Announcing our IWW 2019 Community Tour!

We’re taking the Cabaret on the road! As part of our annual International Women’s Week celebration, we’ll be touring the monologues out to community groups around Manitoba. This is a great way for new audiences to experience live theatre, especially in rural communities. This year, we’re travelling across the province to Steinbach, Gimli, The Pas, and Flin Flon! Check out the list below for all the ways you can catch the pieces in this year’s tour:

Aurora House – The Pas

March 3^rd at 1:00 PM

Wescana Inn – 439 Fischer (HWY 10)

Featuring: Sunday Morning Brunch, Talking about ED, The LightFishers, I am NOT a Victim, and Oracle Jane

Incorporated in 1982, the agency addresses domestic violence in the Norman region through counseling, support and education.  The Pas Committee for Women in Crisis operates two facilities – Aurora House, the emergency shelter, and My Sister’s House (a small apartment complex for women establishing themselves in a violence free life). Admission to this event is “pay what you can.”

 

Brooklyn Alice Lee in “Sunday Morning Brunch”

Women’s Resource Centre – Flin Flon

March 3^rd at 7:00PM

Johnny’s Social Club (177 Green St)

Featuring: Sunday Morning Brunch, Talking about ED, The LightFishers, I am NOT a Victim, and Oracle Jane

The Flin Flon Women’s Safe Haven and Resource Services Inc. supports the women and children in their community. They work hard to empower women: to help them be more dynamic, confident and to ensure their safety. Admission to this event is free. Photo: Patrick Rabago.

 

Hailley Rhoda

Shereen Ramprashad

University of Manitoba Womyn’s Centre

 March 5^th at 5:00PM and March 8^th at 11:00AM

Basement of University College, Room 145 (220 Dysart Road)

Featuring: Talking about ED (March 5^th) and I am NOT a Victim (March 8^th)

The Womyn’s Centre is a feminist collective on campus as well as a safe space to work, share and learn together. The Centre advocates on behalf of womyn of the university and offers a wide range of services to the collective members, university students, and the outside community. Photos: Patrick Rabago.

 

Canadian Museum for Human Rights

March 6th at 6:30PM

85 Israel Asper Way

Featuring: Sunday Morning Brunch, Talking about ED, The LightFishers, I am NOT a Victim, Thelma and Louise, Who’s Driving, Bare Bones, Oracle Jane, and Geraldine Sloan Truhill: Mommy’s Going to the Moon, Kids!

We’re excited to partner with the Museum to bring you all nine IWW pieces! On the first Wednesday of every month, the museum offers free entry to guests. You can check out our full line-up as you browse the incredible exhibits on display.

 

Interlake Women’s Resource Centre – Gimli

March 7^th at 7:30PM

Gimli Unitarian Church (76 2nd Ave)

Featuring: Sunday Morning Brunch, Talking about ED, The LightFishers, I am NOT a Victim, Thelma and Louise, Who’s Driving, Bare Bones, Oracle Jane, and Geraldine Sloan Truhill: Mommy’s Going to the Moon, Kids!

IWRC is a grassroots, community-based resource centre dedicated towards improving the quality of life for women, children, families, and the communities in which they reside. The Centre provides services and programs for women and their children living in or having left domestic violence situations, in order to help women make informed choices for themselves and their children.

The IWRC requests that admission to the event is given in the form of a basic hygiene product – particularly tampons, face wash, or conditioner.

 

Agape House – Steinbach

March 8^th at 7:00PM

Steinbach Arts Council (304 Second St)

Featuring: Talking about ED, Bare Bones, and Geraldine Sloan Truhill: Mommy’s Going to the Moon, Kids!

As one of 10 women’s shelters in Manitoba, Agape House serves an area that extends North to Beausejour, South to the U.S. Border, West to Winnipeg and East to the Ontario border.

Agape House (Eastman Crisis Centre) began operating in December 1985, out of a three-bedroom bungalow, after concerned citizens recognized the need to help families in the Eastman region. In time, the women’s shelter moved to a five-bedroom house in Steinbach to facilitate the growing need for services. Today, the shelter has 16 beds, and in an average year sees over 200 clients and responds to over 1,000 crisis calls.

Admission to this event is $10 with proceeds going to support Agape House.

 

We’ll also be performing around Winnipeg for Rainbow Resource Centre, Sunshine House, University of Manitoba Women and Gender Studies, Residence Despins, University of Winnipeg Disability Studies, University of Winnipeg Conflict Resolution Studies, West Broadway Youth Outreach, and the North End Women’s Centre.

For the full lineup, be sure to get your tickets today for our performances on Saturday, March 9^th! Tickets available here.

