“a dynamic, complex, and very funny play” – Judith Thompson, playwright
Amanda Pereira and Madeline Leon in Alumnae Theatre‘s production of Cottage Radio at the Fireworks Festival, November 2015 (Bruce Peters photo)
Inspired by the true events of the devastating 2011 Goderich tornado, Cottage Radio investigates our ties to home and asks: who are we when a part of us is caught in a storm? The fictional Marley clan crams together in a small family cottage on the outskirts of town. Over the course of three days, the family deals with losses both material and emotional, both in the past and the present. Combining song and stories from the community through a live radio broadcast from the cottage’s living room, the Marleys collect their demons, fight to find truth, and discover what the storm has left behind.
“Cottage Radio stands out as a vivid, dramatic, intensely well-acted, searingly written, boldly realized collaboration of playwright, composer, director, cast, and crew. A major emotional and theatrical production on an appealingly personal subject staged in a lovely, historic building. Congratulations to the Collective. A significant accomplishment!” – Bill Mandel, former arts critic San Francisco Chronicle
Dave Martin, Jean-Phillipe Allanby, Amanda Pereira, and Madeline Leon in Alumnae Theatre‘s production of Cottage Radio at the Fireworks Festival, November 2015 (Bruce Peters photo)
Cottage Radio & Other Plays: Cottage Radio, White Wedding, & Post Alice animates a wild cast of Southwestern Ontario characters – particularly its strong, hilarious rural women – with complex histories and relationships to the land. The titlular Cottage Radio zeroes in on the sarcastic, charismatic Marley clan as they band together in the aftermath of a storm. White Wedding is a large-cast comedy set at a wedding reception in an old high school, where friends and lovers sneak off to reconnect and swim in nostalgia. Post Alice weaves a true Huron County mystery into an evening of stories, song, and secrets as four women (reminiscent of four of Alice Munro’s protagonists) gather around a fire and begin to wonder what really happened to Mistie Murray, a teenager who disappeared in the mid-nineties.
“Cottage Radio is a dynamic, complex, and very funny play . . . powerful” – Judith Thompson, Playwright
“White Wedding [is] . . . an uncommonly cool theatrical experience” – Jackie Mahoney, Mooney on Theatre
“[Post Alice is] one of the most exciting new Canadian plays I’ve seen for some time . . . profound, beautifully crafted” – Christopher Hoile, Stage Door
Jeanette Dagger, Amanda Pereira, Madeline Leon, and Jean-Phillipe Allanby in Alumnae Theatre‘s production of Cottage Radio at the Fireworks Festival, November 2015 (Bruce Peters photo)
“Taylor has brought to life a small community reeling from a catastrophic event with good humour, warmth, and intelligence.” – Andrea Romaldi, Director of the Playwriting, National Theatre School
Amanda Pereira and Madeline Leon in Alumnae Theatre‘s production of Cottage Radio at the Fireworks Festival, November 2015 (Bruce Peters photo)
“Taylor Graham has written such rich and delicious characters, people who are familiar and yet presented in an utterly unique way. I am thrilled to see such a powerful play set in small town Ontario – true Canadiana, and yet, universal!” – Judith Thompson, playwright
TAYLOR MARIE GRAHAM 