Composer + Musician Anju Singh and Bharatnatyam Dance Artist Arno Kamolika will share 4 short experiments from their research studio dates supported by Rumble Theatre. The artists are exploring this classical Indian dance form in relationship to contemporary music and composition as the two artists survey the potential for collaborations between Arno’s movement work and Anju’s sound work for music, dance, theatre, and opera applications.

This informal event will show experiments in progress rather than completed works and invite visitors to learn more about the two artists’ research.

To learn more about Bharatnatyam Dance click here.

The post Open Studio Visit With Anju Singh and Arno Kamolika appeared first on Rumble.

Karen Hines is an award-winning, genre-defining creative. As a writer, director and cult-comedian, she is the long time director of High Performance Rodeo favourites, Mump & Smoot.

Also known for her short films featuring the character Pochsy, Karen has traveled the globe to international critical acclaim.

My Name Is Karen is a work-in-progress and a satirical examination of the “Karen meme”.

Cast & Crew

Karen Hines – Creator and Performer
Blake Brooker – Dramaturgy
Peter Moller – Images

Produced by:

June Fukumura and Paige Louter

Karen Hines’ high performance satires have won multiple production and literary awards and citations including twice being finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and shortlisted for the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre She is the author of The Pochsy Plays, All the Little Animals I Have Eaten, Drama and Crawlspace among others – all published by Coach House Books. She is a Dora Award-winning performer and director (Pochsy, Mump & Smoot) and her short films featuring the character ‘Pochsy’ have screened on five continents. Combining such disparate elements as magical realism, pink brand feminism, performance clown and horror, Hines’ works have won her a reputation as "One of the gems of Canadian theatre" (Toronto Star). Her true life real estate horror Crawlspace (Boca del Lupo, cross-Canada tour) is currently streaming on CBC Radio and her Pochsy IV recently closed to sold-out houses at Toronto’s VideoCabaret. Hines is a Gemini nominee and for three years played “Karen” in the Emmy Award-winning Newsroom (CBC/PBS)

Paige Louter (she/they) is a queer theatre creator and producer based in so-called Vancouver. She holds an MA in Drama and Theatre from the University of Galway, and works as a performer, writer, outside eye, and intimacy director. Paige produced The Café (ITSAZOO/Aphotic) and Sunrise Betties (ITSAZOO), produced/assistant directed Meeting (ITSAZOO/Pacific), co-produced and performed in The Wolves (With a Spoon/Rumble; Jessie Nomination: Outstanding Production) and performed in The Lonesome West (Cave Canem), Twelfth Night (Tottering Biped) and Coarse: The Brontes (Edinburgh Fringe). Year-round, they work as ITSAZOO’s Co-Artistic Producer and Currently Arts’ Operations Manager. Upcoming: solo shows God Joke Play and Nod.

June Fukumura is a multidisciplinary, nisei (second-generation) Japanese-Canadian theatre artist living on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, colonially known as Vancouver. She is the Co-Artistic Director of Popcorn Galaxies, an experimental theatre company dedicated to re-enchanting the everyday through unconventional, site-responsive and site-specific new works. Since 2013, Popcorn Galaxies has created over fourteen productions and has been presented in Vancouver, Richmond, Edmonton, Whitehorse, and Dartmouth. Her personal artistic practice includes: acting for theatre/film/tv/voice over, clowning/bouffon, puppeteering, directing, dramaturgy, devising, and writing. She has worked with a number of theatre companies across Canada including The Stratford Festival, Theatre Calgary, Arts Club Theatre, Theatre Replacement, Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, Playwrights Theatre Centre, The Chop Theatre, Little Onion Puppet Co., The Biting School, and Hong Kong Exile. As a dyslexic artist, she also works as a speaker, advocate, and educator. She is passionate about creating diverse, inclusive, and safer spaces for all neurodiverse and neurodivergent artists. June holds a BFA in Theatre Performance and a Certificate in Sustainable Community Development from Simon Fraser University.

