About the project

Focus is a solo auditory experience. We struggle as a society to spend time alone with ourselves and self-reflect. We live in a world full of distractions. Now, during this epidemic, our hunger for connection is more than ever. We rely on our screens – consuming media to distract us from the present, waiting for the vibrations of validation and the craving of authentic communication. What does it actually take to put your phone down and be still?

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

Angelica Schwartz – she/they – director/creator – is a director and collective creator born on Treaty 1 Territory (Winnipeg, MB), where they founded Happy/Accidents. A recent graduate of The Directing Program at the National Theatre School, Schwartz is now based inTiohtiá:ke (Montreal, QC). Drawing on their background in technical production and their passion for storytelling, Schwartz is devoted to creating an authentic connection between performer and spectator. Whether across distances through online platforms or in the intimacy of live, theatrical experiences, Schwartz is determined to create a sense of community in our highly digitalized era. Schwartz has had the pleasure of working with Jonathon Young, Jackie Maxwell, Marcus Youssef, Anita Rochon, Sarah Garton Stanley, among others. Schwartz is a Technical Production graduate of Studio 58 in Vancouver, BC.

Upcoming projects: participation in The Green Rooms of the Cycle – Climate Change, a NAC/FoldA partnership; and Haven, which will be presented at FoldA in June.

Gillian Clark – she/her – writer/collaborator – is a multidisciplinary theatre creator and the artistic co-director of Keep Good (Theatre) Company. She resides in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal, with a large part of her heart in K’jipuktuk/Halifax. She is currently in her graduating year of The National Theatre School’s playwriting program. Her work has been presented across Canada, England and India. Her plays include: The Ruins (Two Planks and a Passion Theatre), Harmony Mall (Runner-Up for the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s 2019 RBC Emerging Playwright Award), Drums and Organs (commissioned by Dalhousie University for the 2018 graduating acting class) and Let’s Try This Standing (her touring solo show and winner of Outstanding Performance at the 2017 Summerworks Performance Festival). She has held residencies with Outside The March and 2b theatre. She is also a two-time nominee for Best New Play at the Nova Scotia Robert Merritt awards. Upcoming writing projects include The Game for the New Words Festival and Adventures with Keep Good (Theatre) Company.

Evan Rein – he/him – sound designer/creator – is a sound designer and actor. Recent sound designs include: FourPlay, Anon(ymous) (Studio 58), Centurions (Evergreen Cultural Centre), Tea Time with Anxiety (Xongos Arts Club). Evan has also worked as a Foley artist and musician for Spinning You Home (Spinners Collective) and The Skin of Our Teeth (Studio 58). Aside from sound design, Evan is also an actor. Theatre credits include Peter Pan (Carousel Theatre), The Hobbit (Globe Theatre), East Van Panto: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Theatre Replacement), Chimera, Freedom ’56, As You Like It, 42nd Street, Zoetrope (Studio 58). Film/TV: Upload (Amazon), Valley of the Boom (National Geographic), Heartland (CBC), Sacred Lies (Facebook), Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (NBC) and Blue Hour (Muskrat Pass Productions). Up next, Evan is off to work on the new Netflix series Pieces of Her. Evan is a graduate of Studio 58.

Stephanie Wong – she/her – voice over/creator – is a Hong Kong born, Vancouver-based multidisciplinary theatre artist. Since graduating Studio 58’s acting program in 2017, she has established her career in Vancouver as an actor, set designer, and is emerging in the field of directing and devising. She has toured as a performer across Canada and the US, and has worked with various Canadian companies, highlights including the Arts Club, Urban Ink, Green Thumb Theatre, Theatre Replacement, Electric Company Theatre, Western Canada, Gateway Theatre, Zee Zee Theatre, Solo Collective, and Touchstone. During her time at Studio 58, she was the recipient of the Jennifer Wade Family Endowed Scholarship (2017 peer voted) for showing the most kindness and caring towards others, the Earl Klein Memorial Scholarship (2016) for demonstrating generosity of contributions to her ensemble, and the John F. Parker Scholarship (2015) for demonstrating exceptional promise in her field.

This project was performed live on YouTube on May 15. You can watch a recorded version below.

About the project

A concert featuring exclusively Canadian musical theatre solo repertoire and classical vocal works in both official languages. Jakob will perform with a pre-recorded accompaniment from June Rigden, Dartmouth-based pianist and music educator.

