Credits and Production Team:
Dramaturge: Iris Turcott
Set Designer: Denyse Karn
Costume Designer: Michelle Bailey
Lighting Designer: Simon Rossiter
Projection Designer: Simeon Taole
Projection Systems Designer: Rebecca Vandevelde
Sound Designer: Richard Lee
Composer: Hagler
Stage Manager: Sarah Miller
Apprentice Stage Manager: Georgia Priestley-Brown
Head of Properties and Scenic Paint: Anna Treusch
Technical Director & Set Construction Crew: Jamie Montiero, Michael Burnet, Josh Hoodless, Kai Masoka & Joey Morin
Painters: Matt Armour, Ksenia Ivanova
Theatre and Donor Information:
Factory Theatre Leadership: Nina Lee Aquino (Artistic Director), Jonathan Heppner (Artistic Producer), Nigel Shawn Williams (Associate Artistic Director).
b current Leadership: Jajube Mandiela (Artistic Director), Alison Wong (Artistic Producer).
Season Sponsor (2014/15): BMO Financial Group
Government Partners & Supporters: Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Canadian Heritage.
Foundation Supporters: The Catherine & Maxwell Meighen Foundation, Creative Trust, Nancy's Very Own Foundation, Pilkington-Henniger Charitable Trust, Hal Jackman Foundation, The Pluralism Fund.
The document also includes extensive lists of individual donors to Factory Theatre across various contribution levels.
"Twisted," a play presented by Factory Theatre and b current, running approximately 80 minutes with no intermission. It's a contemporary reimagining of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, set in modern-day Toronto and exploring themes of poverty, inequality, and drug addiction.
Playwrights: Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman & Joseph Jomo Pierre
Director: Nigel Shawn Williams
Cast:
Nancy: Susanna Fournier
Oliver: Ngabo Nabea
Theatrical Style: Blends poetry, prose, and modern technology, including text messages, to tell the story. The "Twisted Fact" from playwright Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman notes that the text messages in the play were written by her and co-writer Joseph Jomo Pierre as actual text messages to each other, mirroring the characters' communication. Ngabo Nabea (Oliver) mentions the play is styled more after rap than slam poetry.
Set Design: Denyse Karn's design includes 26 miniature buildings plus a 9.75-foot tall CN Tower, 200 times smaller than their real-life Toronto counterparts.
Projection Design: Simeon Taole reveals there are approximately 100 text messages that advance the narrative, with projections balancing text readability and emotional conveyance.
Source Material Context: Matt McGeachy's "Notes on the Source Material" highlights Dickens' Oliver Twist as a "social problem" genre work and explains how "Twisted" adapts familiar elements and names (Oliver/Ollie, Nancy, Sikes, Dodger) to a contemporary Toronto setting.
Collaborating Theatres: Factory Theatre and b current. b current's involvement directly supports Joseph Jomo Pierre, an alumnus of their mandiela rAiz'n Ensemble.
Community Engagement: Alongside the play, b current is running "Untwisted - Storytelling through Hip Hop" youth workshops in Toronto's Regent Park, the setting for much of the play, allowing youth to tell their stories through Hip Hop lyricism and vocal masque theatre.
Essay: David Yee, Playwright-in-Residence at Factory Theatre, provides an essay reflecting on another Factory production, "The Art of Building a Bunker."
Upcoming Production: "The Unplugging" by Yvette Nolan, a Factory and Native Earth Performing Arts partnership, is announced for March 14-April 5, 2015.