Supported by:

My Name is Karen is made possible with financial support of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. 

The post My Name is Karen appeared first on Rumble.

What happens when we use devised theatre to transform ‘King Lear’, a famous and cherished Shakespeare play, into a Latin American telenovela?  

Join us on this night of exploration, as we give you a glimpse into collective creation (with scripts in hand) in this workshop performance where Shakespeare meets Telenovela. ¡Ahí nos vemos!

About the Show

In the heart of a sprawling hacienda, Chochito Rey, a proud and aging patriarch, decides to divide his vast estate among his three daughters: the manipulative Roberta, the cunning Griselda, and the naive Cordelia (whose honesty leads to her exile). But his dream of harmony turns into a tempest of treachery and heartbreak. Betrayed by his own blood, Chochito spirals into madness mirroring the destruction of his legacy.

Meanwhile, in the shadows of the hacienda, a parallel storm brews. Edmundo, the illegitimate son of Don Galo, weaves a web of lies to usurp his noble brother Edgar and claim what he believes is rightfully his. Lies, deception, and forbidden love intertwine, setting the Rey’s hacienda ablaze.

Love, ambition, and betrayal collide in Chochito Rey—a telenovela of passion, power, and the high cost of family loyalty. Will anyone survive the storm?

Feedback & Afterparty

After the workshop performance, the audience is invited to stay and join our Community Dramaturges in a facilitated feedback session and Q&A followed by an afterparty with complimentary food and music.

Come for the workshop, stay for the dancing!

Performance Details

Co-Created and Written by Daniela Atiencia, Angie Descalzi, & Christine Quintana
Devised by Daniela Atiencia, Angie Descalzi, Christine Quintana, Alen Dominguez, Manuela Sosa, Anthony Santiago, and Emma Abbott
Performed by Anthony Santiago, Angie Descalzi, Alen Dominguez, Emma Abbot & Manuela Sosa.
Directed by Daniela Atiencia

Outreach Coordinator – Mónica Perea
Community Dramaturges –  Julia Abreu, Daniela Guerrero-Rodriguez, Ana Lorena Perez, Mariana Munoz, Danais Yera & Gabriel Ballestero

Stage Manager – Anna Brew
TD/Sound Design & Projection Assistant – Jack Goodison
Projection Design – Cande Andrade
Lighting Design – Brianna Bernard
Archival Footage – Pedro Augusto Meza

Graphic Design – Addison Hill

About the Artists

Creative Team

Angie Descalzi
(Co-Creator/Performer/Deviser) (She/Her) is an artist and award-winning producer and arts administrator, grateful to live and work on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples. Born and raised in beautiful Ecuador from a mix of Ecuadorian and Italian families, she holds a BA in Applied Theatre from VIU, an Advanced Certificate in Arts & Entertainment Management from Capilano University, and trained with Master Clown and Theatre Professor: Philippe Gaulier. Since then, Angie has worked with a variety of theatre companies (currently loving her Artistic Producer job at Rumble Theatre) and performing arts festivals in Metro Vancouver and has been involved in the inception of initiatives such as CultureBrew.art and CALTAC, which aim to advocate, celebrate and support IBPOC artists.

Christine Quintana (Co-Creator/Playwright/Deviser).
Born in Los Angeles to a Mexican-American father and a Dutch-British-Canadian mother, Christine is now a grateful visitor to the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people. Christine is an actor, playwright, co-Artistic Producer of Delinquent Theatre, and artistic associate of Neworld Theatre. Winner of a LA Drama Critic’s Circle Award, Dora Mavor Moore Award, Jessie Richardson Theatre Award, Tom Hendry Award, a Governor General’s Award nomination, and the Siminovitch Protégée Prize for Playwriting, Christine’s works have been translated and performed in Spanish, French, German, and ASL. As a performer, she’s acted on stages big and small, in a camper van, in neighbourhoods across East Vancouver, and on a farm. She is currently working on a commission for the Manhattan Theatre Club. She is a graduate of UBC’s BFA Acting Program.

