2023 Korda Season
Korda Artistic Productions celebrates the theatre company’s milestone 20th Anniversary with a thrilling season that mixes remounts of fan-favourite productions with exciting new offerings… all coming to the stage at the intimate KordaZone Theatre in Windsor.
Ordinary Days
March 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 & 12, 2023
Music & Lyrics by Adam Gwon
Directed by Tracey Atin
From one of musical theatre's most exciting new composers comes ORDINARY DAYS, a refreshingly honest and funny musical about making real connections. ORDINARY DAYS tells the story of four young New Yorkers whose lives intersect as they search for fulfillment, happiness, love and cabs. Through a score of vibrant and memorable songs, their experiences ring startlingly true to life. ORDINARY DAYS is a musical for anyone who's ever struggled to appreciate the simple things in a complex place. With equal doses of humor and poignancy, it celebrates how 8.3 million individual stories combine in unexpected ways to make New York City such a unique and extraordinary home. ORDINARY DAYS is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals.
The Best Man
April 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23,
27, 28 & 29, 2023
Written by Christopher Lawrence Menard
Directed by Joey Wright with Christopher Lawrence Menard
The first of the From the Vault offerings is Christopher Lawrence Menard’s original comedy/drama hit The Best Man (2007). On the eve of her wedding, a young bride learns that her groom was once very much in love with his best man. Despite this, she goes through with the wedding. But the trip to the altar sees vows rewritten, beds revisited, and the bonds of matrimony turned upside down, as they all learn it is never as easy as saying, “I do.” Menard is the writer of the stage plays The View From Here (2010), the DRAG Trilogy (2010-2012), the short film Gary Blaze: The Devil Wears Product (2008), feature film Whatever it Was (2009), and the poetry collection at the end, beginnings: A Memoir in Poems (2022 from Black Moss Press). When The Best Man premiered at Korda in 2007, opening night included a special ceremony to wed two same-sex American couples on stage to celebrate the two-year anniversary of the Civil Marriage Act legalizing same-sex marriage in Canada. The marriages took place nearly ten years before the US struck down all stage bans on same-sex marriage. These were legal and legitimate marriages, rather than symbolic unions. The couples were married under the authority of the Canadian Marriage Act, and through an official Ontario marriage licence. While their marriages were not initially recognized in many US jurisdictions, they were official recognized marriages in Canada and many other global jurisdictions. Wright, who co-directs this production, was inspired when he attended the show. In 2009, in response to bullying at his high school, Wright led a coalition that lobbied the Greater Essex County District School Board to create the area’s first ever Gay-Straight Alliance. Now, Menard and Wright are teaming up to bring The Best Man, updated slightly from its 2007 premiere, back to Korda’s stage and Windsor audiences.
“A creative treat… The boy-has-girl-wants-boy story is compelling in a Three’s Company meets One Life To Live way.” – The Windsor Star
William Shakespeare's
Romeo & Juliet
May 26, 27, 28
and June 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9 & 10, 2023
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Jeremy Burke
In William Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy, the inspired playwright creates a violent world in which two young people fall in love. Their families do not merely disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud that makes this union treacherous. The pair of star-crossed lovers are doomed from their love-at-first-sight meeting, to their final devastating union. Despite the death-filled setting, this tale of woe has become one of the greatest love stories of all time. Its exquisite language, enduring themes, compelling characters and raw emotion make it easy for audiences to fall into the world of these young lovers even as they meet their untimely fate. It is the play that gave us the lines, “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” and “My only love sprung from my only hate!” Young performing artist and Korda player Jeremy Burke directs the tale, fresh off a season of compelling performances that included his Spring Awakening haunting portrayal of another youth caught in a web of inner turmoil and at odds with the world around him. Of Romeo & Juliet, Burke says, “In Shakespeare’s most (in)famous tale of star-crossed lovers, young love blooms through the cracks of a generational feud. It is not Romeo or Juliet’s war to fight. They were forced into the feud by an older generation. Now their own young love and recklessness is their only hope against it.”
Extension-Korda
Summer Sessions
August 2023
Produced by the Extension-Korda Youth Players
Korda’s summer tradition continues in 2023 with the Extension-Korda Summer Sessions program to include summer camps, musical performances, productions, cabaret nights and special events. Over the years this innovative program has become a popular experience for youth artists to work alongside mentors and peers to learn the ins and outs of operating, programming and performing in a true community theatre setting. Stay tuned for more information, including participation opportunities, as it becomes available.
