AUDITIONS- SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY

By Edgar Lee Masters
Adapted and Directed by Christopher Flores 
The American Theatre Company is proud to announce auditions for its 2015 FEATS entry: Spoon River Anthology. This American classic is a collection of eloquently and sharply written free-verse epitaphs spoken from the cemetery of the fictional town of Spoon River. Published in 1915, this ground breaking work caused great sensation because of its forthrightness about sex, moral decay and hypocrisy. One hundred years later, Master’s critique and observations of man still resonate deeply.AUDITION DETAILS
If you are interested in auditioning, please prepare one of the epitaphs and email the director. You can obtain a copy of the script by clicking here. The competition will take place from 22-25 May.Profiles 
Each actor will be required to play multiple characters. There is no set number of actors for the play and therefore casting will be based on the range each actor is able to display in the audition.4 males
3 females

Dates and Location
14 January at 20.00

The Warehouse
Rue Waelhem 73
1030 – Schaerbeek

ABOUT FEATS
The Festival of European Anglophone Theatrical Societies (FEATS) is a four-day competitive theatre festival held in different European cities every year. On each of four nights three one-act plays are presented in English by groups from all over continental Europe. The performances are adjudicated by a member of the Guild of Drama Adjudicators (GoDA).

ECC: Aladdin (9-11 Jan 2015)

Following last year’s successful production of Jack & The Beanstalk, the ECC present their latest pantomime: Aladdin. This well-loved story will be told with energy, music and dance and promises to be fun for all the family.

Aladdin lives with his mum, Widow Twankey, who runs a laundry in Old Peking in the shadow of the Imperial Palace.  Aladdin dreams of a better life when one day he meets the Emperor’s beautiful daughter, Princess Jasmine. The boy has to grow up fast when a mysterious uncle turns up asking for his help in obtaining a lamp from a magical cave. This episode sets off an exciting and hilarious chain of events that bring Aladdin love and riches beyond his wildest dreams.

Combining humour, songs and special effects, the show will delight young and old. It will feature the traditional pantomime classics, such as ‘he’s behind you!’ and ‘oh no it isn’t!’ and poke gentle fun at expat life.

The show runs from 9-11 January 2015 at the Auderghem Cultural Centre, Boulevard du Souverain 183, 1160 Brussels. Tickets (€16/€12) are available here.

ECC: War Brides (13, 15, 18 Jan 2015)

ECC Brussels will be presenting War Brides by Marion Craig Wentworth at FEATS 2015 in Hamburg (22-25 May 2015). The show will also be performed earlier in May in Brussels.

There are seven characters (four women, three men) in the show:

  • Hedwig (Joan)“tall, well built, and carries herself proudly. Strong, intelligent features, but pale”
  • Amelia (Amy): “a slight, flaxen-haired girl of nineteen”
  • Mother: “sturdy and stoical”
  • Minna“young, pretty”
  • Hoffman (Joseph Kerman): “familiar, inclined to stoutness, but good-looking”
  • Arno:“in his early twenties, and looks even younger than he really is”
  • Hertz (Captain Bragg)“well along in years, rheumatic, but tremendously self-important”

The script (copyright-free) is available from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14602. If you are interested in auditioning, please contact the director, Conrad Toft, to arrange an audition time. Auditions will take place on 13 & 15 January 2015 at 20:00 and 18 January 2015 at 11:00. If you are unable to make those audition times, we may be able to find alternatives.

ATC: The Ghost Sheep Improv (1 Mar 2015)

ATC Improv presents The Ghost Sheep, Inbal Lori and Sven Lanser
Sunday, March 1, 8pm (5 euro entry)
Le Cercle des Voyageurs 

18, Rue des Grands Carmes, 1000 Brussels

Your favourite Brussels-based troupe will be joined by not one but TWO fantastic international improv superstars for their next show!!

Inbal Lori 

Inbal is a graduate of the  Nisan Nativ acting studio (2000), founder of the  improv school Impro TLV and a member of the Israeli improv troupe, 3 Falling. She writes for television, theatre and gives improv and acting workshops. Inbal has taken part in a few fringe groups and one woman shows. She won a scholarship for playwrighting at the American Israeli foundation and the “open screen” festival of Beit Lessin theatre. Inbal won “best performer” 2008 of the Israeli Fringe Festival for her one woman show- ‘The Woman I Could Have Been’. Inbal teaches improv around the globe and has performed in many festivals, including Amsterdam, Austin, Ljublana, Berlin, Hanover, Antwerp and Milan.

