Letters From Max, a ritual Programme : simplebooklet.com

2Introductions Director’s Note Thank you for joining us for our 45th anniversary season Canadian premiere production of Letters From Max, a ritual, by Sarah Ruhl, based on a correspondence with Max Ritvo. In 2018, Sarah sent me a copy of her and Max Ritvo’s Letters From Max, a book of friendship. I was immediately struck by the poetic, philosophical and theatrical nature of their dialogue, and their capacity for connection, humour, and love. Later, when I heard from Sarah that she was adapting their book into a play, I was thrilled. I thought, this is a play for Necessary Angel. As a play, Letters From Max, a ritual, raises some central theatrical questions: what does it mean to inhabit the thoughts and words of another? How is this play a ritual? What does it mean to play biographical characters, one living, and one in remem-brance? And nally, what does this story, of impermanence, friendship, art and love, hold for us all? We hope your experience of our production inspires in you a great hunger for love, life and an embrace of the miracle of this very moment. Thank you. Alan Dilworth, Necessary Angel artistic director & director of Letters From Max, a ritual.Cover: Maev Beaty and Jesse LaVercombe.Top right: Alan Dilworth. Photo by Paul LampertBottom right: Daniel Brooks. Photo courtesy of Soulpepper Theatre Company. A Dedication Necessary Angel Theatre Company dedicates our production of Letters From Max, a ritual to the memory of our former artistic director (2003 – 2012) and friend Daniel Brooks, who inspired so many through his groundbreaking work and his great capacity for love and friendship.

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3Maev Beaty SarahApproximately two hours and 15 minutes including one intermissionCastRunning TimeJesse LaVercombe MaxContent Note: Mature language, cancer and death by terminal illness.Creative TeamAlan Dilworth DirectorSarah Ruhl PlaywrightMichelle Tracey Set & Costume DesignerAurora Judge Set, Props & Costume Design AssistantRebecca Picherack Lighting DesignerDebashis Sinha Sound DesignerMonica Dottor ChoreographyRick Banville Production Manager & Technical DirectorScarlett Larry Stage ManagerKatie Saunoris/KSPR PublicistAidan Shepherd Yoan Holder House TechniciansThe Letters From Max, a ritual World Premiere was produced by Signature Theatre, New York City, Paige Evans, Artistic Director; Timothy J. McClimon, Executive Director. Letters From Max, a ritual was originally commissioned by McCarter Theatre Center and the Roger S. Berlind Playwright-in-Residence Program at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts and developed by McCarter Theatre Center, Princeton, I Emily Mann, Artistic Director; Michael S. Rosenberg, Managing Director. Necessary Angel Theatre Company is a proud member of the Profes-sional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT) and the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA). We engage professional artists under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement (CTA) with Canadian Actors’ Equity Association (CAEA).Autumn, Movement 1 Allegro; John Harrison with the Wichita State University Chamber Players, From the Free Music Archive Licensed through Creative Commons (CC BY-SA.)Physics; Danny Bale, From the Free Music Archive under an “Attribution 4.0 International” license.Skeleton artwork is from Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre c1844 by the artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Production CreditsThank you: The sta of The Theatre Centre; Ellie Koman & Soulpepper Theatre Company; Allegra Fulton; Leonard Stannard; Trish Lindstrom and Bruce Horak; Mary and Richard Beaty; Brittany Kay; Jakob Ehman; Jeannette and Clint Stephenson; Duncan Johnstone; Paul Lampert; LATRE Art + Style; Michel Viau; and Renee Lantaigne.

