TFS Acting Students Bring Adaption of Pulitzer Prize-Winning Play to Life in “For What It’s Worth”
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Toronto Film School Acting students are set to tackle an adaptation of a Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a charmingly eccentric family when their production of For What It’s Worth hits the stage at the 918 Bathurst Centre later this month.
Directed by Tanya Rintoul, the 75-minute play is an adaptation of Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s 1937 play You Can’t Take It With You, which is widely regarded as one of the most popular and successful plays of modern times.
“I am amazed everyday how relevant the text is to us still, and particularly to our students who are choosing to pursue their dreams, as I did, over far more straightforward professions,” Rintoul said of the play, which she adapted for her talented cast of fifth term Acting for Film, TV & the Theatre students.
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Rintoul notes that, in the opening stage directions of the play’s original text, Hart and Kaufman tell audiences that they are in the living room of a family home, “where its inhabitants go about the business of living in the fullest sense of the word. This is a house where you do as you like, no questions asked.”
It’s that last phrase, Rintoul said, that she turns over in her brain regularly, and that she made a point of both bolding and underlining in her adaptation.
“This is a house where you do as you like, no questions asked. This phrase, this mantra, continues to strike my heart open. It encapsulates one of the purest forms of love: to see and be seen, to be supported, to be celebrated, to have the most fun possible. To exist without judgement – which, these days, is in itself a radical act,” she said.
“There is a word we use for people who make art as hobbies, people who are not professionals at a craft: amateur. It has such a negative connotation, an immediate judgement of how lacking in real skill or talent the amateur must be. But the definition of amateur is, in fact, for the love of.”
Rintoul’s ultimate hope as the director of For What It’s Worth, is that audiences walk away from the theatre reminded of what they do “for the love of.”
For What It’s Worth, which is stage managed by Salma Ali, will take to the stage at the Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media & Education for a three-performance run from March 19-21 as follows:
- Wednesday, March 19 at 7 p.m.
- Thursday, March 20 at 9 p.m.
- Friday, March 21 at 7 p.m.
The 918 Bathurst Centre is located at 918 Bathurst St. Tickets are free and available at the door.
The Cast of For What It’s Worth:
Sophia Cano as Essie Carmichael
Jarele Casiquin as Henderson
Idris Ali as Tony Kirby
Jaideep Kang as Mr. Anthony Kirby
Clarissa Naumova as Gay Wellington & Olga Katrina
Robert Pavlopoulos as Boris Kolenkhov
Sachin Ramkaran as Ed Carmichael
Juné Nefretiri Swaby as Penelope Sycamore
Dylan Sywyk as Martin Vanderhof (Grandpa)
Aika Yusubova as Alice Sycamore
Veign Nero as Paul Sycamore
Roxie Rösner as Mrs. Miriam Kirby
