THE BIRDS

written & Directed
by EMILY DIX

Inspired by the Daphne DuMaurier short story and
Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name.

November 25 - December 10, 2022

Hart House Theatre | 7 Hart House Circle, Toronto

STARRING
Anna Douglas as Daphne Daniels

Alex Clay as David Harper

Oliver Georgiou as Mitch Brenner

Kiera Publicover as Annie Hawthorne

Chad Allen as Hank

PRODUCTION

Set and Lighting Design by Wes Babcock

Sound, Prop and Costume Design by Emily Dix

Fight Direction by Matt Richardson

Assistant Directed by Julia Edda Pape

Stage Managed by Kate McArthur

Assistant Stage Managed by Jane Aster Roe

Production Assistance by Sarah Allen, Kiana Josette and Ainsley Munro

PRODUCED BY

Conor Fitzgerald and Emily Dix

Associate Producer Jane Aster Roe

VENUE SPONSOR

DIGITAL PROGRAM

Script workshopped and edited with the help of the following artists: Anna Douglas, Alex Clay, Oliver Georgiou, Kiera Publicover, Chad Allen, Julia Edda Pape, Kate McArthur and Jane Aster Roe.

DOWNLOAD PRESS RELEASE

ABOUT

The Birds is a Cold-War Era thriller that examines what happens when the line between truth and paranoia becomes dangerously blurred. New York Socialite Daphne Daniels is headed to an old family cottage with her brother and husband for a weekend of R&R, but when her husband is unexpectedly delayed and their neighbours turn out to be Daphne’s old flame and his new girl, tensions run high. Things take a bizarre turn when reports of violent bird attacks start flooding the airwaves and the sudden crisis brings out everyone’s deepest fears and darkest convictions.

"the feminist and Queer sympathies pointed out the absurdity of Cold War, "he-man" posturings, while the birds's disaffection represented similar "treason" against the human-animal hierarchy...this play is a harbinger of fine talents"
- George Elliott Clarke, Literary Critic, Playwright and Poet Laureate

"an immersive spectacle...nuanced and innovative...a suspenseful, perfectly realized period atmosphere telling a new story in which the birds are both ever-present yet entirely incidental."
- Istvan Dugalin Reviews

"masterful homage to a highly specific filmic tradition and massaging complex performances from a formidable cast."
- Aisling Murphy, Intermission Magazine

"a remarkably effective exercise in style...The pacing, the suspense, the growing sense of danger, the last-minute twists, are all in place."
- Patrick Young

CAST & CREW

Anna Douglas - Bygone Theatre | The Birds

Anna Douglas - DAPHNE

Film, television, and stage actor Anna Douglas was born in Toronto, raised in Nashville, schooled in Indiana (BFA from U. of Evansville), then finally returned to her hometown from a stint in Los Angeles almost 10 years ago. She is best known for her role in FX’s hit series Mrs. America playing LGBTQ activist Jean O'Leary. Her award-winning performance as Lucy Van Pelt in Ted Lasso-star Brendan Hunt’s LA and NYC hit play, Absolutely Filthy, is another highlight of a 27-year career that includes appearances on Working Moms, Saving Hope, and Ransom, and stage credits at the Soho Playhouse (NYC), South Coast Repertory (CA), and The Kennedy Center (DC). She is thrilled to return to the stage for the first time since the pandemic began, and extends her profound thanks to Bygone Theatre for the opportunity.

Alex Clay - DAVID

Alex is a stage and screen actor from Dundas, ON. He graduated from the University of Guelph with a B.A in History and Theatre and an M.A in History. He then received his B.Ed. from UofT, but chose to buckle down into a safe and sensible career as an actor. Alex co-founded the Toronto-centric theatre company, The Theatre Circuit and their inaugural season consisted of The Inch of Your Life Trilogy in which Alex portrayed the character of Luke Richmond. Some of Alex’s other recent theatre credits include Owen in Girl in the Machine (Seven Siblings Theatre), Clayton Perry/Mike in The Cenotaph Project (Theatre by the Bay), Victor in Private Lives (Pure Carbon Theatre), Markus in Some of us Pretend (Bricks n’ Sticks productions), Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (Paper-Knife Theatre), Richard Loeb in Dialogues of Leopold & Loeb (Labyrinthus Mundi Productions), and Pat Lor/the Demon in Interview with a Demon (B. Smart Productions). Alex is incredibly excited to be back on stage, and with Bygone Theatre no less! With Bygone, he previously played McCue in His Girl Friday and Charles Thomas in The Rear Window. Alex would like to extend his thanks to Bygone Theatre for this opportunity to play on the historic Hart House stage.

Oliver Georgiou - Bygone Theatre | The Birds

Oliver Georgiou - MITCH

Oliver Georgiou is an actor, comedian, and clown. He was recently featured as a festival headliner at Detroit Improv Festival while simultaneously filming the lead role in the 1950s horror-comedy homage Vampire Zombies... From Space! across the border. He is the producer and host of Dodo Dome at Sweet Action Theatre where he runs weekly workshops for actors and clowns to stay in practice.

