Written by Marie Beath Badian
Directed by Nina Lee Aquino
Featuring Ericka Leobrera and Anthony Perpuse
A Factory Theatre touring production makes its comeback to Toronto for a limited run!
Love at first sight is total fiction.
Set on the doorsteps of a rustic cabin in north-east Saskatchewan, The Waltz captures one perfect moment when two teenagers, whose histories are serendipitously interwoven, spend one evening with a boom box under the magnificent prairie sky at dusk. Brimming with 90’s nostalgia, The Waltz continues to capture the hearts of audiences as it explores whether we can ever feel truly at home. The smash hit that charmed audiences last year returns to the Factory stage for a limited engagement before embarking on a national tour to Prairie Theatre Exchange and then the Great Canadian Theatre Company.
Masked Performances
The following performances will require all audiences members to be masked while inside the building and for the duration of the performance:
- Saturday September 9 at 2PM
- Wednesday September 13 at 8PM
Content Warning
This play contains teenage alcohol consumption.
About the Playwright
Marie Beath Badian
Marie Beath Badian is an award-winning, Filipino-Canadian writer and playwright based in T’karonto [Toronto, Ontario, Canada].
Her plays Prairie Nurse and The Waltz are part of a multi-generational trilogy spanning fifty-years, set in rural Saskatchewan. The third play, The Cottage Guest, is in development. All three are commissions of The Blyth Festival.
Marie Beath is a two-time alumnus of The Banff Playwrights Lab. Her commissions include Prairie Theatre Exchange, The Blyth Festival, Young People’s Theatre and The Stratford Festival. She developed work in the playwright units of Cahoots Theatre Company, Tarragon Theatre, Soulpepper Playwrights Circle and The Factory Theatre. She was the Playwright-in-Residence at fu-GEN Asian-Canadian Theatre Company, Project:Humanity and The Blyth Festival.
She is the 2022 Recipient of The Playwright Guild of Canada’s Tom Hendry Award for New Drama and a 2023 Honourable Mention for the Herman Voaden Prize for her play Common: A Trilogy. She was co-nominated along with Romeo Candido for a 2022 Canadian Screen Award for Best Writing/Web-series for the CBC Gem Series Topline.
Her work is published by Playwrights’ Canada Press and Scirocco Drama.
About the Director
Nina Lee Aquino
With a string of firsts in Asian Canadian theatre, Nina was the founding Artistic Director of fu-GEN Asian Canadian theatre company, organized the first Asian Canadian theatre conference, edited the first (2-volume) Asian Canadian play anthology, and co-edited the first (award-winning) book on Asian Canadian theatre. She was previously the Artistic Director of Cahoots Theatre and Factory Theatre and is now the Artistic Director of English Theatre at the National Arts Centre. Awards for her work include the Ken McDougall Award, the Canada Council John Hirsch Prize, the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Margo Bindhart and Rita Davies Cultural Leadership Award, the Toronto Theatre Critics Awards for Best Director, and three Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Direction.
Cast
Ericka Leobrera
Ericka Leobrera (any pronouns) is Dora Award-winning, Philippine-born inter-disciplinary artist.
Ericka as an actor, mover, and collaborator has developed new Canadian plays with Factory Theatre, Tarragon, fu-Gen, Theatre Passe Muraille, Nightwood, Theatre Direct, and Roseneath Theatre.
Ericka is a 2020 honours graduate of Humber College’s Theatre Arts – Performance program where they trained in new work creation, devised and physical theatre and received the Distinguished Performer Award and Dean Scholarship.
Selected theatre performance credits: Italian Mime Suicide (dir. Adam Paolozza & Kari Pederson), TomorrowLove (dir. Christopher Stanton), Elektra (dir. Richard Greenblatt), Through the Bamboo (dir. Nina Lee Aquino), Odd Ones Out (dir, Herbie Barnes).
Anthony Perpuse
Hi! I’m Tony, a Dora-nominated Toronto based Filipino-Canadian performer and I’m SO excited and honoured to be revisiting and touring The Waltz. My selected acting credits include Ollie in Storybook Search 2023 (Bad Hats), RJ in The Waltz (Factory Theatre), Emmett in Storybook Search 2022 (Bad Hats), RuDaGold in Orestes (Tarragon), Koyo/Kapre in Through the Bamboo (Fringe), Eli in Eraser (Riser Festival) and Jorge in Theory (Tarragon). Selected film credits include CBC’s Workin Moms and Save Me. My directing credits include An Utterly Stupid Indefensible Thing (Fringe), The Brothers Gentle (Fringe), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Wolf Manor) and Posthumous Friends (inspiraTO). I received training as a Factory Theatre Mechanical, graduated with a BFA from Ryerson Theatre School and received the Perry Schneiderman comedy award. I’m a very nice guy with a big heart and an even bigger smile so don’t be shy to say hello after the show! On Instagram you can find me @tonying.jpg. Thanks so much for coming! 😊
