≈ 2 hours · With intermission
Last updated: January 31, 2020
Artistic Director’s Notes
A child chosen to fight an unvanquishable villain is a well-known theme, from David and Goliath to Harry Potter and Voldemort. While there is a kind of conventional villain in The Neverending Story, in the form of the werewolf Gmork, the real villain is The Nothing – a much more difficult villain to combat, harder to identify and see. The Nothing represents the empty places that have never been touched by imagination. In places most alive with stories, The Nothing actively and violently erases them. The Nothing doesn’t care which stories and characters disappear, and takes no pleasure in its destructiveness. It just IS, like an aimless tornado. The Nothing exists, pre-dates creation, and grows stronger when we don’t fill the dark void with story, imagination, character and light.
Our conceptual design likens the darkness of The Nothing and its light-filled opposite to the pin pricks of stars battling the black sheet of the night sky, and offers that The Nothing is the immeasurable emptiness that was before the beginning of the universe. When all the matter and antimatter met long ago, and that moment of infinite pressure made all the world’s elements burst forth – that was the ultimate act of creation, or for the religious among us, imagination. Every star is a story dreamed up, everything that reflects or emits light is a strike of creativity against The Nothing. Fantastica itself is the realm of the imagination. When our hero is faced with this world collapsing – along with all the acts of imagination, stories and characters in it – his entire universe is threatened with annihilation.
In this time of young people fiercely standing up to today’s unvanquishable threats, like the existential threat of Climate Change, the idea of a child being chosen to save all that we know, or to re-invent everything that could be, is no longer relegated to the realm of the imagination. I hope with this imagined story that we might inspire some young people in the same way that those real young fighters and heroes are inspiring us.
Cast
Gmork, Urgl and Engywook, Ensemble
Sean Arbuckle
Bastian’s Father, A Purple Buffalo, A Traveller, A Refugee, Ensemble
Tim Campbell
Ygramul, Chancellor of the Ivory Tower, A Refugee, Ensemble
Laura Condlln
Maya, Ensemble
Ijeoma Emesowum
Eribo, A Bully, Ensemble
Jordin Hall
Morla, Elder of the Grassy Ocean, Sassafranian Child, Ensemble
Kim Horsman
Atreyu
Andrew Iles
Bookseller, Cairon, Sassafranian Child, Ensemble
Roy Lewis
Ensemble
Hilary McCormack
A Bully, Child of the Grassy Ocean, A Traveller, A Refugee, Ensemble
Katelyn McCulloch
Artax, A Bully, Ensemble
Andrew Robinson
Uyulala
Jennifer Rider-Shaw
Bastian
Jake Runeckles
Falkor, The Caretaker, Ensemble
Rylan Wilkie
The Childlike Empress, Sassafranian Adult, Ensemble
Mamie Zwettler
The Puppets
Artax The Horse
Andrew Robinson (Head)
Rylan Wilkie (Heart)
Ijeoma Emesowum (Hind)
Jordin Hall & Hilary McCormack (Saddle)
The Purple Buffalo
Sean Arbuckle,
Tim Campbell,
Jordin Hall,
Katelyn McCulloch
Morla The Turtle
Kim Horsman with Tim Campbell
Laura Condlln
Ijeoma Emesowum
Jordin Hall
Roy Lewis
Hilary McCormack
Katelyn McCulloch
Andrew Robinson
Rylan Wilkie
Mamie Zwettler
Ygramul The Spider
Laura Condlln with Tim Campbell
Ijeoma Emesowum
Jordin Hall
Hilary McCormack
Katelyn McCulloch
Andrew Robinson
Falkor The Luck Dragon
Rylan Wilkie (Head)
Mamie Zwettler (Hind)
Urgl and Engywook
Sean Arbuckle with the assistance of Andrew Robinson
The Wind Balloons
Ijeoma Emesowum (Mayestral)
Kim Horsman (Baureo)
Katelyn McCulloch (Lirr)
Mamie Zwettler (Sheerek)
Creative Team
Director: Jillian Keiley
Designer: Bretta Gerecke
Lighting Designer: Leigh Ann Vardy
Composer: Hawksley Workman
Sound Designer: Don Ellis
Movement and Puppetry Director: Brad Cook
Associate Director: Mikaela Davies
Stage Manager: Brian Scott
Assistant Stage Manager: Jacki Brabazon
Assistant Stage Manager: Loreen Gibson
Credits
This stage adaptation of The Neverending Story has been authorized by Verlag für Kindertheater Uwe Weitendorf, Hamburg.
