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Thank you to Atlantic Lottery for funding this event! The title of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It holds a double meaning that teasingly suggests this is a play to please all tastes. Is that possible?
Called “sly, funny, and charming” by the Toronto Star, As You Like It Or The Land Acknowledgement by cultural provocateur Cliff Cardinal, is a devastating yet laugh-out-loud examination of land acknowledgements as cultural and political practice. A timeless tale of mistaken identities, banishment, and forgiveness takes on an entirely new meaning in this subversive update of the Bard’s classic. Cardinal’s Cree and Lakota heritage deeply inform his take on the play, which is acerbic, mischievous, and fearlessly deals with difficult subject matter.
“The Canadian arts surprise of the year” (The Globe and Mai), William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal was the recipient the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and was shortlisted for the Ontario Trillium Book Award.
“One thing’s certain: this As You Like It is unlike any other production of the play, past or future.” NOW Magazine
Ages 14+
Cliff Cardinal – Creator and Writer
Named by The Globe and Mail as a Canadian Cultural Icon in 2022, Cliff Cardinal is a polarizing writer and performer known for his black humour and compassionate poeticism. His AS YOU LIKE IT, A RADICAL RETELLING has been performed across Canada, was shortlisted for the Ontario Trillium Book Award, and was the recipient of the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. Other solo theatre productions including Stitch, Huff, Cliff Cardinal’s CBC Special, and (Everyone I Love Has) A Terrible Fate (Befall Them) have toured across Canada and won numerous awards. He is an associate artist at VideoCabaret where he develops his new work. Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, he studied
playwriting at the National Theatre School of Canada and fronts the hilarious and nefarious Cliff Cardinal and The Skylarks.
Cardinal’s first multi-character play, Too Good To Be True, opened VideoCabaret’s 2019 season at The Busy Street Theatre in Toronto with Cardinal himself directing. A workshop version of the script debuted at Summerworks ’13, where NOW Magazine said, “This captivating tale of an off-grid mother and her desperate children solidifies Cardinal as one of the most talented and intriguing writers in the country.” Prior to premiering AS YOU LIKE IT, A RADICAL RETELLING, Cardinal was best known for his one-man play Huff, which he has performed over 200 times. This harrowing yet hilarious show about youth who abuse solvent, at high risk of suicide won the Buddies in Bad Times’ Vanguard Award for Risk and Innovation, two Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Outstanding Performance, Outstanding New Play), RBC’s Emerging Playwright Award, The Lustrum Award (which recognizes the greatest moments at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and was shortlisted for Amnesty International’s Freedom of Expression Award. The production garnered a five-star review in The
Guardian Observer titled “a hard-hitting tour de force.” Huff has been published, translated into French, continues to tour, and was released as a podcast by the CBC.
Cliff Cardinal’s CBC Special, a songwriter/storyteller performance, toured festivals in Ottawa, Calgary, St. Catharines, through Canada’s North starting in Yellowknife with a stint at Theatre Kingston and won the Jon Kaplan Spotlight Award for the top performance at Toronto’s SummerWorks Festival. Cliff Cardinal and The Skylarks’ first recording, This is Not a Mistake was released in 2016 and their follow up Gonna Be Fine was released in 2020, both are available online. The band’s third album Suicidal Valentine is out on Merlainen Music. The title track has risen to number six on the Indigenous Music Countdown.
Chris Abraham – Co-Conspirator, Crow’s Theatre Artistic Director
Crow’s Theatre Artistic and General Director, Chris Abraham has been the driving force of Crow’s since the 2008.09 season. He has successfully led the company through several major milestones: the 25th, 35th, and 40th anniversaries of the company as well as building Streetcar Crowsnest, a pioneering, state of the art facility with three venues in the east end of Toronto. At Crow’s, Chris has directed numerous award-winning plays including Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, The Master Plan, Uncle Vanya, MixTape, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Stars: Together, The Wedding Party, True Crime, Boy in the Moon, The Assembly, The Watershed, The Seagull, Winners & Losers, Someone Else, Eternal Hydra, and I, Claudia. In 2003, Chris directed the film adaptation of Kristen Thomson’s award-winning hit I, Claudia for which he won a Gemini Award. A graduate of the National Theatre School’s renowned directing program, Chris served as co-director of the program from 2006 to 2010, In 2013, Chris was awarded the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre for Directing. Chris’ artistic practice spans the spectrum of solo work, documentary, highly lauded Stratford and Shaw productions, hybrid music theatre concerts, opera, and filmmaking. This summer, Chris will direct One Man, Two Guvnors at the Shaw Festival.
