Corona Cold Reads: Love’s Labour’s Lost

These are crazy times and we’ve all taken on a bunch of new projects as we socially isolate in order to help stop the spread of Covid-19.

We’re donating where we can, we’re cleaning the pantry, we’re organizing the 2300+ title dvd library. We finished work on the Nominee Interview Series even though the live event for our yearly Critics’ Pick Awards had to be cancelled (we’ve still got trophies to give out, eventually). We started the Corona Movie Club to help curb our boredom and constant need to talk about movies with other human beings. I’m even watching network procedurals and actually writing about them.

But what we all really need is comfort. We need our favourite things and our favourite people and right now those are hard to come by so we have to do everything we can to bring them together whenever possible. For me, there’s nothing quite so comforting and joyful as Shakespeare. Luckily, I know a lot of people who also love Shakespeare- a few old friends from my alma mater’s Shakespeare Society and a few of my favourite Toronto theatre artists, all of whom just so happen to be talented and generous and responsibly socially isolated enough to want to join a nearly 3-hour 19-person Zoom call for the purposes of livestreaming Shakespeare on YouTube.

Check out Love’s Labour’s Lost in audio form below (or on iTunes) then tune into our YouTube page to find the rest of our readings.

A huge thank you to the cast of Love’s Labour’s Lost. Because this was our final Shakespeare reading in the series, we invited anyone who had joined us for a previous reading to be in the cast. To accommodate the extra people, we doubled up the largest roles to expand a 19-character play to fit a 36-person cast.

Ferdinand (Acts 1 & 2)- Nicanor Campos
Ferdinand (Act 4)- Mo Kamaly
Ferdinand (Act 5)- Elizabeth Ramirez
Longaville- Mark Kreder
Domain- Samantha Chappell
Berown (Acts 1, 2, 3)- Gaby Grice
Berown (Acts 4 & 5)- Scott Garland
Princess (Act 2)- Elizabeth Morriss
Princess (Act 4) – Miriam B
Princess (Act 5)- Olivia Klausen McCargar
Maria- Melissa Wright
Katharine- Jason Chappell
Rosaline (Act 2)- Fabiana Cabral
Moth (Act 1)/Rosaline (Act 4)- Hilary Wirachowsky
Rosaline (Act 5)- Laura Hubbard
Boyet (Act 2)- Andrew Hawley
Boyet (Act 4)- David Armstrong
Boyet (Act 5)- Michael Ross Albert
Don Adriano de Armado (Act 1)- Victoria Urquhart
Don Adriano de Armado (Act 3)- Christopher Prentice
Don Adriano de Armado (Act 5 scene 1)- Morgan Ford
Don Adriano de Armado (Act 5 scene 2)- Shalyn McFaul
Costard (Act 1)- Saiya Floyd
Costard (Act 3)- Andrew Patti
Costard (Act 4 scene 1)- Steve Vargo
Costard (Act 4 scenes 2 & 3)- Haley Dinel
Costard (Act 5)- Hilary Wartinger
Moth (Act 3)- James King
Moth (Act 5)- Nicole Falgoust
Holofernes (Act 4)- Weldon Goree
Holofernes (Act 5)- Susan Bond
First Lord/Mercade- Steve Fisher
Sir Nathaniel- Jim Hill
Dull- Timothy Ng
Jaquenetta- Jeff Dingle
Forester – Stephanie Junge-Filipek