ACROSS OCEANS ARTS
facilitations
space hosting ::: workshops ::: artists collaborations ::: administration
These are some recent investigations that colleagues instigated in response to the active society we live in.
Across Oceans' role is simply to help out through space hosting, participation, mentoring, networking and whatever else we can offer, as our mantra goes, across disciplines, genres, generations, heritages and abilities.
If you have a intervention that could use some partnering please don't hesitate to start a conversation with us.
SPACE HOSTING ::: WORKSHOPS
SUMMERWORKS FESTIVAL AUGUST 2019 ::: EXCHANGE PROGRAMS
A series of events facilitating artist and community growth, to strengthen the ecology of live performance in Canada, and expand our dialogue and collaboration with the international arts community.
Roundtable on Networking
Artists sharing work with presenters.
Making Space for Conflict & Dialogue
What can we do when we hurt each other? How can we respond supportively to people who have been directly harmed in our community?
Through experiential and Theatre of the Oppressed techniques participants explored ways of dealing well with conflict, making space for healthier dialogue, and finding ways to treat each other better in arts spaces. A group agreement to support safety and participation was available online before the workshop. A therapist was present to provide in-the-moment support to participants in need. Led by Meg Saxby.
In partnership with Generator’s Transform Dance project, finding ways into healing and community accountability within the dance sector, supported through Toronto Arts Council Strategic Funding.
Creating Sign Language Magic
Explored the possibilities for creating accessible sign language productions for d/Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing, and sign language users. This workshop looked at multiple approaches, using select performance excerpts to demonstrate interpretation, shadowing, and acting practices. In addition, participants tried applying concepts in small groups. Led with Sage Lovell, Thurga Kanagasekarampillai, Derek Kwan, Gaitrie Persaud and Suchiththa Wickremesooriya.
In partnership with Generator, Deaf Spectrum, Theatre Passe Muraille and Toronto Arts Council
Open Studios
New works in development. Six artists shared excerpts of their next big idea with industry professionals and the general public. This was a seeding ground for new ideas and new creative relationships – a place to discover new favourite artists. Coffee and lunch hosted by Performing Arts Hub Norway.
Co-Curated by LaSerre (Montreal) and SummerWorks.
Presented with support from the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Sport
SUMMERWORKS FESTIVAL 2017 ::: SLIP WORKSHOPS
Core Dialogue: Arts, Access, and Aesthetics
Facilitator Barak adé Soleil
Barak adé Soleil, Artistic Director of Tangled Art + Disability and disability arts scholar Eliza Chandler co-facilitated a core dialogue and presentation on the ways in which cultural production and accessibility co-exist. What is disability aesthetics? And, how does our understanding of aesthetics expand when we consider how people access and relate to our work?
Presented by Summerworks in partnership with Generator and Tangled Art + Disability (AO space facilitation at IGAC studio)
(re)conciliation: on integrating indigeneity and decolonizing performance practice
Facilitators Cole Alvis and Jill Carter
The land acknowledgement perfunctorily performed by rote will not serve the fraught, complex project of reconciliation; indeed, it may, at the end of the day, render such an endeavor an exercise in futility. How do artists go beyond the learning of names, or geography, or historical fact to begin decolonizing their practice? How do we re-imagine our relationship with this land upon which we create? Cole Alvis (Métis) and Jill Carter (Anishinaabe-Ashkenazi) led a workshop for artists on how we can more actively engage in (re)conciliation.
Presented by Summerworks in partnership with Generator (AO space facilitation at IGAC studio)
The Creative Case for Relaxed Performance
Facilitated by Access Activators
Relaxed Performance (RP) as a cultural practice helps to make theatre spaces more comfortable and welcoming to audience members with autism spectrum disorders, sensory and communication disorders or learning disabilities. This workshop explored how cultural producers, artists and arts organizations can more widely and independently integrate RP principles within their work and creative processes. This workshop was led by Access Activators, a Relaxed Performance pilot consulting project.
