Author Archives: Katherine Belyea

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(PLEASE POST OR FORWARD)
NON-UNION · NON-PAYING

Poculi Ludique Societas (PLS) and St. Thomas’s Anglican Church
Present: A Medieval Christmas

Performance dates:

• December 11, 7:30 pm
• December 12, 2:30 pm
• December 12, 7:30 pm

The Project:

Toronto’s renowned medieval and renaissance theatre company, Poculi Ludique Societas, is once again partnering with St Thomas’s Anglican Church to celebrate A Medieval Christmas. This year’s performance will include episodes from the N-Town manuscript about events leading up to the Nativity. These plays represent a solemn celebration of the birth of Christ, but there are still plenty of the shenanigans that lovers of medieval drama enjoy, plus beautiful medieval music to round out the production. Quickly becoming a holiday tradition, PLS productions with St. Thomas’s Anglican Church are appreciated for excellent production value, including beautiful costume designs set in St. Thomas’s lovely Arts and Crafts sanctuary. Under the direction of Kimberley Radmacher, our productions allow excellent emerging actors to hone their skills and to gain experience in early drama.

What we’re looking for:

Versatile actors who are comfortable speaking verse and are able to sing. Good vocal ability is necessary because of the size of the performance venue.

Rehearsals:

There will be two rehearsals per week: Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons. Cast members will not be required to attend all rehearsals.

Audition Dates:

• October 6, 7:00 – 9:00 pm
• October 10, 2:00 – 4:00 pm
• Callbacks October 13 7:00 – 9:00

Auditions:

Please email your resume and photo (if available) as soon as possible to director@plspls.ca (with subject line: Auditions) to book your audition time. Come prepared with a short classical monologue. You will be asked to read from the plays, which have been modernised, and may be asked to sing. Find out more about PLS at plspls.ca.

We’ve added new audition dates for The N-Town Mary Play. Please see the Audition Call for full details.

Mary and the cherry tree, from a previous N-Town production

The Project

Toronto’s renowned medieval and renaissance players continue to celebrate their 50th anniversary with a production of the N-Town Mary Play. PLS is a non-profit, non-Equity theatre company affiliated with the University of Toronto, dedicated to the production of early plays for research and entertainment.

The N-Town Mary Play is a Medieval English drama chronicling the biography of the Virgin Mary, from her own (less-publicized) immaculate conception to her eventual (more famous) virgin birth. The Mary Play is a liturgical drama, full of choral music, which will be overseen in this production by Musical Director Andrea Budgey of the medieval music group SINE NOMINE, and chaplain of Trinity College.

The production is a re-mount/adaptation of a piece originally staged in Oxford in 2009, as a collaboration between scholar Elisabeth Dutton and director Clare Smout. For our production, Elisabeth Dutton will be advising and overseeing, joined by Kimberley Radmacher as director.

Performances will take place at the Church of The Redeemer, November 6-8 2015: evening shows on Friday and Saturday, matinee on Sunday.

What we’re looking for

• 1 child actor (to play 3-year-old Mary)
• Women and men actors who are comfortable speaking verse and are able to sing
• Men and women singers who are comfortable acting in small roles

Rehearsals

Will take place during daytimes, evenings and weekends.

Audition Dates

• September 15: 4pm-9pm
• September 18: 3:30pm–8pm
• September 19: 2pm–6pm

To Apply

Please email your resume and photo as soon as possible to dawnnearing@gmail.com (with subject line: Auditions) to book your audition time. Come prepared with a short classical monologue. You will be asked to read from the plays, which have been modernised, and will be asked to sing. Please prepare a short song of your own choice which demonstrates your vocal range and timbre; you may also wish to sing one of the pieces appended: Ave verum (plainchant) or Ther is no rose (melody line).

• Ave verum
• Ther is no rose

Find out more about PLS: www.plspls.ca

Roles Available

• Young Mary – 3 years old (played by up to 6-year-old)
• Adult Mary – female, young, mother of Christ, sweet, patient
• Joseph – male, older man, caring, but understandably confused!
• Joachim – male, Mary’s Father
• Anna – female, Mary’s Mother
• Angel Gabriel – male, tenor. Messenger of God
• Ysaker/Bishop/Zachary – male/singer (baritone)
• Elizabeth – female, older cousin to Mary
• Male Choir – male members of the Choir also double as:
  Senior Tribe Member, Vox, Father, Minister, Son, First Pastor, First Generation of David, Holy Spirit, Second Pastor, Second Generation of David, Third Pastor, Third Generation of David
• Female Choir – female members of the Choir also double as:
  Meditation, Messenger, Contrition, Susanne, Truth, Compassion, Rebecca, Mercy, Cleanness, Sephore, Righteousness, Fruition, Peace

Email: director@plspls.ca
Website: plspls.ca

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 1, 2014

An annual holiday tradition returns with

A Medieval Christmas: With Song We Seek Our Saviour
A Celebration of the Nativity with Pageants and Song

When: Friday December 12 at 7:30 pm; Saturday December 13 at 2:30 pm & 7:30 pm
Where: St Thomas’'s Anglican Church, 383 Huron St., Toronto
Tickets: $20 adult • $15 senior • $10 student
Reservations: 416-978-5096

Once again the University of Toronto’'s renowned early drama players, Poculi Ludique Societas (PLS) are teaming up with St. Thomas'’s Anglican Church to offer up a unique song-filled celebration for the holiday season. This year’'s production features a sequence of Nativity pageants drawn from what is known as the York Corpus Christi Cycle, and will include the delightful pageant called “Joseph’'s Trouble about Mary.” In this amusing play, a rather woe begotten and incredulous Joseph must be convinced that his chaste wife is indeed the Virgin Mother of God. Understandably, poor Joseph is confused, hurt, and more than a little skeptical. But with a small measure of divine intervention, Joseph eventually comes around and takes Mary to Bethlehem where destiny will play itself out.

