Behaviour

Mar 20, 2021 - Mar 21, 2021 | Online

The Segal Centre presents

A theatrical reading of

BEHAVIOUR
A Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal production

An exploration of gender, power, labour, and abuse.
Written by Darrah Teitel
Directed by Emma Tibaldo

Behaviour will be read on-site at the Segal Centre, and live-streamed three times, on March 20^th and 21^th, 2021.

Behaviour is the story of Mara, a woman who seems to be living her dream: she has a career in politics where she is making a difference, and she’s in love with an artist who challenges norms. But what lurks underneath is devastating. With humour, precision, and unrelenting honesty, Behaviour probes at what we accept as normal. The play challenges our acceptance of existing structures, exploring the interplay between power and abuse. Behaviour reflects the world as we experience it, where speaking out against sexual abuse is the abnormal act.

This play comes at a time when dismantling gender and labour hierarchies has never been more important. Teitel has set her play on the Hill, where workers are particularly vulnerable to power imbalances. Behaviour shouts out against the normalized silence against abuse, to the point that Teitel says, “what is abnormal is speaking out against it.” This reading, then, is an attempt to say out loud what usually remains unspoken.

The play premiered at the Great Canadian Theatre Company as a coproduction with SpiderWebShow. Behaviour was developed in collaboration with Playwrights' Workshop Montréal through a variety of programs, including the Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency.

Dates
Saturday, March 20 at 5:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 21 at 4:00 p.m.

Tickets
Pay What You Can (PWYC)

Content Advisory
The Segal Centre believes that our patrons can determine what is distressing, triggering, or offensive for themselves, and what is appropriate for their children. We prefer not to set specific age-based restrictions but, rather, offer content advisories for each show. Of course, should you be unsure based on the advisories, please contact us and we will be happy to help you with your decision.

Content includes explicit descriptions and depictions of sexual abuse, workplace harassment, gaslighting, and abuse of power
Mature Themes and strong language
The Segal Centre and PWM do not condone smoking. Due to its narrative importance, the act of smoking is used in this performance.

Resources

If you or someone you know is a victim of abuse, here are a few resources that could help you:

SOS violence conjugale: 1-800-363-9010 or http://www.sosviolenceconjugale.ca/

Your neighbourhood CLSC: (Info-santé: 8-1-1) http://www.santemontreal.qc.ca/en

CAVAC (crime victim assistance centre) : http://www.cavac.qc.ca

To find a domestic violence service near you, visit: https://www.domesticshelters.org/help/qc

Auberge Shalom pour femmes (A centre for women in abusive relationships and their children): 514-731-0833 or https://aubergeshalom.org/

To report domestic violence, contact your local police department (in French): https://www.securitepublique.gouv.qc.ca/police/bottin.html

The SPVM also gathered a list of resources for domestic and intrafamily violence: https://spvm.qc.ca/en/Fiches/Details/Domestic-and-Intrafamily-Violence

For more information and resources about domestic violence, visit Santé Montréal section on that topic: https://santemontreal.qc.ca/en/public/advice-and-prevention/spousal-violence/

Quebec suicide prevention hotline, available 24/7: 1-866-APPELLE [277-3553]

Quebec digital Service for suicide prevention: www.suicide.ca

Review

CAST

Amelia Sargisson

Mara

Amelia is a bilingual actor and theatre-maker who has created as well as performed in everything from devised physical theatre to Shakespearean classics on stages across Canada, the US and Japan. She originated the role of Eve in Erin Shields’ Paradise Lost at The Stratford Festival (Critics’ Pick Nomination for Outstanding Supporting Performance), and reprised the role in the January 2020 remount at Centaur Theatre (META Nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress). Other credits in her two seasons at Stratford include: Peggy in The Front Page, Desdemona in Othello, and Luciana in The Comedy of Errors.

Amelia’s had the pleasure and privilege of performing and collaborating with theatres across Canada, including Crow’s, Tarragon, Canadian Stage, TIFT - where she is currently a proud member of the Artist BIG Pilot Project, Carousel Players, CORPUS, Shakespeare BASH’d, SummerWorks, Centaur, Imago, Talisman, Usine C, Porte Parole, Repercussion and the Fringe (Montreal and Toronto). Recently, Amelia voiced Eva in Erin Shield’s new audio drama, Home School (PlayME CBC Podcast), as well as narrated Mary Lawson’s award-winning novel, Crow Lake, for Penguin Random House Audiobooks. Amelia also voices Sarah in the audiobook of Saleema Nawaz’s Songs for the End of the World, as well as several characters in Sara Peters’ I Become A Delight to My Enemies, both also for Penguin Random House. Keep an ear out for Amelia’s turn as Aislinn Kennedy in the upcoming Tarragon Acoustic audio drama, The Herd, by Kenneth T. Williams, directed by Kevin Loring.

