Praise for the show

Show log

Bios

Synopsis

The Company

The Music

Credits

Photos

Listen to Marichka Melnyk from CBC talk about the play (3Mb Mp3)

See the archived page
of the 2003 production of
The Aleatory Project

See the archived page
of the 2005 production of
The Aleatory Project

Thought For Food Logo

The Aleatory Project
an experiment in fate

Thought for Food Productions presents
The Aleatory Project
by Helen Juvonen

"A man. A woman. A hotel room. The rest is left to chance."

Thought for Food presents an experiment in fate, exploring the themes of choice vs. chance and fate vs. free will.
Inspired by concepts developed by the late composer John Cage,
The Aleatory Project is a play with many potential variations.

The play opens with a man and woman trapped together in a hotel room. Are they strangers, lovers or something else? Who they are, what they talk about, how they feel about each other and how they are connected will be determined randomly during each performance by using a coin, a deck of cards and other onstage elements.

No two shows will be the same.

What will these characters learn about each other and how will their hidden connection be resolved? Find out – as the actors do!

The show is also an experiment in live theatre music soundtrack. The real-time reactive score will be performed live using custom software developed by Toronto’s Silvershard Music.

Directed by Tyler Séguin
Starring Helen Juvonen and Alan Lee
Sound design by Andrew Clark

Calgary Fringe Festival
Cabaret The Calgary Opera
Wesley Church
1315 7th S.W.

Fri. August 11, 6 pm
Sun. August 13, 3:30 pm
Mon. August 14, 8 pm
Tue. August 15, 9:30 pm
Wed. August 16, 1:30 pm

Tickets: $10

Fringe hotline: 403-265-3378

Edmonton Fringe Festival
Commercial Solutions Inc. Stage 5
8530- 101 St. (King Edward School)

Sat. August 19, 11:30 pm
Sun. August 20, 7:30 pm
Mon. August 21, 12:15 pm
Wed. August 23, 4:30 pm
Thur. August 24, 8:30pm
Sat. August 26, 3 pm

Tickets: $10 / $8

Fringe Info hotline: 780-448-9000
Ticket hotline: 780-409-1910

For more information, email aleatoryproject@yahoo.ca.

Praise for The Aleatory Project

CBC Radio One, Here and Now, August 2005

Matt Galloway

“Everyone should go to see this play.”

CBC Radio One, Here and Now, July 2003

Marichka Melnyk

“It’s a perfect Fringe play… I found it fascinating. It’s like they say, every play is different, when you have a regular conventional play; well this one really takes that convention an extra step…I recommend that people exercise their free will and go and see it.”

Eye weekly July 2003

Joel McConvey

“it's intriguing to watch them assemble the script as they go…ending up with a different tale every time.”
“…watching them use coin tosses, cards and other random elements…is fascinating… plan to see it twice.”

Now Magazine August 2005

Jon Kaplan

“There’s a cleverness in the random nature of the presentation – with coins tossed and cards drawn to move the action forward, no two shows are alike”

Audience comments Toronto Fringe 2003

“one of [the] more delightful productions I saw”

“cool play”

“a fantastic exercise in playwriting, most worthy of a viewing. The very concept of the production is unique, clever and worth viewing. A bold effort.”

Show Log

Friday August 11th:

Helen played A. Emotion Card: Black
Alan played B. Emotion Card: Black

Cards drawn:
3, King of Clubs, 5, 6, 5, Jack, 2, 4, 2, 8, 8, 4, King

Relationship: Clubs

Ending Card: 5 of Diamonds

Clock: Odd

Coin Toss: Heads

Sunday August 13:

Alan played A. Emotion Card: Black
Helen played B Emotion Card: Black

Cards drawn:
King of Clubs, King of Spades, 9, Queen of Clubs, 4, Jack, 6, 3, 7, 8, 7, Jack, 8, 9, 7, Ace, 4, 4, 2, 9, King of Hearts

