ÉQUINOXE

This project is a continuation of our artistic and political work with the troupe Joussour. It consists of integrating, mixing, and confronting a vision and a Palestinian theatre practice in our dramaturgy. This is first articulated through joint research work, and next through the production of (digital) content, to conclude with the dissemination of this content on a Canadian stage as an epilogue to the creation work.

Hugo Fréjabise Biography (Quebec)

Hugo entered the National Theatre School of Canada thanks to Diane Pavlovic, who had the double audacity to abolish barriers and believe in him. There, Hugo met the game-changing Tamara Nguyen, precious teammate and necessary author.

Hugo is infinitely grateful to his acting colleagues (the 2016–2020 cohort).

Hugo created the Dire, Encore collective in 2018, collaborating with the redoubtable Renaud Dionne, Marine Plasse and Samuel Boucher. He then created the shows Darwin avait raison and En descendant de Babel. Hugo invented the performances #blablabla and On ne fait pas de littérature avec de bons sentiments along with the dazzling Pierre-Alexis Saint-Georges. The remarkable Édith Patenaude directed his play Tu es Nora. With the intrepid Nadine Jaafar and Alice Tixidre, he founded the company Joussour, with which, in 2018, they led the production Ce n’est pas un hasard qui fait de nous des voyageurs avec colis encombrants, a theatre creation project carried out in Beirut with youth from the Ouzai area. Cioran was right: “No need to elaborate works—merely say something that can be murmured in the ear of a drunkard or a dying man.”

Blood Wedding is a creation piece with a deep outreach aspect. Angelica Schwartz and Anais West will start a monthly community outreach initiative with the support of Neworld Theatre with the goal of meeting with local trans and queer artists to seek collaborators. They will connect with a broad scope of queer creatives, not only to build a team for Blood Wedding but to gather various perspectives and strengthen community ties.

Based on this initial outreach, Angelica will create a paid Trans Ambassador program later in the show’s development. The Ambassador program would take after Neworld’s Cultural Ambassador program, bringing together a group of trans artists to consult on the play and help with outreach to their communities. In return, Angelica and Anais will offer them opportunities for theatre mentorship throughout the production. This integral community component will help Angelica strengthen their experience as an aspiring community-engaged director. It will also honour the history of trans stories by providing the opportunity for our modern community to tell their own.

Neworld Theatre will support with outreach and in-kind rehearsal space for the team’s gatherings, and TEC will pay the artists who get involved.

Angelica Schwartz is a director and collective creator born on Treaty 1 Territory (Winnipeg, Manitoba), where they founded the performing arts company Happy/Accidents. A recent graduate of the Directing program at the National Theatre School, Schwartz is now based in Tiohtiá:ke (Montreal, Quebec). 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 aims to trouble the public imagination around questions of identity, queerness and bodies. In their work, societal norms and pressures take a backseat to the complexity of the human condition. Schwartz is invested in highlighting the perspective of the Other, giving an alternative lens on how stories can be told.

While at NTS, Schwartz directed The Game: Zoom Expansion Pack, The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi and Miss Julie. Artistic mentors include Jackie Maxwell, Eda Holmes, Marcus Youssef, Anita Rochon, Julie Fox, Sarah Garton Stanley, Michael Wheeler, Naomi Campbell, Rose Plotek, and Catherine Bourgeois, 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, an NAC/FoldA partnership; and Haven, which will be presented at FoldA in June.

Invisible Artists Carnival (IAC) is a free, outdoor, multidisciplinary performance created and performed by an ensemble of outsider circus folk from the mad, disability and queer communities: Yousef Kadoura, Erin Ball and Harri Thomas. Over the course of the show, the performers make various attempts to summon the mysterious Invisible Artist. These attempts vary in form, from clown turns and aerial silks to audience participatory ritual. They ultimately succeed, and the performance culminates in a theatrical carnival of light, music and creative joy. The Invisible Artist is performed by Silvae Mercedes and a rotating ensemble of disability artists recruited from local communities. This ensemble changes with every new iteration of the performance, and in turn changes fundamental aspects of the work, reflecting community members’ own artistic interests and practices.

Harri Thomas is a director, dramaturg and performance-maker based between rural and urban Ontario. They are the founding artistic director of Toronto’s Desiderata Theatre Co. Their previous works as a director have included adaptations of classic texts as well as world play premieres and live art creations. Their work emphasizes the body as the site of both trauma and forgiveness in relationship to love, the earth, the spirit and society. They are a recent graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s directing program. Recent credits include director and dramaturg, One Night (Other HeArts, Caminos 2019); creator and performer, Flower Machine v2: Paiseu (Other HeArts, York Lane Art Collective); and director and dramaturg, MAD ONES (Tangled Art + Disability).

