Arts & Culture

Join us Monday November 28, from 7-8 pm as guest speaker, Philip Akin, Artistic Director, Obsidian Theatre Company, discusses Topdog/Underdog, the play and production.

A play about identity, family, love, and "this dude who doesn't get along with his brother", Topdog/Underdog won Suzan-Lori Parks a Tony nomination and a Pulizer Prize back in 2002. "The play," wrote the New York Times Review, "vibrates with the clamor of big ideas, audaciously and exuberantly expressed".  The National Post in 2011, does not disagree: "The play is brilliantly written, in probably the best American dialogue for urban no-hopers since the David Mamet of American Buffalo." 

Suzan-Lori Parks began writing plays during her college days at Mount Holyoke when challenged by her professor, American playwright, James Baldwin.  She credits him as a major influence along with such diverse luminaries as Adrienne Kennedy ("noted for the use of surrealism"), Wendy Wasserstein (another Mount Holyoke alumna and Pulitzer prize winner), Tennessee Williams, a writer, she says, of "theater that I liked…that people, you know, the cool people, were calling dumb theater", and Ntozake Shange (issues of race and feminism).

Suzan-Lori Parks is not just a dramatist though; she also writes screenplays, short stories, novels, and even directs.  What has particularly grabbed me about this playwright's creative determination is that from November 2002 till November 2003, she wrote a play a day, inspired by 'deities…soldiers…and what was outside her plane window', a process that resulted in her "365 days/365 plays"series.  Now that's prolific! 

Philip Akin finds Topdog/Underdog "one of the most fascinating plays I’ve ever worked on". And Obsidian has mounted some of the finest plays being written. (I was lucky enough to see Ruined last year, and count it as one of the high points of my personal play-going season.) Obsidian, for those not in the know, is 'Canada's leading culturally diverse theatre company', passionately dedicated to giving both voice and visibility to Black artists, most especially nurturing those who are 'young at craft'.

This is the fifth in our program on current Toronto theatre – On Stage Performing Arts Theatre Series – six lectures / six theatres.  They are all being held free of charge at the Toronto Reference Library – Beeton Auditorium.

• “The Normal Heart” hear guest speaker Joel Greenberg, Director and Artistic Director, Studio 180 Theatre on Monday, October 3, 7 – 8 pm.

• "Ghosts”  hear guest speaker Paula Wing, Associate Artist, Soulpepper Theatre Company  on Monday, October 24, 7 – 8 pm.

•  “The Children's Republic”  hear guest speaker Hannah Moscovitch, Playwright-in-Residence, Tarragon Theatre on Monday November 7, 7 – 8 pm.

• “Red” hear guest speaker Natasha Mytnowych,  Associate Director of Programming, Canadian Stage  on Monday, November 14, 7 – 8 pm.

• “Topdog/Underdog” hear guest speaker Philip Akin, Director and Artistic Director, Obsidian Theatre Company on Monday, November 28, 7 – 8 pm.

• “The Penelopiad”  hear guest speaker: Kelly Thornton, Artistic Director, Nightwood Theatre on Monday, December 5, 7 – 8 pm.

Did you know the Performing Arts Department at the Toronto Reference Library also had:

• an audition board of current plays and also extensive collection of monologues
• plays from across Canada in English and French and plays from around the world
• theatrical reviews
• clipping files on Canadian performances and organizers
• theatre programs from local theatre companies – both current and historical collections
• index to Canadian theatre productions
• original stage designs by major Canadian artists
• sound recordings of stage dialects, plays and comedies
• music scores – popular, classical, theatre and by instrument
• online literary criticism you can access from home or in a library branch