BOOM X
Produced by Kidoons and WYRD Productions, in association with Theatre Calgary and The 20K Collective 

RICK MILLER: Writer / Director / Performer*
JEFF LORD: Executive Producer
CRAIG FRANCIS: Dramaturg / Stage Manager*
AIDAN WARE: Technical Director / Associate Lighting Designer
RICK MILLER: Production Manager
NICOLAS DOSTIE: Video & Projection Co-Designer
IRINA LITVINENKO: Video & Projection Co-Designer
BRUNO MATTE: Lighting Designer
VIRGINIE LECLERC: Costume & Props Designer
RICK MILLER: Set & Sound Designer / Composer
CREIGHTON DOANE: Additional Music Production
SÉBASTIEN HEINS: appears as “Brandon” on video*
LOGOGRAPH: Graphic Design / Marketing
CRAIG FRANCIS: Original illustrations
USA / MEXICO BOOKING AGENT: Robin Klinger Entertainment, New York RobinKlingerEntertainment.com
CANADA BOOKING AGENT: Rick Miller
INT'L BOOKING AGENT: Menno Plukker Theatre Agent (with Isaïe Richard and Magdalena Marszalek)
MUSIC LICENSING: Michael Perlmutter (Instinct)
OFFICIAL SITE: boomtheshow.com
COMPANY SITE: wyrdproductions.com
RICK MILLER SITE: rickmiller.ca
PODCAST SITE: xingthegap.com
SOCIAL FB/TW/IG: @kidoons, @rickmilleractor, @BoomTheShow

*WYRD Productions engages under the terms of the Independent Theatre Agreement, professional Artists who are members of Canadian Actors' Equity Association (and under reciprocal agreement with Actors' Equity Association USA)

The show runs approximately 100 minutes, plus 1 intermission

Content warning: some flashing lights, loud noises and gunshot effects. This play touches on themes including sexism, racism, and homophobia. It includes mature language, and some historical and racialized epithets.

The world premiere of BOOM X was presented at Theatre Calgary in January 2019.
Development of the show was supported by Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
The 20K Collective acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.
    
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PRODUCTION HISTORY
BOOM X was commissioned by Theatre Calgary in 2017, and is produced by Kidoons and WYRD Productions, in association with The 20K Collective. It was developed over a series of workshops at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity and Ex Machina’s La Caserne in Quebec City: March 2017 (Banff writer’s residency), Feb 2018 (Quebec workshop), March 2018 (Banff residency), and Nov 2018 (Quebec workshop). A work-in-progress performance was held on March 24th at the Harvie Theatre in Banff. The world premiere was held at the Theatre Calgary’s Max Bell Theatre on January 18, 2019.  

CONTINUE THE EXPERIENCE
Listen to Rick Miller’s podcast, featuring intergenerational conversations with extraordinary guests. 
www.xingthegap.com
Watch our animated series on some communities featured in BOOM X and other great places!
www.kidoons.com
BOOM Trilogy script booklets and BOOM X soundtrack available on CD, and as digital download.
www.RickMiller.ca

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
BOOM X was lovingly created over 3 years, and there are many people to whom we owe thanks:

Jeff Lord, and Kidoons
Stafford Arima, Lesley MacMillan and the team at Theatre Calgary
Janice Price, and the team at Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity 
Ex Machina, and the team at La Caserne
Lucie Bourgouin and Michael Perlmutter
Andrew Lis and his pal Gene Simmons
Members of Rick’s band TRAINWRECK
Creighton Doane
Marie Gignac
A. Chandimal Nicholas
Mark Bulgutch
Michael Levine
Jaclyn Seidman, Goodmans LLP
Terry Mosher
Larry Weinstein and Alexina Louie
Peter Anthony Holder

The four main characters in BOOM X have been inspired by true stories generously shared by:
Antje Budde
Mark Kingwell
Sébastien Heins
Ravi Jain
Sean Devine
Deena Aziz
Frédéric Lacombe
Myriam Kamehiro
Johnny Leroux
Irina Litvinenko
Craig Francis
And Stephanie Baptist, Rick’s onstage and offstage partner for 25 years. 

Finally, a heartfelt merci to the Miller and Baptist families. They’ve provided inspiration, support and a diamond mine of photos and videos that glow at the heart of BOOM X.
 

