New Year, Same Us

It is officially a new year AND a new decade! Happy New Year and welcome to 2020!

2019 has come and gone which means the second half of our 19/20 season is underway. We are so excited to tell you a little bit about what we have in store for all of you in the upcoming months…

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International Women’s Week 2020 Cabaret of Monologues: Changes

Have you heard? Our annual Cabaret of Monologues is happening from March 2-8, 2020! We have been doing our best to update you on our performers and playwrights, if you’ve missed any of our past blogs, you can meet some of this year’s artists HERE and HERE.

This year we have monologues but also music, dance, mime, and comedy!

Stay tuned for our tour schedule, but in the meantime, tickets are now available for our public performance on Saturday, March 7, 2020 at 4pm and 8pm. Get your tickets HERE!

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Workshops

As always, we have a ton of workshops in the works for you for 2020. Have you registered for our Movement for Actors Workshop with Ali Robson? This workshop will take place on January 19^th, 2020 for $25. If you want more info, click HERE, if you want to register email liz@sarasvati.ca

It doesn’t end there! Coming soon, we will be hosting workshops on the following topics…

Accessibility in Theatre Panel, April 4^th, 2020

Diversity Panel, February 16^th, 2020

Fringe Production 101, May 16^th, 2020

And more!

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Jo MacDonald

Reconciliation Through Theatre

We completed our Seven Visions workshops in 2019, now comes the process of creating one big final production! We are so excited to be working with Playwright Jo MacDonald and Director Tracey Nepinak to create our final performance piece for May 2020!

The performance, entitle Songide’ewin (Courage), will take place at The Forks and feature art created by youth during our workshops. We are so excited to share the voices of Winnipeg’s youth and tell a story of reconciliation in a time that gravely needs it.

More on the reconciliation project HERE!

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As we move in to the fall of 2020, we will actually be launching our 20^th season in Winnipeg!! Yep, we’ve been creating transformative theatre for two decades. This anniversary season will see the transition to a new Artistic Director, new community-building processes, and some of our usual offerings.

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School Tour

Every second year we hit the road with an interactive performance, using Forum Theatre principles. It is an amazing way to engage youth in a discussion about how to be active participants in their community. This year’s touring show will be built from the material gathered as part of our Reconciliation Through Theatre project. Stay tuned for full details.

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FemFest 2020

And of course, 2020 will play host to our 18^th annual FemFest! 18 years of transformative feminist theatre AND counting! As always, the festival won’t happen until September, but the work starts now as we begin to read scripts and performance pieces and choose our line-up for the 2020 festival.

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Thank you all for making 2019 such a fantastic year, here’s to 2020 and all of the exciting new theatre to come!

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Take it from a Pro

Every year at our annual FemFest, we incorporate workshops and special readings by accomplished women in theatre. This year, at FemFest 2019: All the World’s a Stage, we are excited to welcome our special guest artist Yvette Nolan. Yvette Nolan (Algonquin) is a playwright, director, and dramaturg. She is no stranger to Winnipeg and of late has been a frequent flyer coming to share her wisdom at the University of Winnipeg and PTE’s Festival of New Works. At FemFest Yvette will give a lecture in partnership with University of Winnipeg’s Real Thing series, she will facilitate a playwriting masterclass for local playwrights that stretches over the course of five days, then alongside these writers share her own work as part of the festival wrap-up event Leaping off the Page.

“For me, theatre is all about voice. Giving voice to characters whose stories might otherwise disappear, giving voice to questions that challenge us–about being marginalized, about being invisible, about aging, about grief, about our responsibility to each other and to the world.”- Yvette Nolan in an interview with ROOM Magazine

Some of Yvette’s work includes the plays BLADE, Annie Mae’s Movement, The Birds, The Unplugging, Gabriel Dumont’s Wild West Show (co-writer), The Libretto Shanawdithit and the short film “A Common Experience,” (w. Shane Belcourt). She has directed from coast to coast and north all the way to Dawson City, Yukon. As a dramaturg, she works across Turtle Island. From 2003-2011, she served as Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts. Her book Medicine Shows about Indigenous theatre in Canada was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2015. She is an Artistic Associate of Signal Theatre.

Interested in the Playwriting Masterclass with Yvette Nolan? As artist in residence at FemFest, Yvette Nolan (Algonquin) will facilitate a masterclass for local playwrights over 5 sessions. Writers will have a chance to focus on their craft, it will then culminate in a public reading of works in progress by participants.

