Slave Play House Program by Canadian Stage

A Canadian Stage production

SLAVE PLAY

By Jeremy O. Harris

Canadian Stage has four homes spread across our great city. The Bluma Appel and the Berkeley Street Complex bookend the vibrant St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood and run along what was once the shore of Lake Ontario. Our beautiful High Park Amphitheatre is nestled within the grassy mounds and forests of our city’s most beloved park. Our most recent addition, the Winter Garden Theatre, is located right in the bustling downtown core. Canadian Stage is grateful to be able to tell our stories on this bountiful land that we all share.

This sacred land has held story for thousands of years: stories that live in the fabric of who we are as a nation. Canadian Stage would like to acknowledge and thank the original caretakers and knowledge keepers of this territory: the Anishinaabe Nations (including the Mississaugas of the Credit), the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and the Wendat and Métis Nations. We give thanks to the Nations recorded and unrecorded, acknowledged and unacknowledged, who also share the responsibility for this territory. We honour the Dish With One Spoon Treaty and our responsibility to peaceably share and care for the resources that surround us. We are honoured to be in this meeting place called Tkaronto that many First Nations, Inuit and Métis people from across Turtle Island call home.

A Canadian Stage Production

Slave Play

Cast

Rebecca Applebaum

Patricia

Justin Eddy

Dustin

Jeremy O. Harris Playwright

Jordan Laffrenier

Director

Gillian Gallow* Set Design

Rachel Forbes*

Costume Design

Daniel Bennett Lighting Design

Josh Vlodarchyk Head Technician, Stage

Ben Junor

House Technician, Audio

Karen Elizabeth Head Technician, Lighting

Marshall Kidd Associate Technical Director

Sébastien Heins

Phillip

Beck Lloyd Teá

Creative

Kwaku Okyere

Gary

Gord Rand Jim

Thomas

Ryder Payne Sound Design

Anisa Tejpar Intimacy Director & Movement Director

Kevin Wong Violin Coach

Anita Nittoly Fight Director

Jennifer Toohey Dialect Coach

Marinda de Beer Rehearsal

Support Facilitator

Natasha Powell Choreographer

Crew

Kendalin Bishop Assistant Technical Director

Mary Spyrakis Head of Props Chynah Philadelphia Props Assistant

Alysson Burnabe Scenic Painter

Quỳnh Diep Metcalf Foundation Intern

Janet Pym Head of Wardrobe

Simone Gibson Head Dresser

Anahita Loghmanifar Wigs Attendant

Amy Rutherford Alana

Sophia Walker Kaneisha

120 minutes plus a 10 minute intermission

Neha Ross Stage Manager

Tamara Protic Assistant Stage Manager

Davis Shewchuk Apprentice Stage Manager

Geoff Hughes Cutter

Sharon Ryman Production Wig Supervisor

Stefan Dean Bespoke Tailor

Laura Delchiaro Madeline Ius

Daniela Aguilar Villasenor Stitchers

We believe that when people participate in their community, good things can happen.

TD is proud to support Canadian Stage.

As part of our goal to help people feel a sense of belonging in their communities, TD supports arts and culture events, initiatives, and organizations across North America that amplify diverse voices.

Learn more at td.com/artsandculture

Additional Credits

Original Broadway Production Produced by: Seaview Productions, Troy Carter,

Level Forward, Nine Stories Sing Out Louise! Cohen Hopkins Productions Thomas Laub

Blair Russell Salmira Katler Productions WEB Productions OHenry Productions

Jeremy O. Harris Mark Shacket, Executive Producer and New York Theater Workshop

Slave Play received its world premiere at the New York Theatre Workshop on December 9, 2018, Jim Nicola, Artistic Director, Jeremy Blocker, Managing Director

Music Credits

PONY

WORK

All rights on behalf of itself and JA Publishing Group Inc administered by WC Music Corp.

All rights on behalf of Monica Fenty Music Publishing administered by Warner-Tamerlane Publishing Corp.

Multi-Love

Written by Ruban Neilson

Used with permssion of Third Side Music Inc

THE VIDEOTAPING OR MAKING OF ELECTRONIC OR OTHER AUDIO AND/OR VISUAL RECORDINGS OF THIS PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTING RECORDINGS OR STREAMS IN ANY MEDIUM, INCLUDING THE INTERNET, IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED, A VIOLATION OF THE AUTHOR(S)’S RIGHTS AND ACTIONABLE UNDER UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT LAW. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT: concordtheatricals.com/resources/protecting-artists

Slave Play was developed during a residency at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Playwrights Conference in 2018 Preston Whiteway, Executive Director, Wendy C. Goldberg, Artistic Director

A Note On Your Discomfort

“One could make a case for mutual lust and jealousy as the basis for racial conflict in America.”

