About the project

Carly Chamberlain and Tanya Rintoul met when they were both classmates in the directing program at NTS. They wanted to make this project together, but Carly gets chronic migraines and they started getting worse and it’s a f*cking pandemic so they decided Tanya would make it without her. But it took her forever. And ever.

Tanya and Carly cancel on each other a lot. Like. Constantly. But they know this about each other and it’s okay. They will text about feelings, and migraines, and the theatre industry, and The Bachelor until they feel better. One Day You Won’t Feel Like This Anymore is a love letter to friendship. To this friendship. And a reminder that even before we were all stuck in our homes, a lot of us were already stuck.

CW (Content Warning): mental health-depression

This project received financial support from the National Theatre School of Canada via the Art Apart program, an emergency fund for emerging artists who are affected by physical distancing due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

About the artist

Tanya Rintoul is a director, theatre maker, dramaturge from and based in Toronto. She makes theatre that is rooted in collaboration that aims to challenge and question societal norms and the basis of personal identity. She has a background in devised theatre and the development of new works. Her most recent directing credits include: A Streetcar Named Desire (assistant director- Soulpepper, dir. Weyni Mengesha), The Queen’s Eulogy (Toronto Fringe 2018), The Nails (SummerWorks 2017), The Last Five Years (Rural Stages Productions), Deceitful Above All Things (The Storefront Theatre), Father Comes Home from the Wars (assistant director- Soulpepper, directed by Weyni Mengesha). Original Work: Good Girl performed in the back of a pawn shop in the 2013 Toronto Fringe, A Wake for Lost Time, a 24–hour durational performance (elephants collective), and No Time for Dreams (barking birds theatre, Toronto Fringe 2011). Projects currently in development: devising a production inspired by Uncle Vanya called Live/Rest and adapting the children’s novel Awake and Dreaming by Kit Pearson. She is a graduate of the National Theatre School’s Directing program, and Humber College’s Theatre performance program.

An Invitation

My mother grew up in Soviet-controlled Poland, during a time of seismic social and political upheaval. After escaping from her homeland, she rarely spoke about her past and its far-reaching impacts. As I attempt to articulate my ways of being in the world, which have been labeled as mental illness, I find myself seeking out her silences. What can absences, ambiguities, and contradictions transmit across generations? How do these transmissions enable survival, resistance, and complicity? Below are documentary traces from my mother’s life. I invite you to explore them and consider the gaps in your family history.

Documentary Traces

Read the video transcript

“Curiosity is the first step to hell.”
“Ciekawość to pierwszy stopień do piekła.”

“Don’t call the wolf from the forest.”
“Nie wywołuj wilka z lasu.”

“The truth does not caress.”
“Prawda nie głaszcze.”

Read the video transcript

“Listen more and speak less – too many words will hurt you.”
“Więcej słuchaj, a mniej mów – zawsze szkodzi zbytek słów.”

“Better discretion than courage.”
“Lepsza rozwaga niż odwaga.”

Read the video transcript

“Only the shoe knows that the stocking is torn.”

“Tylko trzewik wie, że pończocha dziurawa.”

“Fish and children don’t have a voice.”

“Ryby i dzieci nie mają głosu.”

“He prays under the statue, but has the devil beneath his skin.”

“Modli się pod figurą a diabła ma za skórą.”

Share a Family Secret

What silences have you inherited? I’m collecting family secrets for a growing digital archive. The archive includes submissions from myself, my colleagues, and other people who visited this page. To browse through the secrets or make a submission, go to the archive.

About the Project

This webpage accompanies an in-progress performance, Szepty/Whispers, which explores inherited silences by weaving together narrative fragments, multimedia artifacts, and audience contributions. Szepty/Whispers has been developed at Playwrights Theatre Centre as part of the Associates program. The project has also received support through the National Theatre School of Canada’s Art Apart initiative, Boca del Lupo and Rice & Beans Theatre’s DBLSPK series, mentorship with Boca del Lupo’s Artistic Director Sherry J. Yoon, the Arts Club’s LEAP Playwriting Intensive, and the Wet Ink Collective.

Below are photos from Playwrights Theatre Centre’s June 2020 workshop for Szepty/Whispers, which included projection designer Candelario Andrade, dramaturg Kathleen Flaherty, stage manager Andie Lloyd, director Jivesh Parasram, and documentary production assistant Shania Smagh. To find out more about the project, contact me.

Credit: photo by Shania Smagh.

Credit: photo by Shania Smagh.

