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 LANGUAGE OF ANGELS
by NAOMI IIZUKA
"There was a time, used to hear folks talking about a curse. Talking about hauntings and spirits. They said Celie Gaines was killed in that cave. They said her soul found no fit place to rest, wanders in that darkness still, trying to get some peace. Some folks in these parts are backward kind of folk. They hear the wind in the trees, and they think they hear a girl's voice singing. Some folks say she cursed us all."
Set in rural North Carolina, Language of Angels tells the chilling story of a group of friends bound together by death. On a dark night in 1987, young Celie Gaines is murdered deep within the recesses of a cave. A search party attempts to retrieve her body but the caves are too deep and twisted. From that night on, the ghostly voice of a dead girl mournfully rings out from the caves. Passersby are terrified and, subsequently, stories spread of Celie's vengeful spirit being trapped in the cave. Her former group of friends, nine young companions all linked in various ways, begin to suffer gruesome fates. A hunting accident, a tragic fall off a cliff, a car crash…One by one each of Celie's friends are killed off. Is it purely happenstance or has the young girl's ghost cursed them to suffer for her untimely death? And is one among them her murderer?
A graduate of Yale University, Naomi Iizuka received the prestigious Princeton University Hodder Fellowship and won the PEN Center USA West Award for Drama in 1998 for her play Polaroid Stories. Born in Tokyo and raised in Japan, Holland, Indonesia, and the US, her plays, including Tattoo Girl, Skin, and 36 Views, have been produced in some of the most prestigious theatres around the United States. The Alternate Theatre is delighted and honoured to introduce her work to a Canadian audience.
Hidden beneath the scary, mysterious exterior, Language of Angels is ultimately a touching and deeply heartfelt play. As the surviving friends come to terms with their own mortality, they must also face the truth about their childhood and the regret and guilt their mistakes have caused them. Iizuka's dense, poetic writing and the intricately layered sound design by Mike Wozniewski offer a unique theatre experience. Directed by The Alternate Theatre's artistic director Kareem Fahmy and featuring cinematically influenced video design created by Jill Kasian and Spencer Borland, Language of Angels promises to be a satisfying, terrifying, and mystifying production.
About the Production Team:
| Kareem Fahmy (Director) |
- Graduate of McGill University, Class of 2000
- Directed past Alternate Theatre productions of Suzan-Lori Parks' Venus (Canadian premiere) and his own W/O U I'm Nothing
- Directed Players' Theatre productions of Judith Thompson's Lion in the Streets and Patrick Marber's Closer
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| Mike Wozniewski (Technical Director) |
- Graduate of McGill University with focus in Music Technology
- Served as technical director on past Alternate Theatre productions of Venus and W/O U I'm Nothing
- Has done lighting and sound designs for plays appearing in the Montreal Fringe Festival, at Players' Theatre, and at Tuesday Night Café Theatre
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| Leah Haimowitz (Assistant Director/Stage Manager) |
- Served as Stage Manger for The Alternate Theatre's production of W/O U I'm Nothing
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| Sonja Bodmer-Roy (Lighting Designer) |
- Current president of McGill Players' Theatre
- Previously served as Stage Manager of The Alternate Theatre production of Venus
- Served as lighting designer of the Players' Theatre production of Euripedes' Medea
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| Marie-Claude Mackay (Set Designer) |
- Received diploma in television production in 2002
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| Jill Kasian (Video Designer) |
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| Spencer Borland (Video Designer) |
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| Celina Bailey (Costume Designer) |
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About the Cast: |
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| Christine Boake (Celie) |
- Appearing in her Montreal theatre debut
- Appeared in musical productions such as Into the Woods and Fiddler on the Roof in her native Toronto
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| Andrea Cochrane (Allison) |
- Co-founder of Blushing Virgin Productions
- Wrote and directed the 2002 Montreal and Ottawa Fringe entry GetAway
- Appeared in The Alternate Theatre's production of Venus
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| Danny Coleman (Seth) |
- Studying theatre performance at Concordia University
- Appeared in the ECP Productions film Le Baiser
- Appeared in The Alternate Theatre's production of W/O U I'm Nothing
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| Michael Cound (Michael) |
- Studied acting for three years with John Strassberg
- Appears on the YTV television program Galidor
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| Rachel Horton (Danielle) |
- Appeared in The Alternate Theatre production of Venus
- Appeared in the Players' Theatre production of Lion in the Streets
- Will appear in the upcoming independent film Is This Desire
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| Nick Kovacs (Billy) |
- Appeared in the McGill Department of English's production of Edward Bond's The Sea
- Appeared in the Players' Theatre productions of Lion in the Streets and Closer
- Appeared in Gavin Heffernen's feature length film The Steaks
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| Maggie MacWhirter (Kendra) |
- Appeared in the Players' Theatre productions of Jason Maghanoy's Teresa and Joel Fishbane's fir$t
- Appeared in the Tuesday Night Café production of Joel Fishbane's Rhapsody in Paris
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| Neil Napier (JB) |
- Will appear in the upcoming Richard Grieco horror film Samhain
- Appeared in numerous independent film productions in Montreal
- Appeared in The Alternate Theatre's production of Venus
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