Gift of Screws

Bill Marchant has written and directed numerous short films and plays, including Clown Elections, A Cure for Happiness, the epic family drama Ashes and will present his latest – Gift of Screws at the Jericho Arts Centre opening October 6 thru to October 17, 2009. It’s two one–act plays bundled into one that explores where art and fascism meet.

Marchant is s a gifted writer who brings awareness to those issues that go unspoken but need to be explored with humour and provocative flair.  If you saw Ashes, family reunions will never be the same. One reviewer was moved to claim, “While it is never stated, we cannot help but think the power of the piece comes from a very personal and real space for Marchant and we are all better for having been able to share this with him.”

Gift of Screws is an expertly crafted piece that ignites the inner voice and unleashes the deeply hidden where no one wants to explore. Bringing words off a page to life and giving them their due. Marchant states:

The immediate and electric experience of the live stage allows us to get to the very marrow of human experience. No place to run or hide. It is us at our most human. Free and fun and terrifying and true.

Marchant’s last production Ashes played to packed and enthusiastic houses while his previous play, Clown Elections was a hit with the crowds and winning unanimous praise from critics. Gift of Screws will have an immense impact on its audiences, full of surprises, humour and a jolting perspective on the human condition.

Marchant’s an actor, director, and writer, his feature film Everyone won the Zentih D’Or at the Montreal World Film Festival and played to sold-out houses at over thirty festivals around the world. Nominated for four Leo awards, the film was also released in the United States and Britain. Bill’s most recent short film, By The Hour, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to great acclaim. His latest film is Exley, collaboration with Canadian Vanguard and directing legend Larry Kent. Marchant played the recurring role of Don Marcos on the popular Canadian television show Da Vinci’s Inquest and previously had a recurring role as Adrian Conrad on the sci-fi series Stargate SG-1. He was one of the leads alongside Adam Arkin and Amy Madigan in Murder on Pleasant Drive, had a role in Mount Pleasant, and in the last few years has appeared on Intelligence, Blood Ties, Painkiller Jane, The 4400, and The Dead Zone. In addition to filmmaking, Bill is an accomplished musician in 1999 he co-released the album Odlum, songs from which have played on FOX‘s Higher Ground, Queer as Folk, CBC, and the feature film Suspicious River. When he’s not writing, producing or directing he’s busy heading up the acting department at the Vancouver Film School.