Presented by Summerworks in partnership with Generator, Tangled Art + Disability, and the British Council (AO space facilitation at IGAC studio)
Anti-Oppression and Anti-Racism
Facilitator Rania El Mugammar
This workshop for artists explored the language, theories and practices of anti-oppression in depth. Institutional, community based and organizational strategies for building equity and unlearning oppression were central to the content and objectives of the workshop. Creative, technical and collaborative models for building equity and liberation were explored through group activities, case studies and discussion as critical tools to apply the learnings of this workshop.
Presented by Summerworks in Partnership with Generator, and b current performiing arts. (AO space facilitation at IGAC studio)
SPACE HOSTING ::: IN DEVELOPMENT
BOYS IN CHAIRS 2017-18
Created by Andrew Gurza, Frank Hull, Ken Harrower, Brian Postalian and Jonathan Seinen
Performed by Andrew Gurza, Frank Hull and Ken Harrower
Directed by Jonathan Seinen
Associate Director : Brian Postalian
Dramaturge : Debbie Patterson
Stage Managed by Kjell Cawsey
A fun, sexy, and honest exploration of three men's experiences as queer disabled men. Andrew Gurza, Frank Hull and Ken Harrower have come together to speak to experiences that rarely, if ever, are seen on stage. Immediate and intimate, provocative and personal, Boys In Chairs brought a queer perspective to conversations around sex and disability.
2017 workshop production by the Summerworks Festival. Production support provided for the residency and workshop by Cahoots Theatre Projects, Boys In Chairs is and has been supported by Toronto Arts Council with funding from the City of Toronto, the Ontario Arts Council, OAC Theatre Creators' Reserve Grants from recommenders Cahoots Theatre, Tangled Arts, and Cabaret Company, and by Community One's Rainbow Grant program.Development continues in 2018. (AO space facilitation in 2017 and 2018 at IGAC studio)
ARTISTS COLLABORATIONS
CLIMATE CHANGE THEATRE ACTION 2017-2019-2021
How to live with and fight against the disabling affects of climate change?
From 2017-2019-2021 the Arctic Cycles commissioned 140 playwrights from around the world to write plays for the Climate Change Theatre Action. Across Oceans joined in the global action of theatre artists using the playing to foster awareness and community actions. Across Oceans facilitation of 11 plays encouraged her networks to consider and commit to personal involvement in climate action, drawing attention to online sources for involvement that stretched on a continuum from personal attendance to arms length petitions and other engagements.
Not because we are good 2021:
6 play readings by a phenomenal cast of players shared at The Changent Circle
Canaries 2019 : inspired by Hanna Cormick's poem "Canaries"
In the darkest nights of November and December AO artists freed canaries from their cages online (little did they know that their lives were to move entirely online just 4 months later...)
The Time for Action is Now 2017-2019-2021 (T.A.N.)
T.A.N. artists put 4 plays "on their feet"
ON DISPLAY (Toronto 2016-17-19)
Created and produced by Heidi Latsky
"On Display" originated in New York City by Heidi Latsky and now is presented worldwide. It is a growing portfolio of works that explore and demonstrate inclusion through art, "On Display" is a deconstructed art exhibit and commentary on the body as spectacle and society's obsession with body image. It turns an ensemble of diverse and extreme bodies into a sculpture court where the performers are the sculptures.
These Toronto shows were produced by Heidi Latsky and local organizers Shula Saltzmann and Fanny Gorbhayev in September, October 2016, November 2017, 2019. Many Across Oceans associates performed in the large Toronto ensemble.
More info at > https://heidilatskydance.org/ondisplay/
ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT
DECADES COLLECTIVE 2019 :: six
ARTISTS: Mi Young Kim, Jill Carter, Maxine Heppner, Banuta Rubess,
Sashar Zarif, Mafa Makhubalo, Jennifer Dallas, Atri Nundy
Six generations and eight heritages exploring personal and collective relationships to the land they dance upon,
"Six" was commissioned by Dance Ontario Weekend 2019,
and supported by the Toronto Arts Council and Hub 14.
DEAD ROAD COLLECTIVE 2016
ARTISTS: Clare Preuss, Neema Bickersteth, Darwin Lyons and Zoë Sweet
Emerging new theatre work about the disabling affects of living on the edge of capitalism.
Developed in a workshop and presentation residency at Factory Theatre in 2016.