Sven Lanser 

When Sven started doing improv 10 years ago, it changed his life. A few years later he quit his regular job and became a fulltime improv teacher and trainer/facilitator using Improv principles in organizations. He is the chairman of the Applied Improv Network Holland and artistic director of IMPRO Amsterdam, the biggest international improfestival in Holland.

With his impro company Rocky Amaretto (check out their beautiful website: http://www.rockyamaretto.nl) they are bridging the gap between North American inspired improv and the rich European theatre tradition.

BATS: My Boy Jack (17-25 April 2015)

By David Haig
Directed by Jill Franks
BATS Little Theatre, Paardenmarkt 111, 2000 Antwerp

The year is 1913 and war with Germany is imminent. Rudyard Kipling’s determination to send his myopic son Jack to war triggers a bitter family conflict which leaves Britain’s renowned patriot devastated by the warrings of his own greatest passions: his love for children – above all his own – and his devotion to Kind and Country.

‘My Boy Jack’ was first staged at Hampstead Theatre, London, in 1997, with David Haig himself playing Rudyard Kipling. Ten years later it was filmed for television with Daniel Radcliffe as Jack and Haig as Kipling.

To commemorate WWI, BATS is bringing this moving play to the Antwerp stage.

Dates
17, 18, 22, 23, 24 & 25 April 2015 – 8 pm
19 April 2015 – 3 pm

Tickets
€12 (adults), €10 (students, >65)

Bookings
bats_tickets@yahoo.com
0495 31 76 87

War Brides (14, 16, 19 May 2015)

Warehouse Studio Theatre

Europe is at war. The young women of a small rural village in an unnamed country are being strongly encouraged to become “war brides” – to marry the young men going into battle and produce the next generation of soldiers for the Empire. But what happens when some of them refuse?

Marion Craig Wentworth’s play was a runaway success in America in 1915 and made into a 1916 film before being banned when the USA joined World War I.

The play is directed by Conrad Toft and stars Peyton Cimino, Izzy Poston, Joanna Patrick, Richard Daly, Amanda E. Ekdahl, Gareth Lewis & Andy Blumenthal.

Tickets (€8) can be booked at http://thelittleboxoffice.com/ecc for performances at 8pm on 14 & 16 May 2015, and 8:30pm on 19 May.

ECC Brussels will also be taking this one-act play to the FEATS (Festival of European Anglophone Theatrical Society) in Hamburg on 23 May 2015.

 

ITG: Dolly West’s Kithen (4, 16 June 2014)

Auditions for
Dolly West’s Kitchen
Directed by Isabel Walsh

 

Wednesday, June 4th and Monday, June 16th @ 19.30
The Warehouse Theatre

 

Dolly West’s Kitchen is set in Buncrana, Co. Donegal during the Second World War. Dolly has returned from Italy and is living in the family home with her unconventional mother Rima. Also in the household is her sister Esther, unhappily married to devoted husband Ned and her younger brother Justin, a soldier in the Irish army.The family is visited by three men, Alec Redding, a former lover of Dolly’s, now in the British army and stationed in Derry, Northern Ireland, the flamboyant Marco and his cousin Jamie, both American soldiers on their way to France. These men cause havoc in the West family and change their lives forever. The play is darkly comic, touching on issues of Irish neutrality, sexual identity and jealousy.

Auditions will take place on Wednesday, June 4th and Monday, June 16th in the Warehouse Theatre (rue Waelhem, 1030)

List of Characters
Dolly West – in her thirties
Rima West – her mother, sixties
Esther Horgan – her older sister, late thirties
Justin West – her brother, twenties
Ned Horgan – Esther’s husband, forties
Anna Owens – maid to the West family, late teens
Alec Redding – British, late thirties
Marco Delavicario – American soldier, twenties
Jamie O’Brien – American soldier, twenties, Marco’s cousin

If you would like more information about the auditions and the play, please drop us a line at itg.asbl@gmail.com or visit our website for more information.

BSS: As You Like It (8-13 June 2015)

Venue: Theatre Petit Varia. 154 Rue Gray, 1050 (Near Place Jourdan)
Directed by Tim Myers

Shakespeare’s delightful ‘pastoral’ comedy differs from most of his other work in that front and centre of it is the relationship of two women, Rosalind and Celia.

