Pi Provocateurs presented Theatre Conspiracy's Stray from June 14-15, 2019.

Brutal and beautiful, Stray is the true story of a girl who runs away and finds herself.

Stray is based on creator Tanya Marquardt’s experience as a teen runaway, BDSM model, and New York transplant. Each song careens you through Tanya’s first attraction to a girl, witnessing her self-cutting, being underage in a BDSM bar, a teacher saving her from suicide, and how writing sustained her throughout. The show toured to The Tank in New York and SummerWorks in Toronto in 2018 and will be happened in Vancouver in June 2019. The full story is published as Stray: Memoir of a Runaway.  

STRAY

A Theatre Conspiracy production

Co-created by Tanya Marquardt, Tim Carlson, and Mallory Catlett

Direction – Mallory Catlett

Performed by Tanya Marquardt, Tim Carlson, Jon Wood, and Ed Goodine

Text – Tanya Marquardt

Music – Tim Carlson

Dramaturgy – Brian Rogers

Costume – James Joseph

Stage Management – Ilena Lee Cramer

June 14 and 15 at 8pm.

Run time: 60 minutes

Venue: Progress Lab 1422, 1422 William St, Vancouver

“One of the great joys in seeing Off Off Broadway theater is when you come across a work of dazzling ingenuity and raw self expression that hasn’t been edited and refined and dulled the way larger, pricier productions often are. Stray is one of those works, in which writer-performer Tanya Marquardt adapts her memoir of the same title into a performance piece by merging music and spoken word. … Bottom Line: This compelling combination of memoir and music creates a truly one-of-a-kind theatrical experience."

– Adrienne Urbanski, Theatre is Easy

“The accomplished musicianship often recalls the purposefully jagged tones of The Ramones, The Clash and early Blondie. … In addition to performing on guitar, Mr. Carlson also composed the music to Marquardt’s lyrics for the credible original songs. “Fucking Love Letters,” “The Paddle Song” and “The Thesis Song” are some of the titles. … Stray is patchy, spirited, marked by creative aspirations and succeeds on its own terms.”

– Daryl Reilly, TheaterScene

There will be a reading from Stray as part of the Magnetic North Festival.

The performance on June 15th, 2019 was  filmed for a documentary.  

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