POETIC LICENSE
July 23-25 FRI & SAT at 8 p.m., SUN at 4 p.m.
written & performed by ERIKA BATDORF (Toronto)
directed by Todd Hammond
music by Edgardo Moreno
Have you wanted to walk out on your life? Marti has . . .
Meet Marti, a creative writing professor, trying to balance writing, motherhood and academia. She opens the show with a hilarious university lecture challenging her students to think about what is truly radical – and then sets them an unforgettable example . . .
Meet Kathryn, Marti’s sister. Paralyzed with multiple sclerosis, she dares you to imagine desire in the context of eternity, the craving for things you will never have — like chocolate . . .
And meet their mother, a spunky, ruffian of a guardian angel who has no idea how to guide her daughters. She will ask you, the audience, to help — by offering you cookies. Each cookie represents a different option: if you choose the the full moon, you would stay in your current life, as it is. If you choose crescent moon you are undecided. And if you choose the dark moon – the chocolate cookie – you would walk out of your life. Which will you choose . . . ?
The piece raises questions such as: is education biased? What is bias? What is radical? What is inappropriate in the context of an academic environment? Including poetry by Yeats, Blake, Kerouac, Tahirih (an Iranian poetess who was killed in the 1840’s), Oliver, Ginsberg, Baudelaire, Pound, Wilde, Plath, Eliot and Artaud, POETIC LICENSE invites you to enter a funny, magical world where poetry is edible, ruffian angels describe paradise and family ties bind.
75 minutes. For ages 12 and up.
WANT TO KNOW MORE? Visit www.batdorf.org
Recipient of 3 DORA AWARD nominations for “Outstanding New Play or Musical,”
“Outstanding Performance by a Female” and “Outstanding Direction”
ERIKA BATDORF
has created, directed, performed and choreographed original theatrical work since 1983 and her work has appeared in such places as the Smithsonian Institute, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Landegg Academy for International Development in Switzerland, Nine Dragon Heads International Arts Symposium in Korea, Harvard University, National and International Movement Theatre Festivals in New York City, Philadelphia and New Hampshire, the Women’s Theater Festival in Philadelphia, the Boston Center for the Arts and in NYC for PS122, Dixon Place, Moonworks and the NY International Fringe Festival. Erika Batdorf has also performed for United Nations conferences in Switzerland and Denmark and the International Women’s Playwrights Conference in Indonesia. Her works have appeared in Toronto at Theatre Passé Muraille, The Theatre Centre, Factory and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in the Hysteria and Rhubarb! festivals. She has had four Dora nominations; one for performance, two for new plays and one for directing. She is currently directing two new productions for 2010; Peer Gynt for the Thistle Project opened in January and an interdisciplinary piece inspired by Tahirih, a notorious Persian poetess from the 1800’s to open June 2010 in Toronto’s International Luminato Festival. Batdorf has taught at the Boston Conservatory, Brandeis University, Emerson College and the University of Alaska at Anchorage. She founded the Batdorf School for Movement Theatre in 1998 in Boston and has been a guest artist in universities and theatres internationally. She currently is the Graduate Program Director of the Theatre Department at York University in Toronto, and will teach acting in the opera workshop offered by Queen of Puddings this summer in Toronto. She recently returned from a work exchange with The Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards.
***** “Moving effortlessly from dry comedy to a gorgeous movement piece, Poetic License is a warm-hearted, well-crafted theatrical essay on desire… a stunning and absorbing performance in its entirety… ” — EYE WEEKLY
“License to Thrill…hilarious and thoughtful…emotionally compelling, visually elegant…the very best thing about Poetic License is Batdorf’s humour…watching Batdorf was the highlight of my week, possibly my month.” — NOW MAGAZINE
“Daring but moving theatre…a transporting event. Erika Batdorf is a phenomenon.…transporting and incredibly affecting ….this could be a play that brings the masses into more daring theatre.…Poetic Licence — and Erika Batdorf in whatever she next does— is an experience no one should miss.” — TOWN CRIER
“A brilliant play is performed by its multitalented writer. Poetic License played brilliantly by Erika Batdorf,…captivating the audience’s attention.…This interactive process somehow binds the actor and the spectators together.…It is women’s experience on stage that can ignite a change in you.” — BANGKOK POST
“She’s poetry in motion. Batdorf is one of a kind…an electric presence even offstage…she is also unforgettable.” — TORONTO STAR