Happy Holidays from Sarasvàti Productions!

It’s hard to believe the holiday season is already here and that 2013 is coming to an end! We have had an incredible year and cannot thank our supporters enough for their ongoing support and encouragment. We wish you and your loved ones a fabulous holiday season and hope you find some time to kick back and relax! Please note that our office will be closed Monday, December 23rd – Friday, December 27th. We will return on Monday, December 30th and will be closed again on Wednesday, January 1st, 2014!

If you are STILL searching for the perfect gift for that special someone on your list, consider purchasing tickets to our annual So You Think You Can Act fundraising event on Feburary 19th, 2014. It’s a great evening with thousands of dollars in raffle prizes donated by local businesses and  includes a wine reception! Tickets are $25 and proceeds go towards supporting the transformative theatre work of Sarasvàti Productions.

Can’t make the date? Give the gift that keeps on giving and make a donation in someone’s name in support of our spring production and the Winnipeg premiere of Fefu and Her Friends. Our online fundraising campaign is in full effect. Visit our website for a complete list of benefits and help us get one step closer towards our goal of $5,000! Please keep in mind that charitable donations are eligible for tax credits. That means you get a certain portion of your donation back on your tax return! If you are a first-time donor, you may be eligible for a First-Time Donor’s Super Credit. This was established to encourage charitable donations from first-time donors or those who have not claimed a charitable donation on their taxes in the last five years. It’s a great opportunity for anyone making their first charitable gifts. To learn more about the super credit click here. You may also want to check out this excellent super tax credit calculator which will help you further understand this credit.

 Happy Holidays to all on behalf of the team at Sarasvàti Productions!

SYTYCA Scenes Announced!

Fighting for women’s rights, worst way to get a date, unplanned pregnancies, underpants, and more! We bet we’ve got your attention now. Today, we are pleased to announce the scenes we will be featuring in this year’s So You Think You Can Act fundraising event. Each celebritiy will be paired with an actor to perform one of these contemporary plays. This year’s theme is The Revolution Starts Now and has resulted in a collection of scenes with something for everyone! The scenes feature an array of works by Canadian playwrights including a scene from local playwright Ginny Collins piece Good Intentions which premiered at the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre this fall, and  a piece by Christopher Durang who is known for his outrageous and absurd comedy. Keep reading to find out which scene your favourite celebritity will be featured in!

SYTYCA 2014 Featuring:

Alison Gillmor as DEB in The Girl Who Loved Castro by Colleen Curran
Deb is sipping a Mojito in a small cantina in Havana, Cuba boasting about her admiration for Fidel Castro. What will Maria, the fed-up cantina keeper, do when she’s finally had enough?

Jim Ingebrigtsen as GALBRAITH in The Essay by Hannah Moscovitch
What is history? It’s up for debate as Galbraith and Jeffery, his teaching assistant, argue the merits of a female student’s paper.

Obby Khan as WENDLE in Riot by Andrew Moodie
If you ask Wendle, the first thing he’ll say is “*$@# Quebec”! After all, English is the international language of business. Who needs French?

Eva Kovacs as FRANCIS in The Fighting Days by Wendy Lill
Francis is loud, Francis is proud, and Francis will NOT make a spectacle of herself at the suffrage parade! She believes change is coming, great change, but we must keep fighting!

Kris Laudien as PETER in Good Intentions by Ginny Collins
Peter just isn’t good at asking a beautiful women out on a date. Will he get the girl?

Big Daddy Tazz as SIMON in Kiss The Moon, Kiss The Sun by Norm Foster
You’re what??!! Simon swears this must mean only one thing. He does in fact have lasersperm.

Troy Westwood as LEONARD in Why Torture Is Wrong, And The People Who Love Them by Christopher Durang
Leonard is on a serious mission with his trusty side-kick Hildegarde. He only wishes her panties would stop falling down.

So You Think You Can Act: The Revolution Starts Now will be held on Feburary 19th, 2014 at 7:00pm at the Gas Station Arts Centre (445 River Ave.). There will be thousands of dollars worth of raffle prizes donated by local businesses plus a wine reception afterwards! Tickets are $25 dollars and can be purchased online by clicking here or by calling our office at (204) 586-2236. We hope you will join us for a fantastic evening in support of the transformative theatre work of Sarasvàti Productions!