The Neverending Story is produced by permission of the Playwright and Marquis Literary (Colin Rivers) www.mqlit.ca.
David S. Craig is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.
The Neverending Story was first commissioned and produced in 2007–2008 by Imagination Stage (Janet Stanford, Artistic Director) and the Seattle Children’s Theatre (Linda Hartzell, Artistic Director).
This production of The Neverending Story was originally produced by the Stratford Festival in the summer of 2019 in its Avon Theatre. The set, props, costumes and wigs were originally fabricated by the artisans of the Stratford Festival in the Festival’s shops.
The original scenery, props, costumes and wigs for this production were fabricated by the artisans of the Stratford Festival, including:
PROPERTIES
Head of Properties: Dona Hrabluk
Lead Builder: Heather Ruthig
Assisted by: Eric Ball, Karine Cusson, Ken Dubblestyne, Michelle Jamieson, Kathryn Kerr, Shirley Lee, Jennifer Macdonald, Nina Mueller, Dylan Mundy, Victoria Spain, Lisa Summers, Katelyn Vere
Properties Buyer: Tracy Fulton
Assistant Properties Buyer: Kathleen Orlando
SCENIC ART
Head Scenic Artist: Duncan Johnstone
Assistant Head Scenic Artist: Daniel McManus
Assisted by: Kira Duff, Kevin Kemp, Michael Wharran, Blair Yeomans
SCENIC CARPENTRY
Head Carpenter: Ryan Flanagan
Assistant Head Carpenter: Paul Cooper
Head of Automation: Ian Phillips
Assisted by: Simon Aldridge, David Bedford, Gary Geiger, Paul Hyde, Scott King, Cory Mielke, Stephen Morgan, John Roth, Jody Satchell, Joseph Saunders, Scott Schmidt, Mark Smith, Cliff Tipping
WARDROBE
Head of Wardrobe: Michelle Barnier, Kimberly Catton, Elizabeth Copeman
Cutters: Kim Crossley, Melanie Farrar-Jackson, Luci Pottle, Jennie Wonnacott
First Hands: Wendy Bendle, Monica Berg, Joanne Davies, Gina Schellenberg
Sewers: Susan E. Dick, Allison Erb, Evelyn Gascho, Sharon Gashgarian, June Gunn, Shona Humphrey, Alanna Kitson, Olga M. Kouzmina, Laurie Krempien-Hall, Debbie Kschesinski, Katelyn Low, Mary-Lou Mason, Elisabeth Mastrandrea, Magdalene Raycraft, Cynthia E. Rusak, Joan Scheerer
Bijoux/Decoration: Tami MacDonald
Assisted by: Rebecca Dillow, Liane Guttadauria, Kathi Posliff
Boots and Shoes: Sarah Cook
Assisted by: Karen Beames, Chantelle Laliberte, Connie Puetz
Dyeing: Linda Pinhay
Assisted by: Sylvia Minarcin
Costume Painting: Lisa Hughes
Millinery: Monica Viani
Assisted by: Thea C. Crawford, Kaz Maxine
Apprentice Milliner: Chantal Laurendeau
Wardrobe Buyers: Penelope Schledewitz, Erin Michelle Steele
Wardrobe Apprentice: Erin Lounsbury
Warehouse Supervisor: William Schmuck
Warehouse Assistant: Michael Piscitelli
WIGS AND MAKEUP
Head of Wigs and Makeup: Gerald Altenburg
Construction Crew: Teddi Barrett, Erica Croft, Jessica Elsbrie, Lena Festoso, Tracy Frayne, Dave Kerr, Angela Moncur, Barbara Newbery, Mallory Reeves, Alana Scheel, Julie Scott, Stanley Wickens
Stratford Festival scenic carpenters and wigs and make-up attendants are members of Local 357 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), and scenic artists are members of IATSE Local 828. Stratford Festival Wardrobe Show Heads and Attendants are members of IATSE TWU Local 924.
