Sarasvàti’s Top 6: ‘What Has Us Excited About 2018’

We have big plans for 2018! Check out the top 6 things that have us starting off the year full of enthusiasm!

6) We are excited to be working with Arts AccessAbility Network Manitoba to provide ASL interpreters at the International Women’s Week Cabaret of Monologues for the very first time! Living through riots, learning to teach yoga as a senior, accepting your true self and conquering all odds – see these stories of unstoppable women March 10^th. ASL interpretation will be provided for both the 4pm and 8pm performance. Celebrate International Women’s Week with us!

The cast of IWW17.

5) We are eager to premiere the full production of a project we’ve been working on for two years – New Beginnings. Witness the coming together of a diverse range of artists, community members, recent newcomers and established immigrants. Through the use of dance, music, visual art and storytelling we will come together to explore the themes of displacement and resettlement. This unique production will also run in the same space as One Trunk Theatre’s new show Boundary Avenue. There will be special opportunities to see both productions. Visit our website to get your tickets!

4) We are so pleased to be going into 2018 with full-time admin support thanks to the capacity-building funding we received from The Winnipeg Foundation! This support will enable us to reach our full potential. You can bet we’ll be taking things to new heights!

3) We can’t wait to launch our second year of theatre workshops with the youth at Children of the Earth School. Last year, we piloted a series of theatre workshops at COTE  – a school that would not otherwise offer a theatre program. The results were incredible. This year we’ll return to offer regular theatre programming with facilitators Marsha Knight and Josh Ranville plus a roster of amazing guest artists.

Faciliator Josh Ranville

Workshop at Children of the Earth School 2017

2) It’s only January and we are already hard at work planning FemFest2018 – Staging Resistance. Provocative plays, brand new workshops and artists with incredible vision, we have a lot in store! Stay tuned for details on our 16th annual festival.

1) We feel very enthusiastic to be working towards our 2018 goals with the support of an amazing staff, Board, volunteers and audience base. Most of all, we look forward to sharing a transformational year with all of you. Happy New Year!

Many of our staff and Board members at a December meeting

For on-the-pulse news on our 2018 productions and workshops visit sarasvati.ca or sign-up for our mailing list!

 

Unleashing Our Potential

We are launching into 2018 with a game-changer! Thanks to capacity building support from the Winnipeg Foundation, Sarasvàti Productions is welcoming a new full-time member to the team!

“The potential of Sarasvàti Productions to transform society through theatre has just been unleashed,” says Judy Wasylycia-Leis, President of our Board of Directors, “from the generous capacity-building support of the Winnipeg Foundation comes the promise of sustainability and the strength to grow as a force for community resilience and reconciliation.”

Administrative support may not sound like a glamorous change, but when you are a small non-profit this kind of support makes a phenomenal impact. The Winnipeg Foundation’s funding will support a full-time Administrator for three years. This human resource injection will helps us to strengthen our base so that we can fulfill our mission to transform society through theatre.

 

Judy Wasylycia-Leis

 

“What a boost this grant means for our ability to offer authentic and direct cultural experiences at the grassroots level, to contribute to community vitality and identity, and to help change the world one play at a time”, says Judy.

This fall we also initiated additional capacity-building work thanks to support from Manitoba Community Services Council. This has allowed us to look at our office systems, ticketing and will also lead to important community consultations this winter.

We at Sarasvàti Productions are excited to take things to the next level in 2018! Stay tuned as we announce our new team member, launch new systems and invite our community to share their thoughts on the future.

Hope Enters the Dragon’s Den

For the past couple of months, our Artistic Director Hope McIntyre has been training to make a Dragon’s Den-style pitch in front of a panel of judges and live audience. No, Hope isn’t doing it to get her cardboard beach furniture business the jump start it needs, nor will she be trying to explain why the world needs a glove that lets you know what side of the road you should be driving on.  Hope will be pitching something very near and dear to her, something she’s dedicated her life to. Hope will be pitching transformative theatre.

“The pitch is really my own story about why I do what I do. It’s hard work. Running the company over the last 15 and a half years has meant sacrifices, challenges and very little pay! The pitch captures the impact of what we do and why I’m motivated to keep doing it.”

For those of you who have truly experienced life-altering theatre, the impact of transformative theatre is unquestionable. But Hope has been training in order to pitch transformative theatre to a new and different crowd – Winnipeg’s business sector. This is where the challenge comes in. That’s why The Winnipeg Foundation felt local charities could benefit from participating in Fast Pitch.

