Field Notes from the Future, with Sea Sick’s Alanna Mitchell

Watch at folda.ca/livestream or the SpiderWebShow Facebook page

June 11 @ 7:30PM EDT (8:30PM ADT / 5:30PM MDT / 4:30PM PDT)

Edinburgh Fringe favourite Sea Sick by award-winning Canadian journalist Alanna Mitchell is back – with a twist.

The virtual manifestation of the critically-acclaimed show builds on Mitchell’s final thoughts from the original production:

“Adapt and survive. It’s the essence of Darwin’s teachings and our species is really good at it. Write a new ending. Live to tell another tale.“

Who could have predicted that six years after Sea Sick‘s premiere at Toronto’s Theatre Centre, a global pandemic would immediately shift the world’s priorities? With economic downturn and #StayAtHome compounding the shift, what new opportunities and pathways can we create to move forward in the fight against climate change?

Join Alanna as she brings her infectious curiosity, subtle art of the interview and special guests to this riveting take on how we can collectively adapt to survive.

This show is available with ASL for more on our access plan click here.

Produced by The Theatre Centre, with Luminato Festival Toronto & PuSh Festival

Presented by FOLDA.

 Send Me a Reminder

May I Take Your Arm? by Red Dress Productions

Watch at folda.ca/livestream or the SpiderWebShow Facebook page

June 12 @ 7:30PM EDT (8:30PM ADT / 5:30PM MDT / 4:30PM PDT)

May I Take Your Arm? (MITYA) – created by Alex Bulmer, Anna Camilleri, and Tristan Whiston – emerged from audio-recorded walks between blind performer Bulmer and strangers who provided sighted guide in a downtown neighbourhood in Toronto; it evolved into a theatre piece that integrates live performance, immersive audio, live video, tactile installation, and audience interaction. And now, May I Take Your Arm is reimagined and remixed as an online performance during a global pandemic when we are not, pointedly, taking each other’s arms.

”May I Take Your Arm? was born from a need to understand where I am — a need to turn space into place, into home.”

In April 2018, I moved into a Toronto apartment in the east end. I knew little about the area, the neighbours, the local history. Although I had spent nearly 16 years in the city between 1988 and 2004, when I left Toronto, the city for me had started at Dufferin St. and ended at Church St.

Throughout that space and that time, I transitioned from living sighted to living blind.

On my return to Toronto, I struggled to reconnect to this place I once called home. It felt more like an undefined space of noise to push through, rather than an actual place, a landscape to encounter, with people to relate to and understand.

I walked with people from the local community, mostly people I’d never met before. We shared stories, memories, and descriptions of what we encountered together and how we engaged with place and home. The way we ‘saw’ our world was forever changed.
— Alex Bulmer

Producer: Red Dress Productions
Co-Creators: Alex Bulmer, Anna Camilleri, and Tristan R Whiston
Performer: Alex Bulmer
Sound Editor and Dramaturge: Tristan R Whiston
Environment Designer and Maker: Anna Camilleri
Live Video Animation: Katie Yealland
Storytellers: Henry Campos, Trisha Lamie, Silvia Marques, Benton McKnight, Vikesh Mehta, Zahra Naqvi, Dwayne Shaw, and Ronnie Thompson

Creative Access Support / Audio Description: Becky Gold
Video Audio Recording (2018): Charles Ketchabaw

Audio Description Transcript Available here

Instagram: @rdpmakesarts
VIMEO: user5040840reddressproductions
FLICKR: reddressproductions
YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HesQ5AsV8lM&t=147s

This show is available with audio description and is low vision friendly. For more on our access plan click here.

 Send Me a Reminder

SmartSmart

By Adrienne Wong

ASL Interpretation    Relaxed Performance   Closed Captions Blind/Low Vision Watch/Listen Party

Take your phone to the theatre! Join Adrienne Wong for coffee, crafts, storytelling, and surprises. Leave your phone on.

SmartSmart combines audience participation and a modular script where the storytelling is predetermined, but the order is improvised based on you, the audience. The experience is a meditation on mediation.

Smartphones are one of many ‘modifications’ humans make to themselves in the name of advancement. Early cybernetic devices have ranged from contact lenses to cochlear implants. Now haptics on our phones remind us to drink water, notifications urge us to get enough sleep, and our senses are extended by a web of computers accessible from the pocket-sized terminals we tuck under our pillows at night. This is a new work that explores pervasive media and our relationships to our devices, how they extend our senses, and affect our relationships with other humans and ourselves.

Ways to Watch

IN PERSON: Friday, June 14th at 7:00pm ET or Saturday, June 15th at 3:00pm ET.

