Rhubarb Festival
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2020 22, – Festival sponsor FEBRUARY 12 FEBRUARY Buddies in Bad Times Theatre presents THE RHUBARB FESTIVAL Rhubarb2020-Brochure-V5.indd 1 2020-01-20 12:15 PM About Rhubarb Canada’s longest-running new works festival transforms Buddies into a hotbed of experimentation, with artists exploring new possibilities in theatre, dance, music, and performance art. Back this year for its 41st edition, Rhubarb is the place to see the most adventurous ideas in performance and to catch your favourite artists venturing into uncharted territory. Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is situated on the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe, and the Wendat, and the treaty territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit. We acknowledge them and any other Nations who care for the land (acknowledged and unacknowledged, recorded and unrecorded) as the past, present and future caretakers of this land, referred to as Tkaronto (“Where The Trees Meet The Water”; “The Gathering Place”). Buddies is honoured to be a home for queer, trans and 2-Spirit artists on these storied and sacred lands that have been stewarded by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years before the arrival of colonial settlers. Rhubarb2020-Brochure-V5.indd 2 2020-01-20 12:15 PM A Message from the Curatorial Collective An entire continent is on fire, Facebook’s immovable ad policy now determines truth in politics, and this country’s ongoing project of genocide continues. The inexorable truth of democracy? Progress comes slowly. But, this is Rhubarb. And for the 41st festival, we begin with an offering. Of and for the future. With the plurality of our artists’ voices, we’re attempting to collectively conjure radical futures. Rhubarb has always existed as a container for our wildest artistic experiments. But, this is not futurism. There are no flying cars here. Instead, this is a real attempt to dismantle the systems that are as oppressive as they are governing. The artists in this year’s festival prioritize process over product, and in doing so mutate our notions of what art-making and art-watching can be. These are artists who allow themselves to fail. Because where failure has always been paramount to artistic development, the ability to fail— within a prevailing model of scarcity—continues to be rooted in privilege. Ultimately, this year’s festival is an experiment in density: where ideas co-exist in psychic and physical space, where past, present, and future collide, and where the accumulated impact remains unknown. It starts with an offering and it ends with an intention: that you, as audience member, engage actively in this festival and in the unknown and use these moments to reflect, to dialogue, and to imagine. Because when we collectively imagine the future, we can maybe, just maybe, change our present. This is Rhubarb. Welcome. vanden Boomen, theresa CutkniFe, Claudia edwards, Clayton lee + viCtoria mata 3 Rhubarb2020-Brochure-V5.indd 3 2020-01-20 12:15 PM Buddies in Bad Times Theatre presents THE RHUBARB FESTIVAL FEBRUARY 12–22, 2020 festival director CABARET CREW CREW CLAYTON lee lighting designer MATTY armour reBeCCa luke doBson curatorial collective VANDEVELDE mike dowdall VANDEN Boomen stage manager DAVID Fisher theresa CutkniFe GeorGia lidia Foote CLAUDIA EDWARDS PRIESTLY-Brown* ian KELLY CLAYTON lee house technician diana lopeZ soto viCtoria MATA steph raposo seBastian marZiali production assistant aidan shepherd head of production MATTY armour kit simmons Charissa wilCoX CHAMBER CREW technical director PROGRAMME lighting designer JaCQueline COSTA JenniFer lennon design luCinda stage manager wallaCe viCtoria WANG * photography house technician tanJa-tiZiana amBer PATTISON styling production assistant vanessa maGiC aidan shepherd roBert weir * Appears with permission of the Canadian Actors Equity Association 4 Rhubarb2020-Brochure-V5.indd 4 2020-01-20 12:15 PM THE RHUBARB FESTIVAL How to Rhubarb GENERAL SPECIAL THE EVENING PROGRAMMING PRESENTATIONS PASS Starting at 8pm*, there These shows are special This gets you into a whole are shows happening in events that happen night of Rhubarb and the both spaces at Buddies before or after the 7-ish shows that happen (the Cabaret and the regular program for one at Buddies that day. And Chamber), so when you night only. There are remember, Rhubarb starts arrive at the theatre pick also installations in the at 8pm and shows are the show you want to building that you can not individually ticketed. see first, and 30 minutes see before the shows So if you’re hoping to see later when it’s done you start, so be sure to show a show at, say, 9:30PM, can either stay where up early. Admission to the best way to avoid you are or move to the Special Presentations disappointment is to grab a other space for your next is included in your ticket in advance and arrive performance. There is Evening Pass. at the top of the evening. a different set of shows each week — so keep coming