Bound To Create Theatre

Bound to Create Theatre was formed in 2003 by theatre artists Lauren Brotman and Jack Grinhaus. B2C believes that theatre has an essential role and responsibility to its culture and its society. In Canada we are in need of it to understand our ever-growing country, still searching for an identity, which changes every day. Our work encompasses various art forms and styles of theatre and fuses them into a wild new world that is both familiar and unfamiliar. We strive for a full theatrical experience that can speak in all the languages of the theatre and can also find its social relevance to its community and abroad.

Lauren is an actor, playwright, and theatre creator. As actor, selected credits include: And By The Way Miss (Dora Award Outstanding Ensemble/Production-Theatre Direct/URGE);  The Complex: A Toronto Tale (B2C/Toronto Fringe); Apricots (dir. Adam Lazarus, SummerWorks) - Outstanding Performance- NOW Toronto; Ten Green Bottles (dir. Mark Cassidy), Twelfth Night (HRSC.- dir. Kevin Hammond)/European Tour (dir. Norbert Kentrup); Antigone, No Exit (Theatre Inferno).New Play Developmental Workshops:  Martyrs Street (Wkshp), dir. Chris Abraham; The Women of Troy (Festival of Creation, dir. John Jack Paterson); Possessed (Theatre Passe Muraille Buzz!); Split Screen (Nightwood Theatre Director Summit), and Unburdened (Modest Productions). Lauren is a recipient of the Christopher Plummer Fellowship Award (the Globe Theatre, London, UK.

As creator, Lauren is currently co-creating The Grace Project/SICK for the Next Stage Festival with Judith Thompson. Lauren’s new play, Even for Now, co-created with Amber Godfrey has received Creator’s Reserve grants from Nightwood Theatreand Theatre Direct, and was workshopped in 2009 with director Maja Ardal, dramaturge Catherine Hernandez, and Assistant Director Julia Lederer. As an artist committed to youth, Lauren directed the youth-based Power of One Project (Pleiades Theatre), co-directed Afamefuna! for Theatre Revolve, is Outreach Director at Pleiades Theatre, and is a recipient of the Jessica Fraser Award  for Outstanding Contributions to Theatre for Young Audiences.

 Lauren has trained in a variety of styles: Classical, Multidisc, Contemporary, Collective Creation, Devised Theatre, and Suzuki-Viewpoints (SITI Company).  Lauren was a 2007-2008 BASH! Artist (Canadian Stage), has facilitated workshops and talkbacks around the province, (Pleiades Theatre, Theatre Direct, Canadian Stage) and has sat on a myriad of juries. Lauren’s new play Jenny’s Room, has received grants from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council Creator’s Reserve, has received workshop presentations at LabCab and Canadian Stage and will be presented in 2011.

Jack Grinhaus has worked in theatre for most of his life. Primarily a director and actor, Jack has also worked in various streams of theatre as producer ( The Grace Project: SICK {Dora Nomination Outstanding Production, Outstanding Ensemble}, Paradise By The River, Canstage Float, Rougher Trade, Tabula Rasa, 24U2C, Toronto Without Words, Jenny’s Room, The Complex: A Toronto Tale), a playwright (Tabula Rasa, Toronto Without Words, The Complex: A Toronto Tale) that has been produced Off Off Broadway (The Grownups Playground), an award winning actor with numerous credits in the city and abroad: Rougher Trade, Tabula Rasa, (B2C), I, Marcus Garvey ( b current/Theatre Archipelago) The Bundle (Alan Dilworth), The Bewtiched (Nigel Shawn Williams) Toronto Noir [Summerworks 2009 /Outstanding Ensemble - NOW Toronto], The Off Off Broadway production of, The Grownups Playground, the U.S National tour of the original musical, Tour De France, Mr. Pink in Reservoir Dogs Live, The Mousetrap at the Toronto Truck Theatre and the Dora award winning production of Romeo and Juliet Remixed.). He was a contributor to the World Theatre Encyclopedia as well as a theatre columnist for BlogTo. He also possesses an MFA and BA Honours in Theatre from York University’s Theatre program as well as an Associate Degree in Acting from The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, and has studied intensely with renowned artists Uta Hagen, Jackie Bartone, R.H. Thomson, Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, Graham McLaren, Kim Collier, Eda Holmes and Jim Warren.

Assistant Director Credits: Ghosts (Morris Panych/ Soulpepper), ART (Morris Panych/ Canadian Stage Company), Seven (Sarah Stanley/City of Wine Festival/ Theatre Passe Muraille) Twelfth Night (Kevin Hammond/Humber River Shakespeare Company), , Upcoming: Cartes (Observer/assist/ Robert LePage/ Ex Machina)

Directing Credits: For Bound To Create Theatre - The Complex: A Toronto Tale (Festival of Creation at the Canadian Stage/ 2010 Toronto Fringe Festival), Saved (2011 Toronto Fringe Festival/Patron's Pick/Best of Venue/Factory Theatre Studio), Toronto Without Words I (Squiggfest Festival), Jenny's Room (Factory Theatre Lab Cab); New York – Dark Rapture (Theatre 22/Landslide Prod) The Grownup’s Playground (Naked Players) For York - Much Ado About Nothing, The Start of Man and The North. Other; Carmen (Opera Lirica Italiana), Tough Jews ( Harold Green Jewish Theatre/ Workshop Reading), Now or Never (Pleiades Theatre/ Yonge Street Mission), Upcoming: Phaedra’s Lust (Factory Lab Cab 2011), Nutcase (In association with Pleiades Theatre and the Habima National Theatre of Israel)

Jack is the recipient of a 2002 THEA award for his performance as Stanley Jerome in Brighton Beach Memoirs, was part of the 2010 Canadian Stage BASH Directors Residency as well as the inaugural Director’s Lab North at Tarragon Theatre and currently facilitates acting, movement, improvisation and creative ensemble workshops throughout Ontario.