Please note Saturday’s performance of SmartSmart is a family-friendly relaxed performance. Audiences of all-ages are welcome! All in-person tickets for SmartSmart are JOINT TICKETS that include entry into LUCY AI !

LIVESTREAM: Friday, June 14th at 7:00pm ET

Access Notes

Watch/Listen Party for Blind/Low Vision hosted online – Friday, June 14 from 6:15pm

ASL Interpretation – Saturday, June 15 at 3:00pm ET

Captions – Livestream  – Friday, June 14 at 7:30pm ET online

Relaxed Environment – Noises, movement, devices, snacks permitted and a private space to relax in if you need it. 

Service animals always welcome – Visual Guides available in person

Wheelchair Accessible Venue

Visit the FOLDA Access Table before you go into a show to borrow various accessibility supports, blankets, pillows, earplugs and other things to support your comfort.

For more information on Accessibility and Parking at our shows and venues, visit folda.ca/accessibility.

Contact FOLDA’s Access team to reserve seats, services or spaces.

For more info at access@spiderwebshow.ca / 1-877-FOLDA-24

Credits

Directed and Performed by: Adrienne Wong 

Digital Designer: Andie Lloyd 

Developer: Nicole Goertzen 

Set Design: Barbara Clayden

Produced with the support of Theatre Replacement. SmartSmart was originally commissioned by Theatre Replacement as part of a COLLIDER Residency, and was presented at Hold On Let Go 2024.

Mash Up: Explorations of Creative Access in Performance Art

By Erin Ball, Maxime Beauregard, Andrew Heule, Gaitrie Persaud-Killings, Jaideep Goray

ASL Interpretation    Relaxed Performance   Closed Captions Blind/Low Vision Watch/Listen Party

This Disability-led collaboration explores creative accessibility in aerial arts and music with a mash up of digital technologies and in-person tools. 

How can we create more welcoming environments for Disabled, Deaf, and hard-of-hearing artists and audiences?

How can digital offerings be more engaging and support folks who can’t participate in person?

These are just a few of the inquiries of Mash Up.  Audiences are encouraged to join the dialogue at the end of the presentation. 

Ways to Watch

IN PERSON: Saturday, June 15th at 7pm ET. All in-person tickets for Mash Up are JOINT TICKETS that include entry into LUCY AI!

Please note the in-person presentation will be a masked performance.

All audience members are asked to wear face masks when in the Recital Hall.

LIVESTREAM: Saturday, June 15th at 7pm ET

Access Notes

Watch/Listen Party for Blind and Low Vision hosted online from 6:15pm ET

ASL Interpretation online and in person

Captions are available on the Livestream, online

Relaxed Environment – Noises, movement, devices, snacks permitted and a private space to relax in if you need it. 

Service animals always welcome – Visual Guides available in person

Wheelchair Accessible Venue

Visit the FOLDA Access Table before you go into a show to borrow various accessibility supports, blankets, pillows, earplugs and other things to support your comfort.

For more information on Accessibility and Parking at our shows and venues, visit folda.ca/accessibility. Contact FOLDA’s Access team to reserve seats, services or spaces, or for more info at access@spiderwebshow.ca / 1-877-FOLDA-24

Credits

Created by: Erin Ball, Maxime Beauregard, Andrew Heule, Gaitrie Persaud-Killings, and Jaideep Goray

HOME

HOME

by Beau Dixon and Linda Garneau

Presented by FOLDA in association with Soulpepper Theatre

Beau Dixon returns to FOLDA with HOME, following his 2021 Innovation Residency at the Festival.

In collaboration with dancer/choreographer Linda Garneau, HOME is physical, expressionistic exploration of Dixon’s response to a home invasion. Incorporating, movement, sound, and projections, this BETA stage of development of the piece moves further into the senses and emotions associated with PTSD as well as the loss of identity and the struggle to maintain a sense of ‘HOME’.

Dixon and Garneau are working with acclaimed director Peter Pasyk and Musician/Sound Designer Andrew Penner to recount the memory of this life changing event and explore the multiple perspectives through movement.

HOME asks: Can we subvert how we look at Trauma? Instead of suppressing the things we are most afraid of, can we invite them to the table?  

Credits

Writers – Beau Dixon and Linda Garneau

Director – Peter Pasyk

Performer – Beau Dixon

Choreographer – Linda Garneau

Dancers – Lisa Auguste, Kelly Shaw,

Sound Designer/ Composer – Andrew Penner

Video Designer – Frank Donato

Acknowledgements

FOLDA’s Innovation Residency is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.

asses.masses

asses.masses

By Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim

 Relaxed Performance

How To Experience the Show

Audience Notes

Contains coarse language, representations of donkeys mating, loud music, flashing lights, audience participation, and strong revolutionary rhetoric. Participation and active spectatorship is a central part of asses.masses. We invite you to be part of our Herd in any way you can. Recommended for ages 14+ 

Credits

Acknowledgements

Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, The Theatre Centre, BC Arts Council, Creative BC, Canada Council for the Arts, VIVO Media Arts, the Embassy of Canada to Argentina and Paraguay, and the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund.

