2024/25 Season Student Matinee
Advisory Guide
The Play That Goes Wrong
by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields & Jonathan Sayer
Directed by Dennis Garnhum
September 3 - 29, 2024
Max Bell Theatre
Welcome to The Cornley Drama Society’s production of The Murder at Haversham Manor, where the actors are unprepared, the set is falling apart, and the leading lady is unconscious. The Play That Goes Wrong is Noises Off meets The Mousetrap, a comedic play-within-a-play that celebrates the old adage: despite the hilarious consequences, the show must go on!
Grade Recommendation: Grade 5 and up
Running Time: 2 hours 5 minutes
*Talk Back to follow the performance
Student Matinees: September 18 & 25, 2024
Student Matinee start time: 11:00am
Educational Interest: farce-storytelling, comedy; behind-the-scenes, multiple roles, collaboration in theatre, design in theatre
Advisory: Plot is a spoof on murder mystery and uses the word murder throughout; some violence (comical); some references to an extra-marital affair, revealing clothing, alcohol use.
See below select script examples of advisories.
Please note - while the most explicit examples are provided, not every mention of the same advisory is listed. For instance, a word may appear more than once in the script but is only identified by one example below. For all script notes, please contact Theatre Calgary’s Education & Outreach Associate.
Page 9:
Robert: Of course it makes sense! He’s been murdered!
Robert: Damn it! Gather everyone in here! Charles! Dead!
Robert: But do you think it was murder, Perkins? Or do you think perhaps it was suicide?
Page 13:
Robert: Here, take one of your pills.
Robert: Perkins! Pour that man a stiff drink!
Robert: Have another, to calm your nerves.
Max: Make it a double!
Page 16:
Chris: Suffocation, strangulation, poison.
Page 21:
Max: Let me kiss you! Just once!
Sandra: Oh, Cecil! Kiss me a thousand times! I’m yours!
Sandra: Oh, enough words! Take me!
Max kisses Sandra intensely.
Page 26:
Chris: YOU WERE HAVING AN AFFAIR!
Page 35:
Dennis: Gunshots in the library!
Page 38:
Annie: My fiancé and my lover killed on the same eve!
Page 55:
She bursts in through the swivel bookcase in her underwear.
Page 68:
Annie punches Sandra in the face. She falls out of sight behind the window.
Page 69:
Sandra appears in the window tied up with tape.
The Lehman Trilogy
by Stefano Massini
adapted by Ben Power
Directed by Sarah Garton Stanley
Associate Directed by Tracey Erin Smith
October 15 - November 3, 2024
Max Bell Theatre
Winner of five Tony Awards including Best Play, this American immigrant epic tells the story of the dramatic rise and fall of Lehman Brothers Inc., from its origins in pre-Civil War Alabama to its Wall Street peak and the crash that followed. The Lehman Trilogy is is performed by three actors, playing the Lehman brothers, their wives, their sons, and their grandsons, as well as all other characters tracing the 163-year history of a dream destined for collapse.
Grade Recommendation: Grade 10 and up
Running Time: 3 hours 20 minutes, with two intermissions
*Talk Back to follow the performance
Student Matinees: October 30, 2024
Student Matinee start time: 11:00am
Educational Interest: market crash 2008, real estate crash, global economy; current & historical events in storytelling & art; global forces impacting individuals; storytelling- perspective
Advisory: mention of suicide, some offensive language.
See below select script examples of advisories.
Please note - while the most explicit examples are provided, not every mention of the same advisory is listed. For instance, a word may appear more than once in the script but is only identified by one example below. For all script notes, please contact Theatre Calgary’s Education & Outreach Associate.
Page 50:
Mayer: When Mayer looks out, he can almost still see Roundhead Deggoo in his old straw hat, walking the streets, just as he did not that many years ago and yet another age, when Alabama still had plantations and still had slaves.
Page 81:
Mayer: When at the corner opposite 119 a dwarf appeared, in a yellow top hat and began to play card games on top of a fruit box.
Page 123:
Emanuel: Meg foglak ölni! (I’ll fucking kill you!)
Page 129:
Emanuel: Vernon is the second stockbroker to kill himself. He shoots himself in the head at 10:32am.
A bullet.
Down forty.
A trigger.
Down forty-seven.
A shot.
Page 134:
Emanuel: They jump off the Stock Exchange building. They jump from the higher floors.
A Christmas Carol
On Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three spirits who take him on a journey into his past, present, and future to show him the errors of his ways. Dickens’ classic holiday tale comes alive on the Theatre Calgary stage, with stunning sets and costumes and the return of Doug McKeag as Scrooge. See why A Christmas Carol has become a holiday tradition for so many Calgarians.
