The Art of the Pitch

Pitching is an inevitable part of any theatre artist’s life. From pitching your show to festivals, to pitching your show to potential audiences, pitching is an art form in and of itself. 

On August 12 from 7:00-9:30pm, we’re offering a virtual workshop called Pitching 101. Led by Hope McIntyre and featuring an array of experienced panelists, the workshop will help those who are interested in bringing their creative ideas to the stage.

A shot from our last workshop, Producing 101 in May, 2020!

Sarasvàti Production’s Artistic Director will guide participants through the process of creating a strong pitch. She was the inaugural Winnipeg Foundation Fast Pitch winner and has twenty years of experience producing and marketing work. Participants will have time to finesse their pitches and test them out on a panel of experienced artists with a history of promoting their own work. The final component will be getting valuable individual feedback. Pitching experience, feedback, and a networking opportunity all in the comfort of one’s home!   

“Learning how to passionately speak about your work to a range of people is crucial,” says Hope. “Whether you’re pitching your Fringe show to strangers or pitching to get your work produced, you need to get people interested in your story and rope them in.”  

The panelists providing feedback on pitches will include: 

Monica Ogden, who you may remember from her show Monica Vs. The Internet which had a great run at last year’s Winnipeg Fringe Festival. Monica (she/they) is an award-winning disabled Filipina, Polynesian, British storyteller, actor and comedian. Her Lilang migrated from Illocos Sur, Philippines in 1966, and she is now an uninvited visitor in the unceded territories of the Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. Her solo show Monica vs. The Internet: Tales of a Social Justice Warrior ( ★★★★★ Winnipeg Free Press, ★★★★★ Saskatoon Star Phoenix) directed by K.P. Dennis toured 6 cities across Canada in the summer of 2019, toured to Second City Toronto, and was recently featured on CBC Arts for their online show with the #ArtApart National Theatre School series [Insert Monica bio].  

Josh Languedoc – an Anishinaabe playwright, theatre creator, and educator currently living in amiskwaciywaskahikan (Edmonton) and a proud member of Saugeen First Nation. For the past 2 years, Josh has been touring his acclaimed solo show Rocko and Nakota: Tales From the Land across Canada. Josh is currently a masters candidate at the University of Alberta’s MFA Theatre Practices program focusing on Indigenous playwriting. As an educator, Josh has taught theatre, acting, and playwriting at the Citadel Theatre, Artstrek, and all throughout Edmonton Public Schools. Josh is also the Youth Education and Outreach Coordinator for Workshop West Playwrights Theatre.   

Audrey Dwyer is Associate Artistic Director at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. She has over 20 years of experience working as an actor, director, playwright, teacher, artistic director, facilitator and mentor.  In 2018, Audrey wrote and directed Calpurnia, which was produced by Nightwood Theatre and Sulong Theatre. The box office hit was shown to sold-out audiences and is being produced in Winnipeg at RMTC in the spring. She graduated from the National Theatre School and has film, tv, and stage credits that are too numerous to list!  

 Registration is limited and spots are already filling up fast! The workshop cost is only $10. You can register right now on our website, or email us at info@sarasvati.ca if you have any questions.  

Looking for Cooks in the Kitchen

Last year’s Bake-Off was a deliciously good time (pun intended). With a sold-out show featuring five incredible plays, it was a great night for everyone – especially the winner, barb janes. 

barb janes at the 2019 Bake-Off

 This year, we’re bringing back the Bake-Off (with increased physical distancing, of course). If you’re not already familiar, the premise is simple: five playwrights will be given “ingredients” that they must include in an original scene. Last year’s ingredients were a flat tire, a “shhh” sound, and the quote “everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the face.” For the next eight hours, the writers are left to work on their scripts. Scenes can be anywhere from five to ten minutes long. The scenes will then be performed as a staged reading by an ensemble at FemFest 2020: Engaging Community. the playwright with the most-developed piece will win 500 dollars and dramaturgical guidance to develop a full-length one-act script, which will be read publicly at FemFest 2021. 

A huge thank you to the Manitoba Association of Playwrights and the family of Janet Taylor, who continue to sponsor the Bake-Off every year.  

Speaking of readings, barb janes’ piece, Agency, won the 2019 Bake-Off and has spent the last year being developed. The play follows three “orphan” girls from three different eras and three different countries: Louisa (a British Home Child), Annie (a sixties scoop adoptee) and Natasha (adopted from Romania). Plagued by issues of abandonment and belonging, the three friends search for their mothers, their identity and their own agency. We’re so looking forward to seeing how her play has taken shape since writing it almost one year ago! 

