The Rocky Mountain Special - Digital Programme

Rocky Mount ntain Special BUDDIES IN BAD TIMES THEATRE PRESENTS

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BY TIFFANY THOMAS

BUDDIESINBADTIMES.COM

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is situated on the lands of the HAUDENOSAUNEE, the Anishinaabe, and the Wendat, and the treaty territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit. We acknowledge them and any other Nations who care for the land (acknowledged and unacknowledged, recorded and unrecorded) as the past, present and future caretakers of this land, referred to as Tkaronto (“Where The Trees Meet The Water”; “The Gathering Place”). Buddies is honoured to be a home for queer, trans and 2-Spirit artists on these storied and sacred lands that have been stewarded by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years before the arrival of colonial settlers.

Cover design by Awake Studio Illustration by Mitch Duncan

PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE

If you’re reading this, I’m so glad you’re here.

It’s a generous gift to sit with someone else’s story of transformation in a time when we’re so saturated in information.

This play exists—and I’m here at Buddies performing it—because of people who listened as I sang these songs and told and re-told this story as a way to make sense of my fragmented identity. My travels in Canadian theatre have taught me about transformation, appropriation, community, and the pit-falls of trading identity as capital. As a result, I’m learning how to hold things gently and compost the past to prepare for an abundant and liberated future.

This play is the result of six years of theatrical and self-iteration, reimagined as a haunting and memelike musical memoir. It is written and performed with love, and may contain scenes of coarse language, scathing self-critique, operatically outdated country rock, inaccurate timelines, impossible physics, evolution and forgiveness. I hope that by sharing the truth as I’ve come to understand it, I can help other Canadians understand their urge to run away from our history.

See you in the Rockies, — Tiffany Thomas

CREATIVE + PRODUCTION TEAM

Tiffany Thomas

Anna DaLGLEISH

KATHERINE ARMSTRONG

Tiffany Thomas // playwright, composer, performer, costume designer Anna Dalgleish // production dramaturge, set designer Katherine Armstrong // sound designer Rebecca Vandevelde // production manager Conrad McLaren // technical director Diamond Srey // head technician Antel Kollenberg + Van Ward // crew

The Rocky Mountain Special was first conceived in a residency at The Sunset Theatre in Wells BC, and various iterations of the story and songs appeared as Kohkum & Me at the Calgary Fringe, and later as a concert confessional called Zach (she/her) at Intrepid Theatre and The National Arts Centre. Thank you to The Sunset Theatre, Downstage Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts, The Canada Council for the Arts, Calgary Arts Development and Nozhem Theatre for their support of these past iterations. Today’s show is possible thanks to Buddies’ Seeding Work program.

Thank you to the artists, audiences and friends who’ve held space for and invested in this work.

Tiffany Thomas (she/her) // playwright, composer, performer, costume designer Born in Mohkinstsis (Blackfoot Territory known as Calgary) and descended from settlers with Irish, South East Asian and European roots, Tiffany Thomas is an actress, songstress and anti-burnout advocate who has appeared in theatres and daydreams across so-called Canada, as Satan in the Canadian Badlands Passion Play, Noel Gruber in Ride the Cyclone with the Browncow Collective, Gwendolyn Magnificent in Lunchbox Theatre’s production of Countries Shaped Like Stars, and Martirio in The House of Bernarda Alba with Sage Theatre. Recently she made her TYA debut as Charlotte Bubble in Most Imaginary Worlds with Quest Theatre and Inside Out Theatre, and understudied the roles of Eleanor and Hastings- two sides of a love triangle in Vertigo Theatre’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She’s also a writer with development credits at CBC Drama, Tarragon Theatre and Lunchbox Theatre, and a facilitator, trans woman, encourager, disabled person, and believer in evolution. Her next musical will follow a hilarious and harrowing mass migration of a privileged and polarized people.

Anna Dalgleish (she/her) // production dramaturge, set designer Anna Dalgleish (she/her) is a jack-of-all-trades theatre maker descended from Scottish and German settlers, and based in Mohkinstsis (Calgary).

As an actor, she’s worked with a dozen+ companies on work ranging from iconic ingenues, to multi-character marathons, to drumming in the band.

In her design work, she specializes in big imagination on a small budget.

She’s designed for a heaping handful of indie companies and is thrilled to be making her professional debut with Buddies and The Rocky Mountain Special. This show has made Anna think about her own relationship to lostness & settler-colonialism and rekindled her mischief toward asking hard questions. For the last several years, she’s had the honour of evolving alongside this show, and now that your road has led you to it, she hopes it haunts & heals you too.

Katherine Armstrong (she/her) // sound designer Katherine! (she, her, hers) Look! – she’s swimming in piano silences, imagined constellations, demonic uni-debt she won’t take to the grave, that aside you gave, and the wild hum of spending time with rain. Lately she’s been Fringe-ing with Date Night, echoing in caves with Poor Recollections, burning in Kindling, crying over students’ writing at ATP, literally humming in Wagonstage, Marie Tharp-ing in Formations, video-producing at Quest, filming with Lbs/sq”Performance, animating for Lunchbox, and thespiannn-ing with UCalgary and Bard on Bower. If you dare: swim with her; tell scary stories about soft grieving ghosts, dreams, love, and if you should take estrogen (yes).