 

Inspiring Others at IWW 2019

At our 2019 International Women’s Week Cabaret of Monologues, we’re sharing stories that inspire! Through the power of storytelling, our lineup will showcase a variety of women’s experiences about what is means to embrace identity.

Hailley Rhoda

Hailley Rhoda is the puppeteer, playwright, and performer behind Talking about ED. This brand-new piece explores “the elephant in the room”: how disability and the secrecy surrounding it affects lives.

Hailley is a graduate of the University of Winnipeg’s Theatre and Film department. Hailley has worked with Sarasvàti on several projects, including Ripple Effect, Honey and Jupiter, and The Seduction Theory. She is the founding – and only – member of Chronically Ch(ill) Productions, a Winnipeg-based company interested in women in mythology, disability in the arts, and seeing just how complicated a puppet made from dollar store parts can get.

“This piece is the most of myself I’ve ever put onstage,” says Hailley. “Usually I get the mask of someone else’s words, or the framework of a pre-existing story to work behind. This is just me, and my lived experience, talking about the realities of living with disability in a way that I haven’t yet been brave enough to do.”

 

Wanda Wilson

In Bare Bones, singer/songwriter Wanda Wilson portrays an eclectic mix of raw, sweet edge with a musical approach that is bold, courageous and out of the ordinary. Receiving CBC’s Most Unique Album of the Week Award (2009), her self-released debut project “Under Donald” is a solid testament to that. With Cree roots from northern Manitoba, Canada, Wilson’s material embodies strength, humor, hope and pain in her own alternative way.

“I’ve never shared my story before,” says Wanda. “It has been thirteen years and I still feel I have so much more to learn but I’m ready. It’s time. I know a lot of other people are hurting and one of several things I have learned in sobriety is that you are not alone.”

 

Taking the Cabaret into the stratosphere is Geraldine Sloan Truhill: Mommy’s Going to the Moon, Kids! In 1961, NASA denied training to the “Mercury 13”, an all-female band of astronauts. Refusing to take no for an answer, Geraldine fights for respect from NASA and her family.

Playwright Natalie Frijia is a Toronto-based writer, theatre-maker, clown-wrangler, and adventurer. She has a PhD from the University of Toronto’s Graduate Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, and the School of the Environment. She was also a member of Storefront Theatre’s inaugural playwriting unit. Her plays have been workshopped and presented at Storefront Theatre, Rhubarb Festival, New Ideas Festival, and Fringe festivals across Canada.

 

 

Lauren Marshall

Lauren Marshall is exceptionally honoured to make her first appearance with Sarasvàti Productions as Geraldine. Past stage credits include As You Like It (Midnight Productions), Of Mice and Men (Real Live), and Doubt (Winnipeg Mennonite Theatre). Lauren originally studied music education at Brandon University before discovering a love for the dramatic arts, and can be found substitute teaching in the band room in between auditions.

“I’m excited to play a woman who has always known from the very beginning what she wants to do with her life,” says Lauren. “Geraldine wants to fly. I’ve always admired people who have that early conviction. She is very different than me and that will be a lovely challenge.”

 

For all these pieces and more, you can check out our full line-up of monologues on Saturday, March 9! Don’t miss out – get your tickets today!

Building Bridges

We have kicked off our next long-term initiative and it has us busting at the seams – both with excitement and literally needing a bigger office space for our staff team! Our new collaborative project focused on reconciliation through storytelling is bringing together a team of Indigenous artists to work with Indigenous youth. Thanks to the generous support of the Winnipeg Foundation, we’re welcoming Nova Courchene to the team as our Project Coordinator for this exciting artistic community-based creation! Sarasvàti Productions joins twenty community organizations who have received funding from the Winnipeg Foundation for projects that work towards reconciliation.

 
Nova Courchene is Anishinaabe-kwe from Sagkeeng First Nation and Rolling River both located in Manitoba. Nova has been involved in music and theatre for five years, working with musicians and in theatre organizations out of Toronto and Winnipeg. Currently situating herself in Winnipeg, she is actively working as the Assistant Program Director at the Native Youth Theatre program, run out of Manitoba Theatre for Young people. With experience in her past as an Arts Administrator Intern at Native Earth Performing Arts, and two intern positions at Manitoba Music including a Music Administrator Internship for 3 local Winnipeg Recording Music Artists.

Nova has a deep understanding of the challenges Indigenous people face in their daily lives and the conflict that colonization brings to everyday life. She is excited to dig into the reconciliation project. After meeting with Marsha Knight, our Indigenous Community Outreach Coordinator, she will be moving forward with coordinating the logistics of the project.  Discussions continue with various organizations as we welcome sponsors, partners, and participants. She hopes to bring her administration and coordination skills to the project to provide a safe and accommodating space for all involved in the project.

