Illustrator and artist Ramon Perez

Driftwood Theatre is proud to officially release the image for their 18^th Bard’s Bus Tour season production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  The image, created by Toronto illustrator and artist Ramón Pérez, features the mischievous Puck reaching for the magical flower which is at the centre of the play’s tale of four young lovers’ (and one hapless mechanical’s) transformative night in a forest.

Mr. Pérez is best known for his graphic novel adaptation of the lost Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl Screenplay Tale Of Sand for publisher Archaia Entertainment which was recently nominated for five Eisner Awards – the top international comic book industry awards. Notable recent works also include John Carter: Gods of Mars, Captain America and the First Thirteen, Deadpool Team-Up and his creator-owned endeavors Butternutsquash and Kukuburi. He also created most of Driftwood’s season images between 1995-2004 including posters for two previous productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“Ramón is a celebrated artist in his field,” says Driftwood Artistic Director D. Jeremy Smith, “It is such a thrill to have him agree to return to Driftwood to prepare this wonderful image and it seemed only fitting given his history with our previous posters for this play in 1995 and 2004. His style captures the right balance of playfulness and mischief, which you see in Tale Of Sand and his own Kukuburi.”

When asked to describe the process he went through when creating the image, Mr. Pérez explained that, “After speaking with Jeremy regarding his visions for the poster, I took the elements he gave me and tried to create an image that evoked them all. After some back and forth, discussions and revisions, a final image was settled upon and I ran with it.”

“The touchstones of the play that I wanted to convey were the magical elements – a floating fairy queen and a man with an ass’ head – and the mischievousness of Puck, as well as the importance of the magical blossom. I tried to push the mood through the palette by evoking twilight, that wondrous hour of the night. The most important thing is to convey as much as possible through as few elements as possible.”

Driftwood Theatre presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, a musical adaptation by Kevin Fox, Tom Lillington and D. Jeremy Smith, as this summer’s Bard’s Bus Tour from July 12 to August 19. The Pay-What-You-Can production will tour to 27 outdoor venues across Ontario between London, Kingston and Bobcaygeon. For information please visit www.driftwoodtheatre.com.

The adaptation, first created in 2004 by composers Kevin Fox (Swingle Singers, Juno-nominated ensemble Cadence) and Tom Lillington (Retrocity, Nathaniel Dett Chorale) and director D. Jeremy Smith, is currently being revised and expanded for the current production and marks the culmination of a 10-year collaboration among the creative team to weave a capella music into Shakespeare’s plays.

Driftwood has spent the past two years securing the funding necessary to further develop the project, which has been made possible thanks to the investment of Creative Roots Partner TD Bank.

The cast includes Driftwood alumnae Steven Burley (15 seasons, Driftwood Theatre) as Oberon, Madeleine Donohue (3 seasons, Driftwood Theatre; All in the Timing, The Dining Room, Down n’ Out Productions, Fibber, Raging Dreams, Theatre Gargantua) as Helena, Helen King (2 seasons, Driftwood Theatre; Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Theatre Lac Brome; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Centaur) as Quince, and Andrew Scanlon (3 seasons, Driftwood Theatre; Toy Story: The Musical, Disney Creative Ent.; The Full Monty, Theatre Aquarius; The Godot Cycle, Yes Let’s Go/Toronto Fringe) as Bottom.

They are joined by new company members Nathan Carroll (The Sound of Music, Citadel; The Book of Esther, Blyth Festival) as Demetrius, Paul Dunn (Hair, Grand Theatre; East of Berlin, Tarragon Theatre; 7 seasons, Stratford Shakespeare Festival) as Puck, Christian Feliciano (Raven Stole the Sky, Red Sky; The Hobbit, Grand Theatre; Sex Tape Project, Fu-Gen) as Lysander, Alexis Gordon (Godspell, Victoria Playhouse Petrolia) as Titania, and Stephanie Seaton (Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Classical Theatre Project; Cabaret, Hart House) as Hermia.

The production will be directed by Driftwood founder and Artistic Director D. Jeremy Smith, with musical direction by Tom Lillington, costume designs by Michelle Bailey (Dora-nominated; Clybourne Park, The Normal Heart, Studio 180; The Red Queen Effect, Seventh Stage; three seasons, Driftwood Theatre), set and props design by Lindsay Anne Black (Dora-nominated; Sia, Cahoots Theatre; Those Who Can’t Do, Roshni, Theatre Passe Murraille; My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish-Wiccan Wedding, Mirvish Productions; Macbeth, Driftwood Theatre), and movement direction by Clare Preuss (Oil & Water, Artistic Fraud; Macbeth, Driftwood Theatre).

The Bard’s Bus Tour will kick off July 12^th, 2012 and tour Southern Ontario with PWYC performances until August 19^th, 2012.