Brooklyn at the 2019 Bake-Off

If we haven’t sold you on how incredible of an experience the Bake-Off is yet, revisit Brooklyn Kilfoyle’s article about her time participating in the Bake-Off as one of the five playwrights.  

“Meeting the other playwrights for the first time was a huge help to calming my nerves. Everyone was so kind and supportive of each other, the energy in the room was electric. Being surrounded by a group of such positive women; passionate about theatre set fire to my determination.” – Brooklyn Kilfoyle 

We are looking for women, non-binary, and trans folks to apply for the Bake-Off! Even if you don’t have any formal playwriting experience, all you need to submit is: 

1. A letter including your full contact information (address, phone & email) and anything you want to tell us about yourself & why you’re interested in the BakeOff  
2. A 100-word bio for yourself  
3. A 5 – 10 page writing sample (can be a scene or monologue) in PDF format. 

Please email the above to Cairn Moore at bakeoff@sarasvati.ca. Otherwise, you can check out more details about the Bake-Off or other FemFest shows and readings here! 

 

The Monster in All of Us

Who are you when you don’t know who you are? That’s the question Sarah Waisvicz asks in Monstrous.

Created and performed by Waisvicz, we’re incredibly excited to be featuring Monstrous in FemFest 2020: Engaging Community. Monstrous follows the protagonist’s journey across continents, centuries, and musical genres as she sifts through the facts and fictions of her mixed-up, mixed-race family history. Integrating storytelling, multi-genre dance, music, song, projections, and audience interaction, it is a quest for roots, remembrance, and belonging; it is also a cutting, hard-hitting provocation about “multiculturalism” in Canada. Monstrous is a startling wake-up call that puts pressure on how accepting we think we are.

Sarah is a playwright, dramaturge, and multi-disciplinary performer with training in dance and physical theatre (classical ballet, puppetry, acrobatics, stilts, West African dance styles). Her solo script to Monstrous, about the Afro-diaspora experience and mixed-race identity, was published in Alt.theatre 13.3 and the show has been performed in Montreal, Toronto, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. Sarah has been Artist-in-Residence at Great Canadian Theatre Company and at the National Arts Centre. Her most recent play Heartlines premiered to sold-out houses at Ottawa’s undercurrents festival.

“I was strongly moved by this piece — not leaving the studio with the same mindset I had upon entering… I found myself lost in thought about my background and place within this world. I felt as if I had also just explored my entire background and found a little more of myself in the process, too. If you are prepared for a deep, self-discovery performance — this play is a definite go see!” – Makinizi Hoover, Medium

In 2015, when Waisvicz began this project, she documented part of its development process. The full title was originally called Monstrous, or, The Miscegenation Advantage, and it was described as an “original 70-minute solo show: one woman, two races, four continents, and a suitcase full of secrets.” You can check out a video about the show’s development here.

“Waisvisc’s dynamic energy fills the minimalist set where music, projection and dance illustrate a global trek as stories, anecdotes, lies, hearsay and research are pulled from this trunk of family history.” Jennifer Cavanaugh, Apt613

In light of COVID-19, we’re excited to announce we’ll be moving forward with a virtual edition of Monstrous. Like previous reviewers, we know you’ll be moved by this show – no matter what part of the world you’re from. If you haven’t yet, be sure to watch the official Monstrous trailer and stay tuned on our website for the latest information on how to access FemFest programming.

The Tita Collective: Essential Reading

We are incredibly lucky to have the Tita Collective present their musical sketch revue hit, Tita Jokes, at this year’s FemFest. Although it may not be the usual live performance due to the current situation, it will still be hilarious and a must-see! An all-Filipina collective composed of award-winning playwrights, comedians, musicians, dancers, theatremakers and actors, the Tita Collective explores different mediums to tell the stories about the Filipinx diaspora.

The Tita Collective

Tita Collective won the 2019 Steamwhistle Producers’ Pick at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, Best Newcomer at the Montreal Sketch Comedy Festival, and the Second City Outstanding New Comedy Award.

To get you just as excited as us, we’ve gathered some interviews and videos of the Tita Collective (made up of Ann Paula Bautista, Belinda Corpuz, Isabel Kanaan, Ellie Posadas, Alia Rasul and Maricris Rivera). We highly recommend you watch and read the following and, as we get closer to FemFest, bookmark it so you can return to it again and again and again and… (you get the idea!)

Tita Collective: ‘We’re Like The Spice Girls Of Theatre,’ With A Filipino Twist
This article from the CBC tells you all the key facts about the Tita Collective and their show, from their origin story to their connection with each other.

