Spotlight on our artists – Winter 2021
Theatre and performance spaces have been keeping their doors closed, but that hasn’t stopped our artists from working! Writing and creation, residences, workshops, and online performances, they have lots of great projects to announce!
Along with Adrian Neblett and Andrew Creightney, Chris Francisque (NoShow Vancouver) will be performing a staged-reading, Trey Wilson’s Three Part Disharmony, directed by Omari Newton. The performance is presented by Ensemble Theatre Company as part of “Us: A Black Peoples Month Festival” and their commitment to anti-racism. Curated by Black artists Adrian Neblett and Mariam Barry, the online arts festival features theatre, films, podcasts and staged readings from the diaspora. The link to the staged-reading is available here.
Actresses and creators, Anaïs Pellin and Emilie Leclerc (Unité Modèle, le NoShow Vancouver, Nos Repaires) have developed a theatrical adaptation of the celebrated novel L’Amant (“The Lover”) by Marguerite Duras. Le Centre culturel francophone, in collaboration with theatre company Kleine Compagnie, created by Anaïs Pellin, will be presenting the show via livestream on Saturday, February 20th at 8pm. A good plan for a Saturday night! Info & tickets here. (Available in French only, no subtitles)
Anita Rochon (Extra-Céleste, Nos Repaires) is directing the show Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, for the third year acting students at the National Theatre School of Canada. The show will be available online March 1-6.
Written and directed by Anita, the show Pathetic Fallacy, produced by The Chop, will also be presented in Hong Kong Arts Festival. The performance examines our changing relationship to weather and circles around climate change. It’s an original collision of DIY cinematography, action film, choreography, a gallery talk and weather forecasting —all with the immediacy of live performance. Among others, the show production team consists of Itai Erdal (Unité Modèle, Straight Jacket Winter, Le Soulier), Malcolm Dow (Unité Modèle, Simon a toujours aimé dansé) and Milton Lim (Simon a toujours aimé dansé).
Milton Lim is juggling multiple projects at the moment! He is currently working with Patrick Blenkarn on episodes 1 and 2 of a video game performance called asses.masses for an upcoming socially-distanced presentation at Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires, from March 2 – 5, 2021. Milton is also creating a dance performance called BLUSCRN with Ralph Escamillan (FAKEKNOT) and is part of the Digital Storytelling Team at The Cultch, working on creating a nexus of virtual venues using gather.town.
In March director Rachel Peake (Selfie, L’Élection, Nos Repaires) is scheduled to go to Edmonton to direct a workshop production of a new play called Hireath, a black comedy magic realism piece co-conceived with actor and playwright Belinda Cornish.
She is also working with Joey Lespérance (Le Soulier, Bonjour, là, Bonjour), with whom she co-created and presented a short performance as part of Nos Repaires last September, on the creation of a comedy written by Joey. The show will be filmed and streamed online by le Centre Culturel francophone de Vancouver. Joey is also working on his first solo piece, Michel(le) – working title -, a show that “speaks to the gaze of a brother towards the turbulent, unique, and dramatic life of his brother/sister”.
With her band L’Élément, Ghislaine Doté, a performer featured in Nos Repaires, will be presenting a musical performance at le Centre culturel Francophone on May 1st. The group will be performing French classic songs in a theatrical style created in collaboration with Rachel Peake.
After its 2020 cancellation, Schoolhouse, written by Leanna Brodie will be part of Two Planks and a Passion Theatre’s 30th season in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. The show, that evokes a way of life shared by generations of rural North Americans, will be presented outdoors this summer.
Time’s up, Nathan Metral‘s (le NoShow Vancouver) first short film, co-written and co-directed with Mathilde Lascazes, will be competing during the 11th edition of Nikon Film Festival, which starts online on February 24th. The theme of the selected short films of this edition is « A game ».