“The biggest challenge by far has been the 3-minute time limit. To explain all that we do in such a short time frame has been difficult. In order to do this it meant writing a very focused script and sticking to it – not extemporizing in the moment!”, said Hope.

Fast Pitch is in international program that trains leaders of charitable organizations to pitch their organization to the business sector “succinctly and powerfully.” Participants are paired with coaches who help them to develop their pitch and connect with members of the legal, financial, and business communities.

“The biggest appeal was the ability to work with business professionals as coaches.” Hope is being coached by two business professionals – Paul Beatty of GrantThorton and Baillie Chisick of Aikins Law.

“It is important to get the word out about Sarasvàti Productions amazing work and to do that we have to make sure we are communicating clearly to those who may not have experienced ‘transformative theatre.’ I wanted to find new networks in the business community and learn how to pitch our work to these professionals. Plus the possibility of winning funds to support our work was a good incentive”, said Hope.

“I learned that many people did not know the breadth of work Sarasvàti has done and is doing. We need to brag more. My coaches were able to help me hone in on what a wider audience might be interested in so we can spread our message more effectively”

Creating a pitch requires a person to tap into their personal connection to the work.  The process asks leaders of charitable organizations to think about what drove them to do what they do and what keeps them doing it.

“I have learned things that I would not have learned were it not for theatre. Every project we have undertaken and every show I have done has allowed me educate myself on a topic I would not otherwise have learned about. I am a much better-rounded person as a result. The work has also taught me compassion. Finally it has cemented my belief that storytelling is a powerful and important way to understand our world, validate our experiences and grow as human beings.”

Hope will be making her pitch along with nine other local leaders of charitable organizations:

ArtsJunktion
Big Brother Big Sisters of Winnipeg
KidSport Winnipeg
Lake Winnipeg Foundation
Local Investment Toward Employment (LITE)
Prairie Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre
Sexuality Education Resource Centre Manitoba
Shakespeare in the Ruins
Spence Neighbourhood Association

“The best thing I learned was about the amazing work that all the other participant organizations are doing! It’s really inspiring to know that Winnipeg has such passionate people working to make health and vibrant communities” said Hope.

Check out Hope’s Fast Pitch interview and a video from the semi finals!

You can see Hope make her pitch live at The Met on April 7^th at the Fast Pitch Winnipeg Showcase. Judges will decide the top prize, but there is also an audience choice award, so come out and support Sarasvàti ! Tickets are available on the Winnipeg Foundation website but hurry, they’re going fast!

Stories that Heal

25% of Manitobans age 10 and older received medical care for at least one mental illness in 2012/13. There were approximately 629 hospitalizations for self-injury and for the years 2008-2012 a suicide rate of less than one for every thousand Manitoba residents. In Winnipeg specifically the rate of mental illness at 25.8%. Mental health and wellness is a big issues and it touches us all.

Thanks to the Winnipeg Foundation we are doing amazing work in the community to breakdown stigma and increase awareness. We are excited to have already done inspiring sessions with an array of individuals who are affected by mental illness, as well as doing numerous individual interviews.

Our partners, Artists in Healthcare Manitoba and Red Threads Playback Theatre have been spearheading sessions out at Selkirk Mental Health Centre. The initial work has been amazing with a great level of participation, lots of fun and important stories being shared.

Engaging in art making has had a therapeutic benefit for all involved so far, including the artists!

Cairn Moore

Sarasvàti regular Cairn Moore is working on the project which aligns nicely with her most recent writing venture. Stigma was read at FemFest 2015 and had a powerful effect on audiences. In fact the University of Winnipeg Psychology Department felt it was an excellent vehicle for education and are hosting a special event to mark World Mental Health Day, which will include the reading of excerpts from the play and a discussion. Please feel free to attend this free event on Friday, October 9^th from 12:30pm-2pm at Eckhardt-Grammatté Hall (University of Winnipeg, 3^rd Floor Centennial Hall).

Stigma follows the story of first year University student Anna Almeida, as she is catapulted into the strange and terrifying world, known as schizophrenia. A diagnosis referred to by many, as a death sentence. Strange characters come to visit and refuse to go away. Soon, young Anna with a bright future, can no longer distinguish between what is real and what is not.