As we near the end of August, Back-to-School season is in the air, but that doesn’t mean the fun has to end. Carousel Theatre for Young People (CTYP), have an exciting 2022-2023 Season of live productions coming to entertain the youth and families.
New Co-Artistic & Managing Directors Dave Deveau and Jennica Grienke have curated a season that begins with with Frozen River | nîkwatin sîpiy from September 28 to October 16, 2022. A presentation of Manitoba Theatre for Young People, a story of two eleven year olds born under the same moon, but in different parts of the world, centering indigeneity. The public opening will coincide with National Day of Truth & Reconciliation.
In October, the first of three Club Carousel Baby Raves will launch, an opportunity for the very young and the grownups in their lives to bop and shake to a live DJ.
November 30 to December 30, 2022, CTYP produces the Canadian Premiere of Stiles & Drewes’ The Three Little Pigs, a new family musical from the creators of Broadway’s Mary Poppins based on the classic fable, and directed by CTYP alum Chris Lam.
The new year kicks off with Clementine – a (true) story, from Kleine Compagnie & Theatre de la Pire Espece, a tabletop found object puppet show about a young girl navigating her parents’ divorce. Presented in association with Alliance Francaise, performances will occur in English and French at The Nest.
To celebrate the 2023 Family Day Weekend, CTYP is launching a new annual tradition with The Family Flame, a storytelling event for all ages in partnership with celebrated local monthly storytelling series The Flame.
From March 1 to 26, 2023 CTYP and Kaleidoscope Theatre for Young People partner for the first time on a co-production of Oz by Patrick Shanahan, a reimagining of the classic Wizard of Oz books that centres on author L. Frank Baum as he suffers writers block and gets help unlocking his imagination through an unlikely intruder. Oz is directed by Co-Artistic & Managing Director Jennica Grienke, and following its run at the Waterfront will head to Victoria.
The season closes with Theaturtle’s outdoor production of Alphonse by Quebecois theatre icon Wajdi Mouawad, an “unmissable show of genius for all ages (BBC, Edinburgh) about a young person who is lost, walking along a country road, weaving an intricate web of stories, while everyone is searching for him.
In addition to the season’s productions, CTYP will continue to offer robust year-round Drama School offerings for all ages.
This is the first full season programmed by CTYP’s new management, and highlighting the kind of future programming audiences can come to expect: heartfelt, inquisitive work that imagines possible worlds. “This season is a cross-section of the kinds of incredible work for young people our country has to offer: inclusive, inquisitive, and incomparable. Coming out of this hugely complex time there are young people who will never have seen live theatrical work, and we cannot wait to invite them to discover new worlds and possibilities live onstage.” – Dave Deveau & Jennica Grienke, Co-Artistic & Managing Directors
More information about Carousel Theatre for Young People’s 2022-2023 Season on Granville Island at Waterfront Theatre can be found online carouseltheatre.ca/our-plays. Tickets are available online at tickets.carouseltheatre.ca