Relationship: Diamonds

Ending Card: 7 of Hearts

Clock: Even

Coin Toss: Heads

Monday August 14th:

Alan played A. Emotion Card: Red
Helen played B. Emotion Card: Red

Cards drawn: 3, 2, 2, Jack, King of Hearts, Ace, Jack, 6, 8, Ace, Queen of Spades, 2, 9, 8, 10, 5, 9, 7, Ace, 4

Relationship: Diamonds

Ending Card: 7 of Spades

Clock: Odd

Coin Toss: Tails

Tuesday August 15:

Alan played A. Emotion Card: Red
Helen played B. Emotion Card: Red

Cards drawn:
10, 2, Joker, King of Diamonds, 5, Ace, Ace, 8, Jack, 9, Queen of Clubs, King of Spades, 7, Ace, 3, Queen of Hearts, 6, King of Hearts, 7, King of Clubs

Relationship: Diamonds

Ending Card: 4 of Hearts

Clock: Even

Coin Toss: Tails

Wednesday August 16 (show #1):

Helen played A. Emotion Card: Black
Alan played B. Emotion Card: Black

Cards drawn:
Ace, Jack, 10, 2, King of Diamonds, Queen of Clubs, 8, 7, King of Spades, Ace, 2, 2, Jack, 2, 9, 10, 6, 7, 5, 3, Joker, 7, Queen of Hearts

Relationship: Hearts

Ending Card: 4 of Diamonds

Clock: Even

Coin Toss: Heads

Wednesday August 16 (show #2):

Alan played A. Emotion Card: Red
Helen played B. Emotion Card: Black

Cards drawn:
Joker, 7, Jack, Jack, King of Spades, 8, Ace, King of Diamonds, 9, Queen of Diamonds, 5, 9, 10, 3, 4, Ace, 6, Queen of Clubs, 2, 5, Queen of Spades

Relationship: Spades

Ending Card: 6 of Hearts

Clock: Odd

Coin Toss: Tails

Check back after each performance to find out what happened!

[top]

The Players

Helen Juvonen as A (or B)
Helen is the founder and Artistic Director of Thought For Food Productions. A graduate of the Drama Studies Program at Glendon College, she has been active as an independent producer/director/actor for many years. At the 2004 Toronto Fringe Helen appeared in another of her one-act plays, a little faux pas. Other acting credits include Volpone (Ontario Renaissance Festival), The Mousetrap (Toronto Truck Theatre), Macbeth (Shakespeare in the Square), and Spring Awakening (Ranevsky Repertory Theatre). She has produced and directed several TFF productions including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Agnes of God and The Birthday Party.

Alan Lee as B (or A)
Alan is an actor, singer and songwriter. Most recently as an actor, Alan reprised his roles in Robert Watson’s Desperate Housepets for the Montreal and Toronto Fringe Festivals. Alan also recently reprised the role of Franz in The Secret of Gabi’s Dresser. He will be touring with the production in Spring 2007. Last year Alan appeared in Sara’s Cave at theNew Works Playwright Festival in Brampton. Alan is delighted to be involved with The Aleatory Project and to be working with such a talented company of professionals. He is also excited to be performing in the Calgary and Edmonton Fringe Festivals in beautiful Alberta.

Production Team

Tyler Séguin (director)
Tyler is a writer, an actor and a director. A recent graduate of the University of Toronto’s Erindale College in Theatre and Drama Studies, Tyler is thrilled to be making his first trip west of Ontario a Fringe Adventure. Some recent directing credits include, Heart’s Desire (Erindale Fringe), Molly and Stella (Hart House Drama Festival) and the collective creation i (SOS Theatre). Acting credits include Jack Pinchwife in The Country Wife, Don Armado in Love’s Labours’ Lost, Jesus in Alarum Within (Theatre Erindale), Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in Jekyll and Hyde (Erindale Fringe) and Macduff in Macbeth (The Ontario Renaissance Festival). Tyler has also worked as the choreographer for The Jester’s Music (Stratford Summer Music). After working with Eugenio Barba and Julia Varley at the Odin Teatret in Denmark last summer, Tyler returned to Canada excited by theatre experiments of all kinds. Tyler is also appearing at the Calgary Fringe in his own environmental theatre creation Rearview.

