thanks for joining us for the 2023 world premiere of struck.

& CONGRATULATIONS TO 2023 BETTY MITCHELL AWARD WINNERS KEREM ÇETINEL (BEST LIGHTING DESIGN) AND WLADIMIRO A WOYNO R (BEST PROJECTION DESIGN) FOR THEIR EXTRAORDINARY WORK ON STRUCK.

Stay tuned for the struck film being released later this year!

“I am living in a skin turned inside out an octave above the moment before.”

ABOUT

Blissfully ignorant, a young man at the tipping point between adolescence and adulthood is struck by lightning, shocking him into a free fall of survival, atonement, and search for self knowledge. STRUCK is based on playwright Eric Rose’s true story surviving a lightning strike while camping with friends on Sudbury’s Long Lake during the summer of 1999. The show explores the lightning strike as both physical and psychic mapping: fractured friendships, leaving home, losing loved ones - looking backward and forward in time from a point of view that can only be perceived in the electrified filament of one's mortality.

Rose originally wrote and performed the first act of STRUCK in Calgary as part of the 2005 Solocentric Festival. Recently, he was commissioned by Ghost River Theatre to develop a second act of the play. "My desire to revisit and re-contextualize this story was spurred by the sudden death of my father, and recently entering into middle-age. As an artist, I find myself eager to explore and investigate themes surrounding growing up, mortality, home towns, and life’s sudden and irrevocable moments of change.” STRUCK reflects Rose’s critically-acclaimed, highly-theatrical aesthetic, as a compelling, thoughtful, and viscerally surprising experience created with a team of committed and insightful collaborators.

AUDIENCE NOTE: STRUCK contains mature content and language and examines themes of grief and trauma. There is also fog, non-toxic haze, strobe effect, and sudden and loud sound effects.


struck - world premiere january 2023

credits

Eric Rose: Playwright/Director (2023 Betty Mitchel nomination for Best New Play)

Matthew Heiti: Dramaturg

Marina Buston: Assistant Director

Christopher Clare: Movement Director

Wladimiro A. Woyno R: Video/Projection Design and Technologist (2023 Betty Mitchell Award Winner - Best Projection Design)

Kerem Çetinel: Lighting Designer (2023 Betty Mitchell Award Winner - Best Lighting Design)

Robin Leveroos: Set & Properties Designer

Anton deGroot: Sound Designer (2023 Betty Mitchell nomination for Best Sound Design)

Abbie Brokenshire: Costume Designer

Aaman Merali: Technical Director

Tauran Wood: Lead Programmer

Kennedy Greene: Stage Manager

Kate Pallesen: Assistant Stage Manager

Matthew McKinney: Cinematographer/Camera Operator

Cody Stadel: Technical Consultant

Riley Miljan, Tech Art Custom Creations: Set Construction

Aldona B Creative: Publicity

Featuring

Nathan Schmidt as Eric (Age 41)

Daniel J. Perryman as Eric (Age 21)

Christopher Duthie: Aminateur/Understudy

Presented by Sentinel Storage


PRODUCTION HISTORY

May 2005: Solocentric Festival, Calgary, AB

April/May 2017: Workshop at PlaySmelter, Sudbury, ON

May 2020: PlaySmelter Festival, Sudbury, ON (cancelled due to COVID-19)

January 2021: Online Workshop

January 2022: Workshop at West Village Theatre, Calgary, AB

January 2023: World Premiere at West Village Theatre, Calgary, AB

The final production of STRUCK was scheduled to première in Sudbury, ON at Pat the Dog’s PlaySmelter Festival in May 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. STRUCK premiered in Calgary in January 2023.


January 2022 workshop CREDITS

Eric Rose: Playwright/Director

Matthew Heiti: Dramaturg

Marina Buston: Assistant Director

Wladimiro A. Woyno R: Video/Projection Design and Technologist

Kerem Çetinel: Lighting Designer

Robin Leveroos: Set & Properties Designer

Anton deGroot: Composer/Sound Designer

Skylar Desjardins: Technical Director

Tauran Wood: Production Assistant/Board Operator/Programmer

Kennedy Greene: Stage Manager

Kate Pallesen: Assistant Stage Manager

Matthew McKinney: Cinematography/Camera Operator

Andrew G. Cooper: Collaborator/Producer

Featuring

Nathan Schmidt as Eric (Age 40)

Daniel J. Perryman as Eric (Age 21)


SPECIAL THANKS TO

Caitlin Gallichan-Lowe, Jennie Esdale, Cameron Falkenhagen, Michael Howard, Robert Kelly, Judy Straughan, Warren Heiti, Stephen Heiti, Christian Goutsis, Grisell Amaro-Galvan, Theatre Calgary, Elizabeth Kenny, Eric Lapalme, Rick Duthie, Matthew McLean, Scott McDougall, Jason Rothery, Ian Prinsloo, David van Belle, Julia and Melvin Rose, Rosemary Sullivan, James O’Reilly, Peter Gordon, Sarah Williamson.