A sister company of the Coal Mine Theatre, The Vault Creation Lab is a brand new, ambitious company unlike any other in Toronto helmed by Artistic Director Diana Bentley. It is a space where writers, creators and playwrights are afforded the opportunity to explore, experiment and invest in their ideas in the critical stages of development.
The essential purpose of
The Vault Creation Lab
is to support and prioritize the writer's journey and their creative process. Writers will have access to space, resources, audiences, and technical elements in order to develop and uncover/ discover the complete potential of their work. Writers' Membership will be launching in the fall of 2025.
A ground-breaking component of the The Vault will be our Public Labs (launching this April) . These public labs invite audiences in on a critical stage of development: when a play is ready for audience feedback and exchange. The purpose of these labs is to give the playwright a chance to test, develop and focus their work with the presence and input of a live audience.
Our public labs for 2025 are…
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A Little Closer
By Michael Ross Albert
Directed/ Dramaturged by Diana Bentley
Starring Breanna Dillon, David Reale, Cameron Laurie and Annie Lujan.7 public labs only!
April 3, 4, 5 and 6, April 10 and 11Performances Nightly at 7:30pm. Saturday Matinee at 2:00PM.
The carefully structured life of a professional cuddler begins to unravel as the strangers he welcomes into his home force him to confront his darkest secrets
AUDIENCE QUESTION: What does it mean to be a good person? We’ll ask the audience to lean into the moral grey ground with us and share their thoughts on character, morality and question the limits of ‘good’ and ‘bad’.
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Discount Dave and the Fix
By Rebecca Auerbach
Starring Rebecca Auerbach
Directed/ Dramaturged by Aviva Armour-Ostroff2 public labs only!
May 29 and 30Performances Nightly at 7:30pm
When a rockstar crashes the backstage party at a Shakespeare Festival, a thrill-seeking young actor is set on a path of self-reckoning. A provocative blend of truth and fiction, Discount Dave and The Fix is a suspenseful, hilarious and harrowing examination of our obsession with celebrity, how addiction can bury our wounds, and what it takes to heal.
AUDIENCE QUESTION: How is a one woman show shaped by the audience experience and interaction? Rebecca and Aviva will investigate how the audience feedback shapes Rebecca’s performance and writing.
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Reproduktion
By Amy Rutherford
Directed/ Dramaturged by Marie Farsi
Live Sound Design by Maddie Bautista4 public labs only!
August 19, 20, 21 and 22Reproduktion is an epic, moving and funny new play by Amy Rutherford about infertility and creation. Directed by Marie Farsi, Reproduktion explores the ancient imperative to procreate and how to find meaning in our lives in the face of impossibility. When a woman undergoes an alternative form of fertility treatment that is "guaranteed to reproduce," a surprising and dangerous transformation occurs in which she reproduces multiple versions of herself. For this lab experiment, composer Maddie Bautista will be recording and mixing live throughout the show, reproducing the play's soundscore in real time, each night.
AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE: The sound experience will shift and grow nightly as the lab progresses and the creative team makes changes based on audience experience and feedback.
Keep it in the Vault…
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