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Top Irish Director Comes to Toronto to Direct George Brown Theatre School ProductionJean Giraudoux’s The Madwoman of Chaillot to kick off George Brown Theatre School’s 2007/2008 season of plays TORONTO, ON (September 25, 2007) – The George Brown Theatre School will be kicking off its 2007-08 season of plays with a production directed by Jason Byrne, the Artistic Director of the Loose Canon Theatre Company in Dublin. Byrne, known for his award winning plays in Ireland and around the world, will be directing third-year graduating students in The Madwoman of Chaillot, the famous early twentieth century play by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux. With the Loose Canon Theatre Company, Byrne directed the critically acclaimed productions of Julius Caesar, The Revenger’s Tragedy, Measure For Measure, The Duchess of Malfi, The Spanish Tragedy, Coriolanus (for which he received a Ford Sunday Independent Spirit of Life Award), The White Devil, Hamlet, In the Dark Air of a Closed Room, Macbeth (winner -best production Dublin Fringe 2001), Duchess of Malfi, Hedda Gabler, Fragments of a Dead Performance (nominated "Sexiest" Production Dublin Fringe 2003), Medea (a work in progress), h (a devised performance based on Hamlet and The Orestia which was nominated for a Special Judge's Award Irish Times Theatre Awards 2005), and Waterfront Wasteland Medea Material Landscape with Argonauts by Heiner Muller. Most recently he directed The Duchess of Malfi for Loose Canon, A Piece of Monologue and Not I by Samuel Beckett for Bedrock Productions, and A Month in the Country by Brian Friel (after Turgenev) and Julius Caesar for the Abbey Theatre. From 1998 to 2000, Byrne was Staff Director at the Abbey Theatre, where he directed Observatory by Daragh Carville, Living Quarters by Brian Friel, Judas of the Gallarus by Donal O’ Kelly and Treehouses by Elizabeth Kuti. Other works include What Where (Beckett), Wall of Cloud (Raymond Deane) for Opera Theatre Company, and A Whistle in the Dark (Tom Murphy) for The Company Theatre, Toronto, which won a Dora Mavor Moore award this year for actor Sarah Dodd – a George Brown graduate. Written in the mid 1940’s, The Madwoman of Chaillot is a poetic and comic fable about greedy exploiters and the little people who rise up to defeat them. At the Cafe Chez Francis, a group of promoters plot to tear up Paris in order to unearth the oil that a prospector believes is located in the neighbourhood. These grandiose plans come to the attention of the madwoman of Chaillot who is, ostensibly, not normal in her mind, but who is soon shown to be the very essence of practical worldly goodness and common sense. She sees through the crookedness of the prospector and insists that the world is being turned into an unhappy place by thieves and those greedy for worldly goods and power. At a tea party, attended by other "mad" women of Paris, she brings together representatives of the despoilers of the earth and wreckers of its happiness: the tea party becomes a trial with dire consequences. Byrne’s engagement was made possible by the George Brown Theatre School Education and Enhancement Fund. The Fund was established in 2005, when the School moved to the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, and provides enrichment for the three-year professional actor-training course allowing the school to bring in world class artists to work with its students. After leaving George Brown, Mr. Byrne will return to the Abbey to direct Romeo and Juliet. Other creative artists on the production include: John Thompson (set and costume design), Michelle Ramsay (lighting design), Debbie Read (stage management). WHAT: The Madwoman of Chaillot by Jean Giraudoux, directed by Jason ByrneWHO: George Brown Theatre School WHERE: Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Mill Street in Toronto’s Historic Distillery District WHEN: November 7-17, 2007. Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm; Saturday at 1:30 pm TICKETS: Adults: $15; Students/Seniors: $13. Rush $10 BOX OFFICE: 416 866-8666
About George Brown CollegeToronto’s George Brown College has established a reputation for equipping students with the skills, industry experience and credentials to pursue the careers of their choice. From its two main campuses located across the downtown core, George Brown offers 148 full-time and 1,600 continuing education programs across a wide variety of professions to a student body of approximately 63,000 (including those enrolled in full-time, part-time and continuing education programs). Students can earn diplomas, post-graduate certificates, industry accreditations, apprenticeships and four-year bachelor degrees. -30- For more information, please contact: Paul Zanettos Return to: Press Releases at George Brown College
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