Workshop dates and times are as follows:

Sunday, Sept 15 – 11am to 1pm

Monday, Sept 16 – 4pm to 6pm

Tuesday, Sept 17 – 4pm  to 6pm

Thursday, Sept 19 – 4pm to 6pm

Friday, Sept 20 – 4pm to 6pm

On Saturday, September 21^st at 8:30PM you can hear the culmination of Yvette’s intensive process and then join us for the Festival’s closing reception.

For more information or to reserve your spot in the workshop visit our website, HERE. Or, to purchase a ticket for the September 21^st Leaping Off the Page event, click HERE. Make sure to explore our website to learn more about FemFest2019: All the World’s a Stage and what it has to offer! September 14^th-21^st.

You Get What You Pay For

Coming to FemFest 2019 as part of our touring shows, a POP ART performance of 4inXchange by xLq. This unique performance involves three performers, four audience members and $1,000 cash!

xLq is a POP ART performance duo comprised of Jordan Campbell and Maddie Bautista. Dedicated to radical forms of performance and complicit audience experience – xLq combines ritual, fashion, dance, music, and queer pop aesthetics to question, physicalize, and reimagine our possible futures. Recipient of the Nightswimming 5×25 2017 Commission and winner of the NOW Magazine Audience Choice Award for ​4inXchange – which debuted at SummerWorks 2019, with tour stops at Vancouver’s rEvolver Festival and now our own FemFest.

“Will leave you looking differently at that fiver in your wallet”- NOW Magazine Toronto

Learn all about the xLq team we will be welcoming to Winnipeg for FemFest:

Jordan Campbell (performer-creator, producer) is a queer performance artist, creator and youth workshop facilitator. He is an xLq co-artistic director and performer. Jordan’s solo work is physically based and uses high aesthetics, drag and performance art. His work with youth has focused around those with different learning abilities, including teaching at Purple Carrots Drama Studio. Selected performance credits include: The Youth/Elders Project (Buddies in Bad Times), 72-Person Ball Passing (FFDN), The Stranger (DLT).

Maddie Bautista (performer-creator, producer) is a Bi, Filipina sound designer, theatre creator and performer. Her sound design has been featured in theatres across the country: Luminato, Why Not’s RISER, Aluna Theatre, b current, rEvolver Festival in Vancouver, High Performance Rodeo in Calgary, and more. Recipient of the SummerWorks Spotlight Performance Award 2016, a Dora-nomination for her sound design ​(Eraser, Why Not’s RISER), and fu-GEN Theatre’s inaugural Walk the Walk Commission 2019.

Katherine Walker-Jones (performer-creator) is an artist from Winnipeg who is now based in Toronto. They make theatre and music. Since graduating from Humber Theatre Performance in 2016, they have released two EPs and recorded a forthcoming album with their band Feels Fine. They also collaborate with xLq Pop Art Performance. Recent works with xLq include curating the Trash Sanctuary event series as well as performing at SummerWorks Performance Festival and rEvolver Festival.

4inXchange can only accept four audience members per performance, so reserving your tickets in advance is crucial! The show will use a unique pay-what-you-choose method at the end of the show and only has 16 performances. That means only 64 lucky audience members will get to experience this unique event. For show times and to reserve your tickets, visit our website.

To Infinity… And Beyond!

Forging a future for FemFest requires providing a space for the next generation of voices. To this end we have initiated an exciting new program. At this year’s FemFest, you will get to see the results of their development in progress! “The Launchpad Project” compiles a roster of emerging women and non-binary artists whose creative mediums range from a variety of disciplines: directors, dancers, performers, playwrights, technical crew, etc. This diverse and well rounded team will take part in intensive workshops over the summer including: movement work, vocal work, improvisation, devised theatre and scene-writing. Professionals working in Winnipeg’s theatre industry will lead these workshops and mentor the creative team.

The goal of this project is to give emerging artists a chance to learn, develop skills and network with industry professionals. How does it tie into FemFest? Along with all of the professional shows we put on at FemFest in September, The Launchpad will premiere a devised production connected to the FemFest theme just for YOU! The result of ongoing rehearsals over the summer and training alongside professionals! This is an exciting opportunity for both the artists and the spectators alike. The Launchpad ensemble will have the chance to display their hard work for you the audience, while spectators will have the chance to see a brand new work of theatre with a fresh cast and crew.

Facilitating and Coordinating the Launchpad are Victoria Hill and Lindsay Johnson. They are ecstatic to be helping a new group of performers break through and create their own piece for FemFest.