(Listed alphabetically by song title)

ALL I REALLY WANT
Alanis Morissette, Glen Ballard    
SONGS OF UNIVERSAL, INC. O/B/O ITSELF AND VANHURST PLACE MUSIC,
CONCORD MUSIC for BICYCLE MUSIC CO.

AMERICAN WOMAN    
Burton Cummings, Garry Peterson, Jim Kale, Randy Bachman    
BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

COME ON EILEEN    
Kevin Adams, James Mitchell Paterson, Kevin Antony Rowland    
SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING

EVERY MOTHER’S SON
Rick Miller
WYRD PRODUCTIONS

FIGHT THE POWER    
Carlton Douglas Ridenhour, James Henry Boxley III, Keith M Boxley, Eric T. Sadler
BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING CANADA (SOCAN) O/B/O SONGS OF UNIVERSAL, INC. (BMI)

FILL IN THE VOID
Rick Miller
WYRD PRODUCTIONS

FIRE (EVA DESTRUCTION)
Rick Miller
WYRD PRODUCTIONS

GRACE, TOO    
Robert Edwin Baker, Gordon Edgar Downie, John Philip Fay, Paul Joseph Langlois, 
Robert Gordon Sinclair
PEERMUSIC

HANG ON
Rick Miller
WYRD PRODUCTIONS

HOOKED ON A FEELING    
Mark James
SCREEN GEMS-EMI MUSIC INC.

HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF    
A. Taylor, J. Taylor, N. Rhodes, R. Taylor, S. Le Bon
GLOUCESTER PLACE MUSIC LTD., ADMIN. BY SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING

I FOUGHT THE LAW    
Sonny Curtis
SONY/ATV ACUFF ROSE MUSIC

IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT (AND I FEEL FINE)    
Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe    
UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING CANADA (SOCAN) O/B/O NIGHT GARDEN MUSIC (SESAC)

KID FEARS    
Amy Elizabeth Ray, Emily Ann Saliers
UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING CANADA (SOCAN) O/B/O GODHAP MUSIC (BMI)    

KNOCK ON WOOD    
Stephen Lee Cropper, Eddie Floyd
UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING CANADA (SOCAN) O/B/O IRVING MUSIC, INC. (BMI),
COTILLION MUSIC INC. ADMINISTERED BY WARNER/CHAPPELL NORTH AMERICA LTD.

KNOCKIN’ ON HEAVEN'S DOOR    
Bob Dylan    
SPECIAL RIDER MUSIC

KUNG FU FIGHTING    
Carl Douglas
ROYNET MUSIC C/O THE ROYALTY NETWORK
OBO SMV SCHACT MUSIKVERLAGE GMBH & CO. KG

ONE LOVE    
Bob Marley
BLUE MOUNTAIN MUSIC, ADMIN. BY PRIMARY WAVE MUSIC PUBLISHING

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA    
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart, Richard Stilgoe    
CONCORD MUSIC

PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC    
Rob Parissi
SWEET CITY RECORDS INC.

PROUD MARY    
John Cameron Fogerty    
CONCORD MUSIC GROUP FOR JONDORA MUSIC

PSYCHO KILLER    
D. Byrne, C. Frantz, T. Weymouth
WB MUSIC CORP. AND INDEX MUSIC INC.

ROCK AND ROLL ALL NITE    
Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley
UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING CANADA (SOCAN) O/B/O HORI PROD. AMERICA, INC. (ASCAP) & CAFÉ AMERICANA, INC. (ASCAP)

SO LONELY    
Gordon Sumner
EMI BLACKWOOD MUSIC INC.

STAYIN ALIVE    
B. Gibb., M. Gibb, R. Gibb
UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING CANADA (SOCAN) O/B/O CROMPTON SONGS (BMI) & UNIVERSAL  MUSIC PUBLISHING INTERNATIONAL MGB LTD. (PRS)

SUITE MADAME BLUE    
Dennis DeYoung    
UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING CANADA (SOCAN) O/B/O ALMO MUSIC CORP. (ASCAP) & STYGIAN SONGS (ASCAP)

TAINTED LOVE    
Edward C. Cobb
EMBASSY MUSIC CORP., ADMIN. BY MUSIC SALES GROUP

TAKE ON ME    
Magne Furuholmen, Morten Harket, Pal Waaktaar    
SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING

THE SAFETY DANCE
Ivan Doroschuk
UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING CANADA (SOCAN) O/B/O UNIVERSAL SONGS OF POLYGRAM INTERNATIONAL, INC. (BMI) & BETTY SONGS (SOCAN)