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4BiographiesMaev Beaty (she/her) — Sarah For Necessary Angel: Civility, The Great Fire. Selected Theatre: Maev has originated roles in over two dozen Canadian premieres ((including Hannah Moscovitch’s Bunny, Michael Healey’s Proud, Kate Hennig’s The Last Wife, Judith Thompson’s Palace of the End and Sharon Pollock’s Angel’s Trumpet); She has co-created and starred in the award-winning Secret Life of a Mother, Montparnasse, and Dance of the Red Skirts, and played contemporary and classic lead roles at the Stratford Festival for eight seasons and in theatres across Turtle Island including Soulpepper, Tarragon, the Globe, Canadian Stage, and La Mama in NYC. Film & TV: Murdoch Mysteries (CBC); Nurses (Global); Ghostwriter (Apple+), Mouthpiece (Dir. Patricia Rozema) and she was recently featured in Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid and Kristoer Borgli’s Dream Scenario. Awards: She is a Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award winner, multiple Dora Award winner and fourteen-time Dora nominee in performance and writing. She has been making theatre, and life, and an Esmé, with Alan Dilworth since 1999. maevbeaty.com Jesse LaVercombe (he/him) — Max For Necessary Angel: Letters From Max, a ritual. Selected Theatre: King Gilgamesh & the Man of the Wild (co-creator with Ahmed Moneka and Seth Bockley - The Jungle Theater/Minneapolis, The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival/NYC, Soulpepper Theatre/Toronto); Post-Democracy, Bunny, Hamlet, Sequence (Tarragon); Beautiful Man (Factory); Copenhagen (National Arts Centre). Film & TV: Violation (Toronto ACTRA Award, Canadian Screen Award nominee); Murdoch Mysteries (4 seasons). Screenwriting Credits: Code 8: Part ll (Netix/Collective Pictures); Float (Lionsgate/Collective Pictures). Other: Playwrights Guild of Canada Emerging Writing Award. Training: National Theatre School, Canadian Film Centre Actors Conservatory. jesselavercombe.comAlan Dilworth (he/him) — Director For Necessary Angel: Letters From Max, a ritual, New, The Events, The Great Fire, CRASH; CRASH (the lm). Other Theatre: The Last Wife, The Virgin Trial, Mother’s Daughter (Stratford); Idomeneus, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, Incident at Vichy, Eurydice, Happy Place, Twelve Angry Men, La Ronde (Soulpepper); This Is War (Porta, Athens); The De Chardin Project (TPM); If We Were Birds, After Akhmatova (Tarragon); The Middle Place, Small Axe (Project Humanity) and many more. Other: Alan is a Christopher Plummer Award laureate, a twelve-time Dora Award nominee for outstanding direction and production and the recipient of three SummerWorks Jury Prizes. Alan has staged over 25 world premieres in addition to his work on classical and established texts. Alan co-founded award-winning indie companies Belltower Theatre and Sheep No Wool, and was a Drummond Dorrance Fellow and Acting Artistic Director at Soulpepper Theatre Company. Alan has both an MFA in Directing and a BEd from York University, and a BA in International Relations from UBC.

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5Rick Banville (he/him) — Production Manager & Technical Director For Necessary Angel: Letters From Max, a ritual, NEW, The Great Fire, Crash. Rick has been managing theatre production and events for over 25 years, working alongside some of Canada’s leading artists and companies while having the great fortune of touring theatre, opera, dance and music to Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Canada and the United States. Rick currently teaches at various post-secondary institutions, including courses in Production Management and International Touring at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal. He still tours theatre on a regular basis and is currently working on numerous productions and collaborations across Canada and beyond. Most recently, Rick was the Project Co-ordina-tor for a major renovation project at Young People’s Theatre in Toronto. Rick lives in Hamilton with his family and is a founding member of industrypresents.com.Monica Dottor (she/her) — Choreographer For Necessary Angel: Letters From Max, a ritual, CRASH. Other Theatre: (selected credits) The 39 Steps (County Stage Company); The Penelopiad (Nightwood); BEARS (Punctuate); JANICE ALMIGHTY (Company Blonde); TWEET TWEET, Flora & Fauna, In the Fire, CIRCUS SESSIONS (Femmes Du Feu); ROSE, Idomeneus, Eurydice, MARAT/SADE (Soulpepper); The Overcoat (Canadian Stage). Monica is a 12-time Dora Award nominated artist in ve dierent categories: Actor, Director, Choreographer, Designer, Producer, Circus Artist. Education: She has her MFA in Theatre from York University. monicadottor.comScarlett Larry (she/her) — Stage Manager For Necessary Angel: Letters From Max, a ritual. Other Theatre: (selected credits) ve seasons at the Stratford Festival in Stage Management, Lighting Design and Production Administration; Stage Manager and Associate Lighting Designer for Kiviuq Returns: An Inuit Epic (Qaggiavuut!, National Theatre of Greenland, Tarragon Theatre); Writer and Director of The Stage Manager’s Guide to Dating Assholes (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Toronto Fringe Festival). Other companies include Gargantua, Crow’s Theatre, Groundling, lemonTree, Carousel, Drayton, Passe Muraille, and Howland. Education: MA Art History and BFA Theatre Production from York University.Rebecca Picherack — Lighting Designer For Necessary Angel: Letters From Max, a ritual, A City. OtherTheatre & Dance: Adelheid (Heidi Strauss); The Arts Club, Buddies in Bad Times, Canadian Stage, GCTC, Musical Stage, National Arts Centre, The Shaw Festival, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Mirvish Productions, Nightwood, Nightswimming, Vancouver Arts Club, and Volcano Theatre Company. Awards: Rebecca has received three Dora Awards for outstanding lighting design.Letters From Max, a ritual By Sarah Ruhl