Artists
Jillian Keiley has directed and taught across Canada and internationally. She was the founding Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud. Highlights from her 27 years with the company include In Your Dreams Freud, Under Wraps, AfterImage, The Cheat, The Chekhov Variations, and Salvage: Story of a House, Oil and Water, Between Breaths, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, and I Forgive You, most of which were featured on tours across Canada including the NAC. Jillian assumed her role as NAC English Theatre Artistic Director in 2012 and finished her tenure in 2022. Other NAC productions include A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night, Metamorphoses: Based on the Myths of Ovid and Copenhagen. She also directed Bakkhai, The Diary of Anne Frank, and As You Like It for the Stratford Festival, as well as The Neverending Story and Alice Through the Looking-Glass, both produced as collaborations between the Stratford Festival and the NAC. Tempting Providence, her collaboration with Robert Chafe for Theatre Newfoundland Labrador, toured internationally for 12 years. Her production of Tell Tale Harbour at the Confederation Centre for the Arts was a blockbuster hit at the Confederation Centre this past summer and she looks forward to opening summer productions of Richard the Second at the Stratford Festival and Come From Away in Gander, Newfoundland. Jillian holds Honorary Doctorates of Letters from both Memorial University and York University, and she was the winner of the Siminovitch Prize for Directing in 2004 and the Canada Council’s John Hirsch Prize in 1997.
Tim has appeared in over 35 productions at the Stratford Festival, including John Proctor in The Crucible, Buckingham in Henry VIII, Chris Keller in All My Sons, and Horatio in Hamlet. Other theatre credits include Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare Theatre, Washington DC); Death of a Salesman, Twelve Angry Men, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Soulpepper); and Private Lives (Chicago Shakespeare). Recent film and TV credits: Robyn Hood (Global), Under the Banner of Heaven (FX), You Can Live Forever (Prospector Films), and V/H/S/94 (Shudder).
Sound design credits include The Neverending Story (NAC/Stratford Festival); Anne and Gilbert, A Christmas Carol (NAC); Bakkhai, The Diary of Anne Frank, As You Like It (Stratford Festival); The Colony of Unrequited Dreams, Oil and Water, Under Wraps, Afterimage, Fear of Flight (Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland); Ann and Seamus (Shallaway); Rick Mercer's Show Me the Button, I'll Push It. Film/TV: Boom Operator: Republic of Doyle, Random Passage (CBC); Love and Savagery (Morag); Rare Birds. Production sound: Danny (NFB); Misery Harbour (UIP Denmark). Producer/engineer: Hunter Hunter, Spectators (Amelia Curran); Dardanelles, The Eastern Light (Dardanelles); The Once, We Win Some We Lose (The Once); All Will Be Well (Fortunate Ones). Musician: Boy on Bridge (Alan Doyle). Awards: JUNO for Hunter Hunter; East Coast Music Award for The Once, Duane Andrews; MUSIC NL - Industry Professional of the Year.
Mikaela Lily Davies is an actor, director and creator. She is a 2020 graduate of the prestigious CBC Canadian Film Centre's Acting Conservatory. She has performed in eight shows with Soulpepper Theatre (Two Dora Mavor Moore nominations for Best Ensemble) and spent four seasons at The Stratford Festival, playing Katherine of France in Breath of Kings, Irma in The Madwoman of Chaillot and Beatrice-Joanna in The Changeling. She is a graduate of the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction and the inaugural recipient of the Jon Kaplan Canadian Stage Performer Award. She holds a Elizabeth Sterling Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Comedic Performance for the titular role Miss Bennet at The Citadel Theatre and a Montreal English Theatre Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Performance for her work as Bess in The Last Wife at The Centaur Theatre. She has directed and created a handful of plays with Polly Phokeev including the award-winning How We Are, and The Mess. You can see her on this season's Murdoch Mysteries and hear her on Audible, voicing Lila in Camilla Gibb's beautiful novel, The Relatives. Most recently, she directed and co-created a new original musical adaptation of Master and Margarita created with Phokeev and Hailey Gillis, that received a workshop production at Crow's Theatre.
Brian is happy and grateful to return to the NAC. Thank you’s to Jillian, Andy, Samira, the Copenhagen Company, and all the staff at NAC English Theatre. Previous productions at the National Arts Centre include the just-before-the-pandemic-hit The Neverending Story, Alice Through The Looking-Glass (both produced in association with the Stratford Festival) and Frida K.
The original stage manager on this production of Copenhagen is Kai Yueh Chen. Brian would like to thank Kai for all of his help and assistance on this second rehearsal/performance process.
Brian lives in Stratford, Ontario.
