Latest News

Slowly I Turn: A Parlour Vaudeville in One Act

Dec 15, 2011

Created by Ben Stone

Starring Ben Stone, John Stone and Jess Lewis

Directed by Graham Percy

Lighting Design by Jess Lewis

Slowly I Turn is Zuppa's newest creation. Written by Zuppa founder and principle actor Ben Stone, the show is a about a father and son fullfilling a long-time dream of performing together...by putting on a play in their living room.

Starring Ben Stone and his real-life father John (a much loved Halifax school teacher), Slowly I Turn is a love letter to family and theatre. Performed in an actual living room of a peninsular Halifax home, with live music and a fire in the hearth, the show is inspired by American Vaudeville, Hamlet and the Muppet Show.

Slowly I Turn will open in mid-March 2012. Exact dates still TBD but more info will be available soon. Stay tuned!

Upcoming Zuppa projects, 2012 and 2013

Dec 12, 2011

Various things are coming down various pipes. In the Fall of 2011, Zuppa collaborated with Cleveland-based playwright Mike Geither to develop a new show titled The Attaining Gigantic Dimensions. The show is maginification of small moments, a close investigation of little things that happen in between big things, and a meditation on the grandness of the trivial and triviality of the grand. Featuring a model village, an intricate video design, an original musical score and performances by Stewart Legere, Kat McCormack, Ben Stone and Susan Leblanc-Crawford, The Attaining Gigantic Dimensions will make its first public appearance in the winter of 2013. The show is directed by Alex McLean, returning to the director's chair for the first time since the Robert Merritt Award-winning Five Easy Steps (to the end of the world).

Later in 2013 Zuppa will present a new work currently titled Somewhere Else in the World, created in collaboration with Egyptian artist Nora Amin.

And then there are the things that are still secret...

The Debacle at The New Groundswell Festival

Dec 2, 2011

Susan Leblanc-Crawford's acclaimed solo performance played at Nightwood Theatre's New Groundswell Festival in Toronto, December 2 through 10, 2011. We thank our friends at Nightwood and Toronto audiences for a great run.

"surprising and touching [...] a sensitive piece of theatre, highlighted by Leblanc-Crawford’s moving performance and some surprising visual moments that involve the work of set designer Andrew Cull and lighting designer Jess Lewis." - Jon Kaplan, Now Magazine

"Susan Leblanc-Crawford is fragile-minded, buoyant, troubled and absolutely gripping. The direction by Ann-Marie Kerr is exquisite, jaw-dropping creative and always serves the play. She has a sense of the visual that is stunning [...] Hers is an imagination that is exceptional and this production is proof of it." - Lynn Slotkin, The Slotkin Letter

Get Thee Behind Me, Satan

Nov 30, 2011

The year was 2011. Popular unrest was spreading around the world.

On November 18, 2011, a group of Halifax's best musicians and Zuppa Theatre Co. teamed up to present an evening of protest songs in Halifax's remarkable chamber music venue, The Music Room.

The concert featured Rose Cousins, The Heavy Blinkers, Gypsophilia, Ryan MacGrath, Don Brownrigg, Tanya Davis, Ruth Minnikin, Dusty Keheler, Stewart Legere and Zuppa Theatre Co.

THANKS TO GARRISON BREWING CO, YELLOWTAIL WINES AND BROOKLYN WAREHOUSE FOR SPONSORING THIS EVENT. AND THANKS TO OUR INCREDIBLE MUSICIAN FRIENDS FOR MAKING THIS A BEAUTIFUL EVENING.

Zuppa at Magnetic North 2011

Jul 1, 2011

Five Easy Steps (to the end of the world) ran at the 2011 Magnetic North Theatre Festival in Ottawa at the Arts Court Theatre. And so it was that the world ended, night after night, in our nation's capital.