The production is directed by Kimberley Radmacher who notes, "”Although we select Nativity pageants from various medieval texts, we try to keep things fresh by conceptualizing the productions in new and interesting ways each year.” This is achieved through production design, which is overseen by PLS Artistic Director Linda Phillips and through music selection." Toronto Masque Theatre Artistic Director, Larry Beckwith, joins the team for the first time and has worked with Radmacher to create a song-scape that includes solemn medieval Christmas hymns, as well as cherished well-known carols and even a hint of contemporary music that will appeal to everyone. PLS is celebrating 50 years of medieval and renaissance drama performance research and is part of the Centre for Performance Studies in Early Theatre (CPSET). Their robust productions have had lasting appeal with general audiences and are of particular interest to scholars and students of drama, theatre and social history.

For further information on PLS visit our website at: plspls.ca

Fulgens and Lucres

Co-production of Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies and Poculi Ludique Societas

This November, PLS will kick off its 50-year anniversary with a full-scale production of Henry Medwall’s Fulgens and Lucres, the first play to be printed in English (1504). Fulgens, a semi-serious comedy about the nature of nobility (like Shakespeare, but rawer, rougher, zanier, and written 100 years earlier) was intended to be staged as the entertainment for a banquet. Just like the original producers did, we will mount our production of Fulgens and Lucres for feast-goers in a grand dining hall with live music by Pneuma Ensemble. The opening performance will be a gala banquet in West Hall, University College, 15 Kings College Circle, on Saturday November 8, followed by a matinee on Sunday November 9. For the second weekend (November 14-16) we will move to the Luella Massey Studio Theatre, 4 Glen Morris Street, where there will be a more modest “banquet” setting.

**Due to limited seating, gala performance tickets must be purchased in advance by Monday November 3^rd. Reservations for other performances should be made by calling the box office: 416 978-7986.

Director: Matthew Milo Sergi
Producer: Kimberley Radmacher
Costume Designer: Linda Phillips
Musicians: Pneuma Ensemble

Performances: West Hall, University College:

Gala Banquet: November 8 at 7 pm for 7:30 – Tickets $80
Matinee: Sunday November 9 at 2 pm – Tickets $20/ $15 Senior/ $10 Student

Luella Massey Studio Theatre, 4 Glen Morris Street

Friday, November 14, 7:30 pm
Saturday, November 15, &:30 pm
Sunday November 16, 2 pm

Tickets: All Performances $20/ $15 Senior/ $10 Student

Box Office: 416 978-7986

Dear friends of PLS,

Our Annual General Meeting is next Friday, June 6 at 10:00-12:00. It will take place in Room 103 of the Lillian Massey Building, 125 Queen’s Park (at Bloor). All members and supporters are invited. Come learn about plans for the upcoming season! We hope to see you there.

Cheers,
Katherine, office manager

Refreshments will be provided–what a party! (NB: Refreshments may not be exactly as pictured.)
Photo: Don Juan, Ladykiller of Seville, 2004

Photos from the Rules of Love dress rehearsal are now up in our gallery.

A second audition call has been added for Rules of Love. Read all the details here (PDF) and sign up!

Non-union; Non-paying

Auditions February 20-22, 2014

Rules of Love: Lancelot of Denmark and Of Winter and Summer

Poculi Ludique Societas is producing two medieval plays about love and sex translated from the Middle Dutch Van Hulthem Manuscript (dated 1400-1410). Lancelot of Denmark was an extremely popular romance which continued to be performed well into the 18th century. Of Winter and Summer is a humorous debate between allegorical figures about the most appropriate season for … love.

Performance Dates:

April 24-27 2014

Venue:

Robert Gill Theatre

Auditions:

Directors Charlotte Steenbrugge and Adam Nashman are looking for versatile performers who could potentially double roles in both plays. Please prepare a contemporary monologue; you may also be asked to read from the plays.

Roles:

Lancelot of Denmark:

• Sandrine: a beautiful, innocent young maiden
• Lancelot: a lovesick young prince
• The Queen: Lancelot’s proud and devious mother
• The Knight: a noble knight
• Reynald: Lancelot’s trusted friend and servant
• Forester: servant to The Knight

Of Winter and Summer:

• Winter, Summer, Venus
• Winter’s gang: Lazybones, Blabber
• Summer’s gang: Handsome, Braggart, Tramp

Auditions by appointment only. Please contact director@plspls.ca for appointment and details of location.

Audition Times:

Thursday February 20 5–8 pm; Friday February 21 5–8 pm; Saturday February 22, 10:30am–12:30 pm.

For almost 50 years, Poculi Ludique Societas has been producing medieval and renaissance plays from England and Europe. PLS productions offer emerging artists a great opportunity to add to their repertoire of early drama performance. Find out more about PLS at www.plspls.ca