As for the ensemble members… here’s a list of who you can expect to see:

• A.J. Hotomani
• Anika Dowsett
• Emma Welham
• Jonathan Mourant
• Karam Daoud
• Leaf Pankratz
• Makrenna Sterdan
• Sara Groleau
• Sarah Flynn
• Bennette Villones, ASM

We can’t wait to see what this amazing team comes up with! We know it will be riveting!

Stay tuned for more details on this exciting project and the up-and-comers involved. Also, check out our just launched FemFest 2019 website!

Le Tour De FemFest

We have an exciting line-up of performances at this year’s FemFest including three touring shows we are excited to share with you! Like Mother, Like Daughter, 4inXchange and Raising Stanley/Living With Tulia are the free touring shows we are excited to be showcasing at this years FemFest. Here’s a little more about what to expect from these shows…

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Directed by Rose Plotek, Like Mother, Like Daughter weaves together stories from 12 pairs of mothers and daughters into a performance of unscripted conversations performed by the mothers and daughters themselves. At the end of each performance the audience is invited to join the mothers and daughters for a meal– to continue the conversations.

We are excited to welcome Why Not Theatre and their production. They will be bringing together mothers and daughters who were born outside of Canada (newcomers, as well as those who may have immigrated many years ago) as well as Indigenous mothers and daughters, in order to create and perform in a participatory project.

“Delicate, generous, inspiring, warm, funny, and in moments, heart-rending.” (Sprockets & Greasepaint).

4inXchange

A 70-minute interactive performance with three performers and four interactive spectators. Created, produced and performed by xLq (Jordan Campbell and Maddie Bautista [along with the help of Katherine Walker-Jones]) this touring team of three is sure to excite you all while providing thought-provoking questions.

“An interactive, site-specific game with four players and $1,000 cash- 4inXchange is a pop art business meeting that guides you through a series of dialogues, chances, competitions and meditations. Use the cash on the table to get to know your fellow participants, while xLq asks provocative questions about value, intimacy, love, and truth. Returns and exchanges guaranteed.”

FREE to book a spot to attend. 4inXchange culminates in a unique Pay-What-You-Choose process – please bring some cash of your own to participate.

4inXchange won the NOW Magazine Audience Choice Award at Summerworks2018 in Toronto, Ontario. Click here for a promotional video on 4inXchange: https://vimeo.com/290509007

Raising Stanley/Living with Tulia

 

The Journey from Puppy to Working Guide Dog for the Blind… Raising Stanley/Living with Tulia, is the story of two women and their relationships with guide dogs. Karen Bailey is a foster mom to puppies in training to be guide dogs and Kim Kilpatrick is a blind woman telling the story of her first guide dog.

 

“‘How are you ever going to give him up?’ is the question puppy walkers are asked most often by the public. Yes, it is difficult. Yes, we get attached. But like having children, we are happy and proud to see the puppy we raised go off to University (aka guide dog school) and get a job.

That’s what we signed up for as volunteers with Canadian Guide Dogs for the blind; our role is integral to the process.”- Karen Bailey

“What kind of dog would I get? I had said no preference. Some people would rather a boy or a girl, a Lab or a Golden, a dark or a light. I just wanted a living breathing guide dog that would make it easier for me to move through the world with grace, ease and dignity, just as I had always wanted.”- Kim Kilpatrick

See these as well as a long list of local performances at the FemFest 2019: All The World’s a Stage September 14-21. More information and festival line-up coming soon, we hope to see you there!

NEW BLOOD

As we get closer to Fem Fest 2019, we have brought on two new staff members eager to help us ring in the festival year! Please join us in welcoming Sami Desiree as our new Production Assistant and Brooklyn Kilfoyle as our new Marketing and Community Outreach Assistant.  We asked the girls to tell us a little bit about themselves so we can all get to know them a little better.

Sami Desiree is currently a production student at the University of Winnipeg. Her passion for theatre started at a young age when she began acting. She has since developed her interests and has begun working in various aspects of theatre including production, directing, designing and producing. Sami founded Beau Theatre Co in 2017 and since has produced four full productions with the company. She could not do any of it without the support of her partner Matt and her cat Zella.

Now, she joins the Sarasvàti team as our new Production Assistant! An opportunity Sami says she is, “excited and deeply grateful” for.

“I am blown away by the care Hope and the whole Sarasvàti team puts into their work.”- Sami Desiree

She cannot wait to be part of that initiative.