NOTE: All student matinee performances of A Christmas Carol are sold out for the 24/25 season.
Grade Recommendation: Grade 1 and up
Run time: 2 hours
Student Matinees: November 27 & 28, December 4 & 5, 2024
Student Matinee start time: 11:00am
Educational Interest: storytelling & spectacle; economic disparity; personal transformation; literature
Advisory: Some mildly scary moments; ghosts.
A Streetcar Named Desire
A classic of the stage, A Streetcar Named Desire is the story of Blanche DuBois, a former Southern belle, whose unexpected arrival in New Orleans sets in motion a dangerous power struggle between herself and her sister’s husband, Stanley. Tension builds as secrets about Stanley and Blanche are revealed and desires crescendo in this smoldering Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
Grade Recommendation: Grade 11 and up
Run time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Student Matinee: February 12, 2025
Student Matinee start time: 11:00am
Educational Interest: gender roles in society, gender inequality, abuse, rape, mental health, literature
Advisory: abuse; alcoholism; sexual assault; violence; racial stereotypes; implied homophobia
See below select script examples of advisories.
Please note - while the most explicit examples are provided, not every mention of the same advisory is listed. For instance, a word may appear more than once in the script but is only identified by one example below. For all script notes, please contact Theatre Calgary’s Education & Outreach Associate.
Page 36:
Pablo: Why don’t somebody go to the Chinaman’s and bring back a load of chop suey?
Page 37:
Stanley: Hurry back and we’ll fix you a sugar-tit.
Page 48:
Sound of a blow struck behind door. Stella cries out. Blanche screams, clutches Mitch’s arm, urging him to help Stella. Mitch hurries into the living room to pull Stanley off Stella.
Blanche: My sister is going to have a baby!
Page 59:
Stella: But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark- that sort of makes everything else seem- unimportant.
Page 87:
She was kicked out before Spring term ended- and I hate to tell you the reason that step was taken- A seventeen-year-old boy- she's gotten mixed up with!
Page 89:
This beautiful and talented young man was a degenerate.
Page 103:
Mitch snaps the light on, comes back, pulls Blanche to her feet, shoves her back against dressing table, pushing her face into the harsh glare of the naked bulb.
Page 105:
Blanche: But couldn't we get a colored girl to do it?
Page 115:
He springs toward her. She cries out. He seizes her hand holding the bottle, twists it behind her.
Stanley: Tiger- tiger! Drop the bottle-top! Drop it!
She drops the bottle-top. He bends her to his will, picks her up in his arms.
Stanley: We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!
He starts toward the bed with her.
Blithe Spirit
by Noël Coward
Directed by Nikki Loach
March 18 - April 13, 2025
Max Bell Theatre
Novelist Charles Condomine inadvertently summons the spirit of his first wife at a dinner party turned séance. Only he can see or hear her, but that won’t stop her attempts to destroy his new marriage. Farce and frights collide as Charles tries to keep his past from ruining his present in this supernatural comedy from one of theatre’s most beloved British wits, Noël Coward.
Grade Recommendation: Grade 7 and up
Run time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Student Matinee: April 2 & 9, 2025
Student Matinee start time: 11:00am
Educational Interest: literature, comedy in response to difficult societal times, ghosts and spiritualism
Advisory: some violence; smoking depicted; alcohol use; sexual references; sexism
See below select script examples of advisories.
Please note - while the most explicit examples are provided, not every mention of the same advisory is listed. For instance, a word may appear more than once in the script but is only identified by one example below. For all script notes, please contact Theatre Calgary’s Education & Outreach Associate.
Page 57:
Ruth: You were drunk.
Charles: Drunk?
Ruth: I found you in an alcoholic coma on the sofa with the fire out and your hair all over your face.
Page 59:
Charles: Women! My God, what I think of women!
Ruth: You were hag-ridden by your mother until you were twenty- three, then you got into the clutches of that awful Mrs. Whatever her name was.
Page 60:
Charles: If you wish to make an inventory of my sex life dear, I think it only fair to tell you that you’ve missed out several episodes. I’ll consult my diary and give you a complete list after lunch.
Ruth: It’s no use trying to impress me with your routine amorous exploits...
Page 68:
Elvira: The way that woman harps on bed is nothing short of erotic.
Page 111:
Charles: Did he make love to you?
Elvira: Of course.
Charles: Oh, Elvira!
Elvira: Only very discreetly- he was in the cavalry, you know.