Zuppa Wins 3 Theatre Nova Scotia Robert Merritt Awards for Five Easy Steps (to the end of the world)

Mar 30, 2011

Outstanding Production

Outstanding Female Actor in a Leading Role - Susan Leblanc-Crawford

Outstanding Lighting Design - Louisa Adamson

Zuppa Costume Designer Leesa Hamilton won the Mayor's Award for Emerging Artist

Zuppa Administrator Sebastien Labelle won the Theatre Nova Scotia Scholarship to study at Bread and Puppet

Best in show 2010

Jan 2, 2011

Kate Watson of The Coast has narrowed down her list of top 10 plays of 2010.

5 Easy Steps (to the end of the world) makes it to #1

"Gorgeous and haunting. A true high point."

http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/best-in-show-2010/Content?oid=2092218

What People Are Saying!

Nov 1, 2010

"if you only see one play this year, make it Zuppa Theatre’s 5 Easy Steps (to the end of the world)"

"an original, haunting piece that will stick with you long after you’ve left the misty confines of its Brewery Market “stage.”"

"The music by Jason Michael MacIsaac and David Christensen is both catchy and soul-touching, and the dancing is brilliant, breathtaking, burn-your-candle-at-both-ends-'cause-the end-is-nigh fantastic."

-Kate Watson, The Coast

"Zuppa Theatre delivers an unforgettable sensory experience"

"Part carnival, part house of horrors, part New Year’s Eve party and part true confessions…quirky and haunting original songs…glittering, high-octane performances…Five Easy Steps leaves you feeling like you’ve been to a wild party where everything went wrong and yet you wished it had never ended."

-Elissa Barnard, The Chronicle Herald

"This performance melds...words, movement, gesture and infuses them with light, space and music to create an inspired piece of theatre. The inexpressible is given voice and visions long blurred come into focus in Five Easy Steps (to the end of the world)."

-Shaun Purdy, CKDU 88.1 FM News Collective
(Archived under Thursday, October 28 - 8:27 to 8:55)

Unsollicited comments from audiences

"TREMENDOUS! Zuppa is the light of everything that's awesome!"

"laughed so hard and fought back tears. amazing, amazing, amazing!"

"mind=blown, Five Easy Steps (to the end of the world) is a must see ♥"

"What a gracious clutch of humans! Thanks, all, for continuing to do what you do!"

"AMAZING. Maybe the best one yet!"

"An incredible show. Hoping to come see it a second time."

"If you haven't seen it yet, you should!"

"an amazing show! [...] loved it loved it loved it."

"Fantastic show [...] brilliant work as usual"

"brilliant piece of theatre, phenomenal script work. Very moving. Does Halifax truly know what you do and how well you do it?"

"You know that feeling that you get when a really great book deliciously pulls you into another world? You know how it is: when you finish it, you feel this hollow sort of grief entwined with joy due to the separation between you and this immersive world you've been inhabiting? That is the exact feeling I had after Five Easy Steps [...] you guys were outstanding."

"an incredibly moving experience"

"Thank you Zuppa Theatre co. for the inspiration, the laughter and the tears. Everyone should go and see ' Five Easy Steps' now!"

"Amazing show!"

"mind blowing! So much passion, extreme emotion, recklessness and total abandon. All things I love!!"

Media Coverage for Five Easy Steps

Oct 29, 2010

The Coast
Zuppa meets the market

The Chronicle Herald
Zuppa follows friends to the end of the world

CKDU 88.1 FM News Collective - Operation Wake Up!

"This performance melds [...] words, movement, gesture and infuses them with light, space and music to create an inspired piece of theatre. The inexpressible is given voice and visions long blurred come into focus in Five Easy Steps (to the end of the world)."
-Shaun Purdy, CKDU News Collective

Interviews with co-creators and performers Sue Leblanc-Crawford and Stewrart Legere, and also with co-composer David Christensen

www.ckdu.ca

*Choose "Program Archives" in the left hand menu
*Select "Thursday, October 28" - "8:27" to "8:55"
*Hit "Download"

DalNews
Determined to go out with a bang