Amelia’s writing credits include co-creating, with Jordan Tannahill, The Art of Catching Pigeons by Torchlight, for which they won the 2009 SummerWorks Spotlight Award, and co-writing, with nisha ahuja, 30 People Watching, in which she and nisha also acted in the 2014 première directed by Mark Cassidy. The play went on to be published in ReView: an anthology of plays committed to social justice (Sense Publishers), which was nominated for the Canadian Association of Theatre Research 2017 Patrick O'Neill Award. Currently, Amelia is writing a solo show titled Fer Shame with support from Centaur Theatre, and recently got quite a rush from live-streaming an excerpt of it in Centaur’s new online Catalyst Festival (January 2021).

Amelia is a graduate of the Ryerson Theatre School, where she received the Faculty Award of Excellence and the Lou Taube Memorial Award for demonstrating commitment, integrity, and passion for her craft. She’s really looking forward to pursuing her graduate studies this Fall in a joint Ryerson/York MA in Communication and Culture.

Victor Andres Trelles Turgeon

Evan

Since graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada in 2008, Victor has taken part in multiple projects ranging from Theatre, Television and Film. The majority of his recent projects have brought him to work in front of the camera, but he is very happy to return to the stage for the reading of Behaviour. His latest credits are for the feature length film Jouliks and recurring roles on CBC’s Fortunate Son, Télé-Québec’s M’entends-tu 2 to name a few.

Erin Shields

Jordan

Erin Shields is a Montreal based playwright and actor. Her most recent play, Paradise Lost, premiered at The Stratford Festival and then at Centaur Theatre. It won the Quebec Writers Federation Prize for Playwriting and was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award. Erin won the 2011 Governor General's Award for Drama for her play If We Were Birds, which premiered at Tarragon Theatre. Other theatre credits include: The Lady from the Sea (The Shaw Festival), Piaf/Dietrich (The Segal Centre/Mirvish), Beautiful Man (Factory Theatre), Instant (Geordie Theatre, DORA for Outstanding TYA Production, META for Outstanding New Text), and Unit B1717 (Théâtre á Corps Perdus). Upcoming productions which have been cancelled or postponed due to the pandemic: Much Ado About Nothing at The Stratford Festival, Paradise Lost at The National Arts Centre, Canadian Stage and Bard on the Beach, Jane Eyre at Citadel Theatre, and Thy Woman’s Weeds at Centaur Theatre produced by Repercussion Theatre/Tableau D’Hôte.

Felicia Shulman

Lydia; iTrance; Police

50 years ago Felicia Shulman stepped out onto a stage for the very first time, and she hasn't stopped since; acting in new Canadian plays such as Jason Sherman's Reading Hebron (Factory Theatre Toronto, Firehall Theatre Vancouver - JESSIE nomination Best Ensemble); Elyse Gasco's Bye Bye Baby, for which she was MECCA nominated Best Actress and had the pleasure of reprising her role en Francais to critical acclaim (Centaur, Imago); Brydon Macdonald's With Bated Breath (Centaur MECCA award winner Best Ensemble); Schwartz's The Musical (Centaur); 17 Anonymous Women (Infinithéâtre); The Flood Thereafter (Talisman); Chloe's Choice (Geordie). She was META nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Indecent (Segal) and was geared up to start work on Erin Shields's newest play, Thy Woman's Weed's (Repercussion, Tableau d’hôte), when a certain global pandemic hit!