The playfulness of these cousins’ affectionate relationship and the charming, if confusing, gender deception by Rosalind in her guise as the boy ‘Ganymede’ to test the sincerity of Orlando’s love are the motor of the comedy. But there is also Touchstone’s wooing of the hapless Audrey, the  country girl Phebe’s conviction that she is destined for better things (with Ganymede!), the misanthropic philosopher Jaques, two pairs of good and wicked brothers in the shape of Dukes Senior and Frederick, and Orlando and Oliver.

And beneath all that, the question ‘Is the Simple Life really better than all the conveniences of Town?’. Come and decide…

Return of the Butties!

Dear all,

Here is the latest state of play with the return of the Butties 2014!

Buttie Winner  Where is it?
Show A Dublin Bloom (ITG)  RETURNED!
Director Colma O’Luanaigh   RETURNED!
Actor Mark Belcher   RETURNED!
Actress Peyton Cimino   
Prod Calendar Girls (ECC): Eileen Sutton  Return arranged
SM A Dublin Bloom (ITG): Sue Botterell RETURNED!
Sound Basingstoke or Bust (BLOC): Steve Monnig  
Lights Basingstoke or Bust (BLOC): Chris Harding, Carsten Koester   RETURNED!
Publicity Calendar Girls (ECC): Róisín Dore, Conrad Toft & team  RETURNED!
Front of House Calendar Girls (ECC): Eileen Sutton  Return arranged
Props Arsenic and Old Lace (ATC): Meg Chang, Veronica Thomson  RETURNED!
Costumes The Importance of Being Earnest (ITG): Ilona Kish  RETURNED!
Make-up The Merchant of Venice (BSS): Mari Kriis & team  RETURNED! 
Set Arsenic and Old Lace (ATC): Murray Frick RETURNED! 
Team Basingstoke or Bust (BLOC) RETURNED! 
Newbie Sophie Thompson RETURNED!
Kenway Diana Morton-Hooper Deeks RETURNED!
Audience Award Beauty and The Beast (BLOC) – Crowd scenes  
Musical Antigone (ETC) – Greek Chorus  RETURNED!
Golden Butt Catriona White for her dedication and talent, particularly for BSS   RETURNED!

BUTT Awards 2015

The season is sadly over, but this is an ideal time to celebrate the season with the 8th Annual Brussels United Theatre Technicians (BUTT) awards for the best of Brussels and Antwerp English-language theatre.

The results of the 2014-2015 Butt awards are as follows (winner followed by nominations in vaguely alphabetical order):
Continue reading

ATC: Greek/English Improv (26 Jan)

Greek/English Improv Show with Bus Kai and The Ghost Sheep
Monday, January 26, 8pm (6 euro entry)
Le Cercle des Voyageurs (‘les caves’- downstairs)
19, Rue des Grands Carmes, 1000 Brussels (50m from the Manneken Pis)


After the roaring success of our English/Italian improv show with Imprevisti Su Misura, we decided to host another bilingual show, this time, for the Greek community of Brussels! The first half of the show will be in Greek (20:00) and the second half in English (21:15).

20:00 Bus Kai αυτοσχεδιάζουν;

Οι Bus Και είναι ένας θίασος θεατρικού αυτοσχεδιασμού (improv comedy theater) με έδρα την Αθήνα. Είναι ο μοναδικός θίασος θεατρικού αυτοσχεδιασμού στην Ελλάδα με σταθερή παρουσία κάθε εβδομάδα στα θέατρα της Αθήνας.

Ο θίασος απαρτίζεται από δύο άτομα, τον Μενέλαο Πρόκο και την Βασιλική Κίσσα, εκπαιδευτές θεατρικού αυτοσχεδιασμού στην ImproVIBE. Ανεβαίνουν στη σκηνή, παίρνουν κάποια απλή πρόταση από το κοινό και δημιουργούν ένα ολοκληρωμένο θεατρικό έργο μίας πράξης εκείνη τη στιγμή. Οι δυο τους. Ναι, παίζουν όλους τους ρόλους. Ναι, δημιουργούν και τα σκηνικά επί τόπου. Όχι, δεν πρόκειται να ξαναδείς την ίδια παράσταση ποτέ ξανά. Όντως, θα γελάς μέχρι δακρύων.

Δύο ηθοποιοί. Αμέτρητοι χαρακτήρες. Ταυτόχρονα!