— Price M. Cobbs and William H. Grier, Black Rage

This might hurt. This could prod open regrets and secrets and what you find could be shock. But there’s nothing in Slave Play that part of you doesn’t already know. The setting: a plantation. Time: irrelevant. Lights up on a Black woman working. Before I saw it, all anyone would “give away” was that Slave Play would resonate with me — as a Black woman and particularly as someone who’s tried to post-coitally tell a white lover that when we have sex, there’s a blip wherein I suddenly inhabit an ancestor’s body, and he the body of a pale, pilfering master. Whitness was difficult for my lover to hear about and mid-thrust ancestral abduction perhaps incomprehensible, but it got said. Pain can be useful once it’s off our chests, even funny. This aching humor is a Black necessity and art form Slave Play deftly exercises and exploits. There’s a gun in the first act — it’s a big black dildo. The cock of the gun is a long Black memory. Illuminating, uncomfortable, but plain as lust. Totally varied in our levels of comprehending the general materiality of Black America, my audience laughed, gasped, and one June Jordan said: “We’re saying aggression but really dealing with power.”

Morgan Parker (American Poet, Author of Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up at Night)

SLAVE PLAY

(A ZINE)

If you’d like to explore more about Slave Play, please pick up our Zine in the front lobby or scan the QR code below.

Championing

and Mail is proud to support Canadian Stage

Rebecca Applebaum − Patricia Hot Cuts, Family Story, The Physical Ramifications of Attempted Global Domination, Dead Wrestlers, 36 Plays About Hopeless Girls (Birdtown & Swanville). Film/TV: “Paying For It” (TIFF ’24), “Ginny & Georgia” (Netflix), “Station Eleven” (HBO Max), “Essex County” (CBC), “Coroner” (CBC), “Odd Squad” (TVO/PBS), “The Expanse” (Syfy). Directing: The Gift (CFF), “Want” (Clio Health Bronze), Spooning (CBC). Big thank you to Alastair.

Justin Eddy − Dustin

Salesman in China, Wendy and Peter Pan, Richard II, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Grand Magic (The Stratford Festival); Anne of Green Gables the Musical, Tell Tale Harbour (The Charlottetown Festival). Justin is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada. www.justineddy.ca. @jstneddy

Sébastien Heins − Phillip

Canadian Stage: Topdog/Underdog. Other theatre: The 39 Steps (Guild); Measure for Measure (House&Body/Crow’s); Sweeter (Cahoot’s);

No Save Points (OtM); Wedding at Aulis (Soulpepper); Bang Bang (RMTC); The Tempest, School for Scandal (Stratford). Film/TV: “Law & Order Toronto” (CityTV), “Ghosts of Christmas Past” (Lifetime), “Steal My Fries” (McDonalds). Dedicated to his family (Dasha, John, and Shella), and the memories of Michael Blake and Joe Ziegler.

Beck Lloyd − Teá

Canadian Stage: Hamlet. Other theatre: Grand Magic, A Wrinkle in Time, Richard III, The Miser, R + J (Stratford); Much Ado About Nothing (St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival); Pride & Prejudice, Controlled Damage (London Grand); Measure for Measure (HOUSE + BODY/ Crow’s).

Kwaku Okyere − Gary

Canadian Stage: Bobby in Choir Boy. Kwaku directed The Tempest: A Witch in Algiers (Shakespeare in the Ruff) by Makram Ayache, which won the Dora Award for Outstanding New Play in the Indie category last season. Although just at the beginning of his directing career, Kwaku was also nominated for the 2024 Pauline McGibbon Award.

Gord Rand − Jim

Canadian Stage: Vinci, The Test. Other theatre: Heartbreak House, The Cherry Orchard, The Philanderer, Playboy of the Western World (Shaw Festival); Oedipus Rex (Stratford); Hamlet (Necessary Angel); Wide Awake Hearts (Tarragon). Film/TV: Dr. Novak in “Transplant” (NBC), “Small Achievable Goals”, “Frankenstein”, “Peak Everything”, “The Big Oil Alliance”, “Chapelwaite”, “Orphan Black”, “Last County”, “Combat Hospital”, “Cardinal”, “Pure”, “The Handmaid’s Tale”. Gord wrote the plays Pond Life and The Trouble with Mr. Adams. His novel “All You Can Eat” will be published this spring. globeandmail.com/arts

Amy Rutherford − Alana

Canadian Stage: As You Like It, Public Enemy, The Public Servant, Our Class. Other theatre: What the Constitution Means to Me, A Streetcar Named Desire (Soulpepper Theatre); Fifteen Dogs (Segal Centre); An Undeveloped Sound (Electric Company Theatre); Infinity (Tarragon). Film/ TV: “Kim’s Convenience” (CBC); “Murdoch Mysteries” (CBC); “Remedy” (Global). Amy is also a playwright. Her next play, Reproduktion, will premiere at Stratford’s Here For Now Theatre in November.

