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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRUTH BONNEVILLE \/ FREE PRESS <\/p>\n
Prairie Theatre Exchange artistic director Ann Hodges (left) and managing director Katie Inverarity are in their Glory.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Announced Friday, the 2026-27 season will kick off with a trip to the rink for Tracey Power\u2019s Glory, based on the story of the Preston Rivulettes, a women\u2019s hockey team that won 95 per cent of its games over a dominant decade between 1931 and 1940. Set to be directed by Mariam Bernstein, the production (Oct. 13-25) will feature several hockey games choreographed by Victoria Exconde to era-specific swing music directed by Joseph Aragon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition to being an amazing story of underdogs who end up triumphant, it\u2019s very hopeful and uplifting. And if you know swing dancing, it\u2019s fast and dangerous, with lots of footwork, so it will be super fun for the audience,\u201d says Hodges.<\/p>\n
Next up, from Nov. 17 to 29, is a dramedy of morbid proportions written by Winnipeg\u2019s Samantha Machado, a former member of PTE\u2019s playwriting unit. The Incomplete Dictionary of Lexical Gaps has been on Hodges\u2019 radar ever since she heard a staged reading in November 2024, less than a month into her posting.<\/p>\n
In Machado\u2019s award-winning Scripts on Fire text, a pair of empty nesters welcome a pair of strangers into their home under mysterious circumstances, with little initial clarity on how and why they\u2019re connected. Hodges will direct.<\/p>\n
A noirish thriller about misdirection and doubt, Johnna Wright and Winnipeg-raised Patty Jamieson\u2019s adaptation of Gaslight \u2014 based on Patrick Hamilton\u2019s book, made into an Oscar-winning film in 1944 \u2014 premi\u00e8red at the Shaw Festival in 2022 with Winnipeg\u2019s Julie Lumsden playing Bella, a woman whose grip on reality comes into question when she notices strange happenings that no one else will acknowledge.<\/p>\n
To direct the production (Jan. 19-31, 2027), which will feature Darren Martens as manipulative husband Jack, and Mallory James as the maid, Nancy, Hodges has hired Toronto\u2019s Marie Farsi, who will have quite the theatrical year in Winnipeg next year: her adaptation of Andre Alexis\u2019s novel Fifteen Dogs is slated as the closing production for Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre\u2019s next season at the Tom Hendry Warehouse. Daina Leitold will design Gaslight\u2019s period costumes, with Ashley Au designing the post-Victorian soundscape.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n
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As discombobulated cab driver Jalal, Omar Alex Khan will drift into a Mughlai restaurant in Toronto, seeking butter chicken and community in playwright Anosh Irani\u2019s Behind the Moon (Feb. 23-March 7, 2027), which will be directed by Christopher Brauer. Hodges calls it a beautiful and funny exploration of the immigrant experience from three points of view, coloured by magical realism.<\/p>\n
The five-show season closes with The Blackout, a musical by Steven Gallagher and Anton Lipovetsky about the massive power outage that hit the Eastern seaboard in August 2003.<\/p>\n
Hodges has a history with the show, which will have its world premi\u00e8re at PTE on April 13: she was part of the creative team behind a 20-minute version of the musical developed as part of the Musical Stage Company\u2019s Launchpad program in 2018.<\/p>\n
After that, the production was selected by the National Alliance of Musical Theatre for a workshop production, following a similar trajectory to other Canadian hit musicals such as Come From Away and The Drowsy Chaperone. Hodges, who will direct, has high hopes for the production\u2019s potential to reach national audiences.<\/p>\n
Sandwiched within the season proper are a pair of family-geared productions.<\/p>\n
From Dec. 18 to Jan. 3, Munsch- busters! by Debbie Patterson will continue PTE\u2019s longstanding tradition of adaptations of works by the beloved children\u2019s author Robert Munsch. And from May 12 to 16, 2027, Winnipeg\u2019s Oshkagoojin Theatre will present Dezarae Meade\u2019s stage adaptation of Nanabush and the Spirit of Thunder, based on the book by renowned artist and storyteller Daphne Odjig. The show, which will be directed by Philip Geller, had its premi\u00e8re last month at the second annual Kiyanaan Festival.<\/p>\n
PTE\u2019s 53rd season continues next month with Winnipeg-born Nia Vardalos\u2019s (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) adaptation of Tiny Beautiful Things, based on the book of Dear Sugar advice columns by author Cheryl Strayed. The season-closing production runs from April 7 to 19 on the Cherry Karpyshin Mainstage.<\/p>\n
winnipegfreepress.com\/benwaldman<\/p>\n
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Ben Waldman Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University\u2019s (now Toronto Metropolitan University\u2019s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Reporter
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