Written by Guillermo Verdecchia
Directed by Matt McGeachy
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You Can’t Get There From Here, Vol. 2
Episode 3: A Good Place
Set in Toronto – considered a multicultural mosaic, a welcoming place for immigrants, and those who are searching for a better life. But can it become ‘home’ for everyone?
Jorge misses’ home and his mother, and is trying his best to make a life for himself in this new city away from Mexico. John, a man of God, just wants to help him settle into this new life, but as Jorge struggles to find meaning, good work and fights to stay clean – can John really promise him a better life here?
From award-winning playwright, Guillermo Verdecchia, A Good Place delves into the hardships of leaving home behind in the hopes of a better life.
About the Playwright
Guillermo Verdecchia
Guillermo Verdecchia is a writer of drama and fiction as well as a director, dramaturge, translator, and actor. He is the recipient of a Governor-General’s Award for Drama for his play Fronteras Americanas and a four-time winner of the Chalmers Canadian Play Award. His work, which includes The Art of Building a Bunker (with Adam Lazarus), the Governor-General shortlisted Noam Chomsky Lectures (with Daniel Brooks), the Seattle Times’ Footlight Award-winning Adventures of Ali & Ali (with Marcus Youssef and Camyar Chai), A Line in the Sand (with Marcus Youssef), bloom, and Another Country has been recorded, anthologized, translated into Spanish and Italian, produced in Europe and the US, and is studied in Latin America, Australia, Europe, and North America.
A former Artistic Director of Toronto’s Cahoots Theatre Projects, Guillermo is a frequently sought-after collaborator. He assisted in the development of Jovanni Sy ’s A Taste of Empire for Cahoots, and directed the production in various demonstration kitchens around Toronto. He has also served as dramaturg on Sarena Parmar’s The Orchard at the Shaw Festial and David Yee’s Governor-General’s Award nominated lady in the red dress, which was produced by fu-GEN Theatre. Now Director of New Play Development at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre, Guillermo has served as dramaturge for numerous plays and productions including Vern Theissen’s multi-award winning adaptation of Sommerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage, and Anthony MacMahon’s adaptation of Animal Farm. He has translated plays by Garcia Lorca and is particularly fond of Once 5 Years Pass.
He has an M.A. from the University of Guelph where he received a Governor-General’s Gold Medal for Academic Achievement. He has published a number of scholarly articles and contributed book chapters on aspects of intercultural theatre practice in Canada, and teaches regularly at the University of Toronto.
His most recent work includes an adaptation of the 12th Century Sufi poem The Conference of the Birds, which was featured in Soulpepper’s audio program Around the World in 80 Plays. His play Our Heart Learns opens in Genoa this fall, and he is working on a new play provisionally entitled Galicia.
About the Director
Matt McGeachy
Matt McGeachy (dramaturg): For Factory: 10 seasons from 2012-2022. Most recently, Rachel Mutombo’s Vierge, Colleen Wagner’s Armadillos, David Yee’s among men, You Can’t Get There From Here vol. 2, and David Yee’s acts of faith. Select other theatre: Matthew Mackenzie and Mariya Khomutova’s First Metis Man of Odesa (Punctuate! Theatre national tour/Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best New Play), Marjorie Chan’s Year of the Cello (Theatre Passe Muraille), Marie Barlizo’s Lucky (The Cultch), Ronnie Burkett’s Forget Me Not (Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes/Luminato), among others. He currently works as a freelance dramaturg. Other: Matt was assistant director of the Kennedy Center’s New Play Dramaturgy Intensive from 2011-2014, and has taught or led workshops at the University of Toronto, University of Toronto Mississauga, Humber College, and Theatre Ontario. Matt is Manager of Government Relations at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, President of LMDA Canada, and a member of TAPA’s Advocacy Committee.
Cast & Creative Team
Matthew Edison
John
Vivien Endicott-Douglas
Shalimar
Michael Scholar, Jr.
Jorge