Awowakii
by Sable Sweetgrass
Directed by Alanis King
April 22 - May 11, 2025
Big Secret Theatre (Arts Commons)
Awowakii is a living room comedy of errors about Chrissy Two-Guns, a Blackfoot transgender woman whose estranged father, Joseph, shows up in her life again. Joseph mistakes Chrissy’s friend Toni for Chrissy herself, and confusion ensues. This world premiere by local playwright Sable Sweetgrass is an immersive theatre experience, where the audience is enveloped within the world of the play in the intimate Arts Commons Big Secret Theatre.
Grade Recommendation: Grade 10 and up
Please inquire for more information.
Educational Interest: Indigenous perspective, Drag/ Transgender, Two-Spirit voices, family, comedy, acceptance
Advisory: residential school abuse, familial abuse, transgender issues, impacts of homophobia; swearing
See below select script examples of advisories.
Please note - while the most explicit examples are provided, not every mention of the same advisory is listed. For instance, a word may appear more than once in the script but is only identified by one example below. For all script notes, please contact Theatre Calgary’s Education & Outreach Associate.
Page 1:
The opening scene is a drag performance of Lady Nahaa lip-syncing to Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance.
....
Toni: I’m starving like a bitch!
.....
Chrissy: Remember, no booze, no drugs, no crazy drag queens or boyfriends.
Page 2:
Toni: I'm gay, HELLO!
.....
Toni: I’m pretty sure he can identify a flaming-homo when he sees one, even if it's his own uncle.
Page 6:
Richie: I was watching TV with Uncle Toni and he kept calling all these fine sexy ladies with big boobs, a bunch of bitch ass ho’s, and they wore shoes like these.
Page 8:
Toni: Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?
Page 9:
Joseph: I even went to a fag bar downtown asking around, but nobody had ever heard of you.
Joseph: And then your aunty, she said that she heard you were living here in Calgary... living as... a woman...
Are you using your body to make money?
Page 11:
I don’t want you to have to do this anymore, dancing, stripping or prostituting yourself for money.
Page 15:
Richie: Why did you have to tell my teacher that you were- transgender at the parent teacher interview?
Page 32:
Toni: I'm talking about the snip snip; hello, the surgery? Duh, the sex change surgery?
Page 39:
Chrissy: Joseph Two-guns was a son-of-a-bitch to live with and when he was drinking he got violent and I was tired of being the target.
She was already addicted to booze... meth.... and she was pregnant...
Ritchie: And when she OD’d, you took me in.
Page 40:
Richie: Because it’s exactly what happened to him when he was a kid growing up in residential school. He didn't know any better. They used to beat him there, they abused him. Then his dad used to beat him when he went back home.
Page 48:
Chrissy: I didn't hear you come into the house and suddenly you were standing behind me in the mirror, and you were drunk, and you started yelling,: “What the hell are you doing in your mother’s clothes? Are you a faggot? I'm telling you now, I’d rather a dead son than a faggot dressed up like a woman.” And you grabbed me and started beating me until I almost blacked out.
Page 49:
Joseph: I had friends in residential school who had been interfered with, and I was interfered with by some of the priests.
Legally Blonde
music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin
book by Heather Hach
based on the novel by Amanda Brown and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture
Directed and choreographed by Stephanie Graham
May 20 - June 15, 2025
Max Bell Theatre
A feel-good musical based on the novel and hit film. Legally Blonde is the story of Elle Woods, whose perfect life is turned upside down when her boyfriend dumps her to attend Harvard Law. Determined to win him back, Elle joins him at the prestigious school, defying stereotypes and proving herself in the process, with a little help from her Delta Nu Sorority friends and her dog Bruiser.
Grade Recommendation: Grade 8 and up
Run time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Student Matinee: May 28, June 4 & 11, 2025
Student Matinee start time: 11:00am
Educational Interest: law, women in law; Greek Chorus
Advisory: multiple mentions of the word God; sexual references; swearing
See below select script examples of advisories.
Please note - while the most explicit examples are provided, not every mention of the same advisory is listed. For instance, a word may appear more than once in the script but is only identified by one example below. For all script notes, please contact Theatre Calgary’s Education & Outreach Associate.
*Please note all capitalized words are lyrics, they are sung.
Page 2:
All Delta Nus: OH MY GOD, OMIGOD YOU GUYS
Page 13:
Serena: WELL, YOU’RE A SLUT
Page 32:
Callahan: WELL, HE PROMISED TO INVEST IT, BUT HE SPENT IT. ON PROSTITUTES. AND HEROIN. AND PORN.
YOUR GUY GOES FREE, AND HE CAN GET YOU HIGH AND LAID.
Oh, you lesbians think you’re so tough.