Andrew Clark (sound designer)
Andrew has written music in many genres, including incidental music for previous Thought For Food productions The Memorandum and The Universal Wolf. However, his main interest lies in adaptive music software. He is a leading researcher in the fields of interactive and adaptive music. He has written and published articles on the subjects and has been invited to speak and perform at various conferences and festivals. Andrew was the Adaptive Audio Programmer for Pseudo Interactive Inc.’s recently released “Full Auto” for the XBOX360 (published by SEGA), and is currently working on “Full Auto 2” for the PS3. Andrew has also performed live with his software under the pseudonym pir8-x and under that name he has recorded and released an indie CD entitled Metamorphoses. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Composition from the University of Toronto.

Andrea Winzer (stage manager)
Andrea is pleased to be back in Alberta, where she was born and raised, after a two year hiatus. Andrea completed her high school education at Victoria School of Performing & Visual Arts. Andrea continued her studies in Creative Ensemble at York University in Toronto, where she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree. Selected credits while attending York: Wade’s World (Director), The Master & Margherita (choreographer), Faust (Assistant Director), Prey (playwright), The Ongoing Adventures of Sado, Butch, Narc & Ped (Actor), Jellybeans (stage manager). Andrea’s other credits include Vacancy, a promenade style play about the sixty-nine women who went missing in Vancouver’s lower east side, Thank you and Mad 5/still alive (Toronto Fringe), and the collective creation, The Way (SummerWorks Festival). The Way has since beenperformed at secondary schools around the GTA. Andrea is happy to be back in Alberta and sends her warmest thanks out to her family and friends who have helped to make this trip possible.

[top]

Synopsis

A man. A woman. A hotel room. The rest is left to chance. Are they strangers, lovers or something else? Who they are, what they talk about and how they are connected will be determined randomly during each performance by using a coin, a deck of cards and other onstage elements.

As the characters await their fate, they pass the time playing a “get to know you” card game. One of the pair maintains that “if you talk to anyone ... long enough ... you will find that you are connected to them in some significant way”.

What will these characters learn about each other during the course of their card game, and how will their hidden connection be resolved? Find out... as the actors do!

top]

The Company

Established in 1994, Thought For Food began as a summer project for university and high school students. Twelve years and eleven productions later, the company remains dedicated to showcasing the talents of emerging artists. The Aleatory Project premiered at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2003 and was remounted at the SummerWorks Festival in 2005.

The Cause

Originally just a play on words, in 1997 the company decided to live up to its name. To date the company has collected over 250lbs of food for various Toronto area food banks by offering discounted tickets in exchange for donations.

The Shows

1994   Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Fairview Library Theatre
1995   Agnes of God, Solar Stage
1995   The Birthday Party, Fairview Library Theatre
1997   Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Lab on Britain St.
1999   The Memorandum, The Venue
2001   The Universal Wolf, Alumnae Theatre Studio
2002   The Universal Wolf (remount), Alumnae Theatre Studio
2003   The Aleatory Project, Toronto Fringe Festival
2004   A little faux pas, Toronto Fringe Festival
2005   The Aleatory Project, Summerworks Festival

[top]

The Music

Andrew Clark (Silvershard Music)
Toronto-based Silvershard Music specializes in adaptive music research. Silvershard’s custom CarpeDM “live P.A.” performance software leverages Microsoft technology originally developed for interactive video game music playback. Designed for real-time remix and spontaneous composition performances, the tool has proved remarkably effective for mixing responsive theatre soundtracks live. “This kind of flexibility is proving invaluable in the context of The Aleatory Project’s non-linear script,” says owner and video game industry veteran Andrew Clark.

[top]