By Lynn Nottage

Sophia Walker − Kaneisha

Canadian Stage: Fairview. Other theatre: The House That Will Not Stand, Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Human Heart (Shaw); Flex (Obsidian/Crow’s – Dora Award); Casey and Diana, Lady Gertrude in An Ideal Husband, Calpurnia in To Kill a Mockingbird, Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Sybil in Private Lives (Stratford); Our Place (Cahoots); The Bridge (2b/Neptune); Blood Wedding, Jitters, The Heidi Chronicles (Soulpepper); Mary in Mary’s Wedding (Blyth Festival); Ruined (Obsidian Theatre). Film/TV: “Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent,” “Mayday,” “Unicorn Academy,” “The Marsh King’s Daughter,” “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” “Mayor of Kingstown,” “Y: The Last Man,” “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Next up: Eureka Day (Coal Mine Theatre 2026).

Creative

Jeremy O. Harris − Playwright

Jeremy O. Harris is the playwright and creator of the most Tony-nominated Broadway play ever, Slave Play (Golden Theatre - Broadway, New York Theatre Workshop, NYT Critics Pick, Winner of the 2018 Kennedy Center Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, and The Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences). His play Daddy opened to great acclaim at the Almeida Theatre in London in March 2022, marking the UK debut of the play. For film, Jeremy co-wrote A24’s critically-acclaimed indie feature “Zola” alongside director Janicza Bravo, which won two 2022 Independent Spirit Awards. Jeremy has an overall deal with HBO, and his television credits include their hit series “Euphoria” and upcoming TV adaptation of “Irma Vep”. He is also currently co-creating and will co-showrun an adaptation of Brit Bennett’s best-selling novel, “The Vanishing Half”, with Aziza Barnes at HBO. As an actor, Jeremy recently appeared on HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl” reimagining and in season two of Netflix’s “Emily in Paris”. He was named “The Queer Black Savior the Theatre World Needs” by Out Magazine, is a Human Rights Campaign’s 2020 honoree, was included on both THR’s 50 Most Powerful LGBTQ Players in Hollywood and TIME Magazine’s 2019 100 NEXT lists. As a playwright, he is the 11th recipient of the Vineyard Theatre’s Paula Vogel Playwrighting Award, a 2016 MacDowell Colony Fellow, an Orchard Project Greenhouse artist, a resident playwright with Colt Coeur, and is under commission from Lincoln Center Theater and The Public Theater. His full-length plays also include: Xander Xyst, Dragon: 1; and WATER SPORTS; or insignificant white boys. His work has been presented or developed by Pieter Performance Space, JACK, Ars Nova, The New Group, New York Theatre Workshop, and Performance Space New York. He is a graduate of the Yale MFA Playwriting Program.

HERMANUS

Jordan Laffrenier − Director

Jordan Laffrenier, the Associate Artistic Director of Canadian Stage, is an award-winning director and dramaturg. Jordan has held many theatre development roles in New York City, Los Angeles and Toronto, including Amélie on Broadway, Paradise Square and as co-dramaturg of Cahoot’s Theatre Company’s flagship HotHouse Program. Recent directing credits include The Sound of Soul (Drayton), Ride the Cyclone (CCPA) and American Son (Drayton). Jordan is also the founder of First Drafts, a new work development program for writers and students to develop and advance new musicals at Sheridan College, since its founding 18 new musicals have been developed through this program.

Gillian Gallow − Set Design

Canadian Stage: Yukonstyle (set and costume design). Other theatre: Mahabharata (costumes, Why Not Theatre); Hadrian, Louis Riel (costumes, COC); Major Barbara, An Octoroon, Shadow of a Doubt,

The Russian Play (set/costumes, Shaw Festival). Gillian is the 2021 Siminovitch Prize Laureate.

Rachel Forbes − Costume Design

Canadian Stage: Topdog Underdog, Choir Boy, Fairview, New Monuments (Production design). Other theatre: Little Shop of Horrors, Controlled Damage, The Bridge (Neptune); Treemonisha (Volcano); Of the Sea (Tapestry/Obsidian); Da Kink in My Hair, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Brothers Size (Soulpepper).