Currently, Sami is working on a summer tour with Beau Theatre Co, taking the show, Seascape with Sharks and Dancer, to Regina International Fringe Festival and Gimli’s A-Spire Theatre Festival. You may also catch her in a tech booth somewhere controlling light and sound.

Brooklyn Kilfoyle has been an active member of the theatre community from a young age. Her passion has always been performing; whether it is on a big stage under lights or in her living room dimly lit by the television. Brooklyn has recently completed her degree in Theatre with The University of Winnipeg. When she’s not performing, Brooklyn enjoys spending time with her friends and family, including (and quite often limited to) her dog and best friend Bowie. Currently, Brooklyn is rehearsing for the 2019 season of the Winnipeg Fringe, where she will be performing with her own company, 803 Productions. This is the first time Brooklyn has both written and will be performing her own work. The play is titled Growing Op and will be performed during The Winnipeg Fringe Festival at the Asper Centre for Theatre and Film.

Though her medium bends towards acting, she has joined the behind the scenes action of the theatre world with us at Sarasvàti Productions as our newest Marketing and Community Outreach Assistant!

“I am excited to be part of a theatre company that promotes positivity and change!”- Brooklyn Kilfoyle

Best of luck, Sami and Brooklyn! We’re happy to have you both on board.

Keep an eye out for more information on Fem Fest 2019, coming soon!

Celebrating Our 2018/19 Season Launch!

Resistance, Resettlement and Reconciliation – oh my! You’re invited to celebrate another incredible season of Winnipeg theatre! As part of First Fridays, Sarasvàti Productions will be hosting our annual Season Launch at Saddlery on Market, featuring free cupcakes courtesy of cake-ology! You can hear all about our incredible upcoming season of “Reimagining” featuring stories of Resistance, Resettlement, and Reconciliation.

The night will feature sneak peeks from a number of upcoming events, including the announcement of this year’s FemFest 2018 Bake-Off participants, One Night Stand series, and our brand-new Walking Art Tour. You can also enjoy a preview of The Game, a blend of Indian dance and theatre presented by Manohar Performing Arts of Canada. For a look at what’s coming up in the rest of our season, you can get a first glimpse of our new school tour, Home 2.0; learn who will make you laugh until it hurts at our annual Women’s Comedy Night fundraiser; be the first to know the theme for this year’s IWW Cabaret of Monologues; and new details will be revealed about our spring work-in-progress featuring stories of reconciliation.

Want to get creative? We’ll also be hosting a craft station with supplies generously donated by ArtsJunktion! Our speakers will also take part in our “Reimagining” Improv Game, telling us how they would re-purpose a common item to help tackle social issues!

Plus our exclusive FemFest 2018 t-shirts with original artwork by Danielle Morrison, printed by Floodway Printing Co., will be available for sale. For just $20 be one of the first to wear this fashionable tees.

Join us on Friday, August 3^rd as we look forward to another amazing year of life-changing theatre for everyone. The fun kicks off at 7PM – feel free to pop in as you enjoy other events hosted by First Fridays in the Exchange! For more information on the festivities, check out our event page.

ENVISION – Sarasvàti Productions 2017/18 Season Launch

Sarasvàti Productions invites you to envision a season of life-changing theatre that is inclusive, full of possibility and absolutely thrilling!

From FemFest 2017: Coming of Age to the 2018 International Women’s Week Cabaret of Monologues: I Am Unstoppable, to a formidable season of workshops geared to supporting youth and emerging artists: we are so excited to get started! Join us on August 4th at the Saddlery on Market (114 Market Ave)–a beautiful new spot in the Exchange District. This party is absolutely free. Show up by 7pm to enjoy the entire evening, or pop in throughout your First Friday adventures.

We’ll be celebrating FemFest’s 15th birthday by having some of our staff and artists share things they wrote as a child.

Let us entertain you with a Cabaret-style line-up featuring artists from our season to come. RobYn Slade presents a sampling of 50/50 theatre-improv fusion from the FemFest 2017 Cabaret. Reena Jolly performs a monologue devised from interviews with young newcomer women as part of New Beginnings development. Melanee Deschambeault and Erica Wilson perform a teaser  from FemFest featured show Two Indians and much, much more!

See what you envision at our awesome build-your-own kaleidoscope station courtesy of ArtsJunktion mb.

And as always we’ll have plenty of decadent cupcakes supplied generously by Cake-ology.

So join us on Friday August 4^th as we envision an incredible season of Winnipeg theatre.
See more event details here.