Daniela Atiencia
(Co-Creator/Director/Deviser) is a Latinx-Canadian theatre artist born and raised in Colombia. She works as a freelance bilingual director, dramaturg, and deviser. Daniela holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts and an MFA in Theatre Directing from the University of Essex. Some of her recent directing credits include the world premiere of Zahida Rahemtulla’s The Wrong Bashir and Christine Quintana’s Clean/Espejos described by theatre critic Colin Thomas as “one of the best shows in years.” As dramaturg she is at Touchstone Theatre as their Associate Artist running the Flying Start program which helps support early career playwrights. As a deviser, Daniela is working on creating her own piece about her lived experience with dyslexia with fellow neurodiverse collaborator June Fukumura. She has also recently directed for Studio 58 and is currently a guest instructor at The National Theatre School of Canada. Daniela is based in Vancouver BC.

Cast

Alen Dominguez (Performer/Deviser) (He/Him) is a Mexican-Canadian theatre artist who trained at the University of British Columbia. He’s the Managing Director at Neworld Theatre and chair of C-Space, where he does cultural space advocacy. His current passion is to use Arts and Culture as tools to fight pollution and climate change. Onstage and off, he’s worked with some cool folks at Royal City Musical Theatre, Electric Company, City Opera Vancouver, Bard on the Beach, Ruby Slippers, Arts Club, Citadel, Chemainus, Western Gold, TODOS Productions, Rumble, Tara Cheyenne Performance, the Chop, and the PuSh Festival. Alen is a co-founding member of the Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition (CALTAC). Catch him onstage in April at The Arts Club in Casey and Diana.

Anthony Santiago (Performer/Deviser) is a first generation Canadian of Trinidadian immigrants who has appeared on stages across Canada with theatre companies such as the Arts Club, Rain City Theatre, The Citadel Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects and The Stratford Festival. Much love to his kids James and Nya-Manet and to his Belovèd wife Alexis.

Emma del Carmen Abbott (Performer/Deviser)  is a Latinx artist from Edmonton Alberta, Treaty 6 Territory. It was there where she first performed on stage at eleven years old, as the Evil Stepmother in her elementary’s production of Cinderella. Since then, her heart has taken her to many stages, including two post-secondary theatre programs (MacEwan Theatre Arts and Studio 58). Credits include Heather Chandler (Heathers: The Musical, Sherwood Theatre), Cinderella (Into the Woods, Studio 58), and Ensemble (East Van Panto: Beauty and the Beast, Theatre Replacement) to name a few. Emma has now found a home here in “Vancouver”, on the unceded and traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She’s excited to continue pursuing theatre and music (bonus if she can do both at once!) and aspires to create her own work, in hopes of sharing the love she holds for this little life.

Manuela Sosa (Performer/Deviser)  is a Venezuelan-American raised on Coast Salish lands. She’s a trilingual performer dedicated to new, nuanced storytelling on stage and screen. Past collaborators include rice&beans theatre, Pi Theatre, Neworld Theatre, Electric Company, Aluna Theatre, The Troika Collective, The Vancouver Biennale, Music on Main, Up In The Air Theatre, Leaky Heaven Circus, Classic Theatre of Harlem, and The Hong Kong Dance Alliance. Next up, watch Manuela play ‘Olive the Coroner’ on CBC Gem’s Wild Cards. She holds a BFA from Simon Fraser University in French and Theatre, and a MFA in Acting from Columbia University.

