The Original Norwegian in association with The Toronto Centre for the Arts and Breakaway Addiction Services

Proudly presents the World Premiere of Guns & Roses

A new play by Julian DeZotti

Directed by Julian DeZotti

Featuring:

Brendan McMurtry-Howlett, Hannah Cheesman,

Colin Doyle, Amy Lee and Ben Sanders

Live Soundscape/Score: DJ FASE

SEX. DRUGS. GUNS. HOMEWORK.

WELCOME TO HIGH SCHOOL.

Inspired by real Toronto teens and the city's headlines, Guns & Roses is a fast-paced, honest look into the lives of these teens and the often too-secret world they inhabit. Rather than sentimentalizing or sugar-coating the high school experience, Guns & Roses uses authentic dialogue and situations to portray the lives of five teenagers - this is not a finger waving after school special. You will not hear the words "Just say no" and it is not about "bad kids" pressuring "good kids", it's about taking a real look at their pressures and reality- drug (ecstasy) use and abuse, sexuality, violence at school and at home, racism, to start. You thought your days were full. Focusing on teens from Toronto's Rosedale neighbourhood, and various walks of life the show incorporates a live DJ (Toronto's very own DJ FASE, rated the city's top club DJ by NOW Magazine) and video projections (through which the characters send text messages etc.), creating a vibrant, kinetic production. Guns & Roses, was developed with playwrights Djanet Sears and Tom Walmsley and through staged readings with the Canadian Stage Company and Roseneath Theatre.

The play focuses five teenagers at the end of their Gr. 11 year, finishing exams and gearing up for the summer ahead. When the summer plans involve a rich kid wannabe drug dealer chasing overnight glory, an existential crisis, duking it out with your folks, your dad's gun and a little pill called Ecstasy - the summer high comes crashing down all in one night. In what starts off as a high promising them a world of possibility, hope and love, their bliss and delirium quickly give way to reveal the harsh consequences that lie beyond their insulated world.

Written by one of Toronto's exciting emerging artists, Julian DeZotti (NOW Magazine's Top Ten Artists To Watch) , Guns & Roses first entered his head when overhearing his 16 year old cousins talk about their daily lives. "It wasn't that long ago I was in high school, but for a lot of what they were saying, I just couldn't relate back to my own high school experience. They all have cell phones, gaming consoles, iPods and access to drugs that provide an adult experience, not pot, but things like ecstasy - very emotion heightening and strong chemical drugs. This just sounded like such a foreign world to me." This year alone saw a U.N. report on drugs that listed Canada as the top producer of ecstasy on the North America drug market and another year of gun violence in the city of Toronto. While being a show for theatre-goers of any ilk, the show will resonate with teens, but hopefully even more so with parents.. "There are some very adult experiences being had by todays teens, and some experiences other generations just didn't have, like sexting for example." says DeZotti. To ensure authenticity, the production not only has worked with teens, but also has the support and research of Breakaway Addiction Services, a progressive organization committed to aiding youth and families with variety of harm reduction and addiction services. One teenage male in their program, asking to be identified as "X", said that "E makes you feel like a $10.00 bi-polar disorder for a day."