THE MIDDLE PLACE
by Andrew Kushnir
Directed by Alan Dilworth
Lighting Design by Kimberly Purtell
Set and Costume Design by Jung-Hye Kim
Movement Design by Monica Dottor
Interview Transcription by Andrew Kushnir and Catherine Murray
Developed through Project:Humanity’s De-Shelter Initiative
2010/2011 sees The Middle Place break new ground in Toronto by being presented at 2 major theatre's in the same season.
The Middle Place will run at Theatre Passe Muraille from October 21st to November 20th, 2010 ...
and then...
Premiere at Canadian Stage February 14th to March 12th, 2011.
Furether to that, we will then travel to Victoria to be a part of the Spark Festival at the Belfry Theatre, and then on to Ottawa where we will show The Middle Place to new audiences at the
Great Canadian Theatre Company (GCTC).
A bit about the play...
In 2007, Project:Humanity brought a young, middleclass playwright into one of Toronto’s roughest neighbourhoods to conduct on-camera interviews with the residents of a youth shelter.
THE MIDDLE PLACE is the documentary theatre piece that emerged from those encounters. Constructed by Andrew Kushnir (writer of the acclaimed Foto, SummerWorks 2008) and directed by Alan Dilworth (If We Were Birds, SummerWorks/Tarragon), the play has five actors portray 16 remarkable youth, 3 caseworkers and one outsider.
Unexpectedly funny and poetic, THE MIDDLE PLACE deconstructs both an obscure part of Canada’s largestcentre and the very familiar stigma surrounding youth and the homeless.
The play emphatically connects with a broad audience base: youth, at-risk youth, adults of all ages, a blend of all three. Audience members have described this theatrical experience as one of having both the imagination and conscience firing simultaneously. The play’s first outing in August 2009 was a critical success, an audience favourite and was honoured with two SummerWorks Festival Jury Prizes.
See what the critics said about
THE MIDDLE PLACE
at the 2009 SummerWorks
theatre festival in Toronto.
(inset: Akosua Amo-Adem, Antonio Cayonne, Jessica Greenberg, Kevin Walker)
J. Kelly Nestruck -- The Globe and Mail
“The Middle Place is an eye-opening, intelligent and funny piece of verbatim theatre that shines a light on Toronto's problems with truth in a way that other recent plays have failed to with fiction.”
“…it's refreshing to hear these voices of real homeless people onstage.”
“To Kushnir's credit, he has avoided a series of sob stories in favour of a more general portrait of the people he met. It's less about the how and why of youth homelessness, and more about the who. Along the way, though, there is plenty of insight into the issues of drugs, guns, abuse and poverty, as well as forays into art, love, education and family.”
“Director Alan Dilworth skillfully builds the purgatorial atmosphere…”
“The Middle Place invites us to view this Toronto shelter as a sort of purgatory; the play gets its tension from guessing in which direction these young men and women will eventually exit it. Are they headed up, or further down and out?”
“Why create a documentary through theatre rather than film? Well, for one, the method Kushnir adopted allows a greater degree of anonymity for the interview subjects. This means greater honesty and a decided lack of YouTube posturing.”
“Documentary theatre also has an advantage over film by avoiding voyeurism and allowing us to be in the same room with the people interviewed. The connection to the subjects is, counter-intuitively, stronger due to their personalities being channeled through the blank slate of an actor. Here, it strengthens that sense of "There, but for the grace of God, go I."”
“Lovers of language will enjoy The Middle Place, too. The transcribed dialogue is fresh, creative and contemporary…”
“If you go to see a lot of theatre, you can start to feel as if you are suffocating inside a hermetically sealed container. The Middle Place opens a window.”
Robert Cushman -- The National Post
“Interestingly, the five actors read the transcripts but didn't see the footage, so they had to create rather than impersonate. The results, under Alan Dilworth's direction, are remarkable, both imaginative and respectful: factually-based but more than dramatized social work.”
“The whole is disturbing but not depressing.”
Paula Citron -- Classical 96.3FM
“The stage is sparse to allow the five actors to move easily from one character to the next, and director Alan Dilworth insures their individuality. Although docudrama is not new, Kushnir’s play manages to be both engaging and disturbing.”
Lucy Allen -- Mooney On Theatre
“For all of our efforts to bring awareness to global poverty, we all too often forget that the same issues are right in our own backyard. Project:Humanity’s ‘The Middle Place’ sheds light on the lives of several Toronto youths living in a shelter in one of Toronto’s roughest neighbourhoods. The result is an eye-opening and moving look at the individuals of this marginalized community.”
“The stories of the twenty youth and three caseworkers ranged from amusing to hopeful to heartbreaking.”
“They all gave subtle and touching performances and really captured the character of the people they were portraying, and did well to physically and vocally differentiate between each one.”
“…their need to hope for something more is evident, and the eagerness to share resonated.”
“‘The Middle Place’ is a glimpse into a world that many often ignore. It is, above all else, the stories of a group of people with fears, hopes and dreams as real as our own. In presenting their stories to us, Kushnir has provided not just a voice for these individuals, but a well polished and engaging show at the same time.”
Jon Kaplan -- NOW Magazine
“The results are moving, eye-opening and filled with hope, as the talented ensemble cast morphs from one character to another under the expert direction of Alan Dilworth. One of the festival’s winning productions.”
‘NNNN’ and ‘Critic’s Pick’
Lynn Slotkin -- CBC Radio
“Kushnir has distilled 400 pages of transcriptions and shaped them into a moving, funny, sobering look at a world that is all too real that we might want to ignore.”
“Director Alan Dilworth and his fine, accomplished cast have brought every character to life with care, detail, and tremendous heart.”
For complete reviews contact Creative Director Andrew Kushnir at andrew@projecthumanity.ca