The Bard’s Bus Tour is generously sponsored by Ontario Power Generation. Driftwood gratefully acknowledges the support of The Ontario Arts Council, through their Operating, Touring and Arts Investment Fund granting programs.

A full list of performance dates and locations is available at www.driftwoodtheatre.com.

April 14, 2012 | The Papermill Theatre at Todmorden Mills | 67 Pottery Road, Toronto

7:30pm | Tickets $10.00 | Tickets available at the door

Driftwood Theatre invites you to catch a special preview of the music being created for their original, a capella musical adaptation of William Shakespeare’s magical comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

For information, visit our Facebook event page, our website, or call 905-576-2396.

Musical Direction by Kevin Fox & Tom Lillington

Featuring: Steven Burley, Madeleine Donohue, Sarah Gale, Christopher Jaaskelainen, Alison MacDonald, Michael Rawley, Becca Zadorsky

Stage Management by Stephanie Nakamura

Audience member Carin Makuz was the successful bidder in Driftwood’s first-ever Live Auction at the Trafalgar 24 playwriting festival and fundraising gala. Her generous contribution to Driftwood Theatre bought her a spot on the Trafalgar 24 Guest Juror’s panel, where she joined theatre producer Derrick Chua, Soulpepper and Driftwood dramaturge Toby Malone, theatre critic Lynn Slotkin, Toronto Fringe Festival Managing Director Kathryn Westoll and Driftwood Artistic Director D. Jeremy Smith.

Not only was Carin an insightful and splendid addition to the Jury Panel, she was also kind enough to jot her thoughts about the evening down on her blog, Matilda Magtree, which you can check out here.

Thanks again Carin!

Check back soon for more info about Trafalgar 24.

Trafalgar 24 takes place on Friday, March 9, 2012 at Trafalgar Castle in Whitby, Ontario. For more information, visit the Trafalgar 24 show page.

Hopefully we don’t drive Steven nuts with our questions, comments and ideas..

Thank you for all your support in 2011 – we look forward to more grand adventures in 2012.

Competition in the semi finals was very high, but Driftwood finished the round with over 1,500 supporters and well over 5,000 votes! Whether we manage to move up enough to capture a finalist’ position in the Aviva Competition or not, the journey has been exciting and inspirational!

The Bard’s Bus

Driftwood has relied since 2006 on an old 1987 Ford E350 bus to get the company around the province every summer. ‘Charlie’, as we affectionately call her, has been showing signs of her age lately and we need to start planning for her replacement. Driftwood Theatre entered the Aviva Community Fund competition in hopes of acquiring the funding we need (about $100,000) to replace our beloved Bard’s Bus.

The results of the Aviva competition’s semi-final round will be announced on December 19 – so stay tuned!

After a slow weekend of voting all around, its time to kick Driftwood’s efforts to replace our ageing Bard’s Bus into high gear! As of this morning, Driftwood was sitting in 22nd place in our category (medium, $50-$100k). In order to have a chance at winning the Aviva funding,WE NEED TO BE IN THE TOP 10!!

Thanks so much for your votes so far – KEEP VOTING! And don’t forget to remind everyone you know who has voted to vote again today and every day until December 16!

If all 1321 supporters voted right now, we WOULD MOVE INTO 13th PLACE!!!

We need all of our supporters to vote every day for the next four and a half days if we’re going to become one of the top 10 contestants in our category (medium, $50-$100k).

We’ve come so far, and with your help, we’ll go all the way! Help give the Bard’s Bus a boost! Registering takes only a minute or two, and voting takes seconds a day.

Here’s the link for voting: 

If you need help registering with Aviva, or figuring out how to vote, feel free to contact Jeremy Smith at 416-466-3843 or jsmith@driftwoodtheatre.com.

In the past 24 hours, the Bard’s Bus received just under 400 votes! That’s 200 votes less than the day before! We really need all of our supporters to keep voting every day until December 16 if we’re going to win a chance at replacing our 25-year old Bard’s Bus. The top 10 contestants (Driftwood is currently sitting in 23rd place) also logged fewer votes yesterday; from 520 – 787. WE CAN CATCH UP!!

If all 1162 supporters voted right now, we WOULD MOVE INTO NINTH PLACE!!!

We need all of our supporters to vote every day for the next 11 days if we’re going to become one of the top 10 contestants in our category (medium, $50-$100k).

We’ve come so far, and with your help, we’ll go all the way! Help give the Bard’s Bus a boost! Registering takes only a minute or two, and voting takes seconds a day.

Here’s the link for voting: 

If you need help registering with Aviva, or figuring out how to vote, feel free to contact Jeremy Smith at 416-466-3843 or jsmith@driftwoodtheatre.com.