Design Team

Cande Andrade
(Projection Designer) is a video editor and media designer based in Vancouver. Recent theatre design credits include: Empty Handed (Biting School); Eyes of The Beast (Neworld); You used to call me Marie (NAC/Savage Society); La Befana ( Théâtre la Seizième); Women Of The Fur Trade (NAC, Native Earth, GCTC); Julius Caesar (Bard on the Beach); Little Red and His Lawyer (Savage Society/Belfry/NAC); Tree Drum (Theatre Terrific); Mom’s the Word Talking Turkey (Arts Club); White Girls in Moccasins (The Frank); Clean/Espejos (Neworld) and DYMISH (Theatre Replacement). Recent editing credits include: Looping (Company 605); Bard on The Beach’s feature film Done/Undone and the 2020-2021, Belfry Theatre’s digital productions, as well as the short films: Common Law; a film about a uterus and The Day My Cat Saved My Life. In recent years, Cande has edited several projects for Mochizuki Studios and as a content creator for the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Jack Goodison (TD, Sound Designer & Projection Assistant ) (He/Him) is a Sound and Lighting Designer who originates from the UK and now designs on the ancestral and stolen lands of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh nations.

Design Credits: City Opera Vancouver (Hafu) Luna Creatives (Portraits of Solitude), Pulsive Party (Lip Service 3), Rumble Theatre (Brahman – Bramha – Bandar; Las Pasiones de Don Pasquale), Axis Theatre (Where Have All the Buffalo Gone), As and When It Happens (Willilish’d), Douglas College (Jane Austen Action Figure; Orlando; Mad Forest), Vancouver Opera (The Pearl Fishers), Massey Theatre/UBC (We Deserve to Work), Jeb Beach Productions (Terminus).
TD Credits: Theatre Conspiracy (Himmat), Electric Company Theatre (Fire Never Dies), Rice and Beans Theatre (Peace Country), Rumble Theatre, Touchstone Theatre (Ominous Sounds at the River Crossing) and Assistant TD for Theatre Conspiracy (Same Difference), Neworld Theatre (Clean/Espejos).

Brianna Bernard
(Lighting Designer) (she/her) is a theatre artist who takes interest in both the creative and practical departments of art. With a background in technical theatre, Brianna has taken on roles such as technical director, production manager and lighting designer. She holds a BFA in Theatre Production & Design from Simon Fraser University. Originally born and raised in Jamaica, Brianna is thankful to now work, create and reside on the stolen lands of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

Crew

Anna Brew (Stage Manager) (she/her) is a stage manager and administrator currently working and living on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaɬ Nations. Anna’s recent credits include Eurydice Fragments (Re:Naissance Opera), BBB (Rumble Theatre), Lumbar 5, Thoracic 12 (rEvolver Festival), Sunrise Betties (ITSAZOO Productions), The Narrow Bridge (Pomerantz Collective), Peace Country (Rice&Beans Theatre), Symbiotic, Harvest Moon & Cardinal Point Cabarets (Rumble Theatre), Tremors Festival (Rumble Theatre), Angels Bone (Sound The Alarm), Vancouver Fringe and Bard on The Beach. Anna began her career in the UK as an audio technician on the multiple award winning musical TImpson: The Musical! (Gigglemug Theatre) at Edinburgh Fringe.

Pedro August Meza (Archivist) – (they/them) is a gender queer interdisciplinary artist from México who in deep respect and gratitude, now resides and creates in the stolen, unceded, ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Pedro Augusto holds a BA in Theatre from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, and has worked as a theatre creator, photographer and interdisciplinary visual artist for over ten years – guided by values of interconnection between all beings; their work seeks to create and nurture safe, warm creative spaces that contribute to decolonization efforts, healing as a community, and fostering the expansion of empathy between humans, animals and the land.

Monica Perea (Outreach Coordinator) – is a playwright, theatre producer, cyclist, and film lover. She founded the Women’s Theatre League in Mexico in 2008 and has performed over 20 plays, including five Shakespearean rewrites from women’s perspectives. Her work has earned multiple recognitions, including state grants through PECDA (2010 & 2019), a residency with the Mexican Writers’ Foundation (FLM, 2013), and a grant from FONCA’s Young Creators Program (2015-2016) for a play about the first woman to cycle around the world.