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

Jakob Creighton is an actor, singer, and writer. Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, he is now based in Toronto. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Classical Voice from Université de Moncton (Class of 2018) and is currently studying musical theatre performance at Randolph College for the Performing Arts. Most recent stage credits include: David Herold/Ensemble in Assassins (Whale Song Theatre, 2019), Giorgio/Chorus in The Gondoliers (Opera NS, 2019), Bob Cratchit/Ensemble in A Christmas Carol (Atlantic Ballet, 2018), Dr. Fine/Dr. Madden in Next to Normal (Saints Alive Theatre, 2018), and Valentine/Ensemble in Mary Poppins (Capitol Theatre, 2018). TV/Film credits: Jay Karen in Surface Tension (Surface Tension Prod., upcoming). Jakob is also a published author. His historical fiction novella For King and Country is available through Amazon. He is currently represented by The Cassidy Group in Halifax.

Instagram: jcreighton1995

Website: jakobcreighton.ca

Explore all the archives here

About the project

Memory Palace is an ongoing public art and community project that examines how we interact with our own and each other’s memories. The project has been collecting memories submitted by the public for the last five years, transforming them into interactive installations and participatory art encounters that have been featured at the Toronto Fringe Patio, Assembly Theatre and Long Winter.

In this latest edition of Memory Palace created in a time of social distancing, four distinct visual and audio pieces explore the possibility and limits of transcending physical space and time, entering into someone else’s memory, and uncovering one of your own. Inspired by real memories submitted by the public, this capsule collection of digital art can be experienced in any order.

Here are four memories:

only in my dreams
A transmission of a stranger’s memory of camping using instructions that meld our collaborators’ everyday environments and objects at home. Vlog and found footage combine with a dose of shrooms and displaced nostalgia.

See the original memory this piece was based on here.

grandma’s musical encouragements

(Best experienced with headphones)

let’s go on a journey,

a ring-around-the-rosie

to tiny fingers with aimless invent

we’ll rummage through the sonics of descent

little cosmos lullaby
This piece dreams of colliding the universal experience of cosmic belonging with the singularity of the childhood home video, hypnotizing you into contradiction: you are only uniquely yourself; you are also everything else.

let this memory move you

A woman lets go of a black t-shirt (she had dropped it off at the Memory Palace to distance herself from the memories it evokes). We pick it up again, explore the echoes, and follow its threads to where they might weave. A participatory exploration of tactile, sensory, and emotional memory and the clothing that contains traces of our lives.

Thoughts/memories to share? The artists would love to hear from you: memorypalaceproject@gmail.com

Explore the rest of the archives at www.memorypalaceproject.com.
Instagram: @memorypalaceproject
Facebook: @memorypalaceproject

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

Victoria Wang is a Toronto-based installation artist with roots in Hong Kong. She started Memory Palace as a creative outlet outside of theatre, stemming from her interest in participatory encounters with art that blur the lines between private and public narratives. Her practice focuses on a public audience’s organic relationship and involvement with a designed environment. As a stage manager, Victoria has specialized in new work and devised pieces with companies such as Cahoots Theatre, Aluna Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times, Luminato, and SummerWorks. Victoria is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the National Theatre School of Canada.

Rose Tuong is a performer, collaborator, and facilitator working variously in theatre, education and community outreach in Toronto. She’s worked in conjunction with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Canadian Stage, Convergence Theatre, Festival TransAmériques, Long Winter, the red light district, Public Recordings, Shakespeare in Action, Soulpepper, Theatre Direct. In her practice she aims to tacitly encourage ways for people to activate and expand their personal, political and collective capacities.

Morgan St. Onge is a Dora Mavor Moore Award nominated theatre performer, artist, and collaborator with a focus in creating theatre for young audiences. She has toured as far as Kenora performing in schools and communities across the province in bilingual plays with themes of social justice.
Selected theatre: Head à Tête (Roseneath Theatre), Far from the Heart/Loin du coeur (Sheatre), Black Dog: 4 vs the World (Sudbury Theatre Centre), Moss Park, Muskeg & Money (North Road Theatre), The Tale of Peter Rabbit/Les contes de Pierre Lapin (Little Red Theatre).
Collaborations: Memory Palace (Long Winter Volume 8.1), Geography of Fire/La furie et sa géographie (Colleen Murphy), PlaySmelter (Pat the Dog Theatre Creation).
Morgan is a graduate of George Brown Theatre School. Thank you, Mémère!