Credit: still from video by Shania Smagh

Credit: photo by Shania Smagh

This project received financial support from the National Theatre School of Canada via the Art Apart program, an emergency fund for emerging artists who are affected by physical distancing due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

Credits Creator

• Creator – Veronique West

• Dramaturg – Kathleen Flaherty

• Documentary Production Assistants – Kathleen Flaherty and Shania Smagh

About the Creator

Veronique West (she/they) is a settler Canadian of Polish descent, based on the stolen and occupied lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. Her work spans theatre creation, dramaturgy, and education, as well as mental health peer support and advocacy. Her practice is informed by her lived experience of madness. She has collaborated with Rumble Theatre, Art with Impact, Rice & Beans Theatre, Boca del Lupo, Gallery Gachet, Playwrights Theatre Centre, The Cultch, the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, Theatre Conspiracy, Neworld Theatre, the Magnetic North Festival, Gateway Theatre, and the South Asian Arts Society, among others. She is the recipient of a Playwrights Theatre Centre Associates residency and a National Theatre School Art Apart award, as well as a winner of Tarragon Theatre’s 20/20 Playwriting Competition. Veronique is part of Subjects of History Collective (with Laura June Albert, mia susan amir, and Alexa Mardon) and recently joined Neurotales, a writing group for mad and neurodivergent artists. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. www.veroniquewest.com

Encourage these organizations during the live-stream

Ka’qawej Community Media Partnerships

First Light NL

Lebanese Red Cross

About the project

Join Santiago Guzmán on Facebook Live reading of freshly-penned monologues from his new play in development titled ‘Juan, Juana, G’wan-Neetah’.

He will talk about his writing process, how he deals with writer’s block, and he will read some monologues that he has written in the past couple of months and will talk about where he’d like to go with this show next.

About the play

Juan, Juana, G’wan-Neetah, follows the journey of Juan, a young Mexican man that has come to Atlantic Canada to pursue a Business Degree. He believes he knows who he is, what he wants, and exactly what his goal in life is (and perhaps to find in a woman the love of his life). Until he discovers the empowerment of stilettos, wigs, make-up, and lip-sync competitions he actually comes to terms with his queer identity as a gay, brown man by becoming a drag queen called G’wan-Neetah La Tina. However, Juan struggles to keep the seeds of his cultural baggage while attempting to fit into his new life and maintaining a relationship with a feminine figure from his past.

This project received financial support from the National Theatre School of Canada via the Art Apart program, an emergency fund for emerging artists who are affected by physical distancing due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

About the artist

Santiago Guzmán is a performer and writer originally from Mexico City, now based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. He holds a BFA in Theatre from Memorial University, Grenfell Campus.

His work as a writer aims to put local, underrepresented narratives and characters on the frontline whilst inviting audiences to appreciate the vibrancy of Newfoundland and Labrador from a diverse perspective.

His one-man show ALTAR will be part of the Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company’s 20-21 season and will be touring high schools across Newfoundland and Labrador in the spring of 2021. Some of his plays have been developed with the support of different organizations and festivals outside of the province, like Eastern Front Theatre’s RBC Emerging Playwrights Program, Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre in Halifax, NS, and Paprika Festival in Toronto, ON.

Santiago is the Artistic Director of ‘TODOS Productions: Theatre and Film for All’, an organization that seeks to promote, produce, and support work of under-represented artists in Newfoundland and Labrador. Santiago has recently been appointed as the new Artistic Associate for Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre in Halifax, NS.

As an immigrant, queer, and artist of colour, Santiago believes that representation matters.

Watch all the videos here!

About the project

Memoria is a result of his past experiences where he hopes to integrate peer-to-peer learning spaces that facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing between immigrants, refugees, and local residents.

This project received financial support from the National Theatre School of Canada via the Art Apart program, an emergency fund for emerging artists who are affected by physical distancing due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

About the artist

Born and raised in Bogotá-Colombia, Nico developed a sensibility for the arts, culture and community engagement. As an adult educator and community engagement practitioner, his work focuses on supporting organizations and communities in designing and implementing community-based programs.

The intersection between his experience in design-thinking and community development has allowed him to assess, develop and facilitate socially innovative projects and programs, working in collaboration with staff, funders and community organizations.

Join the Zoom meeting on August 16th, 5pm East

Meeting ID: 373 346 2760

Passcode: 8RpEWQ

About the project

Re:Locating, a work in progress by Artist-Practitioner Leelee Oluwatoyosi Eko Davis asks for us to engage with our own needs, consider the needs of others, and to transform our experience of being in community. This work will culminate in K’jipuktuk on Miꞌkmaꞌki, and beyond. Re:Locating comes out of Eko Davis’s personal experiences as a result of a sustained Traumatic Brain Injury in 2017. Over the next four months, it will involve solo and collaborative studio intervals, micro residencies, performance, and opportunities for public engagement. Eko Davis will dive deeply to distinguish, create, and examine their own accessible working conditions while consulting collaborators Raven Davis, Lindsay Dobbin, J.D. Derbyshire, Johnny Nawracaj, and those whom they have yet to have met.

1 in 5 people between the ages of 15 and 64 live with a disability. These numbers reflect our society, yet our culture, art, and working conditions rarely reflect the experience or needs of those living with disabilities. Much like our society, most theatre, performance, and gallery-based practices make little to no access accommodations for their Disabled, Deaf, Hard of Hearing, MAD, Neurodivergent, Blind, and Reduced Vision, artists or attendees. A component of Re:Locating is inciting new collaboration and research through a KREAM residency at the Khyber Center for the Arts www.khyber.ca.