Nova has been surrounded by various Indigenous creatives including emerging playwrights, songwriters, and theatre professionals. She is excited to participate in Sarasvàti’s on-going pledge dedicated to using theatre to promote human understanding and the presentation of evolving experiences on stage. She holds strongly to the ideas of developing young Indigenous voices, experiences and representation within the theatre industry. 

The full project will include consultation circles in the spring of 2019 leading to an initial public gathering in May 2019. Here artistic means will be used to share what has been captured to date, while also allowing for public dialogue around next steps in the project. From there we will continue to work with partner organizations to structure workshops with Indigenous youth at seven different locations. These sessions will allow arts skills to be transferred to participants, while also having them collaborate on a large-scale public performance in May 2020. The results and lessons learned from the project will be explored and methodologies built in to Sarasvàti’s practices moving forward. We are excited to continue to work with new partner organizations and artists with whom relationships are built as part of this process. Through long-term relationship building, collaboration, and welcoming amazing new team members like Nova we hope to continue the on-going commitment to true reconciliation.

Visit our website to keep tabs as the project develops or feel free to contact ncourchene@sarasvati.ca for information or to get involved.

Embracing Identity with Humour

There’s more than one way to be confident in who you are! Our International Women’s Week Cabaret of Monologues features all types of stories about embracing one’s identity with pride – and with a sense of humour. For these pieces, playwrights share the funny side of learning how to be comfortable in your own skin.

Ivy Charles

Ivy Charles is a twenty-two-year-old actor from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is currently furthering her acting studies at Studio 58 in Vancouver. She enjoys spaghetti, wine and having a good chuckle with her friends. Ivy is excited to dip her toe into the world of writing. In her piece Sunday Morning Brunch, Josephine is a spunky seventeen-year-old girl, confident her sexuality. This confidence is put to the test when she introduces her girlfriend to her religious family (and of course Father Henry) at Sunday brunch.

“Being someone who is always striving for equality, I thought why not use a platform that I’m not used to: writing. I knew I wanted to write about female empowerment and this was one of the first topics to come to mind,” says Ivy. “Josephine is the epitome of Here I Am. She is proud of who she is.”

 

Brooklyn Alice Lee

Playing Josephine is Brooklyn Alice Lee. Brooklyn is currently a student in her final year with the University of Winnipeg, graduating with a degree in Acting. Despite having performed on-screen, she has a soft spot for theatre as she loves the raw truth and thrill of a live performance. She is looking forward to 2019 where she will debut her first self-written Fringe show with 803 Productions.

“I like the complete honesty of the piece,” says Brooklyn. “It’s unique, raunchy, and relatable even if you haven’t been in the character’s situation. I also feel connected to the dry, blunt humour of Josephine. She and I are very alike in that way.”

 

Makrenna Sterdan

Next in the lineup is Who’s Driving? by Makrenna Sterdan. Janet is a fast-talking car saleswoman looking to get you into your next vehicle, all based off current global issues. The biggest problem with these cars isn’t the millennial-scapegoating, or the toxic chemicals, or the Neo-Nazis… it’s the auto-pilot feature.

Makrenna Rose Sterdan is a writer born and raised in Winnipeg, who has lived in South Korea since 2015. Sterdan has written several short films such as Speaking Test, which premiered at the Korean International Expat Film Festival. Sterdan has also written several ten-minute plays that have been produced across North America, such as The Geese and Last Chance. Her monologue Doing It for the Fame was featured in Sarasvàti Productions’ 2016 Cabaret of Monologues.

Who’s Driving came from Makrenna’s own feelings of helplessness she experienced while watching the news. “I wanted to personify my feelings of helplessness and make them relatable to an audience,” she says. “This is where I am right now: reading the news and not wanting to be on auto-pilot while the world takes its course.”

 

Kim Kakegamic

Kim Kakegamic is thrilled to be a part of the Cabaret of Monologues once again! Trained at Providence University College (BFA), Kim has appeared in over thirteen Fringe Festivals in Regina, Saskatoon, Edmonton and Winnipeg. She most recently performed in RMTC’s 2018 Master Playwright Festival with Broken Record Productions. By day Kim works as a writer for 6P Marketing, and spends far too much time binge watching shows on Netflix.

This is Kim’s second time performing one of Makrenna’s pieces after Doing It for the Fame. “I LOVE her work,” says Kim. “This piece, like that one, is dynamic and energetic. It takes some very intense topics and adds humour and cheekiness to create, what I believe, is a very memorable moment. It’s a lot of fun to perform.”

You can check out our full line-up of monologues on Saturday, March 9^th! Don’t miss out – get your tickets today!