CREATIVE TEAM

Darrah Teitel

Playwright

Darrah Teitel is a Canadian socialist and a playwright, currently living in Berkeley California as the 2020 Peleh International Artist in Residence. Her most recent credits include The Omnibus Bill (Counterpoint Players, May 2019), Behaviour (GCTC, 2019), Corpus (Teesri Duniya 2014, Counterpoint 2014), The Apology (Alberta Theatre Projects 2013, Next Stage Festival 2011), Marla’s Party (SummerWorks 2008), the CBC radio drama Palliative (2007), and She Said Destroy (National Theatre School of Canada, 2007). Darrah was the GCTC’s Playwright in Residence in 2015 and 2017, during which her two most recent plays were written. Her journalism, fiction and poetry have appeared in various periodicals and journals throughout the country. Darrah is the winner of several awards, including the 2011 Canadian Jewish Playwrighting Award, and the 2007 Canadian Peace Play Prize. Her plays have received nominations for Dora, Betty Mitchell, Rideau, and META Prizes for Outstanding New Plays. Darrah also works for Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights and is a founding member of the Courage Coalition, and a proud member of Independent Jewish Voices.

Emma Tibaldo

Director, Dramaturg

Emma became Artistic and Executive Director of Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal in early 2008. In 2020, she was the recipient of the Elliott Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy. In addition to collaborating dramaturgically on plays through her work at PWM, she has directed new Canadian plays across the country such as Winter’s Daughter by Jesse Stong, SCUM: A Manifesto by S.E. Grummett and Caitlin Zacharias, Okinum by Emilie Monnet (co-director), Miss Katelyn’s Grade Threes Prepare for the Inevitable by Elena Belyea, The Baklawa Recipe by Pascale Rafie, Refuge by Mary Vingoe, Falling Trees by Megan Coles, Model Wanted by Step Taylor. In 2005, she co-founded Talisman Theatre for whom she has directed award-winning production That Woman by Daniel Danis, Down Dangerous Passes Road by Michel Marc Bouchard, and The Medea Effect by Suzie Bastien. She has just completed work on Skin, a new performance piece with the interdisciplinary company The Bakery, livestreamed during the Centaur's Wildside Festival in January 2021. Next she will be co-directing a radio play for Imago theatre, Ringtone, by Audrey Dwyer. She has been a guest artist at the National Theatre School and Concordia University.

Emily Soussana

Production Designer

Emily (she/they) is an award-winning video and production designer based out of Tiotia:ke (Montreal). They are a graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada's scenography program, the University of Ottawa's Theatre program and spent time as a projection technologist at The Banff Centre. They are the co-founder of potatoCakes_Digital, a production design and digital arts collective which officially coalesced in 2018. Most recently they were the co-curator and technical director for the Level UP Symposium presented with ADC.

Luciana Burcheri

Stage Manager

Luciana is an established Montreal stage manager whose career expands over twenty four years. She has been blessed to collaborate with the finest local artists. Selected favourite credits (amongst too many to mention): Paradise Lost, The St-Leonard Chronicles, Good People, Paradise by the River and In Piazza San Domenico (Centaur Theatre); Mythic, Once, Prom Queen: the Musical, The Secret Annex, Funny Girl, Othello, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz: the Musical, Cabaret, The Diary of Anne Frank, (The Segal Centre); Corpus, Where the Blood Mixes (Teesri Duniya) and many more. Luciana also translated and adapted for the stage St-Exupéry’s fable The Little Prince, premiered in Montreal by Geordie Productions and produced since in Ontario and Australia. She also translated into French The 39 Steps, which toured all over Quebec. Directing credits include: Better Late, Forever, Patsy Cline (Theatre Lac Brome); staged readings of Once Upon a Melody and When Blood Ran Red (Segal Centre’s Dora Wasserman Yiddish Theatre) and the 2017 METAS’s Award Ceremony. Currently, Luciana is extremely happy to be part of the Centaur Theatre family as Production Associate.

potatoCakes_digital

Digital Dramaturg

potatoCakes_digital is the award-winning production design, digital arts, and technical services collective of Emily Soussana and Andrew Scriver. Officially formed in 2018 with a video design at Osheaga Music Festival for John Jacob Magistery, they have been unofficially working together for the past five years as an all-encompassing technical team offering digital dramaturgical support, production management, and technical direction, as well as designing video, lighting, sound, set, and costumes together on live performance productions for companies in Tiotia:ke and across Canada.

Their collective’s design mandate is to technically helm and realize singularly cohesive designs for productions as a whole from conception to performance. Some of potatoCakes_digital’s main interests in the performing arts involve the integration and interrelation of technology and traditional art forms, and the exploration of how visual and digital art can help facilitate and elevate the telling of a story. Their job is to create worlds, and to see them through to the end.