BUDDIES IN BAD TIMES THEATRE Artistic Director TED WITZEL Artistic Associate ERUM KHAN Interim Director of Operations KRISTINA LEMIEUX Technical Director CONRAD MCLAREN Production Manager REBECCA VANDEVELDE Communications + Development Manager AIDAN MORISHITA-MIKI Box Office + Front-of-House Manager JULIA WEINLAND Sales + Operations Manager JAKE RAMOS Manager of Touring CHRIS REYNOLDS Youth/Elders Programming Coordinators LEZLIE LEE KAM + USMAN KHAN Facility Manager PAUL THERRIEN Marketing Associate NATASHA RAMONDINO Events + Stewardship Associate CHASE HIEBERT Finance Manager CYNTHIA MURDY

Box Office + Front-of-House Leads CAMILLE MANKUMAH + SEBASTIAN URMOM Box Office + Front-of-House Representatives IFETAYO ALABI, BRAWK HESSEL, MASON MCDONALD, SASKIA MULLER, NETA ROSE, SARAH ROWE, MAIREAD STEWART Bar Personnel RICHARD BELL, CHARLEE BOYES, ANDREW DESABRAIS, VISHMAYAA JEYAMOORTHY, RONNIE LÉGÈRE, DANIEL ROJAS, NETA ROSE

Board of Directors ALEXANDER HUTCHISON, MICHAEL MAN, ANU RADHA VERMA

45 YEARS AND COUNTING...

“I could not support Buddies enough.

It is a home to queer youth and elders, from all walks of artistic practice, that actively participate in a unique culture.

It is a space we desperately need to nurture in Toronto.”

— Thompson Nguyen, monthly donor

Thank you for support queer art by coming out to see The Rocky Mountain Special! At Buddies, we’ve been championing queer art in Toronto and beyond for 45 years, and none of this would be possible without the community of people who support this place. As we celebrate this milestone anniversary, we’re continuing to reflect on how we can best support queer artists and communities in an ever-changing theatre and cultural landscape.

By making a donation today, you will play an instrumental role in bringing boundary-pushing queer arts and community programming to our city and beyond, and ensuring the future of this vital queer space.

Speak to a member of our box office staff, make a monthly or onetime donation online at buddiesinbadtimes.com/support, or get in touch with aidan@buddiesinbadtimes.com for to discuss other donation options.

OUR COMMUNITY OF DONORS LEGACY CIRCLE

ADVOCATES ($500+)

Ed Cabell & Roy Forrester

Cory Boyd

John Alan Lee

Benjamin Erikson

Russell Mathew & Scott Ferguson

Student Fundraising from The Bishop Strachan School

Richard McLellan Adam Morrison & James Owen Jim Robertson & Jim Scott VISIONARIES ($5000+) Aqueduct Foundation Fabio Mascarin Foundation The Estate of George Grant The Estate of Beverly Ann Harris House of Beida The Kingfisher Foundation Pride and Remembrance Foundation Tippet Foundation HEROES ($2500+) Martha LA McCain LEADERS ($1000+) Ed Cabell & Roy Forrester The Estate of Kenneth Dawe Sinead Flood Andrew Gillespie GreenShield Canada Smokestack Digital Paul Hartwick William Hodge & Robert Wylie Stephen McGregor & Tony De Franco Jason Oord Brian Sambourne Peter Taylor Belinda Wildenboer

Charlie & Lulu Franklin Fund at Calgary Foundation Phil Gazaleh Tucker Gordon Alex Hutchison Richard Isaac Montana Kimel David Leeman Richard McLellan Lali Mohamed Michael David Trent PARTNERS ($250+) Mark Aikman & Gustavo Cerquera Benjumea Cole Alvis - in Honour of René Highway D. Arcand & A. Karmali Jean-Paul Bevilacqua Mark Brodsky Redbird Therapy Centre Suzanne Brunelle Lawrence Campbell Daniel Carter Robert G. Coates Russell Connelly Alan Dingle Bryan Eaton Dennis Findlay Robin Gordon Kirsten Hanson Raymond Helkio Allen Hernandez Jaigris Hodson

Kent James

Tucker Gordon

Dr. Ben Louie

Allen Hernandez

Gilles Marchildon

William Hodge & Robert Wylie

Kevin Marques

Jaigris Hodson

Aidan Morishita-Miki

Andrea Houston

Pearse Murray

Tom Keogh & Paul McClure

Owen Pallett

Montana Kimel

Anu Radha Verma

Chanti Zoelene Laliberte

Nik Redman

Dr. Ben Louie

Andrea Ridgley

Jonathan MacArthur

Dave Steinberg

Cameron MacLeod

Richard Sutton

Gilles Marchildon

Lionel Tona

Joseph McLean

Allison Vanek

Stephen McGregor & Tony De Franco

Hersh Zeifman

Richard McLellan Aidan Morishita-Miki

MONTHLY DONORS

Bernadette & Gene Morishita-Miki

Mark Aikman & Gustavo Cerquera Benjumea

Thompson Nguyen

Cole Alvis - in Honour of René Highway

Jason Oord

Michel Beauvais

Rui Pires

Allen Braude

Ingrid Randoja

Mark Brodsky

Nik Redman

Ed Cabell & Roy Forrester

Andrea Ridgley

Herng Yi Cheng

Mitsuko Sada

Russell Connelly

Peter Taylor

David Couture

Lionel Tona

Jennifer Duffy

Ayse Turak

Kent Evans

Allison Vanek

Barbara Fingerote

Anu Radha Verma

Robin Gordon

Arielle Zamora

Listed donations from July 1. 2022 to June 30, 2023

BUDDIES SEASON SPONSORS LEAD CORPORATE SPONSOR

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H ATE D U CAT I IO NHPAR AVT NEE R D O N E IS T A L L T H AT I A M.”

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Photo: Henry Chan

We are pleased to support Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and the artists that are captivating audiences with exciting, innovative, and entertaining productions.

BMO is the 2023/24 Lead Corporate Sponsor.

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