Media Release: Jun 1st, 2014. For immediate release | Please add to your listings/announcements

Media Inquiries: Tom Arthur Davis– 647-701-0939 – contactthewreckingball@gmail.com

Wrecking Ball #16 Presents…

#YesAllWomen

Presented in association with The Theatre Centre

ONE PERFORMANCE ONLY

MONDAY JUNE 16th, 2014

The Theatre Centre | 1115 Queen St W, Toronto

Box Office opens at 7:00pm | Show starts at 8:00pm

Pay what you can. No advanced sales.

(Proceeds from this event will go to the Actors' Fund of Canada)

#WB16

thewreckingball.ca

Hot political artists. Vast gender inequality issues. One big social media stunt.

#YesAllWomen is the latest popular social media campaign which encourages users to share examples or stories of misogyny and violence against women. It began in response to the killing spree in Isla Vista, California, but has since opened up the discussion to the plethora of everyday sexist behaviour that women endure worldwide. It has even spawned the response campaign #NotAllMen. But is this just another fleeting social media stunt? Or will the discussion spread?

With Wrecking Ball #16, we decided to continue the conversation.

This year, under a new generation of leadership, the Wrecking Ball is shifting its focus, presenting new work by not only esteemed playwrights from across the country, but a plethora of performance artists. The Wrecking Ball #16 includes:

Governor General’s Award nominee Donna-Michelle St. Bernard

Comedian Jess Beaulieu

Governor General’s Award Winner Nicolas Billon with Keavy Lynch

Comedian Faisal Butt

Spoken Word Artist Leonard Cervantes

Bold Playwright Falen Johnson

Emerging Playwright Colleen Osborn

and more!

In Wrecking Ball 16, a selection of Toronto’s most relevant and daring performance artists will have one week to create a piece, and one additional week to rehearse works connected to the surplus of issues that these trio of elections present.

Founded by director Ross Manson and playwright Jason Sherman in 2003, The Wrecking Ball has been the premiere event in Canada for showcasing political works for a decade. As the birthplace of new plays by Hannah Moscovitch, Michael Healey, Roland Schimmelpfennig, Erin Shields, Judith Thompson, Colleen Wagner, David Yee, Bea Pizano, Tara Beagan, and Sky Gilbert to name a few - there is no other event like it challenging theatre artists to respond to and address the vox populi.

On the occasion of the previous two Federal elections The Wrecking Ball went National; with ‘Wrecking Balls’ hosted by theatre artists in most major cities across the country. In both 2008 and 2011 these pan-Canadian dramatic responses to our politics garnered widespread national media attention. The Wrecking Ball is no longer a Toronto phenomenon, but an autonomous theatrical movement joined by a desire to explore current political questions, issues, desires and dreams upon the stage.