Daniel Bennett − Lighting Design

Lighting Design credits include: Cabaret, Seed of Self, Juno’s Reward, Beethoven Lives Upstairs (Grand Theatre); Festival Lighting Designer (Paprika Festival). Daniel is currently the Director of Production at Canadian Stage. When not in a theatre, he can be found on a spin bike.

Thomas Ryder Payne − Sound Design

Canadian Stage: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Other People, Is God Is (Dora Award), Chimerica, Harper Reagan. Other theatre: Designs for Stratford, Shaw, Mirvish, Soulpepper, Tarragon, Factory, TPM, YPT, Crows and many others.

Anisa Tejpar − Intimacy Director & Movement Director

A Streetcar Named Desire, Emma Bovary, and Anna Karenina (National Ballet of Canada); Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Ex Machina/Côté Danse); Earworm (Crow’s Theatre); Heart Drive (Ballet BC). Film/TV: “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” and “Section 31” (Paramount+), “Terminal List: Dark Wolf” (Prime), “Darkest Miriam” (Game Theory Films), “Modern Whore” (Clique Pictures), “Orphan Black: Echoes” (AMC). Anisa teaches Consent + Boundaries for Dancers at Toronto Metropolitan University and is Associate Producer at Côté Danse.

Kevin Wong − Violin Coach

In Real Life (Musical Stage Company); Believers and Turn the Page (Sheridan College); Polly Peel and Drama 101 (Toronto Fringe Festival); Recurring John (SummerWorks). Film/TV: “Before They Were ‘Them’” (Brown Stub Productions). Kevin’s musical Soft Magical Tofu Boy(s) is being presented at the NAMT Festival of New Musicals in October 2025 in NYC.

Anita Nittoly − Fight Director

Canadian Stage: Fairview, Hamlet, Fat Ham, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fall on Your Knees. Other theatre: Stratford 2024/25 seasons; Bad Roads, The Bidding War, Prodigal (Crow’s); Powers and Gloria (Blyth); Roberto Zucco, Angels in America (Buddies); The Retreat (Imago); Truth (YPT); Wildwoman (Soulpepper). Film/TV: “Law & Order Toronto”, “SEE”, “Star Trek: Discovery”, “Pretty Hard Cases”, “Titans”, “The Boys”, “Rabbit Hole”, “What We Do in the Shadows”, “The Handmaid’s Tale”. If I Should Stumble (performed @ Skampede Festival, Victoria BC 2025).

Jennifer Toohey − Dialect Coach Blithe Spirit, The Apple Cart, Shadow of a Doubt, The Doctor’s Dilemma, Gem of the Ocean, Just to Get Married, The Russian Play, Man and Superman, Sex and Victory (Shaw Festival), Is God Is (Obsidian). Jennifer is an associate professor of theater at Buffalo State University.

Marinda de Beer − Rehearsal Support Facilitator

Marinda started her stage management career 30 years ago with Canadian Stage. After over two decades working as a theatre artist, she is now a registered psychotherapist specializing in the arts as well as trauma informed therapy and end of life support for the general public. It is always an honour and a privilege to be invited into a rehearsal process with brilliant artists. www.marindadebeer.com

Natasha Powell − Choreographer

Canadian Stage: Fall On Your Knees, Choir Boy. Other theatre: Come Home: The Legend of Daddy Hall (Tarragon); Margarita and FLOOR’D (Holla Jazz). Film/TV: “The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel” (Lifetime). Natasha is currently creating a new dance work for Holla Jazz premiering in April 2026.

Neha Ross − Stage Manager

Canadian Stage: Playing Shylock. Other theatre: Mahabharata, Prince Hamlet, ICELAND, We Are Proud (Why Not); Bad Parent, Kim’s Convenience, Animal Farm (Soulpepper); Other Side of the Game (Obsidian/Cahoots); Wrong Bashir, How to Travel Blind (Crow).

Tamara Protic − Assistant Stage Manager

Canadian Stage: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Other theatre: Waitress, The Ballad of Stompin’ Tom (Capitol Theatre); Trident Moon (Crow’s/ NAC); De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail, WILDWOMAN (Soulpepper Theatre); Mahabharata (ASM) (Why Not Theatre/Shaw Festival); Alice in Wonderland, Peter. Tamara was born in Zrenjanin, Serbia and immigrated to Scarborough with her family in 1995.

