ENGLISH BELOW!!
Cher(e)s ami(e)s francophones et francophiles!
Veuillez retrouver un p'tit message en français sur ma page Facebook, ou bien sur les "UPDATES" ici sur Indiegogo à propos de l'origine et le sujet de la présentation de thorax : une cage en éclats le vendredi 3 mai, 20h à Toronto! Si vous êtes à la recherche de billets pour la présentation, vous pouvez les retrouvez ici à Indiegogo, à la droite, chez les "PERKS"! Merci merci pour votre intérêt!
AN 18TH CENTURY CROSS-DRESSER WAS THE FIRST JEW IN CANADA?!
Yes, it's true. Well, at least the first known one. A queer collision on colonial shores... Why didn't I know about this?!
OUR STORY
You may be as floored as I still am to consider that the purported first Jewish person to come to Canada, in 1738, was a young Christian man outed as a Jewish woman. Or a young Jewish woman passing as Christian man... Whoever they were, Esther Brandeau aka Jacques La Fargue landed at Quebec barely 20 years old, and was deported a year later only to disappear from the record. In 2010 we premiered ribcage: this wide passage by me, Heather Hermant, the first ever black box theatre production based on this story, with Canadian Music Award winner Jaron Freeman-Fox on live fiddle and looping pedals, VJ Kaija Siirala on videoscapes and Mecca award-winning and Dora nominated former director of Nightwood Theatre, Toronto and current director of urban ink productions, Vancouver, Diane Roberts directing. Me? I do the live sweating! Spoken word poetry, archival narration, physical theatre, choreography, costume changes, audience flirtation. It's been an 8-year labour of love, and counting...
We're excited that the work is about to enter a whole new, vitally important life! We need your help to make it happen. We're finalizing the translation of ribcage to français, edging us that much closer to our dream: bilingual touring! With your help, ribcage: this wide passage will become thorax : une cage en éclats thanks to renowned Montreal translator wordsmith Nadine Desrochers. And I will officially become a full-fledged bilingual performer able to share this piece of history with anglophone and francophone audiences across Canada ... heck, maybe even beyond!
Your financial contributions will help top up our shortage of funds for a translation workshop happening April 29th - May 5th, bringing our full creative team from across Canada together in Toronto. We're excited to be working at AKI Studio Theatre. Your contribution will not only enable us to finish the translation, but share French and English shows with an invited audience that could include you. And it will enable the magnificent documentary filmmakers Shahin Parhami and Melina Young to document our labour of love across languages.
HOW TO DONATE
Every donation of any amount counts. Click "DONATE NOW" at the top of the page. You can donate any amount, with or without perks. The perks are listed to your right and include: limited-seating ticket to a performance of your choice, a poster, an mp3, a Director's bag, or a whole bundle of treats! So if you want to grab a perk, click the perk and donate there!
Is this online donation business just a little too much to navigate? Old-fashioned cheques in the snail mail are just as welcome (they can't be tallied on Indiegogo, but that's okay!):
PO Box 87
Toronto P
Toronto ON
M5S 2S6
Can't give this time round? That's okay. We'd love you just the same if you could spread the word to your email networks, post through Facebook, Twitter and all that!
Help us reach our goal and if our campaign is a success, stay tuned for the video outcome online within weeks of the end of the workshop!
HOW TO SEE A PERFORMANCE
Tickets are limited and only available by donating under the PERKS along the right column of this page.
SHOWCASE DETAILS
thorax : une cage en éclats
Friday, May 3rd, 8 PM
ribcage: this wide passage
Sunday, May 5th, 3 PM
AKI Studio Theatre
585 Dundas St. East, Toronto
THE SHOW PROMO BLURB!