Passionate about cycling, she founded Teatro en Bici (Theatre on Bike), combining theatre and cycling by guiding audiences to plays on bicycles and later establishing a company under the same name.

Since 2021, she has pursued her career in Canada, joining Bard on the Beach’s operations team in 2022. She also serves on the boards of Playwrights Theatre Centre and CALTAC, where she produced the 2024 Coyuntura gathering in Toronto.

The post Chochito Rey: Sangre, Poder y Traición (A ‘King Lear’ Workshop Adaptation) appeared first on Rumble.

Kicking off the month of September, Anju Singh and Asitha Tenekoon joined Rumble’s AD Jiv Parasram to dive back into the creation process of this new interdisciplinary collaboration blending Theatre, Opera, and Contemporary Music.

BBB started as an artistic response commissioned by Vancouver Opera to engage the highly problematic Orientalist depiction of South Asians in Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers” which VO produced in fall 2022. While in that initial creation period, Queen Elizabeth II died, prompting the trio of South Asian artists to satirically engage the complex legacy of British Colonialism framing the piece as a tongue in cheek eulogy of sorts to Empire. The project takes us from delighting in the absurdity of this proposition to a loud expression of South Asian rage against this legacy of occupation and oppression.

Audiences are invited to attend the workshop presentation of this new work in progress!

The Progress Lab Bar will be open, and the show features complimentary food for audiences (dhal and rice – vegan, gluten free).

Tickets will also be available at the door. No one will be turned away due to lack of funds.

Content Warning:

Very loud instrumentals/electronic music (we suggest bringing earplugs, and will have some on site). Discussion of colonization and colonial violence, potentially disturbing images. 

Co-presented by Rumble Theatre and Little Chamber Music 
With support from The Vancouver Opera as part of their “VOICES: Free Concert Series” (supported by TD)
Co-created and performed by Anju Singh, Asitha Tennekoon, Jivesh Parasram
Lead composer – Anju Singh
Additional composition and arrangement- Asitha Tennekoon & Jivesh Parasram
Co-directed by Jivesh Parasram & Tom Arthur Davis
Stage Manager – Anna Brew
TD / lighting design – Jack Goodison
Sound Design consultant and engineer – Christopher Ross-Ewart
Projection Design consultant- Candelario Andrade

About the Artists

ANJU SINGH experiments with texture, sound, images, and compositional structure in her practice and work as a composer, multi-instrumentalist, performer, noise/sound artist, media artist, and curator. Her work engages in a practice of deconstruction and reanimation as process-based methods and plays with the application of contrasting themes and boundary/volume stressing experimental elements. As an interdisciplinary artist, she works in music, media arts, performance, theatre, film and opera. She has toured, presented and performed her work across Canada, in Europe, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and the United States.

ASITHA TENNEKOON is a Dora award winning, Juno nominated opera singer, composer, consultant, and arts administrator. Born and raised in Sri Lanka he has performed with many of Canada’s leading opera and concert organisations.

He is a Co-Founder of Amplified Opera, a Toronto based indie Opera company committed to placing artists at the centre of public discourse. He makes his home in the unceded traditional territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (TsleilWaututh) Nations.

JIV PARASRAM is a multidisciplinary theatre artist of Indo-Caribbean descent. He is the founding Artistic Producer of the acclaimed socio-politically mandated collective “Pandemic Theatre”, and the current Artistic Director of Rumble Theatre here in Vancouver.
Recent credits include (Sound of the Beast, Theatre Passe Murialle – PuSh Festival), East Van Panto: Beauty and the Beast (Theatre/Replacement & The Cultch), Someone Like You (Arts Club), Take d Milk Nah ? (Pandemic/Rumble), Szepty/Whispers (Rumble, V. West), Maybe Not Tomorrow (National Theatre School), Isolation Suite (Rumble & Theatre Conspiracy), Fat Joke (Neworld/Cultch/Rumble), & Measure for Measure (Bard on the Beach)

TOM ARTHUR DAVIS is an arts worker based on Lekwungen territory. In 2009, he co-founded Pandemic Theatre, for which he has acted as the Artistic Director. Tom has worked as a Managing Proucer with Why Not Theatre, as a Program Director with Toronto Fringe, and as the Interim Director of Programming with PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Currently, he is working with the BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres, helping to organize their annual Indigenous Youth conference, Gathering Our Voices.

