The Gouzenko Affair
Presented by CSArt Ottawa
A play on a park bench about Igor Gouzenko in Cold War Canada
May 12 - May 18, 2018
PLAYWRIGHT | a.m kozak
DIRECTOR / DRAMATURG | Nick Leno
DRAMATURG / PRODUCER | Mariah Horner
Time: September, 1945
Place: Dundonald Park in Centretown, Ottawa
Igor Gouzenko sits in Dundonald Park with a bag on his head, wondering why everyone is staring at him. THE GOUZENKO AFFAIR is a site-specific play that takes place on a park bench in Dundonald Park at Somerset and Lyon in Ottawa, Ontario. Gouzenko’s decision to give Soviet secrets to the Canadian government changed the way the world behaved from then on, yet it happened in a park in Ottawa. This play is performed for an audience of one: each audience member will be invited to sit next to Gouzenko and experience the moment that sparked the Cold War in Canada.
The Gouzenko Affair is a one-on-one play on a park bench developed with Ottawa-based poet Aaron Kozak and Cellar Door Project's Mariah Horner and Nick Leno, and produced with CSArt Ottawa. For tickets and more information, please visit CSArt Ottawa.
Presented by CSArt Ottawa
A play on a park bench about Igor Gouzenko in Cold War Canada
May 12 - May 18, 2018
PLAYWRIGHT | a.m kozak
DIRECTOR / DRAMATURG | Nick Leno
DRAMATURG / PRODUCER | Mariah Horner
Time: September, 1945
Place: Dundonald Park in Centretown, Ottawa
Igor Gouzenko sits in Dundonald Park with a bag on his head, wondering why everyone is staring at him. THE GOUZENKO AFFAIR is a site-specific play that takes place on a park bench in Dundonald Park at Somerset and Lyon in Ottawa, Ontario. Gouzenko’s decision to give Soviet secrets to the Canadian government changed the way the world behaved from then on, yet it happened in a park in Ottawa. This play is performed for an audience of one: each audience member will be invited to sit next to Gouzenko and experience the moment that sparked the Cold War in Canada.
The Gouzenko Affair is a one-on-one play on a park bench developed with Ottawa-based poet Aaron Kozak and Cellar Door Project's Mariah Horner and Nick Leno, and produced with CSArt Ottawa. For tickets and more information, please visit CSArt Ottawa.
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a.m. kozak (playwright) is a social worker, anti-poverty advocate, & poet/creative writer/performer. His poems have appeared in Arc Poetry Magazine, Grain Magazine, Matrix Magazine, BafterC, The Windsor Review, Big Smoke, (parenthetical), & others. He is the editor of 30 under 30: an anthology of Canadian millennial poets (In/Words, 2017), co-host of the poetry scene podcast The Small Machine Talks along with Amanda Earl, & co-creator of the blUe mOndays reading series. The Gouzenko Affair is his second play. |
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Maryse Malazdrewicz Fernandes (Svetlana) is an Ottawa based actor. She attended the National Theatre School of Canada’s acting program. Some of her favourite projects to have been a part of recently have been Girls!Girls!Girls! with Cart Before The Horse (Ottawa), Love’s Labour’s Lost with Dauntless City Theatre (Toronto), Servant of Two Masters with Odyssey Theatre, and workshopping a new translation of Jacinto Benevente’s The Bonds Of Interest, a co-production with King’s College London, for Odyssey Theatre (Ottawa). She also recently performed in The Team, by Michael Kras, at the Voaden Playwriting awards in Kingston with Thousand Islands Playhouse. She thanks you for supporting Ottawa's arts community and hopes you enjoy the show!
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Nicholas Leno (director) is an Ottawa based theatre director, producer, and technician. He has directed productions for the Cellar Door Project which have been programmed as part of CSArt Ottawa, the Ottawa Storytellers, and was a contributing artist on Theatre in the Bush programming as a part of the National Arts Centre’s Canada Scene. When Nicholas isn't working with Cellar Door he works for a Company of Fools as an office administrator and apprentice in artistic direction under Catriona Leger. He completed his Masters of Fine Arts in directing at the University of Ottawa where he specialized in working with classical text. He recently published a translation of Russian playwright Nikolai Gogol's farce Marriage: an Absolutely Impossible Event in Two Acts with the Toronto Slavic Quarterly Journal, even though he can't read Russian! He also works as an associate producer on the Fresh Meat Theatre Festival.
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Jonas McLean (Igor) is an improviser, director, dramaturg, and actor living in Ottawa. He holds a BA in Dramatic Arts with a concentration in Theatre Praxis from Brock University and is currently completing a Master of Arts in Theatre at the University of Ottawa. His research focusses on improvised theatre and exploring the role of the audience. Selected acting credits include An Ideal Husband and Antigone with Ouroboros Theatre. Selected directing and dramaturgy credits include Bless You, Bonaparte with Sad Ibsen Theatre and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Brock University. He has performed in improv shows all around Ottawa and currently performs monthly with Outtake Improv, improvising in a different genre of theatre, film, or television each month.
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Taylor Stewart (stage manager) is an emerging stage manager and technician in the Ottawa region and is very excited to be working with CELLAR DOOR PROJECT and Nicholas Leno on The Gouzenko Affair. He is currently finishing an Honours BA with specialization in Theatre at uOttawa. Some of his most recent projects include Marriage: An absolutely impossible event in two acts directed by Nicholas Leno (uOttawa Theatre Department), Bless you, Bonaparte directed by Jonas McLean (Sad Ibsen Theatre, presented at Ottawa Fringe Fest 2017), and he is currently developing a show with 4 young actors with Taboo! Productions for Ottawa Fringe Fest 2018. Taylor sincerely hopes that you enjoy the show as much as he enjoyed being part of its creation.
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