Grief Fuels a Tale of Mom and Daughter in World Premiere, Scratch, Featuring Playwright
By Kenneth Jones
27 Aug 2008
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Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman
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Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman's Scratch, charting her relationship with her sick mother, will get its world premiere at Toronto's Factory Theatre Mainspace Oct. 4-Nov. 2. The playwright, who began the work when she was 16, will also play the teenage daughter character, Anna.
Scratch, directed by two-time Dora Award-winning director ahdri zhina mandiela, "is a semi-autobiographical story of Charlotte's experience, told through the touching and quirky perspective of 15-year-old Anna." The writer lost her mother, novelist and journalist Carole Corbeil, to ovarian cancer.
Corbeil-Coleman said in production notes, "I had an urgent need to tell a story that came from a place of pure grief. So much of who I am came from losing her. My writing and talent is so linked to that loss."
The playwright, also the daughter of playwright, actor and former Theatre Passe Muraille artistic director Layne Coleman, is a recent graduate of the National Theatre School in Montreal. There, for her graduating class, she wrote the double bill, John … Sudden Death and Cindy … a Perfect Circle.
Dramaturg Iris Turcott, the recent recipient of the prestigious George Luscombe Award, recognized the playwright's talent and guided the development of Scratch at Canadian Stage Company up until the 2007-2008 season.
Scratch won the 2007 Herman Voaden Award and was chosen to be further developed at the 2008 Banff PlayRites Colony.
According to Factory Theatre, "Anna has lice. Her mother has cancer. Her Aunt buys her a pair of Gap jeans while she worries Anna's on drugs. Still she can't stop scratching. She can't get rid of the lice and she can't face the inevitable."
The cast also includes Monica Dottor as Madelyn, Catherine Fitch as Aunt, Ryan Hollyman as Poet, Mary Ann McDonald as Mother and Kevin Bundy as Father. Opening is Oct. 9.
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Factory Theatre's "central mission is to create, develop and produce new Canadian theatre with an emphasis on original Canadian plays and the development of Canadian playwrights."
Factory is led by artistic director Ken Gass and managing director Colleen Smith.
Factory Theatre Mainspace is at 125 Bathurst Street in Toronto. For information, call (416) 504-9971 or visit www.factorytheatre.ca.
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