Excerpt: “It’s a very inter-generational story. So our parents, our older aunts and uncles have come to the show . . . But even my niece and nephew who are eight and 11 years old also came to the show and they could still enjoy it and resonate with it and identify with that.”

5 Questions With… The Tita Collective
Get to know the Titas even better with this interview on comedy and Filipinx culture.

Excerpt: “Filipinas of our parents’ generations are some of the bravest people out there, and there’s a lot to learn from their journeys: from making the choice to leaving their communities behind to move to a strange new place and starting a new life, having to deal with racism, classism and sexism in degrees that today is unacceptable but back then was the norm, and all of this to provide for their families and to prop the Philippine economy up. It’s time that their bravery is recognized and honoured.”

FTV (Filipino TV) Exclusive Feature Tita Jokes at the 2019 Toronto Fringe Festival
This video features an interview with the Tita Collective spliced up with footage from their hilarious show.

“When we tell these stories I hear a lot of stories from people who aren’t Filipino, Filipina, or Filipinx and they’re like, ‘My sister-in-law is Filipina so I know what lumpia is,’ or, ‘I have lot of friends who are [Filipinx],’ so it just makes me feel like I’m not as invisible as I thought. This encouraged me to tell other people to tell their stories.”

#NowYouKnow YouTube Videos
#NowYouKnow is a series of videos the Tita Collective made that opens with a slide that says, “We asked titos and titas to explain a few words in Tagalog.” These short clips, featuring words like “ube” or “maganda,” are recommend by the Tita Collective to be watched before you see their show.

Kristina Guevarra

So there you have it: essential reading (and viewing, technically) for those of you who are soon-to-be fans of the Tita Collective! Keeping in mind COVID-19 protocols, we are currently working on some additional (and very exciting!) virtual programming with them. We’re also excited to announce Kristina Guevarra, a multidisciplinary Filipinx artist, will be coordinating a panel featuring Filipinx creatives. Be sure to check out our new FemFest 2020 page to stay up to date on how each show will be uniquely executed!

Three, Two, One… Launchpad!

Creating space for the emerging artists in our city and province is an integral part of Sarasvàti and FemFest’s mandate. Looking back at the success of last year’s Launchpad, we’re thrilled that with the support of RBC Foundation and the Graham C. Lount Foundation we are able to continue this program during the upcoming season. This year’s cohort will debut at FemFest 2020: Engaging Community but we hope to keep them involved with unique mentorship opportunities all season. If you’re unfamiliar, Launchpad brings together ten emerging women and non-binary artists whose creative mediums range from a variety of disciplines: directors, dancers, performers, playwrights, technical crew, etc… This team then takes part in intensive workshops (taught by Winnipeg theatre professionals) including movement work, vocal work, improvisation, devised theatre, and writing. 

Like last year, the Launchpad team will produce material to be premiered at FemFest. However, the exciting change from this year is that these emerging artists will present climate change focused work as a walking tour in downtown Winnipeg. Using short scripts from Chantal Bilodeau (our FemFest guest artist!) or creating their own unique pieces.  

Returning to facilitate and coordinate the Launchpad are Victoria Hill and Lindsay Johnson. Lindsay Johnson is a Winnipeg-based actor, director, writer, and animal-lover. With a love of both devised and classical theatre, Lindsay has enjoyed working as a Director/Assistant Director on several projects including Purge (Geritheatrics), Little Dead Lady (Naked Theatre Productions), Home 2.0. (Sarasvàti Productions) Richard III (Shakespeare in the Ruins), and Vinegar Tom (University of Winnipeg).  

Victoria Emilie Hill is a creator, mover, and actor based in Winnipeg, Treaty 1 Territory.  She is passionate about work that focuses on movement and the body as a place we hold and tell stories.  She is curious about the myriad ways we express and communicate with ourselves, our environments, and other creatures. Victoria is honoured to be working on the Launchpad Project again this year and looks forward to learning from these new collaborators.   

Both Victoria and Lindsay are ecstatic to be helping a new group of theatre artists break through and showcase their work at FemFest. 

Without further ado, here are the ensemble members for this year’s Launchpad: 

• • Kate Willoughby   
  • Anna Verbytska   
  • Kristian Cahatol  
  • Emma Welham  
  • Kimmy Martin  
  • Sarah Luby  
  • Taylor Gregory   
  • Lindsey Taylor   
  • Brittney Fredrickson   
  • Tara Streilein  
  • Plus Caitlyn Seymour, as a junior member 

We’re so excited to see what this talented group of artists will create together. We know it will be great! And, while we have you here, don’t forget to check our website for updates on FemFest 2020!