Fan Wu is a poet, facilitator, and arts writer based in Toronto. You can read his writing online at Aisle 4, Koffler Digital, baest journal, and MICE Magazine. His monographs include Hoarfrost & Solace (a series of free translations of Tang Chinese poetry) and Thom Gill’s Now & Neverending (a poetic series on the Toronto musician Thom Gill). He has hosted critical reading & creative writing workshops in conjunction with Toronto art centres including Art Metropole, Mercer Union, and Gallery TPW; publications from those workshops include Mourning Anthology (Art Metropole, 2019) and Pumpdaddy Phantasmagoria (Swimmers Group, 2019). His current work focuses on activation of collective energy via performances that coalesce the chemistry of any given room. He sits on the board of directors at Art Metropole and the advisory board of C Magazine.

About the project

A performance piece about the rituals around caring for houseplants, exploring how houseplants awaken feelings and words of love and encouragement. This piece will also embrace the achingly molasses-like way in which plants experience time and see how this slow life rhythm mirrors our time in isolation.

“Housebound, planted, reaching towards sunlight around the edges of the shadow of death. My idle hands are necromancing my houseplants in the midpoint of a year of grieving, aligning eerily with Spring’s promise of rebirth“

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

Actress Darragh Mondoux is about to complete her undergraduate degree at Concordia University where she has honed her talents as a producer and leader in artistic creation and sharpened her skills in cultural criticism within academic traditions. A year into founding her interdisciplinary production company Heart of Gold, Darragh is eager to contribute to the rich English language arts community of Montreal as a playwright, producer, and friend.

Collaborators:

Lucas DiTecco (Looping name DiTechnologist) is an actor, live looper and performing artist. After Lucas graduated from the professional theatre program at Dawson College, he decided to follow his passions in many different performing acts such as acting on camera, theatre, both musical and comedic improv as well as voice acting. Working with Darragh Mondoux many times before, he is very excited to be a part of this project and hopes his imagination and creativity with his sounds can bring you an unforgettable listen!

Tyler Miller used his lifelong love of guitar and newfound experiments with distortion pedals to create the score for Burning Bridget Cleary Heart of Gold’s Festival St-Ambroise Fringe de Montréal 2019 production. He returns to the team from home with sounds of springtime, space and solitude.

Liana Paré is a freelance videographer, video editor and fine art photographer with 13 years of experience within the video industry. Liana has filmed performance artists of varied cultural backgrounds all around the globe. Throughout her career, she has documented concerts at the Montreal Jazz Festival, drag queens, touring African acrobats, Australian backpackers, and many other unique social groups. As a fine art photographer, her recent work focuses on the lives of artists, presenting a collection of compelling scenes that are striking in their moody simplicity. See more: lianatheghost.com

About the project

Initially written to be a stage production for the recently postponed 2020 Montreal Fringe Festival, this solo bio-drama will take you on a journey with the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. Experience Gargarin’s world view change as he goes from Soviet loyalist to global icon. In this time of growing nationalism, his story is both a celebration and a warning about the power of community. This is the rise and fall of Yuri Gagarin.

This playful retelling explores what it means to be a theatre creator in the age of COVID-19. It has been directed, rehearsed, and designed, entirely through video conferencing.

This work-in-progress was developed with Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal through the Young Creators Unit.

IG and FB: @RubberTreeMedia
Twitter: @Rubber__Tree

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

Director: Olivia Woods

Olivia Woods is a recent graduate of Concordia’s Theatre Performance program. Olivia aims to create connection and community through her acting, teaching and directing work. She is curious how we can nurture these values while we practice physical distancing. Acting credits include: Cause and Effect (Hey Lady Productions), When Memories Have Us (The Segal Centre), The Blood Countess (Revolution They Wrote), Linge Sale (Other Coast Theatre), and The Riot Ballet (Jump Current + Working Group Theatre). Assistant directing credits include: Encore (Tableau d’Hôte), Blue Stockings (Persephone Theatre), and Lion in the Streets (Concordia University). This is Olivia’s first time directing over Zoom!

