Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Albert Schultz, Founding Artistic Director of Soulpepper Theatre Company, today announced The Shen Development Festival, an entirely free festival of theatre, dance and musical works presented by performers and creators of Asian heritage, to take place on Sunday, November 19 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Programmed by Soulpepper Resident Artist and Shen Fellow Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster with associate programmers Rong Fu and Miquelon Rodriguez, the Festival is comprised of six presentations including: the Canadian Premiere of Cassettes 100 by José Maceda presented by Byron Abalos and Andrea Mapili (Maceda’s grand-daughter); Someone Between by Chantria Tram; Undercover Indian by Ankita Kumar-Ratta; Good/Don’t choreographed by Ming-Bo Lam; Love You Wrong Time created and performed by Maddie Bautista and Deanna Choi; and a Shen Cabaret with performers including Deanna Choi, Athena Kaitlin Trinh, Bo Lam, Victoria Marie, Arlene Paculan, and more.
Also part of the Festival will be a special screening of released episodes from Season 2 of CBC’s Kim’s Convenience, created by Ins Choi (Academy Graduate and the inaugural Shen Fellow) and co-produced by Soulpepper and Thunderbird.
In 2016, Soulpepper presented the Tiger Bamboo Festival to showcase works from artists of the Asian Diaspora, under the curation of Ins Choi. This year’s Shen Development Festival marks the culmination of a year’s worth of development support provided by Soulpepper, as part of The Shen Development Series, directed by the current Shen Fellow, Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster: “Over the past year at Soulpepper, The Shen Development Series has been a thrilling opportunity to celebrate artistic leaders from the Asian Diaspora, to bring together new creative pairings, to challenge both emerging and established artists to create, development and perform new works, and to offer free access to these exciting pieces. Throughout 2017, we have held readings, workshops, training opportunities, concerts; we’ve commissioned new pieces, offered up rehearsal space, and ultimately we’ve asked artists to lead the way, in showing us how we can best serve them. This Festival of theatre, dance and music is the result of inspired creation and collaboration, and we cannot wait to share what these talented artists have to offer.”
The Shen Development Festival is free but reserved tickets are encouraged for most performances: to learn more visit soulpepper.ca or call the Young Centre Box Office at 416.866.8666.
The Shen Development Festival is generously supported by Eleanor and Francis Shen through the Shen Leadership Fund at Soulpepper.
THE SHEN DEVELOPMENT FESTIVAL
Cassettes 100
José Maceda
Presented by the grand-daughter of José Maceda, Andrea Mapili, with Byron Abalos in partnership with Soulpepper and with the University of the Philippines’ Ethnomusicology Department
In 1971, an immersive inter-arts piece called Cassettes 100 created by National Artist of the Philippines, José Maceda, was performed in the lobby of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The 30-minute piece consists of 100 musicians weaving their way through and around an audience, each carrying a cassette player playing one of the hundred pre-recorded tracks of various Philippine instruments, voices and natural sounds.
On November 19, José Maceda’s grand-daughter, Andrea Mapili, and her husband, Byron Abalos, will present the Canadian premiere of Cassettes 100 in the lobby of the Young Centre. This project is a part of Maceda 100, a year-long international celebration of the life, work and legacy of José Maceda.
November 19 at 1:00 p.m.
Someone Between
Chantria Tram
Paula Wing, Dramaturge/Director
Andrea Nann, Movement Director
(Original staging by Milena Buziak)
Beginning with the story of her family’s escape from Cambodia, playwright and performer Chantria Tram chronicles her struggle to balance the traditional values of her Khmer parents with her own emerging beliefs. Someone Between is a humorous and vulnerable contemplation of cultural adaptation, migration, and the place between who we are, who we were, and who we are becoming.
A reading of Someone Between was presented at Soulpepper’s 2016 Tiger Bamboo Festival.
November 19 at 4:00 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.
75 minutes, no intermission
Undercover Indian
Written & Performed by Ankita Kumar-Ratta
Directed & Dramaturged by Tracey Erin Smith
Co-Produced by Soulo Theatre and Ankita Kumar-Ratta
Developed as part of Soulpepper’s Shen Development Series
What happens when you go and live in the country of your roots, and then come back to the country where you were born?
Undercover Indian tells the true story of a young Indo-Canadian woman, Ankita, who goes to live in India to learn more about her identity. This thought-provoking, playful, immersive theatre piece invites you to join Ankita in a yoga class (audience members can choose to sit in a chair or on a yoga mat) where she reveals, asana by asana, how her experience in India taught her to look at North American culture through a new lens.
November 19 at 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
75 minutes, no intermission
Good/Don’t
Choreographed by Ming-Bo Lam, with the support of Soulpepper’s Shen Development Series, performed by Beatrice Kwan, Denise Solleza and Yui Ugai (with thanks to Misheel Ganbold)
The conflict between what we’ve been taught “good girls” do — agree, appease, be nice — and the battle that ensues as we work to unlearn such behaviours, can feel overwhelming. At what point do we stand our ground & mark our boundaries? Where is the tipping point? And how does it feel when at last we claim our right to own our bodies, our choices, ourselves?
November 19 at 2:30 p.m. and 5:45 p.m.
45 minutes, no intermission
Love You Wrong Time
Created and Performed by Deanna Choi and Maddie Bautista
Developed as part of Soulpepper’s Shen Development Series
Two Asian girls seeking companions for discreet fun. We are talented with our hands: certified RCM Grade X piano and violin. Will make your yellow fever fantasies come true. Deanna Choi and Maddie Bautista wonder what’s the big deal about yellow fever. And then…the trouble begins. Musicalizing Asian femininity at the intersections of sex, love, loneliness, and the internet all in one shrewd and whimsical workshop.
November 19 at 4:15 p.m.
45 minutes, no intermission
Shen Cabaret
The Shen Cabaret, curated by Festival co-associate programmer Miquelon Rodriguez, showcases local musicians and artists in an intimate setting. Confirmed cabaret artists include Deanna Choi, Athena Kaitlin Trinh, Bo Lam, Victoria Marie, Arlene Paculan and more.
November 19 at 8:30 p.m.
Kim’s Convenience Screening
CBC’s Kim’s Convenience is the funny, heartfelt story of the Kims, a Korean-Canadian family, running a convenience store in downtown Toronto, based on the hit play by Soulpepper artist (and Kim’s TV creator) Ins Choi. Catch up on the celebrated Canadian comedy as episodes from Season 2 run in the RBC Studio.
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Photo: Ankita Kumar-Khan in Undercover Indian.
2017-10-19
Toronto: Soulpepper announces the Shen Development Festival to take place November 19