Tapestry have announced this year’s Tapestry Shorts for November 13th to 16th at the Distillery.  There’s a twist this year.  Like last year the show will start in the Ernest Balmer Studio but then will move around different venues in the Distillery complex.  Some of these locations will feature “booster shots” of flavour stimulants, ranging from craft beer and sake to artisanal ice cream.  Think Mill Street, the sake place and Greg’s.  Maybe Soma too?  Chilli chocolate bleating goat shots?  There will be ten shorts performed by Catherine Affleck,  Alex Dobson, Keith Klassen and Krisztina Szabò.  I’ve seen several of these pieces in workshop and I can’t wait to see them in more polished form.  Seriously, this is one of THE opera events in the Toronto calendar.  Go if you can.

The complete line up is below the cut.

1984: THE FOLDED PAPER by Nicolas Billon and Christopher Thornborrow
Orwell’s iconic Winston Smith is secretly handed a love note from Julia.  Not sure if it is real or a trap, he hides it, agonizing over what it could mean.

BESSIE by Morris Panych and Christopher Thornborrow
A star jazz singer is struck by her boyfriend just as she is about to go on stage. She fights him, egging him on to finally leave her.  He does, she touches up, and goes on stage to thunderous applause.

BLIND WOMAN by David Yee and James Rolfe
A dancer who has lost her vision remembers her former self dancing in a conversation with her shadow.  They dance together, but not quite together anymore.

BROOKS BUSH GANG by Hannah Moscovitch and Benton Roark
Based on real events, the sexuality, criminality, and humanity of the Toronto-based, women-run, 1860s Brooks Bush Gang–culprits of a high-profile murder on the Don River Bridge–are explored.

DAMNATION by Morris Panych and Ivan Barbotin
A man is condemned to hell, in an office that’s too hot, with a fan that doesn’t work, and a fly that won’t stop buzzing. Instead of cracking, he devises a plan to escape and return to the living.

FETISHIST by David Yee and Ivan Barbotin
An Asian woman undergoes surgery to look more white and be generally more accepted in society. Her Caucasian boyfriend, she discovers, has an Asian fetish and doesn’t know how to love her anymore.

MEMES by Nicholas Billon and Dean Burry
A hipster couple on a first date discover they don’t have anything in common . . . until they discover a shared passion for trending memes.  Virtual romance and hilarity ensue!

OUBLIETTE by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard and Ivan Barbotin
Laura has just escaped imprisonment in a basement in suburbia. Exulting in her new found freedom, Laura discovers how foreign her own name sounds to her.  She sings it over and over again, reuniting with herself as she reunites with the rest of the world.

THE OVERCOAT by Morris Panych and James Rolfe
Panych’s hugely successful reinterpretation of short stories by Russian dramatist Nikolai Gogol, the wordless The Overcoat, is brought to life once again by Panych and Rolfe in a scene where two comically opinionated tailors dominate the man being fitted for a simple overcoat.

R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by Nicolas Billon and Nicole Lizée
Two scientists confer excitedly in panic as they search for ways to combat the hordes of robots that have turned on them, the creators.  “The children are home Domin.”

The shows are at the Ernest Balmer Studio, Studio 315, 9 Trinity Street, Distillery Historic District.  For more information and to purchase online, visit tapestryopera.com or call 416.537.6066.  Tickets are $35.