As a theatre artist, Tom frequently works as a collaborator on new works, and connects with theatre creators across the country. His works for the stage include Mahmoud (co-writer – Playwrights Canada Press), Take d Milk, Nah? (co-creator/dramaturge – Playwrights Canada Press), The Only Good Indian (co-creator/co-writer – J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing), and SWIM (co-creator – upcoming production at PuSh Festival).

JACK GOODISON is a Technical Director and Sound/Lighting Designer who originates from the UK and now designs on the ancestral and stolen lands of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh nations.

TD Credits: Theatre Conspiracy (Himmat), Electric Company Theatre (Fire Never Dies), Rice and Beans Theatre (Peace Country), Rumble Theatre, Touchstone Theatre (Ominous Sounds at the River Crossing) and Assistant TD for Theatre Conspiracy (Same Difference), Neworld Theatre (Clean/Espejos).

Design Credits: Luna Creatives (Portraits of Solitude), Pulsive Party (Lip Service 3), Rumble Theatre (Las Pasiones de Don Pasquale), Axis Theatre (Where Have All the Buffalo Gone), As and When It Happens (Willilish’d), Douglas College (Jane Austen Action Figure; Orlando; Mad Forest), Vancouver Opera (The Pearl Fishers), Massey Theatre/UBC (We Deserve to Work), Jeb Beach Productions (Terminus).

CANDELARIO ANDRADE is a video editor and media designer based in Vancouver. Recent theatre design credits include: Empty Handed (Biting School); Eyes of The Beast (Neworld); You used to call me Marie (NAC/Savage Society); La Befana ( Théâtre la Seizième); Women Of The Fur Trade (NAC, Native Earth, GCTC); Julius Caesar (Bard on the Beach); Little Red and His Lawyer (Savage Society/Belfry/NAC); Tree Drum (Theatre Terrific); Mom’s the Word Talking Turkey (Arts Club); White Girls in Moccasins (The Frank); Clean/Espejos (Neworld) and DYMISH (Theatre Replacement). Recent editing credits include: Looping (Company 605); Bard on The Beach’s feature film Done/Undone and the 2020-2021, Belfry Theatre’s digital productions, as well as the short films: Common Law; a film about a uterus and The Day My Cat Saved My Life. In recent years, Cande has edited several projects for Mochizuki Studios and as a content creator for the Vancouver International Film Festival.

CHRIS ROSS-EWART is a sound designer, composer, and performer. He works in theatre, musical theatre, dance, podcasts and installations. Recent design credits include Hamlet (Canadian Stage), Measure for Measure (Bard on the Beach), A Tale of Two Cities (Alliance Theatre), The Clearing (Shaw), Hamlet 911 (Stratford), The Sound Inside (Coalmine), The Cave (Luminato), and Distant Early Warning (Buddies in Bad Times).

ANNA BREW is a stage manager and administrator currently working and living on the traditional, unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaɬ Nations. Anna’s recent credits include Lumbar 5, Thoracic 12 (rEvolver Festival), Sunrise Betties (ITSAZOO Productions), The Narrow Bridge (Pomerantz Collective), Peace Country (RIce&Beans Theatre), Symbiotic, Harvest Moon & Cardinal Point Cabarets (Rumble Theatre), Tremors Festival (Rumble Theatre), Angels Bone (Sound The Alarm), Vancouver Fringe and Bard on The Beach. Anna began her career in the UK as an audio technician on an award winning musical TImpson: The Musical! (Gigglemug Theatre) at Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

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