The grapevine is pretty dry this week. I haven't heard much. Did get a couple tips of the bits and pieces listed below:

Cotton -
Michael Albert and Brett Morris's one man show about three people, Uzi, Norman and Gillian, who get an in depth examination into their lives and conflicts. Runs to Aug 25 at the Cameron House. Brought to you by Nine Fifty-Eight.

36 Little Plays About Hopeless Girls -
Birdtown and Swanville present this group of 'rotating short pieces' by Aurora Stewart de Peña. Runs until the 26th at the Tranzac.

Well now that the season and festivals have ended, theatre is mostly going to be very quiet over the next few weeks here in the city. There are festivals like Stratford , Shaw and Blyth running but you'll need a car and perhaps a hotel to really take a crack at those. Here are a couple shorter drive distance shows and one that's actually subway accessible.

District of Centuries - is an urban fable about the saddest man in the world, an epic struggle is unleashed between hope and despair, between action and silence. Runs to August 25, No Sunday show. At the Walmer Centre Theatre - 188 Lowther Ave.

Salt Water Moon - Resurgence Theatre's newest take (directed by David Ferry) on the David French classic based on his trilogy plays about the Mercer family. Jacob comes home from Toronto to small town Newfoundland and finds love with an old flame. Runs to Aug 19, Fairy Lake Park , Newmarket..

Hamilton Fringe Festival - Hamilton's version of the Fringe seems to be running strong on its third year. Runs to Aug 19.


Photo of Crack by Sky Gilbert, playing at the Hamilton Fringe.

This years' Summerworks Festival has a great many productions, ranging in theme, from farcical comedy to political drama. A few of the shows I've seen are worth mentioning here. While one of them was a one nighter, the rest can still be seen till the end of the festival on the 12th.

Quilchena - Tara Beagan's newest work surrounds the true story of a young native girl whose bones were found in some woods many years after she went missing. The fictional take on her inner thoughts of that time and beyond are done here as a one woman show staring Michaela Washburn. (seen above)

The Wrecking Ball - The Wrecking Ball was back again and up to its usual tricks of trying to get the city's theatre companies to program politically by getting many of the best known artists together and putting on topical plays from current headlines.

Fabuloso - A funny comedy about never growing up that has many fun twists and turns and stars Da Vinci's Inquest star Nicholas Campbell and Philly Cream Cheese Angel Linda Kash. Nice to see TV folks taking the big risks.

Mexico City/ Yogykarta - This double bill of short plays examines both ends of the spectrum of visits to foreign lands. One is a comedy and the other an intense drama. The set piece: a frame. But watch what award winning set designer Camellia Koo does with it and how that affects the show.

Summerworks Festival runs at various theatres in th city until August 12th.

There are two great festivals where you can catch some of the many artists on the rise as they preview what will (certainly one day) become the next generation of theatre styles in Toronto. Take a look at what's to come.

Summerworks Festival : This year boasts many known actors of stage and television working in juried selected entries for its 17th festival. I mentioned it last week and only mention it again because this week has a whole new crop of works showing including the Reading Series running all week in the Youth and Adult categories. Hear scripts read by professional artists in an intimate 'early stage' of the process. Stay tuned for some picks from the Festivals first weekend coming later this week.

Squiggfest Festival : Quickly becoming the new Fringe, the festival that really is still underground hosts a bevy of artistic productions starting this Thursday and running every Thursday till the end of the month.

Photo of Fabuloso cast Angela Asher, Nicholas Campbell, Jonathan Higgins, Linda Kash

Well after a bit of an extended hiatus This Week is back. After an explosive Fringe Festival that broke all attendance records to date, here comes some more festival news. Also after seeing the demise of ShakepeareWorks, Shakespeare in the Rough and Theatre By the Bay's yearly Shakespeare production many of you may be wondering, "Well where can I see any of the old bards stuff?" Here are a couple of options; a double stab at the same play going on right now in various locations in the city. But first:

Summerworks Theatre Festival - Summerworks launched its festival party at the Drake Hotel last night. The party was attended by many of the performers and artists that are involved in the festival and even was DJ'd by some of those artists. The festival officially opens tomorrow as the almost 50 juried plays (unlike Fringe's lottery system) and 8 readings take off into what promises to be another strong festival turn out. Ah yes!! Toronto is slowly bouncing back from the SARS of old.

9:00 a.m - Arise and ... nah.. First day off in ages.

10:00 a.m - Arise and ready myself for a beautiful summer's day at the Toronto Fringe Festival.

Noon. Strap on the blades and tear it up to Factory Theatre . Weather is a bit grim but I'm sure it'll clear up.

12:30 - See Dual of ages. Quite a way to start the day with an action play. Some nice writing with some great fight sequences.

2:00 - At the Fringe tent my prediction of saying to myself that I'd know probably a t least six people is doubled and it's chat chat chat time at the tent. Everyone seems really excited. Tent supervisor Hillary Prue seems most elated. "A good day today. This venue hasn't been the hottest one at Fringe but today is good". Just then the summer's day turns into an early fall. The rain comes down hard. Hillary smiles. "Well, at least we got the tents". Then she stands up and presses hard against the flap to spill over any excess water that has gathered. She drenches a couple of elder women on the other side. We all get a laugh.

2:10 - A Streetcar Named Gerard playwright and director Dawn Nearing calls me over. "Hey, did you read our reviews yet?" She says with a smirk on her face. "No, I say. I never read reviews." She takes me over to the clapboard where their poster is up on and shows me edited lines from several reviews like, "You'll feel..." We laugh hard. I'm glad to see she is a real artist who doesn't really give a shit about one or two opinions.