THINGS FALL APART
Rick Miller
WYRD PRODUCTIONS

UNDER PRESSURE    
Frederick Mercury, Brian Harold May, Roger Meddows Taylor, John Richard Deacon, David Robert Jones
RZO MUSIC INC OBO TINTORETTO, SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING

WALK THIS WAY    
Steven Tallarico (Tyler), Anthony Joseph Perry    
BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

WHERE DID YOU SLEEP LAST NIGHT
Traditional; arranged by Lead Belly
WHIP IT    
Gerald V Casale    
BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

 

“I want to hear some small moment from your life that proves you're really alive.” 
- Douglas Coupland, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture (1991)

We all search for meaning, in one way or another. We want our little lives to be part of a bigger picture, which is why some of us are drawn to storytelling – the great connective tissue of the human race. 

This is the 2nd in a trilogy of shows designed to tell a big-picture story: 75 years of history in this corner of our planet. If BOOM (Part 1) and BOOM YZ (Part 3) are the stories of my parents’ and daughters’ generations, respectively, BOOM X (Part 2) is the story of my own generation, dubbed “Generation X”. What that means, and whom it represents, is up for debate. What is not up for debate is that we’re a relatively small demographic, on the thin edge between hordes of “Baby Boomers” and “Millennials”. This precarious position, though, gives GenXers a unique perspective, one that can hopefully keep building bridges and breaking through walls. 

We live in deeply polarized times, and BOOM X peers back at some of the origins of this polarization, when we were mired in a different Cold War. But remembering the past is only useful if it helps us navigate the present moment: how do we live together here and now? I don’t have a clear answer, but I do have a story to tell. 

This show blasts through the defining events of a generation, tracing my own upbringing in Montreal through the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s. It has the restless energy of a little kid playing with toys, throwing on costumes, and mashing up voices. Like in BOOM, I play 100 characters, including famous rockstars and politicians, and not-so-famous people who guided me through it all.

At its core, BOOM X is a search for identity: of a person, a country and a generation. No matter how young you are, or where you come from, I hope you find yourself reflected in one of its many shiny surfaces. 

Explosively yours,
Rick Miller

 

Rick Miller (he/him) is a Dora and Gemini award-winning writer / director / actor / musician / educator who has performed in five languages on five continents, and who Entertainment Weekly called “one of the 100 most creative people alive today”. He has created and toured solo shows such as the BOOM Trilogy (BOOM, BOOM X, and BOOM YZ), MacHomer, Bigger Than Jesus and HARDSELL; and family shows with Craig Francis and Kidoons, such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Jungle Book, FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book, and HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales. With Robert Lepage, he has collaborated on Geometry of Miracles, Zulu Time, Lipsynch, Dragon’s Trilogy, and on the film Possible Worlds. Current projects in development include MONEY, and The Time Machine. Rick hosts an intergenerational podcast called Xing The Gap, and sometimes teaches an interdisciplinary class at the University of Toronto called The Architecture of Creativity. He lives in Toronto with his partner Stephanie Baptist. www.rickmiller.ca

Jeff has a lifelong passion and vision for combining art and technology to develop original works, including 7 world premieres, 6 Canada / US tours, 4 French-language world premieres, and 2 Off-Broadway runs over the past decade. His projects are inspired by a love of storytelling and innovation. Through Kidoons theatrical productions, and the many digital works on the Kidoons network, Jeff's artist collaborators help organizations to tell their stories onstage and online. Jeff works with Not-for-Profits, governmental, Non-governmental organizations, and corporate clients across Canada and the United States with a vision to inspire and empower all generations. He dedicates his work on this play to his mother, Evelyn Lord.

Craig Francis (he/him) is a writer, director, illustrator, and multidisciplinary creator. His theatre productions have toured Canada and the US, including Off-Broadway in 2016 and 2019. A founding member of The 20K Collective, Craig co-created the shows Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Game of Clones, Jungle Book, and HANS: My Life In Fairy Tales with Rick Miller; and FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book with Miller and Paul Van Dyck. He's a producer, dramaturg, and stage manager for Miller's solo trilogy (BOOM, BOOM X, and BOOM YZ) in Canada, US, France, and Taiwan. Upcoming projects include the plays CYNIC, The Time Machine, and The Turn of the Screw. Craig is a speaker on LGBTQ2S+ issues and a mentor to emerging artists, including co-authoring Redwood Avenue with Andrea Friesen. He has performed improv and sketch comedy with Just For Laughs, CBC, CTV and Showtime. Craig lives in Montréal, has illustrated books, and voiced animated series. Digital shorts he co-created with Kidoons and not-for-profit organizations are in museums in six provinces.