Page 38:
Serena: AS YOU PULL HER HAIR AND CALL HER “WHORE”.
Page 43:
Paulette: So what's she got that you don’t got? Three tits?
Page 45:
Paulette: AND THE WEDDING? HE KEPT ON POSTPONING.
STILL I FOLLOWED HIM ‘ROUND, IN A FOG,
TILL HE LEFT WITH SOME SKANK HE’D BEEN BONING.
Page 59:
Elle: - determined that Russell was legally the child’s father even though he was just a sperm donor.
Page 62:
Elle: Mr. Huntington makes an excellent point, but did the defendant keep a log of every sperm emission made throughout his life?
Callahan: Interesting. Why do you ask?
Elle: Well, unless the defendant attempted to contact every sexual encounter to see if a child resulted from those unions, he has no parental claim over this child whatsoever. Why now, why this sperm?
Callahan: I see your point.
Elle: ... And by Mr. Huntington’s standard, all masturbatory emissions where the sperm was clearly not seeking an egg could be called reckless abandonment.
Page 91:
Paulette: God, the new UPS guy’s like walking porn.
Page 93:
Serena: LOOK AT MY ASS! LOOK AT MY THIGHS!
I’M CATNIP TO THE GUYS.
THEY CHASED MY TAIL.
THEY DROOL AND PANT.
WANNA TOUCH THIS, BUT THEY CAN’T!
I BEND... AND SNAP!
FEEL HOW HOT IT’S GETTIN’?
BEND... AND SNAP!
THEN WHEN YOU GOT ‘EM SWEATIN’
Serena & Margot: SPRING... THE TRAP!
Page 99:
Brooke: Oh no. A Delta Nu would never sleep with a man in a thong!
Page 100:
Elle: Oh Paulette, that’s so great! I told you the Bend and Snap is infallible unless the guy is gay or someth---
Ohmigod. I’ve gotta go. Bye.
Page 101:
Elle: Nikos couldn’t have had an affair with Brooke! I just did Bend and Snap in front of him and nothing. Clearly, he must be gay.
Page 102:
Callahan: THIS GUY’S NOT GAY.
I SAY NOT GAY.
Elle: OF COURSE HE’S GAY!
Callahan: OR EUROPEAN!
Defense Team: OHHHHH!
All But Elle: GAY OR EUROPEAN
IT’S HARD TO GUARANTEE;
IS HE GAY OR EUROPEAN
(continues GAY or EUROPEAN song until page 107)
Page 102:
Callahan: THIS GUY’S NOT GAY.
I SAY NOT GAY.
Elle: OF COURSE HE’S GAY!
Callahan: OR EUROPEAN!
Defense Team: OHHHHH!
All But Elle: GAY OR EUROPEAN
IT’S HARD TO GUARANTEE;
IS HE GAY OR EUROPEAN
(continues GAY or EUROPEAN song until page 107)
Nikos & Carlos: FINE OKAY WE'RE GAY!
Page 104:
All: Gay! Sassily gay! YAAASS-ily gay gay gay gay
WANT TO BOOK NOW?
To book a performance, please email students@theatrecalgary.com or call 587 441 9060 and a member of our Box Office team will contact you to collect payment and provide further details.
Please include ALL of the following information in your email:
- School Name
- Grade(s)
- Name and date of performance
- Number of seats required (total to include both students and adults)
- Teacher/Contact Name
- Phone Number
- Best time to contact you by phone
- If any attendees require special seats due to mobility, sight, hearing or other limitations
More educational activities from Theatre Calgary
WORKSHOPS
Arts education is a powerful tool to build confidence, inspire creativity, make connections, forge friendships and teamwork, think critically, and learn through play. Theatre Calgary believes that the next generation of theatre artists and audiences are in your classroom.
Theatre Calgary offers ARTISTS in the CLASSROOM and SCHOOLS ON SITE programming. Choose whether you can bring your students to the theatre, or we bring artists to you!
Select Workshop length: 45 through 120-minute workshops, half or full day experiences, or longer residencies.
Choose from any of the following Workshop Experiences at the theatre or at your school:
- Musical Theatre
- Theatre Games
- Devised Theatre Creation
- Monologue or Scene Study
- Auditioning
- Technical Theatre
- Costume Design
- Shakespeare
- Stage Combat
All theatre workshops can include a backstage tour!
Coming to a matinee? Add a show-themed drama workshop day-of or prior to the performance date!
To find out more, book a workshop, or register for a program, contact:
Jennie Esdale, Education & Outreach Associate, Theatre Calgary
jesdale@theatrecalgary.com