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6Sarah Ruhl — Playwright Sarah Ruhl is an award-winning American playwright, author, essayist, and professor. Her plays include The Oldest Boy, Dear Elizabeth, Stage Kiss, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize nalist, 2010); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize nalist, 2005; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play (Pen American Award, Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play); Melancholy Play; Demeter in the City (nine NAACP Image Award nominations); Scenes From Court Life; How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday; Eurydice; Orlando; and Late: a cowboy song. Her plays have been produced on Broadway and across the country as well as internationally, and translated into fourteen languages. Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She is the recipient of a Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a PEN Center Award for mid-career playwrights, a Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, and a Lilly award. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists and won the MacArthur Fellowship in 2006. She teaches at Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family.Debashis Sinha (he/him) — Sound Designer For Necessary Angel: Letters From Max, a ritual, The Resilience Project, CRASH (remount and tour), Are You OK. Other Theatre: (selected credits) multiple shows with The Stratford Festival, Soulpepper Theatre, The Shaw Festival, Why Not Theatre, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, The Theatre Centre, Nightwood Theatre, YPT, Theatre Passe Muraille, Project Humanity, Volcano Theatre and others. Upcoming: Casey and Diana at Soulpepper; Romeo and Juliet at The Stratford Festival. Awards: Dora awards for Outstanding Sound Design and Composition, General Theatre (2012, 2016); Dora for Outstanding Achievement in Design (Opera Category, 2022); Louis Applebaum Composers Award Laureate (Media Composition, 2022). Other: Currently assistant professor at the School of Performance, Toronto Metropolitan University.Michelle Tracey (she/they) — Set, Props & Costume Designer For Necessary Angel: Letter’s From Max, a ritual. Other Theatre: (selected credits) WILDWOMAN, Wedding at Aulis, Sisters, Waiting for Godot (Soulpepper); The Clearing (The Shaw Festival); Every Little Nookie, Nathan the Wise (The Stratford Festival); The Tender Land, Manseld Park, Imeneo, The Fatal Gaze, Last Days (U of T Opera); Behind the Moon, This Was The World, Much Ado About Nothing (Tarragon Theatre); Indecent (Studio 180 & Mirvish); Garden of Vanished Pleasures, Hell’s Fury (Soundstreams). Upcoming: Candida (Shaw Festival). michelletraceydesign.comAurora Judge (she/her) — Set, Props & Costume Design Assistant For Necessary Angel: Letters From Max, a ritual. Other Theatre: (selected credits) Assistant Costume Design for Canoe (Unsettled Scores – Fall 2023); Set Design for High Steel and The Flying Doctor (Perchance Theatre – Summer 2023). Education: BFA in Sculpture/Installation from OCAD University (2015) and Graduate Certicate in Costume Production from Fanshawe College (2018).Biographies

