Graduating class performances

About The Play

Under pressure to keep-up-with-the-Jones’ and live the American dream, Jenny takes on an unsavoury occupation. Her husband has forbidden her to take a job but she has found a way, at least temporarily, to deceive him along with all of their friends – or so she thinks. The length and distance people are willing to go to attain possessions and the ultimate price of those things – of everything – makes this lesser known Edward Albee play one that has much to say today from one of the greatest living playwrights.

Everything in the Garden is set in a time of huge change in terms of gender and racial politics. “This play makes us think about our own moral perspectives, hints Jennifer Tarver. Today, our moral compass has evolved, but people still go to great lengths to preserve a lifestyle, or an image of a lifestyle. To accomplish that, what we suppress, bury and lie about can often be reprehensible. Plus, now, with the event of globalization, we are much more aware of what we choose to ignore as we drink our Starbucks coffee.”

“The challenge for the actors resides in Albee’s rhythmically virtuosic writing. To follow his score, they need to speak it with extreme precision, and with the proper pacing and rhythm, while at the same time infusing the dialogue with the varying perspectives with which we are approaching this particular production,” said Jennifer Tarver.

“In addition, Everything in the Garden is fraught with double meaning: at any given point, someone is saying something and meaning at least one other thing or thinking about something else,” added Susanna Hood, whose experience with movement is helping the actors navigate the different layers and shifting realities peculiar to this production.

About Co-Directors Susanna Hood and Jennifer Tarver

Based equally in Toronto and Montreal, Susanna Hood, Artistic Director of hum, is a compelling and virtuosic performer in dance and music. For over a decade, she has been synthesizing voice and movement into a dynamic practice through which she creates intimate, raw and sensual performance work.

Her choreography, compositions, and interdisciplinary collaborations have been presented locally, nationally, and internationally on stage and film since 1991. She is a multiple award winner, most recently being honoured with the Victor Martin Lynch-Staunton award. Theatre credits include Assistant Director/Movement Coach to Jennifer Tarver for both Nightwood Theatre’s production of Sarah Kane’s Crave in 2007 and the Stratford Festival’s production of George F. Walker’s Zastrozzi in 2009.

Jennifer Tarver is an award winning theatre and opera director. She has been directing at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival for the past four seasons, where her works include The Homecoming, Krapp’s Last Tape, Zastrozzi and the world premiere of George F. Walker’s King of Thieves. Canadian premiers include Crave at Nightwood Theatre and Thom Pain (based on nothing) at Tarragon Theatre. Her own creations include Not Faust, History Play and the award winning She’s Gone Away, in collaboration with choreographer Susanna Hood. She has directed operas at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Opera Centre in Sulmona, Italy and the University of Toronto.

Jennifer’s composition of Beckett plays, That Time – Five Beckett Shorts, garnered eight Dora Award nominations and four wins, including Best Director and Best Production. Honours include: the 2010 Siminovitch prize short list, Best Director 2007 Now Magazine, the 2002 John Hirsch Director’s Award and the 2006 Pauline McGibbon Award in Directing.

The 2011-2012 season of public performances of the NTS graduating class is an excellent opportunity to catch future artists of the Canadian stage in action just before the beginning of their professional careers. Graduating actors, playwrights, directors, designers and production personnel work year round with professional guest directors to present a varied season that will hone the skills and talents of these new artists.