Logan Raju Cracknell – Lighting Designer
Logan Raju Cracknell is a Toronto based theatre artist specializing in lighting design and live stream creation. Their work has taken them across the country, and they are truly excited to see what journeys lie ahead. Recent works include: Prodigal (The Howland Company, Crow’s Theatre), William Shakespeare’s As You Like It: A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal and Orphans for the Czar (Crow’s Theatre), The Extinction Therapist (Theatre Aquarius), Alice in Wonderland (Bad Hats Theatre), BLACKOUT (The Musical Stage Company), Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Theatre Calgary), Dixon Road (The Musical Stage Company, Obsidian Theatre), As You Like It (Canadian Stage Company), and Concord Floral and Casimir and Caroline (Theatre Sheridan), and Fairview (Canadian Stage Company, Obsidian Theatre).
Jennifer Stobart – Stage Manager
A veteran of live theatre, having stage managed over 175 professional productions, in theatres both grand and modest, Jennifer has toured coast to coast in Canada and the United States several times, to Dublin, Ireland, London, England, Sydney, and Perth Australia, and Edinburgh, Scotland. Most recently, she stage managed (Everyone I Love Has) A Terrible Fate (Befall Them) with Video Cabaret, The Chronicles of Sarnia with Blyth Festival Theatre, The Christie Pits Riots with The Hogtown Collective, The Land Acknowledgement with Mirvish
Productions & Crow’s Theatre, As You Like It, a Radical Re-telling by Cliff Cardinal in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Peterborough, Ottawa, and New York City, our place with Cahoots Theatre & Theatre Passe Muraille, huff with Neptune/Prismatic Theatre in Halifax, Dreaming Roots with The Yukon First Nations Arctic Arts Summit, in Whitehorse. As always, she sends her love to her Mom, her adventuring travelling companion.
Sherrie Johnson – Crow’s Theatre Executive Director
Sherrie Johnson began her tenure at Crow’s Theatre (Toronto) in February 2019, becoming Crow’s first Executive Director. Sherrie brings a wide range of experience as an arts leader to her role at Crow’s Theatre. Sherrie was a member of the leadership team at Canadian Stage (Toronto) from 2013-2019. Prior to joining Canadian Stage, Johnson’s artistic career includes serving as founding Artistic Director of Outside The Box in Boston, MA; Senior Curator at the highly esteemed PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver, B.C.; and Co-Founder/Artistic Director of the Six Stages Festival in Toronto, Prague, Berlin and Glasgow. An active producer and agent, she’s worked with Germany’s internationally renowned triumvirate Rimini Protokoll, Antwerp based artists Bart Baele and Yves Degryse of Berlin, filmmaker and installation artist Srinivas Krishna, and visual artist Stan Douglas. Sherrie successfully led the indie company da da kamera with Daniel MacIvor from 1993-2007. Sherrie was the inaugural recipient of the John Hobday Award for outstanding achievement in arts management from the Canada Council and the recipient of the 2019 Leonard McHardy and John Harvey Award.
Crow’s Theatre – Producer
For 40 years, Crow’s Theatre has been a leading force in the Canadian theatre landscape, recognized for provocative and award-winning new theatre works that premiere in Toronto often followed by national and international tours. Crow’s Theatre is distinguished as a preeminent cultural destination for its far-reaching imagination, ideas, exchange, diversity, and grassroots belief that the arts are essential to healthy and thriving communities. In January 2017, following the completion of a $12 million capital campaign, Crow’s Theatre
opened the doors to its first permanent home, Streetcar Crowsnest, at the corner of Carlaw Avenue and Dundas Street East. Led by Artistic and General Director, Chris Abraham and Executive Director Sherrie Johnson, Crow’s Theatre is located at the corner of Carlaw Avenue and Dundas Street East in Toronto’s east end. Our home at Streetcar Crows nest is comprised of four venues for dynamic cultural and community programming: the Guloien Theatre (200 seats); Studio Theatre (80 seats); the Nada Ristich Studio Gallery (80 seats); the full- service Lobby Bar; as well as an onsite restaurant which can accommodate 60 seated indoors and 75 on the outdoor.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Imperial Theatre, 12 King Square South,Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
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