This project received financial support from the National Theatre School of Canada via the Art Apart program, an emergency fund for emerging artists who are affected by physical distancing due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

About the artist: Leelee Oluwatoyosi Eko Davis- Lead Artist, Choreographer & Multimedia Performer

Leelee Oluwastoyosi Eko Davis is a Canadian-born, genderqueer intermedia artist of Nigerian/Algonquin/French descent. Hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, they are currently primarily based Halifax. While their practice is rooted in foundations of contemporary dance, in 2010 Eko Davis began exploring the use of different modalities that would complement their movement practice and choreography. Having moved away from traditional dance show models, Eko Davis continues to use these modalities as a theatre maker, and gallery artist. They integrate elements of film, image, projection, movement, dance, voice, music, audience participation and original sound scores. Eko Davis’s artistic goals are to merge performance and life, stage and experience, building a bridge to revealing the human experience. Eko Davis also works as a program designer, facilitator, and consultant in the field of Social Innovation and Adaptive Change.

About the project

What happens when the ties between generations are broken, buried or lost at sea? Two grandkids connect with their grandmothers overseas. But when the time comes to say goodbye forever, Bug and Stu are thrust into an adventure they could never imagine.

Sen・Nemuri uses English, Polish and Japanese languages, traditional and contemporary music, illustrations, and clowning around to sweep you on a heartfelt adventure. This project for young audiences is recorded as an audio-play, with accompanying images crafted by the playwright. In the Japanese storytelling tradition of kamishibai, children’s stories were told in the town square by a storyteller accompanying each scene with hand-illustrated tableaus. Drawing on this tradition, still images were created for each story beat in the play, and presented with the recorded audio to make a virtual kamishibai play.

Synopsis:

Bug and Stu stay connected with their grandparents by talking on the phone. Bug’s grandmother is in Poland, and Stu’s is in Japan. But Bug’s grandma has been talking funny lately- sometimes she forgets who she’s talking to! Stu’s grandmother has been ill for a while, and Stu has been warned- treat every phone call as if it were the last. One evening the grandmothers tell their grandkids of artifacts their parents brought with them when they immigrated. Bug has an axe, and Stu has a haori. These belonged to their great-great-great-great-triple-great-grandmothers: Baba Jaga and Yamamba, two ancient mythical witches with incredible powers. Are their grandmothers telling the truth? When, through a twist of fate, Bug and Stu find themselves trapped on their apartment rooftop, they find it’s difficult to get along while dealing with so many emotions. Stranded, they finally fall asleep. They are woken by a vision in the stars. Yamamba and Baba Jaga are speaking with them! The witches open up a portal that drags Bug, Stu, and their artifacts into an ancient forest world.

Guided by our trusty narrator, we follow Bug and Stu as they reconnect with their ancestors, and receive an important mission: to save the Forest World and all its inhabitants. With the help of the magical axe and haori, Bug and Stu must learn to work together to save the witches.

This project received financial support from the National Theatre School of Canada via the Art Apart program, an emergency fund for emerging artists who are affected by physical distancing due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

About the artists

Kanon Hewitt is a projection and sound designer, stage manager, producer, playwright, and performer from Tokyo, Japan. Kanon creates and performs for various international stages including Vancouver, Tokyo, and Los Angeles. Highlights include MTV Japan, ribbon (NAO-TA! Produce), kiseki (Kazunori Kumagai), Camera Obscura (Queer Arts Festival, frank theatre company), and Fragile Forms (PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, MACHiNENOiSY). Kanon creates sensorially engaging and immersive new media with Isadora software. Kanon is a graduate of the University of British Columbia (graduated 2019) and a certified actor-combatant with Fight Directors Canada.

Julia Siedlanowska was born and is currently living as a theatre maker on unceded Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver). She holds a BA in Acting from the University of Wales and works primarily as an actor, director and producer. She is currently the Managing Director and Associate Artistic Director for Theatre Terrific. As a performer and director she has worked with companies such as Pacific Theatre, Arts Club Theatre, Firehall Arts Centre, The Cultch, Alley Theatre, Rumble Theatre (48-Hour Crockpot), Peninsula Productions and Classic Chic Productions. Julia is the volunteer coordinator for the Talking Stick Festival, was a Young Ambassador for the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, and community liaison for MACHiNENOISY Dance Society’s PROX:IMITY RE:MIX, a multimedia dance project for queer youth. In 2017, she participated in Talking Treaties with Jumblies Theatre in Tkaronto, deepening her passion for arts rooted in community building. Julia has translated several works from her mother tongue Polish, to English. She often works with the Vancouver Polish Theatre as a translator, director, actor, and playwright. www.juliasiedlanowska.com