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BIG IN GERMANY - Balls - Show Us Yours Series - Deathwatch - Fucking Stephen Harper - RAW - First Day Back

RAW
by Rob Salerno
Playing at the 2012 Toronto Fringe Festival Jul 3-15

Sex, justice, trust, and vengeance collide in Ten Foot Pole Theatre’s latest assault on the polite and gentle, RAW by Rob Salerno.

Salerno and Toronto newcomer Jason R. Stroud play Stephen and James, two young gay men who meet at a bathhouse and have a hot, steamy, sexual encounter. Neither decides to use a condom. But what Stephen doesn’t tell James is that he’s recently been diagnosed HIV-positive. A month later, Stephen sends James an anonymous letter warning him to get tested, and when James tests positive, he tracks Stephen down to confront the man he believes has killed him. But what do you say to your killer if given the chance? What can you do?

RAW is a violent, sexy, darkly comic, and deeply moving play about the lines of responsibility that bind these two men together.

Venue 9: Robert Gill Theatre – 214 College St (entrance at St. George), 3rd Floor
TICKETS: $10 available at the door or online or at (416) 966-1062

Fri, July 6 - 11pm
Sat, July 7 - 2:45pm
Mon, July 9 - 8:45pm
Tues, July 10 - 5pm
Wed, July 11 - 11:30pm
Fri, July 13 - 5:45pm
Sat, July 14 - noon

Now Magazine has picked RAW as one of "24 Things You Can't Miss at This Year's Fest".

Long-time Fringe-goer and theatre producer Derrick Chua has picked RAW as one of several shows that "represent the closest to a guarantee of quality as you can get at a Fringe!"

There's also a great preview article in this week's Xtra (not yet available online).

Cast and Crew:

Rob Salerno – Playwright, Director, Actor
Rob Salerno's first play, Balls, received critical acclaim and awards across Canada, including the Hamilton Fringe New Play Award, the London Fringe Best Original Production Award, the 2008 London Brickenden Award for Best Touring Production, and was a Patron's Pick at the Ottawa Fringe. He was selected as part of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre's 2009 Young Creator's Unit, where he developed the Fringe Festival hit Fucking Stephen Harper: How I Sexually Assaulted the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada and Saved Democracy. Salerno also served as literary consultant on the 2009 lemonTree Theatre/Ten Foot Pole production of Jean Genet's Deathwatch. lemonTree hopes to someday produce Salerno's new translation of the classic play. His third play, Big in Germany, premiered at the 2010 Toronto Fringe and was an official selection of the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival and the Halifax Queer Acts Festival.
Selected acting credits include: The Shift (Theatre Passe Muraille/Buzzfest), Balls, Fucking Stephen Harper, and Big In Germany (Ten Foot Pole), Cooling (Alumnae Theatre/New Ideas), True Irish Hearts (FOOT Festival), The True Tragedy of Richard III (Poculi Ludique Societas), and Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (Tuesday Night Cafe).

Jason R. Stroud – Actor
Jason attended the New School for Drama’s MFA program in acting in New York, studying under the likes of Pippin Parker, Christopher Shinn, Ron Leibman, Marcia Haufrecht, Karen Ludwig, and John Turturro. Previous credits include: Prior, Angels in America; Lysander, A Midsummer Night's Dream; Clov, Endgame; Horst, Bent; Cardinal, The Duchess of Malfi; Harry Dalton, Equus; Ensemble, The Laramie Project; Ralph, HMS Pinafore.

Karen Elizabeth – Set Designer, Fight Director
Karen has been hiding in the darkness backstage since her high school years, creating strange assemblages of objects and calling them sets and props. She received her degree from Brock University in 2009 and migrated to Toronto soon afterwards. Recent work includes Gay Nerds (upcoming at the 2012 Fringe), The Melville Boys (Panfish Productions), Seussical (Clearwater Players), Trojan Women (Alumnae), After Mrs. Rochester (Alumnae), Everybody Dies! The Musical, and the 5th, 6th, and 7th InspiraTO festivals. When not in the theatre, Karen can usually be found baking cupcakes and handling snakes (not necessarily at the same time).

George Quan – Lighting Designer
George Quan is a Toronto based designer for the performing arts with experience in set, lighting and projections. Selected Credits: King John Redux (Pure Carbon Collective), Little Shop of Horrors (Peel Region Education), The Russian Play (Spiel Players), Our Town (VCDS Drama Society), Wild Abandon (The Curtain Club). George is a recent graduate of York University's Theatre Production stream, and a member of the ADC.