ribcage: this wide passage is Heather Hermant's breathtaking multidisciplinary performance exploring the little-known story of 18th century cross-dresser Esther Brandeau/Jacques La Fargue, said to be the first Jewish person to set foot in what is now known as Canada. Unveiled within a series of lush and haunting video installations, ribcage draws on Heather's painstaking search in archival records in Canada and in Europe and walks us, as Heather literally did, through locales named in archives in Quebec and in France, follows on foot a history from Inquisition-era Spain and Portugal through to France and onto the colonial port of Quebec. Carrying the narrative of Heather's stunning physical theatre, poetry and narration is soaring live fiddle and soundscape looping by Jaron Freeman-Fox, a rising young talent and protege of the late acclaimed Canadian composer Oliver Schroer.
ribcage: this wide passage
Creator/Performer: Heather Hermant
Dramaturgy/Direction: Diane Roberts
Translation: Nadine Desrochers
French dramaturgy: Amélie Dumoulin
Composer/Musician & Sound design: Jaron Freeman-Fox
Videography: Melina Young, Heather Hermant
Video Mixing/Co-creation, live video installation: Kaija Siirala
Lighting Design: Simon Rossiter
Costume Design: Luisa Milan
Set: Heather Hermant
Workshop Voice coach: Lopa Sircar
Workshop Producer: Heather Hermant & backforward collective
ribcage is under urban ink productions' touring program
urban ink Touring manager: Kiran Trace de Jaray
HERE'S WHAT FOLKS HAVE SAID ABOUT RIBCAGE: THIS WIDE PASSAGE
The archive breathes, it grows, it sings, it is physical in this room.
-Tara Lee, CBC Radio Vancouver
Intelligent. Intelligent. Intelligent. The kind of intelligence where you don't give us what history is, but what history means.
-Zab Maboungou, Montreal
Impressive. A balancing act of art fusion.
-Leslie Lutsky, Radio Centreville, Montreal
Hermant has done something very rare here. A strange alchemy. The floor suddenly becomes vast to the point where you feel that little bit of fear that you're on the edge of the world.
-Jill Carter, Toronto
Hermant's voice is just so damn beautiful.
-Tristan D. Lalla, Montreal
Commitment. Courage. Heart. “There is no resolution,” says Heather in ribcage: this wide passage and I was aware of the responsibility that she feels in telling this story. I want other people out there in the world to feel it like she feels it ... So effective, so important.
-Monique Mojica, Toronto
J’ai eu la sensation d’être au coeur d’une aventure épique et historique. Le jeu d’Hermant est captivant, touchant et désarmant. Telle une enfant, j’absorbais les scènes les unes après les autres comme les chapitres d’un roman.
-Katy Collet, Montreal
A PRODUCTION HISTORY
Feb, 2010. First ribcage invited feedback session, The Movement Centre, Toronto.
April, 2010. ribcage gallery installation performance, Tremors Festival, Vancouver.
Oct, 2010. ribcage black box theatre premiere, Le MAI (Montréal Arts Interculturels), Montreal.
Feb, 2012. Aujourdhuy / This Day, 1738, ribcage spin-off one-to-one performance, Rhubarb Festival, Toronto.
April, 2012. thorax work-in-progress presentation & workshop, University of Ottawa Department of Theatre.
May, 2012. Aujourdhuy / This Day, 1738 in Budapest, Hungary and Novi Sad, Serbia.
Jan, 2013. Aujourdhuy / This Day / Hoje, 1738 site-specific performance, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
KNOW MORE: LINKS!
Visit ribcage on Facebook.
Visit ribcage at urban ink productions, Vancouver.
Visit director Diane Roberts at urban ink productions, Vancouver.
Visit composer Jaron Freeman-Fox.
Visit videographer/documentarian Shahin Parhami.
Visit campaign perks donor Kalala Designs.
Visit campaign perks donor yourdrawingweekly.com.
Visit Voice Coach Lopa Sircar at Shine Creative Coaching, Toronto.
THANK YOUS
We thank Jets de théâtre, Conseil des arts de l'Ontario and all other funders and partners who have gotten us this far: Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and residencies at Hub14, Toronto, Gibraltar Point International Artist Residency, Toronto Island, urban ink productions' Fathom Labs & touring program, Vancouver, and backforward collective, Toronto. We also acknowledge and thank the Mississaugas of New Credit, traditional stewards of the land of Toronto.
