Overview
Every February, a plethora of original one act plays compete for five coveted awards over the three nights of this annual adjudicated festival.
The University of Toronto Drama Festival has spawned numerous performers who have gone on to become stars of stage and screen: Ted Follows, David Gardner, Don Harron, Arthur Hiller, William Hutt and Donald Sutherland – to name a few. Over 80 years since its inception in 1936, and since Trevor Rines resurrected it in 1993, the U of T Drama Festival has provided a high profile showcase for up-and-coming theatrical talent as well as an accessible avenue for U of T students to perform and direct on the historic Hart House Theatre stage. This year also marks the 17th Drama Festival of only accepting original student written plays, serving as a much needed showcase for talented U of T playwrights.
About the Adjudicator
Schedule
Jews In Baseball: The Musical
Jews in Baseball: The Musical is an epic, an homage, and a passion project that Angelo O. O’Leary and Lenny Rosenbloom have been working on since they watched A League of their Own. The year is 1942, and World War II rages on across the sea. But for a contingent of Brooklynites who never reported for duty, baseball is still king. Seamus G. Giannetti and Leor Ben-Abraham are two rival ballplayers who are forced to play on the same team after most of the other players are sent to the front lines. Tensions rise and tempers flare as Leor and Seamus butt heads. Can they learn to work together in time to help their ragtag team of ne’er-do-wells win the big game?
An Other Tries to Speak: A Theatrical Mixtape
An Other Tries to Speak is an anthology of pieces from six Asian artists. Featuring a mix of comedy and serious drama, this show examines themes of racism, identity and belonging, and is as diverse as the artists it features.
The 2nd Annual 2018 McGill Drama Festival
For the second straight year in a row the world famous 2018 McGill Drama Festival is coming to the University of Toronto Drama Festival!! You, the audience, will choose the “never before seen” plays performed here tonight! Drama, Intrigue, Post-Modernist Abstractionism, and more, is all guaranteed when the accomplished McGill class of 2018, takes the stage!
Statistics
It is 1951. The race to find the structure of DNA is in full swing, and strong-minded, tight-lipped scientists work side by side in a lab at King’s College London. Among them: Rosalind Franklin, a young, brilliant female scientist surrounded by male colleagues.
On the other side of the stage, it is 2017. Rose and Angie, two students entering their fourth year of undergrad, grapple with the medical school admission process as well as the stress, the pressure, and deadlines their university throws at them.
As each timeline plays out, two female scientists from different eras, dealing with two different types of institutional pressures, form a connection of grit, motivation, self-doubt, and the desire to constantly keep learning and growing.
Outstretched
Four years after the death of his sister, Diana, Hyatt finds a collection of video clips she intended to make into a film. Many of the clips center around a young Kate, her first love. Hyatt gets in contact with Kate, hoping to learn more about his sister and the film as an act of closure. Past relationships are exposed and Hyatt has to come to terms with his sister’s queerness. Lauren, Kate’s roommate and friend, tries to be there for Kate, while battling bulimia. Kate and Lauren struggle to balance caring for one another and taking care of themselves.
The play is structured around five memory monologues performed to the projections of Diana’s video clips. Initially, the monologues recall Hyatt’s childhood memories with his sister. As the play moves forward, the boundary between Hyatt and Kate begins to dissolve and Kate becomes more involved within these monologues until she performs the last one as a poem. Lines between the characters get blurry and merge as they learn how to (or forget how to) navigate youth, loss, and memory.
After Icarus
Today’s the day Abe and Moe finally reach the wall. After The Fall, they went on the run to pursue freedom from their dystopian regime. With freedom less than a day away they envisage what life will be like on the other side, free from the harsh restraints of The President and his cronies.
Cordelia
Cordelia is a portrait of a young woman always slightly out of reach. A constellation of short scenes create a multi-perspective play that tells the story of her life from those around her.
Lone Island Lovers
Lone Island Lovers explores the maternal lineage of a person’s inability to articulate experiences of sexual misconduct.
Lady lives in a world where everyone has their own Island. With water on every side, Lady’s opportunities just go on forever; or at least that’s what her Mom says. Lady’s island is neighboured by her Mom’s, her best friend’s and her boyfriend’s. Lady and her boyfriend are building a land bridge to connect their Islands, so that they can finally be together. They are in a caring yet stagnant state, until Lady is hit by a love bomb… by someone else.
Honey Lemon Green Tea
“Hi, I’m Bailey. Borderline Bailey.”
An autobiographical piece, Honey Lemon Green Tea explores how mental illness and trauma can fracture one’s sense of self, and how strength and self-forgiveness can carry us through the dark. Three actors embody Bailey at different ages as she explores the events that shaped her into who she is now — Borderline Personality Disorder and all.
“I’m not cured. I’ll never be cured.”
Awards
IATSE Local 58 Award for Technical Achievement
- Awarded to
the Company for
Cordelia,
produced by
UC Follie
Donald Sutherland Award for Best Performance
- Awarded to
Frosina Pejcinovska for
Lone Island Lovers,
produced by
SMC Troubadours
Robert Gill Award for Best Direction
- Awarded to
William Dao and Ahlam Hassan for
Lone Island Lovers,
produced by
SMC Troubadours
Robertson Davies Playwriting Award
- Awarded to
Emily Powers for
Outstretched,
produced by
Trinity College Drama Society
President’s Award for Best Production
- Awarded to
the Company for
Lone Island Lovers,
produced by
SMC Troubadours
Awards of Merit
- Awarded to
Technical Achievement Design team for
Lone Island Lovers,
produced by
SMC Troubadours - Awarded to
Outstanding Characterization Marissa Monk for
After Icarus,
produced by
University of Toronto Mississauga Drama Club - Awarded to
Raw Honesty Victoria Watson-Sepejak for
Outstretched,
produced by
Trinity College Drama Society - Awarded to
Composition Shreya Jha for
Statistics,
produced by
SMC Troubadours - Awarded to
Crafting Argument Max Ackerman for
After Icarus,
produced by
University of Toronto Mississauga Drama Club