back. FOR TICKETS + MORE INFO *9pm on Wednesday, buddiesinbadtimes.com/rhubarb February 12 5 Rhubarb2020-Brochure-V5.indd 5 2020-01-20 12:15 PM WEEK 1 FEBRUARY 12–15 GENERAL PROGRAMMING wed startinG at 9pm thurs – SAT startinG at 8pm in the in the caBaret chamBer Eat Me Pouin A womxn indulges in her endless taste A story (like all stories) to help guide for cake and capitalism. Come hungry: us through an irrational world and it’s gonna be nasty. point us toward home, Pouin delves the conceiver and the Body into the urban, the rural, and a sense desirée leverenZ of unbelonging. writer smith purdy The Parasite director Using mask, burlesque, fringe, pompoms, elwood Jimmy and more, two performers delve into what producer it means for their queer bodies to create, emma smith gestate, and nurture. creators + performers ritual JAY NORTHCOTT + ALISHA VAN WIEREN [moment]um A dancer and a musician combine Scary Stories forces to explore and unravel the legacies they’ve inherited — deciding People of Colour what to hold onto, and when to let go Tell in the Dark in order to heal. musician Through the lenses of drag and the raJna swaminathan Black, Latinx and Asian diasporas, this dance artist reimagining of a classic horror anthology nyda kwasowsky asks how the things that scare us can bring us closer to our memories, our bodies, and each other. creators + performers patriCk salvani/ms nookie Galore, kamika peters /ursula Babb Galore + Franny Galore collaBorators saul GarCia lopeZ, kumari Giles, khary mathurin + shirina Quereshi 6 Rhubarb2020-Brochure-V5.indd 6 2020-01-20 12:15 PM solo presentations SPECIAL A different artist takes over the Chamber each night of Week One. PRESENTATIONS Sometimes Lao Thai FeBruary 12 FeBruary 12 at 5:30pm Uncouth, uncensored, and possibly This is how it begins. The Kong family undressed — Ursula Martinez gets transports their kitchen into the Chamber personal, political, and philosophical for a durational food-based performance. in this soul-baring solo performance liZ konG, tim konG, JailonG konG, that blends spoken word, performance Jadalynn konG + haZira khalek art, and stand-up comedy. artist ursula martineZ Practicing listening to the subterranean murmurs a few movements FeBruary 13 at 10pm FeBruary 13 It’s low rumbling unruly states and navigating Working its way back from middle age to control — what is done and doing to you, to us, a time of certainties, when summer nights to me, for us, for you, for me. A performance carried the promise of an entire future, interrogating thresholds, intimacy, and this piece deals in memories of space, city spectacle, on micro and macro levels. squares, cupboards, steep coastal roads, concept, choreography, performance + text windows, rooms without walls. last yearZ interestinG neGro artist + creator sound design Josh anio Grigg FranCesCo GaGliardi Immortal Bodies Adhina FeBruary 14 at 10pm FeBruary 14 Contemporary ballroom performance : “to listen, to hear, be informed about”. meets the timeless stories and figures An audio-visual, participatory meditation. of Greek antiquity, brought to you by Preparing for care, preparing for war. the House of Constantine and friends. artist curator + performer naBil JoJo Constantine performers Father dutCh Constantine, mother kida Constantine, TD Constantine, leGaCy Constantine, skinny Are You Constantine, marlon 007, tonee pink lady, Jimmy 007 Still Watching? + Zakiya Constantine FeBruary 15 After a lifetime of over-sharing herself online and in her art practice, Thirza Wiigwaasaatig Cuthand wonders whether she’s scaring FeBruary 15 at 10pm away potential partners. A confluence of words, sound, and writer, director + performer memory — the poetry of Arielle Twist thirZa Cuthand is paired with Ziibiwan’s tension-filled soundscapes. creators + performers arielle twist + ZiiBiwan 7 Rhubarb2020-Brochure-V5.indd 7 2020-01-20 12:15 PM WEEK 2 FEBRUARY 19–22 GENERAL PROGRAMMING wed – SAT startinG at 8pm in the in the caBaret chamBer Spiral Life To All My Past, Present, A young Deaf woman faces communication barriers, rejection, and Future Lovers… and her own mortality as she visits her I’m Sorry mother in hospice. Performed in ASL Nickeshia Garrick lays it all bare and offers with English interpretation. up an apology for herself in this solo dance performer theatre piece. tamyka Bullen choreographer, writer, co-director + dramaturg director + performer aleX Bulmer niCkeshia GarriCk co-director mentor kevin ormsBy Chelsea daB-hilke Trans Gemmes 2.0 mientras tanto // 缺口 Six trans women of colour are ready Two queer women of colour grapple with to fuck you up with their realness: it’s a the politics of their love and intimacy. girls’ night out gone wild complete with A physical theatre piece set in and around pillow fights, dancing, burger-eating, and their bed. a nosy step-father. creators + performers SOFIA RODRIGUEZ + LIZ DER performers + creators GaBe maharJan, leon tsai, mars aleXander, nikki, Scarlett, X What’s Done Must Come director Music, movement, and poetry collide at Bilal BaiG a dinner party.