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Strike! (musical)

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This article is about the musical play. For the 1998 film, see The Hairy Bird.
Strike!
Written byDanny Schur and Rick Chafe
Music byDanny Schur
Lyrics byDanny Schur
Date premieredMay 2005
Place premieredRainbow Stage, Winnipeg, Manitoba
SubjectMike Sokolowski and the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike
strikemusical.com/

Strike! is a 2005 historical stage musical depicting the Winnipeg General Strike. It has been adapted into a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio production, a 17-minute short film, and the full-length feature film Stand!.

Content

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Strike! focuses on Mike Sokolowski, a Ukrainian immigrant from Galicia who was killed by Royal North-West Mounted Police on "Bloody Saturday", 21 June 1919. The account of his life is heavily fictionalized, and is character is composited with another Ukrainian-Canadian labourer. Sokolowski begins the play as an anti-Semite who loathes so-called Jewish Bolshevism, but learns better due in part to a romantic sub-plot involving his godson Stefan (originally Myron) and his Jewish neighbour Rebecca.

Performances and adaptations

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After two private workshops in 2003, a public outdoor "preview" of Strike! was performed at Old Market Square in Winnipeg on 15 May 2004. In May 2005, the full play was premiered at Rainbow Stage in Winnipeg's Kildonan Park as an independent production. The next fall, a revamped version premiered at Saskatoon's Persephone Theatre.

On 15 May 2007, a special performance at Winnipeg's Burton Cummings Theatre was recorded for national broadcast on CBC Radio. The theatre was chosen in part because it had been used as a meeting-place for labour activists prior to the 1919 strike. The radio adaptation was broadcast on Labour Day, 3 September 2007. In May 2009, an outdoor, street spectacle version of the musical premiered in front of Winnipeg City Hall—the site of the original events that inspired the musical. Summer productions of the full-scale musical were held at the Canwest Centre for the Performing Arts in July/August 2009 and 2010. The Edmonton premiere of the musical occurred on 24 April 2013 in conjunction with Workshop West Theatre, at the Timms Centre for the Performing Arts.

Adaptations

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A interactive script/CD book based on Strike! was released by Playwrights Canada Press on 10 December 2007.

Mike's Bloody Saturday, a documentary film about the events that inspired the musical (i.e., the controversy surrounding the death of Mike Sokolowski), premiered on 7 October 2011, and was written, produced, and directed by Danny Schur—the composer/producer/co-writer of Strike!.[1]

A 17-minute film adaptation of Strike! was produced in 2007, and was meant to solicit interest in producing a feature film—which came to be with the 2019 film Stand!.

Financing

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Strike! was primarily financed by a limited partnership of investors from across Canada, with a mix of arts grants and donations from Canadian labour unions.

Cast and crew

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Strike! was created by Danny Schur, who wrote the music and lyrics and co-wrote the text with Rick Chafe.

Character Cast
Original (2005, Winnipeg)[2] Winnipeg (excl. original)[3][4] Radio (2007) Edmonton (2013)[5]
Mike Sokolowski Jay Brazeau Cory Wojcik Jeff Skinner Frederick Zbryski
Rebecca Almazoff Catherine Wreford Erin McGrath Adrienne Merrell Ellie Heath
Stefan Dudar Marc Devigne Jeremy Walmsley Marc Devigne Scott Shpeley
Moishe Almazoff David Friedman Simon Miron Ryan Parker
Senator Gideon Robertson Christopher Ryan Steven Ratzlaff Kevin Aichele Stephen Sparks
O'Reilly Carson Nattrass Tom Keenan Chris W. Cook
Emma the Maid Sharon Bajer Andrea Del Campo Kendra Connor
Captain McDougall Jon Ted Wynne Arne McPherson Troy O'Donnell
James Ashdown Stan Lesk Paul Morgan Donald
Susan Ashdown Melanie Whyte Melanie Whyte Annette Loiselle
Carmichael Kevin Aichele Derek Leenhouts Cole Humeny
Other
  • Jeremy Koz as The Union Rep
  • Matt Kippen as the Meeting Leader / Wallace
  • Stacey Nattrass as The Immigrant Woman
  • Brenda Gorlick as Mrs. Olynyk
  • Ilena Zaramba as a Telephone Operator
  • Cherise Kotelniski as a Telephone Operator
  • Dana Horrox as The Suffragette
  • Taras Luchak as Bronfman / McCready
  • Jeff Kohut as a Veteran / Special
  • Tyson Wiebe as a Veteran / Special

References

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  1. ^ "Strike Musical - TV Docs". Strikemusical.com. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  2. ^ "Strike Musical - Original Cast". Strikemusical.com. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  3. ^ "Strike Musical - Winnipeg Cast". Strikemusical.com. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  4. ^ "No need for musical theatre fans to riot: Strike! is a crowd-pleasing, if not subtle, look at 1919 strike". Cbc.ca. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  5. ^ "Strike Musical - Casts". Strikemusical.com. Retrieved 2021-07-30.

Sources

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