Through My Lens

Through My Lens

By Amy Amantea with Theatre Replacement

Through My Lens is a new rhythmic, intimate work by theatre artist Amy Amantea, which is a conversation that is coupled with hospitality and portraiture.

Set in a small photography studio, the story follows Amantea as a photographer and single participant, who describes to her images that she has never ‘seen’—back to her. Each photo opens a portal of ‘seeing’—finding solace in familiar sights and sounds.

Amantea is an artist with a lived experience of blindness, specifically having a total of 2% vision in one eye. She is a photographer whose practice involves walking the city at twilight, searching for unique light patterns and capturing them with her camera.

Through My Lens is commissioned by SpiderWebShow Performance and produced by Vancouver’s Theatre Replacement.

How To Experience the Show

Audience members can engage with Through My Lens in several ways

1. One-on-One: A limited number of guests will experience the performance one-on-one with Amy and have the opportunity to describe Amy’s images to her.
2. Screening: On June 7 at 6:30pm ET a livestream of Through My Lens will be screened for a live audience in the The Gordon Vogt Film Screening Room at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in Kingston, ON.
3. Livestream: On June 7 at 6:30pm ET, the livestream of Through My Lens will be available for virtual guests to enjoy from the comfort of their homes.
4. In-Studio Audience: On the June 10 performances, a small group of audience members will join Amy and her single participant to watch the show in-studio. ASL interpretation will be offered for the 5pm performance.
5. Zoom Watch Party: On June 7 at 5:30pm, join artist Kim Kilpatrick and Amy for a pre-show watch party event for the Blind and Low Vision community, watch the show together in Zoom, followed by a Q&A session. To access the watch party, email access@spiderwebshow.ca

ASL Interpretation: June 7 at 6:30pm ET (Screening and Livestream)

ASL Interpretation: June 10 at 4:45pm (in-person group show at 5:00pm)

Blind/Low Vision Watch Party: June 7 at 5:30pm ET (Zoom). To access the watch party, email access@spiderwebshow.ca

For more information on ASL, the Watch Party, or other access supports visit our Accessibility page, email access@spiderwebshow.ca or call our Access team at 1-844-MY-FOLDA / 1-844-693-6532.

CONTENT WARNING: Lights will change in the space, dimming, brightening and changing colours.

Times

June 7, 2023 
6:30pm – 7:15pm *livestream and in-person screening

June 8, 2023
4:00pm – 4:45pm
5:00pm – 5:45pm
6:00pm – 6:45pm
7:00pm – 7:45pm

June 9, 2023
4:00pm – 4:45pm
5:00pm – 5:45pm
6:00pm – 6:45pm
7:00pm – 7:45pm

June 10, 2023
4:00pm – 4:45pm
5:00pm – 5:45pm
6:00pm – 6:45pm
7:00pm – 7:45pm

Credits

Written and Performed by:  Amy Amantea

Written and Directed by:  James Long

Media Design and Operation by:  Nico Dicecco

Lighting and Set by:  Sophie Tang

Production Support by:  Jordyn Wood

Technical Direction by:  Daniel O’Shea

Acknowledgements

Through My Lens is supported by the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts

Photo by Amy Amantea

Locative App Experiment

Vista

Vista is a work in development exploring questions of health and environment, how towns and cities are planned and evolve, and the people and forces that influence these processes. It is an app-guided journey, a series of dialogues, and an attempt at a wide view of a situation, knowing that every view is selective and necessarily incomplete. Overlaying conversations, each with their own integrity and constraints, Vista asks audiences to consider some important civic questions: In what ways to our social structures impede or enhance our personal health? What does it mean to truly belong to a place? How does our movement in a city reflect our social status? To what degree does a city’s relationship to its natural environment inform its general ‘health?’ How are things like town planning, economic and social structures, related to health?

Vista grew from a series of interviews with health and planning professionals in Nova Scotia and Devon, England. It will premiere in September at the International Agatha Christie Festival in Torquay, England. This alpha test is an experiment with a GPS-driven phone app that guides audience members to locations where recorded content is unlocked. It’s a first attempt at finding the dramaturgy of in-app audio paired with a journey to real-world locations.

CREDITS

Created by Zuppa Theatre Co. with James Tyson

Written by Kate Cayley

App Developer Andrew Burke