Aidan Ware hails from Calgary, Alberta. His passion for live production has taken him around the world where he has worn many hats as a technical director, lighting & sound designer. He recently completed an 18-month practicum program at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity as a lighting technician and now lives in Toronto where he is Assistant Technical Director at Canadian Stage. 

Irina is a multidisciplinary artist with expertise in graphic design, video production, and multimedia storytelling. She has been a longstanding collaborator with Rick Miller and Craig Francis, contributing to onscreen media projections for MacHomer, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Game of Clones. Recent work includes branding and projection/media design for BOOM X and BOOM YZ, for which she was nominated—alongside Rick Miller and Nicolas Dostie—for the Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Projection or Video Design. Irina is the multimedia designer for Jungle Book, FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book, and HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales. Upcoming projects include MONEY and The Time Machine. As a web and video production artist, Irina also serves as the designer and editor of the Kidoons Network animated series.

An accomplished director, editor and visual artist, Nicolas Dostie studied Media Arts and Technology with a focus on television. With the arrival of the digital era in 2002, he became interested in large-scale architectural projection, and helped design the multimedia for the highly visual spectacle Cavalia. His design career then pushed him more and more into the worlds of theatre and circus. He worked for Ex Machina and Robert Lepage, on Le projet Andersen, the Jeux de Cartes series, 887 and Kodō, and with BOOM X, his work as co-designer has garnered several award nominations across Canada. Considered one of the pioneers in architectural projection, Nicolas has worked on the 2014 Sochi Olympics (with Pixmob), and the Cirque du Soleil productions Delirium, the Michael Jackson world tour, and Varekai. He currently teaches at CEGEP La Pocatière, passing on his knowledge to a younger generation.

Bruno Matte was born in Quebec City and graduated from Cegep Limoilou in 2005 in audiovisual design. A music enthusiast, he began his professional career as a lighting designer for concerts. He began working with local artists, then moved to international acts. In an effort to expand his creative research, Bruno began working on several bold theatre productions. Whether with Ex Machina or Kidoons, he found ways to seamlessly integrate lighting with video, under very rigorous technical constraints. His spatial design exploration continued in the world of dance. Bruno regularly designs for the circus, which seems a natural fulfillment of his experience in music, theatre and movement. The complexity of the work allows him to keep refining his craft. He now works as a production manager.

After a Bachelor’s degree in theatre and cinema from Université Laval, Virginie went on to study scenic design at Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique de Québec. She was the first recipient of the design scholarship Théâtre Blanc-Desjardins. She received Quebec’s Prix d’excellence des arts et de la culture for costume designs on L’asile de la pureté (2009) and Fin de Partie (2012), and was nominated for Cyrano de Bergerac (2008) and Dans la République du Bonheur (2015). For Ex Machina, she toured with La  Celestina (2004), designed props for La Tempête (2011), Jeux de Cartes : Pique (2012), Coeur (2013) and Lipsynch (2007), and costumes for Seven Streams of the River Ota (2019), Courville (2021 - nominated for best costume design) and Le Projet Riopelle (2023). She is also a frequent designer with other renowned Quebec-based companies, including Théâtre de la Bordée, Théâtre Périscope, Théâtre du Trident, and Carrefour international de théâtre de Québec. Virginie’s work on BOOM X has won Prix de Théâtre in 2021  for best costume design and she’s delighted to be working with Kidoons/WYRD.

Music producer / composer / sound designer / songwriter / musician Creighton has worked with some of Canada’s best-known recording artists, and written and produced music for TV, jingles, theatre and film. Composition and sound design for theatre include The Importance of Being Earnest (NAC), Scott Thompson's The Lowest Show On Earth, The 39 Steps and A Few Good Men (Theatre Aquarius), Frost/Nixon (Canadian Stage), Tuesdays with Morrie (Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company), Salt-Water Moon, Jitters, The Norman Conquests (Soulpepper) and Rick Miller’s BOOM and BOOM X. Music producer/writer and post audio supervisor for CBC Kids TV show UKULELE U. Writer/producer of songs and themes for animated TV series (Beyblade, Barbie, Bakugan & Care Bears).