Local Young Women Take The Stage!

Winnipeg women are certainly making an impact on this year’s theatre season! With the debut of works by Winnipeg’s Group of Seven female playwrights, it is clear that there is no shortage of female talent in this city. Although women continue to be underepresented in Canadian Theatre, Sarasvàti Productions is doing its part to provide opportunities to both emerging and established female artists. Today, we are pleased to announce our cast for this year’s International Women’s Week Cabaret of Monologues which features 10 young Winnipeg women!

This year’s theme is Rise Up! which means that the stories focus on young women, the next generation of subversion, new forms of advocacy, and ways young women tackle adversity. Our theme has provided us with the rare opportunity to cast several up and coming local women, many of whom have worked with Sarasvàti in the past. We are pleased to have these 10 women on board and are looking forward to providing them with the opportunity to continue developing their craft and to be seen throughout the community. Check out the slideshow below to meet our cast!

2014 International Women’s Week Cabaret of Monologues

Samantha Walters in Something’s Not Right by Wren Hookey

Ashley Kowalchuk in Teen Trucker by Sara Arenson

Kaeleigh Ayre in Hide Away by Kendra Jones

Andrea Houssin in Black and White by Cairn Moore

Brittany Thiessen in Who Killed Snow White (Excerpt) by

Judith Thompson

Shanley Spence in #WhiteGirlProblems by Frances Koncan

Shae Burstow in I am not Malala by Hope McIntyre

Victoria Hill in What Being a Girl Means by Hannah Burns

Hailley Rhoda in Reflection by Sarah Simpson-Yellowquill

and

 Ali Tataryn in her own slam poetry piece – The Entanglement: The Nature of a Woman

We will be touring the monologues across Winnipeg and the surrounding areas to different International Women’s Week events from March 3^rd-9^th, 2014 with public shows on March 7th and 8th at the Colin Jackson Studio Theatre (at Prarie Theatre Exchange, 3rd floor Portage Place). For more info on how you can bring the monologues out to your event, tickets, and group rates, please contact us by calling (204) 586-2236 or by e-mail at associate@sarasvati.ca.

Get The Inside Scoop!

What teen playwright will be showcased at this year’s Cabaret of Monologues? Join our mailing list and find out! Worried about our messages flooding your inbox? Don’t be! We know people receive far too many e-mails, so we will only send you our quaterly newsletter with information on what is keeping us busy and a limited number of special news updates leading up to our events. Still not convinced? Keep reading for more reasons why you should join our mailing list and for a special sneak peek at our latest December 1st newsletter sent out earlier this week!

Top 5 Reasons Why YOU Should Join Our Mailing List:

1. It’s easy! Simply click here and provide us with your name and e-mail. That’s it! If you prefer to provide your information over the phone, feel free to call our office at (204) 586-2236 and request to be added to our list. We are happy to help!

2. Be the first to know! All our mailing list subscribers will receive The Pulse, our quaterly newsletter, which includes exciting news about upcoming events and what’s in the works for Sarasvàti Productions.

3. Find out about upcoming talent in Winnipeg! In each newsletter, we feature a Rising Star to watch out for in Winnipeg. Read more about this months Rising Star below in a special sneak peek.

4. We appreciate you! We understand you have many options to choose from when it comes to mailing lists and we greatly appreciate that you’ve chosen ours. Becoming a subsciber will allow us the first of many opportunities to connect with you and thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement.

5. It’s easy and safe to unsubscribe. If you ever decide you don’t want to receive updates from us, simply click the unsubscribe option at the bottom of the e-mail.

Join our mailing list now and stay on the lookout for our next issue of The Pulse to be released on March 1st, 2014! Before you go, be sure to check out the Rising Star section of our recent December 1st newsletter below.

Rising Star

Hannah Burns

We are excited to have Hannah on board as one of our teen writers for this year’s Cabaret of Monologues. Who better to write about young women taking a stand then a young woman herself?

Hannah Burns is a seventeen year old student at St. Mary’s Academy. Last year she took her first year of drama and stumbled upon her passion. Auditioning for a small part in a school play, she enjoyed acting, but really found joy in writing. Her play Schitz won first place in the Scirocco Playwriting competition and since then she has been writing as much as possible.

Click here for the full newsletter!