One script. Multiple visions. One night only.
Auditions: March 9, 2024
Performance: March 16, 2024
We’ve been doing it for ten years and show no signs of stopping! KWLT’s ultimate theatrical competition will be back for its eleventh instance in March of 2024.
What is March Madness?
In March Madness we challenge two to four production teams to take a short script and turn it into a production… in a week. The script is chosen to give maximum scope for interpretation; the teams get it on a Friday night, audition actors the next day, and one week after that it’s all on stage.
We bring in an adjudicator to discuss the productions and give out awards, and the audience gets to vote on their favourite interpretation. It’s fun! It’s wacky! Somehow we almost always end up with a character who dies in at least one production.
This year’s show features four teams performing the script Pandemonium written by Sophie Twardus. The audience at both the afternoon and evening shows got to vote for their favourite, but the evening show featured a talkback with the author, a preview of KWLT’s next production Kafka’s Dick, and an adjudication presented by Adrienne Dandy.
The teams
Team SaaSy
- Director: Josh Brach
- Stage Manager: Megan Redwood
- Cast: Diana Brebeanu, Sarah Hunsberger, Matt Pendleton, Victoria Robertson
Just Keep Swimming
- Director: Mei Hori
- Stage Manager: Michael L. Davenport
- Production Assistant: Noah Nazareth
- Cast: Yizhu Chen, Michael L. Davenport, Christy Hanes, Jenson David Tieng
Role of the Dice
- Director: Shannon Broekhoven
- Stage Manager: Caspian Stonehouse
- Fight Choreography: Nick Oddson, James Noble
- Makeup Design: Nahleen Scovell
- Cast: Jithan Thekkekunnathu Augustin, Shirley Hardy, Vivienne Hardy, Zivy Hardy, Tarka
The Darkness
- Director: Josh Ashley
- Stage Manager: Danny Eagle
- Cast: Laura Chartier, Kieron Higgs, Nicholas Rintche, Weiyuan Song
- Drummer: Nicholas Rintche
Awards
The Audience Favourite and Adjudicator Favourite awards both went to Role of the Dice.
The adjudicator also gave the following special awards:
- Best World Building: Just Keep Swimming
- Best Use of the Script as a Springboard: Role of the Dice
- Best Heel Turn (AKA “That Escalated Quickly”): Laura Chartier, The Darkness
- Best Representation of Daily Life: Sarah Hunsberger, Team Saasy
- Best Scarily Accurate Panic Attack: Ensemble, Just Keep Swimming
- Best Triggering the Audience by the Director: Josh Brach, Team SaaSy
About the author
Sophie Twardus is a playwright, improviser, statistician, author, and all-around creative who refuses to confine herself to a single medium. She has articles in mathNEWS spanning over a decade writing as Beyond Meta. She has over 15 years of experience doing improv. In 2023 she participated in the Inkfort Publishing Derby fulfilling her childhood dream of writing a book by publishing Dude, I’m Completely Lost. She is passionate about community and creating environments where people are encouraged to take creative risks. This desire to give people space to make art is a big reason she is March Madness’s biggest fan. She currently lives in Ottawa but maintains that home is where you find community. Which (un)fortunately for her is all over the map.
About the adjudicator
Adrienne Dandy (she/her) has been involved with KWLT since 2007 and has participated as a costumer, producer, director, audition wrangler, and board member. She has directed multiple staged readings and two mainstage productions, The Dover Road and Sister Cities. Some say she eats KitKat bars like a criminal, a claim about which she is utterly unrepentant.
