With a cast of characters that includes a near-autistic professor, lecherous Fruitcakes, a socialite who sent her late husband's sperm into outer space, and acting students who've just seen a play about "death and stuff," York University sociologist Katherine Bischoping's The Demise of Ordinary Objects investigates the grey areas between animate subjects and inanimate objects.

 
The first scene inquires how we interact with and give meaning to discarded objects. The second scene imagines how diverse attitudes toward imminent death would sound from the mouths of Christmas treats on December 24. The third observes how the bereaved express beliefs about corpses (the newly inanimate) as both objects and subjects, while the fourth witnesses casual conversations about mortality. Between the scenes, the audience is invited to acknowledge how they objectify and consume the performing body. 
 
Implementing, in turn, the performance modes of mime, puppetry, realism, and voice, the ensemble cast explores sociological thought with theatrical imagination.

The Demise of Ordinary Objects

Written by Katherine Bischoping
Directed by Dahlia Katz
Assistant Director, Susan Stover
Set, Costume and Puppet Design by Smantha Brown
Music and Sound Design by Graham Porter
Ligthing Design by Risha Yorke

April 2 - 13, 2008
HUB14 Studio Theatre, 14 Markham Street
Toronto, Canada

The Cast

Amanda Lynne Ballard

A Toronto based event planner, festival organizer, and theatre producer, Amanda Lynne has worked across the country in the arts and entertainment industry.  Making her Toronto theatre producing debut with the WriteNOW! Festival of New Works, Amanda Lynne moved on to a position with Seventh Stage Productions as an Associate Producer for the Canadian Professional premier of Anthony Minghella's Whale Music at the Tarragon Theatre.  In the summer of 2007 she travelled to Edmonton where she worked as the Artist Liaison and Assistant to the Director of Programming for the 2007 Live and Let Fringe Edmonton Fringe Festival.  While in Edmonton she was fortunate enough to be a guest on Die-Nasty! The Live Improvised Soap Opera, Oh Susanna!, and she also served as a guest panelist for Metro TV, a monthly emerging film artist event.  A trained actor from University of Guelph, Amanda also dabbles in dance, writing, and all forms of performance based art.

Paula Schultz

Paula is a graduate of Queen's University where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and English and a Bachelor of Education in the Artist in Community focus track. She has received additional training at LAMDA, Equity Showcase Theatre and Soulpepper. Recent credits include Carol in Oleanna for Springboard Productions, the title role in Candida for Theatre Kingston and Margaret in Much Ado About Nothing for Brampton SITS.  Her first play, Eclipsed, will get a workshop and staged reading through Theatre Best/Before in May 2008.  Upcoming: Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing for Dream North (www.dreamnorth.ca).

Michael Scott

Michael Scott is an actor and writer living and working in the Toronto aria.  This is Michael's second show with draft89, and he is thrilled to be back with the company.  His recent credits include Templeton the Rat in Charlottes Web (Touring Players Theatre), Lawyer in FOE (draft89), Jack in Defenders of Gravity (Playwrights of Spring), Wizard series regular in CowboyandSamurai.com (30th Floor Productions), and the Writer Performer of the video series A Modest Proposal (Produced in collaboration with Tim Gilbert).If you are so inclined, visit Michael online at www.myspace.com/wdtheknowsuch . There you will be able to watch his videos, listen to his rap songs, and keep apprised of his movements through your world.

Devin Upham

Devin is a Nova Scotia native that moved to Toronto to pursue a career/dream in acting. He is a graduate of the Second City Conservatory Program and the Masters in Drama Program at UofT; consequently, he is able to straddle the void between the serious and the frivolous with ease. His career has involved training in improve, stage combat, clown, firearms, and physical theatre. He has performed on various stages across half of the country, and has worked on film and television in at least two countries. Most recently, Devin appeared in the short films: Crush, The Howlers Come, and Astro-Nots. On stage, Devin has performed as part of (and a founding member of) the sketch comedy sensation Not Without My Arm and is preparing to do performances with the burlesque troop The Cinnamon Hearts in late April. Join their group on facebook.