Performer and Playwright: Calder Levine

Calder Levine is an actor/producer who runs Rubber Tree Media, an emerging company. Part theatre group and part film producer, its recent short film Sin Eater was nominated as a finalist in the 100-Hour Film Race. Calder Levine’s notable acting work includes performances in Mathias et Maxime (Xavier Dolan); Rock On, Dude! (Best Foreign Film – Chicago Reel Shorts); and Genius, a podcast play adaptation of Sherlock Holmes. Levine says, “I was initially drawn to the elements of the Gagarin story that read like a legendary myth. After endless hours of research about this oft-forgotten icon, I wanted to explore a fictionalized retelling that spoke to today’s audiences about the themes of vocation, social identity, and life’s lift-offs and landings.”

Production design: Annalise Peterson-Perry

Annalise Peterson-Perry is a Montreal-based theatre practitioner and recent graduate from Concordia University’s Theatre and Development program. Having worked in theatre and film for close to ten years, Annalise is interested in multiple avenues of creating and supporting great storytelling. Recent credits include: Stage Manager for Blue Stockings (Persephone Productions), Assistant Sage Manager for It’s A Wonderful Life (Geordie Theatre Gala), Apprentice stage manager for Measure for Measure, and Much Ado About Nothing (Repercussion Theatre), Stage Manager for Underbelly (Concordia Collective Creation), Assistant Director for Learned Ladies (Concordia), Wardrobe Mistress for Mamma Mia!, and The Hobbit (Globe Theatre Regina), Wardrobe Dresser & Stitcher for Shrek the Musical (Globe Theatre Regina), and Assistant Designer for Becket Shorts (Concordia One Act Festival). Annalise is having tremendous fun exploring what it means to design while social distancing and could not be more grateful to be working with such a wonderful and dedicated team! Annalise is ready to blast off!

Production design: Joanne Kinnear

Joanne Kinnear is new to the behind-the-scenes theatre… uh … scene. Her experience includes going to plays in which Calder is involved and making Halloween costumes for Calder and his sister Emmy. She has been known to sport her own creations as well. She enjoys creating things out of her hoarded stash of craft supplies. Her hobbies include collecting things that other people see as trash and actually collecting other people’s trash. But seriously, she works as a daycare educator.

Light Design: Caite Clark

Caite Clark is a community engaged theatre artist working in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. She is the coordinator and resident lighting designer of the Acts of Listening Lab; a centre for oral history performance bringing to life stories that matter into the public sphere. Theatre and circus work in Montreal includes directing TOMORROW (Hooks and Crooks for Centaur’s Wildside Festival/Montreal Fringe), as well as lighting design for Specktacle avec un <<K>> (dir. Maja Maletković and Anna Vigeland), Blue Stockings (Persephone), Seminar for Contemporary Circus Creation (Concordia University), and The One (Hopegrown Productions). She has also been an artist in residence with the VAV Gallery, creating puppets from repurposed materials with Concordia’s Centre for Creative Reuse. Caite holds a BFA in Theatre & Development from Concordia University.

Sound Design: Marc-Antoine Legault

Marc-Antoine Legault is a Montreal-based sound designer and musician. Concordia graduate (BFA major in Electroacoustics and minor in Human Rights), the comrade has had the privilege of being involved with several productions performing at Montreal’s Centaur Theatre including Spring Awakening and Punk Rock. He is thrilled to be collaborating with so many talented artists and fellow John Abbott College Professional Theatre graduate Calder Levine on Cosmonaut No. 1.

With support from Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal through the Young Creators Unit.

About the project

Manic Valerie is the goddess of violin playing. Depressed Valerie is most certainly not. Stable Valerie… maybe could have been, at some point. After BUYING A MUSIC SCHOOL during a manic episode, Valerie looks back on all the ways her bipolar disorder has impacted her music career and documents it all through music, anecdotes, and some good ol’ oversharing on the internet 😉 A Joy that’s Mine Alone is the result of that documentation, a celebration on the road to recovery, and a reminder that it is never too late for all the tiny pieces that make up a life to realign after they scatter.

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

Violette Kay is a playwright and multidisciplinary performer from Gatineau, Quebec. She studied violin at the Conservatoire de Musique de Gatineau before making the transition to theatre at John Abbott College. She then participated in Imago Theatre’s ARTISTA and Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal’s Young Creators Unit. Past projects include Adoration (Tantalus/Studio Porte Bleue), The Order of The Poor Ladies (Revolution They Wrote) and Fridge Horror (Little Black Rain Cloud). You might also find Violette behind a desk at Geordie Theatre, puppeteering various household objects, or busking at your local metro station.