Stage Door News
Stage Door News
For two weeks, over 100 local and international artists transform Buddies in Bad Times Theatre into a hotbed of creativity and experimentation, sharing new ideas in contemporary theatre, performance art, dance, and music with adventure-loving audiences.
The full schedule of events is now available on-line at www.buddiesinbadtimes.com
One of the few critic-free environments available to local artists, Rhubarb is the place to see the most adventurous ideas that artists have to offer and to catch your favourite performers venture into uncharted territory. This year, look for familiar faces, new partnerships, and artists you may have never seen before.
2013 FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
•Sook-Yin Lee teams up with dance artist Benjamin Kamino for her first theatrical offering since the age of 14.
•The incomparable Nina Arsenault presents a new work based on her life-long fascination with Cleopatra.
•‘Ladybear Extraordinaire’ and mainstay of Toronto’s queer night life, Fay Slift teams up with performing artists Trixie & Beever and Kaleb Robertson to present a high-drag reimagining of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
•The return of The One-To-One Performance Series. One of the highlights of last year’s festival, this program presents a collection of intimate experiences designed for a single performer and one audience member at a time.
•Playwright Nicolas Billon returns to Rhubarb with The Faroe Islands – the final instalment in the Fault Lines trilogy, which includes the multi-award winning plays Greenland and Iceland.
•Weekly late-night cabarets devoted to all things sexual, and curated by three of Toronto’s leading voices on sex – Now Magazine sex columnist Alex Tigchelaar, sexual health activist Mikiki, and community organizer and artist Kim Crosby.
THE MEETING PLACE OF ART AND ACTIVISM
As a hotbed of radical experimentation and one of the few critic-free performance environments in Toronto, Rhubarb has long been a politically charged arena. This year, many artists are tackling issues head on with bold projects that infuse their artistic practice with political actions, and respond to pressing issues of discrimination and oppression.
•Rhubarb is partnering with Videofag for the performance intervention Vigil(ance) that responds to both recent and ongoing instances of violence on the streets of Toronto. Jordan Tannahill and William Christopher Ellis take audiences to locations where they feel unsafe so that they can be occupied and reclaimed.
•Artists will take on sexual taboos, discrimination and injustices in a pair of raucous late-night cabarets happening every Thursday night. In Week One, Alex Tigchelaar gathers a group of female artists and activists – including Jess Dobkin, Christine Pountney, Keisha Scott, and Zoe Whittall – to take on the historical erasure of women from art and social justice movements. In Week Two, Kim Crosby and Mikiki team up for a radical celebration of sex, smut, spirituality, and pleasure in the face of slut shaming and sexual violence.
•Winnipeg’s Coral Maloney and Ian Mozdzen take on the queer fetishization of cowboy culture in the riotous protest/performance WEproteSTern
•Also look for a wide selection of works that reacts to experiences of political and personal discrimination, including a response to racism within the queer community from dance sensations ILL NANA DiverseCity Dance Company and an exploration of the effects of repression on art and the human body from Adam Paolozza.
RESPONDING TO A NEED FOR INTIMACY
In stark contrast to a world that is increasingly impersonal and interactions take place almost entirely on-line, artists this year are bringing courageously intimate works to the stage to help us all reconnect in a way that only live performance can.
•The popular One-To-One Performance Series returns for a second year with a collection of close encounters designed for a single artist and one audience member at a time. Breaking down barriers between audience and performer, these projects intimately engage with audiences through acts of hand holding (Bruce Barton’s All Good Things), healing rituals (Andrew Zealley’s Disco Hospital), surrender and trust (Cathy Gordon’s Moles Dancing), remembering the dead (Rachel Steinberg’s Eulogy), and more. All of the One-to-One performances will take place at The 519 Church Street Community Centre.
•Performance artist Vincent Chevalier takes on the way we all perform ourselves on-line with an in- depth disclosure of his own personal history, performed in the style of a blog
•Dance artist Andrew Tay offers up a heart warming piece that reconnects us to each other through the spirituality of shared experience.
A NEW HOME FOR DANCE ARTISTS
Rhubarb is fast becoming the venue of choice for artists with radical new experimentations in dance, and this year boasts one of our biggest dance contingents in recent memory. This year, look for adventurous and daring new dance works from George Stamos, Andrew Tay, Davy Bisaro, Sasha Kleinplatz, Ill Nana DiverseCity Dance Company, Benjamin Kamino, Brandy Leary and Priscilla Guy.
QUEER ARTISTS ON STAGE
As always, Rhubarb is the go-to venue for exciting new work by queer artists. Queer names to watch at this year’s fest include Nina Arsenault, Jordan Tannahill, Mikiki, Roy Mitchell, Vag Halen, Vincent Chevalier, Nichola Ward, Nat & Joce Tremblay, Johnny Forever, William Christopher Ellis, George Stamos, Trixie & Beever, Brescia Bloodbeard, Andrew Zealley, Kaleb Robertson, Gein Wong, Andrew Tay, and the members of Buddies’ Young Creators Unit
SHOWCASING THE BEST OF CANADA’S THEATRE SCENE
This year also hosts a stellar collection of Canada’s most acclaimed theatre artists and rising stars as they test the boundaries of their work. Look for new works by Adam Paolozza, Michael Rubenfeld, Leora Morris, Nicolas Billon and Ravi Jain, Coral Maloney and Ian Mozdzen, Brescia Bloodbeard, Jessica Moss, Bruce Barton, and more.
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre presents
THE 34TH RHUBARB FESTIVAL
February 20 – March 3, 2013 Wed-Sun Evening Passes $20 One-To-One Performances PWYC Mobile Works FREE
Box Office 416-975-9130 or www.buddiesinbadtimes.com
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander Street, Toronto ON
Photo: George Stamos in Dandy Decay.
2013-01-03
Toronto: Buddies in Bad Times announces the line-up for 34th Rhubarb Festival February-March 3