Alumni Show Incubator Project

For this year's Alumni Performance Project, we have changed the format due to the restrictions around COVID-19 and opened new opportunities instead. As we cannot host an in-person performance in one of our theatres for usually only one production, we have now invited three of the artists who successfully submitted proposals to our committee to take part in an experimental incubator project. 

Each artist or artistic team will be quickly introduced and will then share a pre-recorded scene or vignette (up to 15 minutes) of their creative project. This will be followed by a knowledgeable 5-minute statement of our especially assigned respondents or on-site collegial critics, who have studied these works in advance. The artists will be invited to address major points of discussion within 5 minutes, before we move on to the next presentation. After the presentation of all works the audience will have an opportunity to ask questions and share their insights.

Respondents:
Dr. George Bwanika Seremba for Bros / Les gars / Ախպերներ by Art Babayants / Արտ Բաբայանց
Dan Petrenko for Shiva by Becca Willow Moss
Yizhou Zhang for The Work. Written by Brad Gira, Frosina Pejcinovska, and Stephanie Zeit
Directed by William Dao and Margaret Rose

Moderator: Dr. Antje Budde
 

The following three performances will be showcased: 

Bros / Les gars / Ախպերներ
By Art Babayants / Արտ Բաբայանց

Bros/Les boys/Ախպերներ is an episodic play based on personal experiences of queer and racialized people moving to live in Canada. It presents eight realist scenes interspersed with short Grindr-themed interludes. The eight scenes represent seemingly disparate stories: stories of immigration, radical displacement, everyday inhospitality, extreme religiosity, casual racism and homophobia. One of the subplots involves an Armenian-Iranian gay couple moving to a Canadian fly-over province where they find the same levels of conservatism – even though very carefully concealed under a thick layer of cold politeness – that they faced in their countries of origin. In turn, the Grindr interludes occurring between the realist scenes provide comic relief and remind the audience that they are engaging with the medium of theatre: as the actors start interacting with the mobile app lines, emoticons and blank photo frames appearing on the stage as projections.

Shiva
By Becca Willow Moss

Becca Willow Moss is a Jewish actor, singer, writer and visual artist based in Toronto. In this piece, she explores the performativity of mourning in the context of her Jewish upbringing. Through mishigas*, Mourner’s Kaddish, mortality, and music, Shiva is inspired by Becca Willow’s one-woman show: Fried Onions. 
*craziness 

The Work
Written by Brad Gira, Frosina Pejcinovska, and Stephanie Zeit
Directed by William Dao and Margaret Rose

France, in the Middle Ages. An elite group of monks invite all the nuns in the country to live in their prestigious monastery during the men's sudden hiatus. Only four disparate and desperate women manage to answer the letter’s call. Problems arise when the monastery was not what was promised: the soil is dry, the building is in shambles, a wolf stalks the premises at night, and there are far too few of them. Everything starts to seem like a scam. The women's faith and friendships are tested more and more by increasingly mysterious events. They disagree about what is happening and the basic facts of their life. 

This digital exposé of The Work will introduce you to our group of young women and their isolated world. As a compilation of scenes and artefacts of a larger story, this video project is a relic of the developing play and popcorn entertainment in its own right.

Register in advance for this webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_l5hJSN5xQqWc-XaVwfG_kA
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Check out the full program for the Alumni Show Incubator Project.