Greenhouse Effected is an experimental theatre piece to be created based on Exxon Mobil’s greenhouse gas study, which was internally disseminated in 1981 and released to the public in 2015. A mix of contemporary classical music, choral speaking, absurd and poetic text, and a fusion of technical designs will submerge participants in the conscience of a climate researcher who, despite their responsibility for the greater good, chooses to keep quiet about their discoveries regarding climate change.

The performance will explore the relationship between corporate greed and the push for individual responsibility for climate change rather than a collective fight. Greenhouse Effected will be a chance to collectively mourn the health of our planet and dream of ways we can come together to fight our climate impact as a society.

Ryan Wilcox is a queer, multidisciplinary artist with a love of collective creation. Their goal in theatre is to create a catalytic environment for new Canadian work that focuses on the voices that have yet to be heard and the questions that have yet to be answered. Through their training in production design and technical arts (NTS, 2020), they hope to enhance the creative companies they work with by using collaborative approaches that see beyond the traditional structures of theatre. Before attending NTS, Ryan completed Dalhousie University’s Technical Scenography program.

While at the National Theatre School, Ryan trained under the guidance of inspirational artists such as David-Alexandre Chabot, Brian Kenny, Maria Popoff, Craig Putt, Andrea Lundy, Rick Rinder and Debashis Sinha, among many others. On productions, Ryan has worked as a stage manager, lighting designer, and sound designer while collaborating with such acclaimed directors as Eda Holmes, Danielle Irvine and Krista Jackson.

Ryan worked on sound design for Little Thing Big Thing (Neptune Theatre), Penny’s Home Projects (Alinea Theatre), and The PEACE Project (Transitus Theatre). Ryan was also an apprentice stage manager for the Festival Antigonish and a stage manager for The Colour of Courage (Anthony Sherwood Productions).

She/They was produced at Nextfest in June and in the Edmonton Fringe in August. It is a two-hander, and Madi performed in it alongside a local artist from Edmonton. The play was part of Nextfest’s MainStage lineup, which guarantees three performances at that Festival, and will receive 7-8 performances at the Fringe.

Synopsis

Famed feminist author Agnes Arnold has been cancelled and doxed. Gender studies major Pearl Arnold has been dumped and shattered. Pearl has no time to process their breakup because Agnes, their grandmother, is moving in. Full of hope that her grand-“daughter” will validate her outdated and bigoted opinions, Agnes is shocked when Pearl pushes back. Soon, they launch into a debate about feminism and gender, but as the political becomes personal, both Agnes and Pearl confront the truth that they are far from ready to admit.

In this project, a group of 10 students (ages eight to 16 years old) will be invited to participate in several parts of a puppetry design and workshopping process. Students will learn puppet-building techniques and be introduced to part of a theatre creation process conducted by a collective of theatre professionals. Theatre students will gain first-hand experience of the process of creating a work of puppetry, including theatre-making, writing and performance workshopping. They will also get hands-on experience in the design and creation of large puppets. Their contributions to the creative process will help make the show a hit with young audiences.

Murdoch Schon is a theatre maker, director, and puppeteer who graduated from the NTS Directing program in 2020. Winnipeg-born, they have been involved in the Montreal English theatre scene for almost a decade. Murdoch is fascinated by provocation, vulnerability and the role of risk and failure in art-making. Murdoch believes that theatre rises to its true power through the practices of ritual liminality, community and imagination. Murdoch is enamoured with scale, the breadth and sweep of history. They insist on the wondrous nature of theatre as a transformative space where rulers can fail, heroes can rise, and monsters seem more familiar than angels.

Mentors at NTS: Jackie Maxwell, Tanja Jacobs, Lezlie Wade, Michael Wheeler, Sarah Garton Stanley, Clea Minaker, Dean Fleming, Seana McKenna, Jean Asselin, Eda Holmes, and Rose Plotek.

Their directing credits include it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now by Lucy Kirkwood, The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter, Celestial Serendipity by Russell Wiitala, The Woods Witch by Murdoch Schon, and Little One by Hannah Moscovitch. Murdoch also has a BFA specialization in theatre and development from Concordia University.