Oliver absolutely loves devised theatre. His first attempt was the critically-acclaimed Me With You at Toronto Fringe 2015. He then produced SODA Theatre and SODA Underground in 2017, each with a subsequently riskier approach to devising a quality improvised play. Oliver is a Second City House Co. alum and was a series regular on Caverns & Comedians which won Outstanding Gaming Series in the 2018 Canadian Podcast Awards. He is ecstatic to be back in a theatre space with such a fantastic company, cast, and script.

Kiera Publicover - Bygone Theatre | The Birds

Kiera Publicover - ANNIE

Kiera Publicover (she/they) is a Queer multidisciplinary artist, theatre creator and actor. Originally from Toronto, Kiera is a recent graduate of the University of Windsor’s Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting program. In 2018, Kiera co-founded Arrowwood Theatre Company which she has been co-Artistic Director of since. Kiera’s creative interests live in exploring themes of family, femininity and the ways in which society performs gender. Her work revolves around experimentation with alternative forms of theatre creation, such as physical devising, collective creation, verbatim theatre and more.

Previous: Agnes at the Weston: Then & Now Festival (Shakespeare in Action/Arrowwood Theatre Co.), herself in Contactless (Soulpepper/Arrowwood Theatre Co.), herself in Canada's Next Chopped Model Minority (2021 Paprika Festival), #8 in The Wolves (University Players), and more. Currently, Kiera is the Playwright in Residence at House+Body Theatre, working on an original theatre piece, Talking to Dead Cats in the Night, generously funded by the Canada Arts Council.

Chad Allen - HANK

Chad Allen is thrilled to be working with Bygone Theatre again in their production of The Birds. Since last appearing on stage at The Newmarket 10-minute Play festival, Chad created Bistro Boys Productions with whom he wrote and acted in two award winning short films, The Blind Date and The Procedure. He has also appeared in popular tv shows The Boys and What We Do in The Shadows as well as The Expanse with David Strathairn. Chad lives in Toronto where he continues to help tell thought provoking stories that inspire and entertain be it in film or on stage, acting, writing, directing or teaching. Chad can be found on Instagram or Twitter under ChadAllenCreating or at his website http://chadallencreating.com.

Emily Dix - WRITER, DIRECTOR, DESIGNER

Emily is thrilled to be back in the theatre for Bygone’s 10th season. She founded Bygone Theatre in late 2012 and has been running it as Artistic Executive Director ever since, directing 7 of their plays to date and producing, designing and stage managing many more. Her last production with Bygone was The Rear Window, back in the pre-pandemic days, a show which garnered 11 Broadway World Toronto Award nominations, including for her work as producer, costume designer and director. She has worked as a theatre freelancer in Toronto for more than a decade, and has worked as producer with companies like Tarragon Theatre, Crow’s Theatre, and on many Finn & Friends (Thomas Finn) productions. During the day she works as a researcher for a Cineflix true crime doc, while her evenings are filled prepping for Bygone’s next productions; The Yellow Wallpaper in March, 2023 at Campbell House Museum, and Wayne & Shuster at Hart House, May 2023. Learn more at emilydix.com.

Conor Fitzgerald - Bygone Theatre | The Birds

Conor Fitzgerald - PRODUCER

Conor Fitzgerald is happy to once again produce for Bygone Theatre. Holding a law degree and an MBA with a specialization in Arts, Media, and Entertainment management, Conor loves to bring a strategic, structured, business-focused approach to the arts. This, his sixth main stage show with Bygone Theatre, is our most ambitious and most exciting to date and he is so excited to be a part of an incredibly talented, exceptionally talented, and overall wonderful team. When he's not producing, Conor is Articling with the Canadian Ministry of Heritage in the Copyright Office, playing board games, or telling bad jokes.

Jane Aster Roe - Bygone Theatre | The Birds

Jane Aster Roe - ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Jane Aster Roe (she/they) is an award-winning autistic and queer multimedia writer, producer, director, and storyteller based in Toronto, Canada. She has had a wonderful and joyful relationship with Bygone Theatre since 2015 and is thrilled to now be the Associate Producer and Fundraising Manager for the 2022/2023 season. She is passionate about storytelling as a form of radical empathy and strongly believes in the power of art and media as a vehicle for societal change. Jane’s colorful brain is made up of autism, anxiety disorders, depression, and PTSD; and she embraces the motto of "seeking kinship in madness and meaning making." With her company Aster Roe Productions, she has both produced and is in the process of producing and collaborating on short films, a feature film, several stage shows, podcasts, and a documentary on mental illness, neurodiversity, and the long-lasting impacts of sexual violence. Jane has studied at the school of the New York Times and Sundance Collab, and is driven by her own experiences, and an innate curiosity about life and human nature. Through her work Jane strives to tell untold stories and examine familiar stories through new lenses.