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8Section8About UsNecessary Angel was founded in Toronto in 1978. It has earned the reputation as one of English Canada’s most vital original creation and producing organisations. Alan Dilworth was appointed Artistic Director in June 2019, the fourth AD in the company’s history.Necessary Angel has always been about the best of what theatre is: a space. A space for creation, process, collaboration, innovation and the unknown. A space where questions can be asked and new meanings can be made by artists and audiences alike. A space for encountering and wrestling with complexity, contradiction and questions of our time. A space for diverse stories and voices. And as a venue-less theatre company, Necessary Angel is a space-less space, with artistry, creation and connection at its core. Sta Alan Dilworth Artistic Director Kanika Ambrose Associate Artistic Director Kristina McNamee General Manager Leonard McHardy Development & Communications Katie Saunoris Communications Consultant Jacob Whibley Graphic DesignerYulia Kovaleva Web DesignerYien Yip BookkeeperFor Letters From Max, a ritualTushar Dalvi Marketing CoordinatorConor Copeland Outreach CoordinatorDevin McNaulty Videographer BoardRichard Stursberg ChairDiane Blake Vice ChairBoyd Neil Board SecretaryRoslyn Kaman Sa’ad Shah Co-TreasurersMickey Palha Yashoda Ranganathan Nalini Stewart (Past Board Chair) Daniel Weinzweig

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9Support Season SponsorBMO Financial Group Arts CouncilsCanada Council for the ArtsOntario Arts Council Toronto Arts CouncilDonors — Individual Support Thank You to Our Individual Donors!$50,000 +Diane Blake & Stephen Smith $15,000 +Meehan Family Investments $10,000 +Mclean Smits Family Foundation $5,000 +Sheena Macdonald & Phil SchmittHonourable Margaret Norrie McCainSylvia SoykaLindy Green Family Foundation $1,000 +Astrid JansonRoslyn KamanMoninder PalhaNalini StewartJason SmithRichard StursbergDaniel WeinzweigKevin & Roger GarlandK.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation3 Anonymous Donors $500 +Boyd NeilGail PackwoodButtereld Family FoundationCanadian Online Giving Foundation $100 +Jane AndersonMarian Botsford FraserAnuradha ChawlaIan ChisholmJoanne DodsworthBarbara FingeroteJanet LewisLeonard McHardy & John HarveyJoyce & Alec MonroBarbara & Kit MooreEleanor O’ConnorYashoda RanganathanJudith RobertsonDouglas RodgerGlenna Ross3 Anonymous Donors Up to $99Miranda CalderonBeverley CooperBarbara GordonDeanna KrugerKristina McNamee1 Anonymous DonorDonations made between October 2022 – October 2023

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10SectionSupportSEASON SPONSORS:GOVERNMENT SUPPORT:LEAD SEASON SUPPORTERS:PRODUCTION SUPPORTERS: Become one of our scene partnersPerson by person, the Necessary Angel community has been built around a shared commitment to developing and promot-ing Canadian artists. We thank all our supporters who contribute at every level. There are no small gifts. Every oer of support, whether annual or monthly is gratefully received and will receive a tax receipt.Visit necessaryangel.com/donate to learn more.Over our more than 40 year history, Necessary Angel has earned a national reputation for ground-breaking and innovative work, but the magic of theatre is in personal moments and relationships. Connect with us!Don’t miss out on our upcoming projects and performances.@NECESSARYANGEL@NECESSARYANGELFACEBOOK.COM/NECESSARYANGEL10

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11Necessary Angel Theatre Company is committed to the ongoing and complex journey of the constant work of shifting perspectives and practices. We operate from oces, houses, and apartments across the city of Tkaronto (Toronto) and beyond. We are so grateful to call this land home.We would like to acknowledge and thank the original caretakers and knowledge keepers of this territory: The Anishinaabe Nations (including the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation), The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Wendat and Métis Nations. We give thanks to the Nations recorded and unrecorded, acknowledged and unacknowledged, who also share the responsibility for this territory. We honour the Dish With One Spoon Treaty and our responsibility to peaceably share and care for the resources that surround us.Land Acknowledgement

Letters From Max, a ritual Programme

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