Davis Shewchuk − Apprentice Stage Manager

Off the Beaten Path, The Spark of Justice (OBPMusical); Seanchaí (Rua Theatre); The Little Prince (Pacific Opera Victoria); A Streetcar Named Desire, The Mountaintop, Made in Italy (Citadel). When not travelling, they are happy to call Edmonton home. Thanks to all the friends and family back in Alberta!

Praneet Akilla, Julia Pulo. Photo: Lorne Bridgman

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The William and Nona Heaslip Foundation Dream in High Park Lead Sponsor

David W. Binet

Production Underwriters & Sponsors

Elaine Kierans & Shawn McReynolds

Paul Maranger & Robert Brown

Alan Rowe & Bryan Blenkin

Foundation and Corporate Supporters

Marion Armstrong Charitable Foundation

The Paul Butler and Chris Black Foundation at Toronto Foundation

Foundation

Trina McQueen, O.C.

The Westaway Charitable Foundation

Programmatic Support Lead Donors

Ian & Kiki Delaney BraveWorks Founding Donors

Alexandra Baillie

EmpowHer Founding Donors

Catherine Graham & Katy Graham Debost

Janet L’Heureux

& Community Outreach Lead Donor

Ed & Fran Clark Future Forward Fund Lead Donor Marilyn & Charles Baillie Family Foundation

Artists Support

Mascarin Foundation New Work Development Lead Donor

Support City Builders Principal Member

Sponsor Hotel Sponsor

Premiere Executive Pass Partners

The Joan and Clifford Hatch

Kingfisher

Henry White Kinnear Foundation FOUNDATION

Canadian Stage

Board of Directors

Hugh Clark Chair Adam Burke Treasurer Huw Evans Secretary

Sara Angel

Alexandra Baillie

Navin Bhat

David Bronskill

Councillor Paula Fletcher

Colin Hennigar

Nina Josefowitz

Management

Brendan Healy

Artistic Director

Monica Esteves

Executive Director

Daniel Bennett

Director of Production and Facilities

Heather McMartin

Director of Development and Campaigns

Beth Toombs

Director of Finance and Administration

Artistic

Lynanne Sparrow

Producer

Jordan Laffrenier

Associate Artistic Director

Laurie Merredew

Assistant Producer

Manuel Chaves

Manager of Education and Community Engagement

Finance & Administration

Sunitha Rai Manager, Payroll

Administration and HR Support

Kari Seppen

Intermediate Accountant

Brian Parsons

Senior Manager, IT Services

Ruth-Anne Yiu

Executive Assistant and Board Liaison

Elaine Kierans

Frances Mahil

Fabio Mascarin

Trina McQueen

Vafa Mirzaagha

Qasim Mohammad

John Montesano

Development

Lorraine Patterson

Associate Director, Corporate Giving and Partnerships

Chris Faulkner

Senior Manager, Government Relations and Foundations

Luisa Kurtz

Senior Manager, Individual Giving

Gillian Hoff Manager of Special Events

Marketing and Communications

Shannon Tigert

Senior Marketing Manager, Loyalty & Growth

Madison Zinger

Senior Marketing Manager, New Audiences

Derek Ma

Graphic and Digital Manager

Vaishnavi Panwar

Marketing Coordinator

Michael Crumpton

Senior Sales Specialist

Kledia Verria

Group Sales Manager

Audience Services

Conor Copeland

Ticketing and Audience

Services Manager

Faisal Butt

Assistant Ticketing Manager

Daniel Sinniah

James Spearing

Julie Sutherland

Maple Tam Vandana Taxali

Abbas Abbas

Peter Genoway

Elyssia Giancola

Mima Higashi

Alex Jackson

Mackenzie Kerr

Colette Mbariko

Seamus Murphy

Sydnie Phillips

Henrique Santsper

Sienna Singh

Mya Wong

Audience Services Staff

Production

Brayden Crawford

Technical Director

Meg Woods

Production & Site Manager

Matthew Hadley

Building Operations Manager

Marshall Kidd

Associate Technical Director

Kendalin Bishop

Assistant Technical Director

Ian Kowalski

Production Coordinator

Mary Spyrakis

Head of Properties

Janet Pym

Head of Wardrobe

Chynah Philadelphia

Properties Assistant

Josh Vlodarchyk Head Technician

Karen Elizabeth Head Technician

Ben Junor

House Technician

Quynh Diep

Metcalf Foundation

Wardrobe and Props Apprentice

Great performances live here.

At BMO, we take pride in our local communities, and the ar tists that contribute to the cultural diversity and creative richness of our cities.

We are proud to be Canadian Stage’s 2025/2026 Season Sponsor and Access Partner.

Fall On Your Knees (2024).

Photo by Dahlia Katz

By Lynn Nottage