Kate McArthur - STAGE MANAGER

Kate is a Mad (Bipolar 1 Disorder)/ Queer actor/theatre artist and is a Co-Artistic Leader of Skipping Stones Theatre, a Toronto based company whose mandate is to tell stories through the lens of mental health and neurodiversity or stories that centre around it. She received a Prix Rideau Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Performance for her performance as Nurse/Mercutio/Prince in a Company of Fools’ production of Romeo and Juliet. She constantly seeks to grow as an artist and is dedicated to the creation of important work in supportive spaces with professional standards. Kate is now trying her hand at Stage Management for The Birds. Selected acting credits: The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, As You Like It with a Company of Fools; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gorboduc, The Changeling with Shakespeare BASH’d; Hamlet(s), Laughing Wild, 4.48 Psychosis with Skipping Stones Theatre; The Rear Window with Bygone Theatre.

Wes Babcock - Bygone Theatre | The Birds

Wes Babcock - SET & LIGHTING DESIGNER

Wes is a queer set and lighting designer, production manager, and technical director based in Halifax, NS. If it lights up, bears weight, or needs a schedule, he’s your guy. The list of companies who've discovered this includes the likes of Crow's Theatre, Talk is Free Theatre, Neptune Theatre, and Tapestry Opera. Favourite credits include The Woodcutter (Matchstick, Halifax - Set, Merritt Nominee), as well as the world premieres of Pleasureville (Neptune Theatre, Halifax - Set), Scavenger’s Daughter and Four Sisters (Paradigm, Toronto - TD), and The Little Prince Reimagined (Puzzle Piece, Toronto - Lights). Wes is currently studying Architecture at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Wes is a founding member of whatbywhen (WxW) where, with Crystal Lee, he is building models for sustainable production management and technical direction through praxis.

He is the founding co-curator of Dark Day Monday, a Toronto-based monthly performance series featuring artists who break boundaries and defy expectation (@darkdaymonday) wesbabcock.com.

Julia Edda Pape - Bygone Theatre | The Birds

Julia Edda Pape - APPRENTICE DIRECTOR

Julia Edda Pape is a 4th year student at UofT studying English, French and Education. She dabbles in all things theatre -- particularly writing, acting and directing -- and hopes to make her love of theatre into more than just a pile of hobbies post-graduation. Julia is ever grateful to Bygone Theatre for the opportunity to work as Apprentice Director for The Birds, and for the chance to return to the gorgeous Hart House Theatre, a supportive space for student creatives and home to many wonderful memories.

Sarah Allen - Bygone Theatre | The Birds

Sarah Allen - PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Sarah Allen is a newcomer to Bygone Theatre and she is thrilled to be learning and working with such incredible creators! Starting her education in Ottawa at the Ottawa School of Theatre and Canterbury High School’s Dramatic Arts Program, Sarah is now a York University Performance Creation student in their Theatre department and is based in Toronto. Previous work includes: The Late Wedding (York University 2021), Playground Theatre Festival 2022, and Everybody (York University 2022). Sarah would like to thank her friends, family and mentors Kathi Langston, Jeff Lawson, and Chadwick Allen for all their encouragement every step of the way. She can be found on Instagram @sarah.el.al.

Kiana Josette - Bygone Theatre | The Birds

Kiana Josette - PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Ainsley Munro - Bygone Theatre | The Birds

Ainsley Munro - PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Ainsley Munro (she/her) is a theatre performer hailing from Muskoka and now calling Toronto home. She has led a 500km theatre bike tour with the Otesha Project in Wales, regularly attends The Howland Company's (Play) Reading Group, and is currently writing two plays. Her passion for set design and period dramas led her to Bygone Theatre, whom she is delighted to join as a set assistant and builder!

THE BIRDS

written & Directed
by EMILY DIX

VENUE SPONSOR

"an immersive spectacle...nuanced and innovative...a suspenseful, perfectly realized period atmosphere telling a new story in which the birds are both ever-present yet entirely incidental."
- Istvan Dugalin Reviews

"masterful homage to a highly specific filmic tradition and massaging complex performances from a formidable cast."
- Aisling Murphy, Intermission Magazine

"a remarkably effective exercise in style...The pacing, the suspense, the growing sense of danger, the last-minute twists, are all in place."
- Patrick Young

CAST & CREW

Registered Charity Number 793306895RR0001

© 2021 by Emily Dix

THE BIRDS

written & Directed by EMILY DIX

VENUE SPONSOR

"an immersive spectacle...nuanced and innovative...a suspenseful, perfectly realized period atmosphere telling a new story in which the birds are both ever-present yet entirely incidental." - Istvan Dugalin Reviews

"masterful homage to a highly specific filmic tradition and massaging complex performances from a formidable cast." - Aisling Murphy, Intermission Magazine

"a remarkably effective exercise in style...The pacing, the suspense, the growing sense of danger, the last-minute twists, are all in place." - Patrick Young

CAST & CREW

written & Directed
by EMILY DIX

"an immersive spectacle...nuanced and innovative...a suspenseful, perfectly realized period atmosphere telling a new story in which the birds are both ever-present yet entirely incidental."
- Istvan Dugalin Reviews

"masterful homage to a highly specific filmic tradition and massaging complex performances from a formidable cast."
- Aisling Murphy, Intermission Magazine

"a remarkably effective exercise in style...The pacing, the suspense, the growing sense of danger, the last-minute twists, are all in place."
- Patrick Young