Unexploded Ordnance

Created and performed by Ryan Kerr (Fleshy Thud)
with Curtis Driedger, Matt Greco, Eryn Lidster
directed by Kate Story

Unexploded Ordnance: a one-man journey through the Great War, brought to you by a stellar team of some of Peterborough’s best independent artists.

100 years after Armistice Day, performer Ryan Kerr takes audiences on a unique path through World War 1, incorporating theatre, live music, dance, and the radical DADA art movement. Unexploded Ordnance – created with director Kate Story, and performed with consummate musicians Curtis Driedger and Matt Greco – is moving, funny, and thought-provoking by turns, providing a glimpse into the almost indescribable carnage, the politics, and the arts of the period, with a poignant personal vein. Live music and an audience-participation “DADA Randomization Machine” introduces a hilarious touch.

The Creative Team:

Ryan Kerr (creator/performer) is the artistic director of small black-box theatre The Theatre on King. Ryan has directed and/or choreographed over 30 original works, and overseen countless others since the opening of TTOK. He has written two commissioned theatre shows on the Great War for 4^th Line Theatre, and Arbor. He is also an experienced lighting designer and sound/lighting technician, having been technical director of Public Energy for almost fifteen years, and in the past five years has trained four new technical personnel at The Theatre on King, who have gone on to work professionally with Arbor Theatre, Public Energy, the Toronto Fringe Festival, and others. He was introduced to theatre in high school in Scarborough.

Kate Story (creator/director) is a writer, performer, and choreographer, and the 2015 recipient of the Ontario Arts Foundation’s K.M. Hunter Artist Award in theatre. She is dramaturge for Public Energy’s Alternating Currents program, and has directed, co-created with, and/or performed with diverse theatre and dance artists in Peterborough, Toronto, and St. John’s.

Curtis Driedger (musician) is a multi-instrumentalist and singer. He moved here from Toronto in 1989, leaving behind a very successful run with his ground breaking band, the CeeDees, who appeared in Ron Mann’s celebrated film, “Poetry in Motion”, backing up poet Allen Ginsberg in 1982. Curtis is a local go-to resource for dance music, theatre related projects, and music lessons. He has participated in many band projects, and over the years founded the Mandolin Society of Peterborough (2003), an 18 piece mandolin orchestra which he continues to arrange for and direct, and perhaps most notably the Zippity Doo Dah Community Soul Chorus (2011) which has swelled to over 80 members, for which he also arranges music.

An always in-demand fixture in the Peterborough music community, Matt Greco (musician) is well-known for his extensive, diverse drumming skill and his ability to collaborate in a variety of musical styles. With over 25 years of experience, his laid-back demeanour betrays a fiery passion for his instrument. Matt has played with a wide variety of groups, from jazz-inspired ensembles to rockabilly/swing, rock, funk, blues, roots, and country, and has toured across Canada and beyond.

Eryn Lidster (stage manager and tech) is an emerging theatre artist. Since 2014, when she attended her first live show at The Theatre on King, she has been involved in the production of over 20 theatrical projects, including Public Energy’s 2017 Alternating Currents festival (production manager), and Wyatt Lamoureaux’s Algonquin Highway (stage management and lighting/sound operation), which premiered at the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival. Eryn has been training in stage management, sound and lighting operation, and lighting design with TTOK’s artistic director Ryan Kerr for the past 3 years.