She Kills Monsters
September 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16,
21, 22 & 23, 2023
Written by Qui Nguyen
Directed by Valerie Bonasso Assistant
Director Kristen Siapas
She Kills Monsters is a dark comedy-adventure play by Qui Nguyen that debuted in 2011. It tells the story of Agnes Evans, an average young woman who loses her parents and younger sister in a car accident. Struggling to come to terms with her profound loss, Agnes embarks on an adventure to get to know her sister better by playing a Dungeons and Dragons module that her sister wrote, and discovers things she’d never imagined. Moving through the real world, and the imaginary world her sister created before her death, Agnes uncovers secrets and experiences the deep struggles her sister faced during her tumultuous life. Along the way, she encounters a high school-aged Dungeon Master, a murderous fairy, maniacal cheerleaders, and a malevolent 5-headed dragon. Since its 2011 New York City premiere, the play has wowed audiences of all ages, including millennials and Gen Zers, while being applauded for its nuanced portrayals of LGBTQ2S+ characters. The play makes its Windsor premiere with director Valerie Bonasso at the helm, assisted by Kristen Siapas, making their debut as part of a Korda creative team.
“This is a story about kids who make up stories. This is a story in which girls wield swords, queer kids are cool and nerds rule the earth... Openness, tolerance and resilience are more than the show’s subjects: They are baked into its DNA.” – The New York Times
The Rocky Horror Show
October 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21,
26, 27 & 28, 2023
Music, Lyrics & Book by Richard O’Brien
Directed by Jeff Marontate
The second of the From the Vault offerings for the anniversary season is a restaging of the cult classic musical The Rocky Horror Show, which was Korda’s first big Broadway musical production when the company launched back in 2003. O’Brien’s musical masterpiece is a humorous tribute to the science fiction and horror B movies of the late 1940s through to the early 1970s. The smash-hit musical extravaganza tells the story of a newly engaged couple getting caught in a storm and coming to the home of a mad transvestite scientist who is about to unveil his new creation – a muscle man named Rocky Horror. 2023 marks the 50th Anniversary of the show, which premiered in 1973 in London, at a tiny theatre in Chelsea and went on to gross well over $200 million and become one of the most successful shows ever to hit the stage. “I bought the Rocky Horror Show album when I was 16, I saw the movie for the 1st of 25 times when I was 17, and I had to wait until I was 39 to direct it onstage,” says Korda Resident Director Jeff Marontate. “Now I get to revisit this funny, kinky, still kinda shocking show again, and I could not be more excited. Rocky Horror is a cult classic full of sex, sci fi and good ol’ rock’n’roll!”
“The Rocky Horror Show was a success, offering a new, creative perspective of the classic, while, at the same time, maintaining its nostalgic, transsexual charm.” – The Saint
“Oh, horror… Rocky’s still a riot!... [the show] opened over the weekend to howls of laughter.” – The Windsor Star
Panto: The Panto
A Multiverse of Pantos
December 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16 & 17, 2023
Director TBD
Korda’s traditional December family offering will be an original holiday panto that gives a fresh take on a familiar tale. Expect silliness for the kids, naughty jokes for the grown-ups, bad drag, great music, magic, mayhem, and loads of audience participation for everyone in a goofy, delightful, all-ages musical production to close out the 20th Anniversary season in style. Expect this original story to pull in elements from all of Korda’s previous original pantos, including Cinderella: The Shoe Must Go On, Robin Hood, Hansel Und Gretel: Behind the Gingerbread, King Midas and the Golden Arches, Aladdin, The ‘Obbit: An H’Original ‘Oliday Panto, Peter Pan(to), STAR WAR(ped): May The Farce Be With You, Annie of Green Gables, Get Your Gun!!!, Pinocchio, and The Pantolorian. Korda will seek a director for the 2023 panto production.
“... the wink-winking and nudge-nudging will be family-friendly. Adults can enjoy the double entendres, but the slapstick and sight gags are fun for all ages.” – The Windsor Star
Media Contact Details
& Resources
Korda Artistic Productions
Tracey Atin, Founder and Producer
P: 519-562-33394
E: traceyatin@hotmail.com | kordazone@gmail.com
W: Kordazone.com
P:
All performances of all shows in the 2023 20th Anniversary Season will take place at The KordaZone Theatre
2520 Seminole Street, Windsor, Ontario.
Helpful Links
Korda Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/15726790159/.
KordaZone Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kordazone/.
Kordazone Flickr Albums: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127347470@N04/albums.
Musical Tickets: $30 General Admission.
Show Tickets: $25 General Admission; Pay-What-You-Can nights once per production.
*TICKET PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE; PARTICULARLY FOR MUSICALS*
Purchasing Tickets Online: Eventbrite links will be available online; One price point only.
Purchasing Tickets In Person: ½ hour before showtime; cash only at the door.
Purchasing From Ticket Outlets: Visit our website for list of outlets (as available).
Auditions/Directing: Opportunities posted to Korda’s website and socials (as available).