Links and Content Included in This Performing Arts Global Exchange Document Are Exclusively Intended for Presenter/Programmer/Cu

Links and content included in this Performing Arts Global Exchange document are exclusively intended for presenter/programmer/curator viewing for the explicit use of curation and should not be made available to the public. Out of respect for artists and their work, please do not repost links or share this document for purposes beyond booking considerations.

“[The Mush Hole is] a stunning and powerful production about a difficult truth we are all still grappling with.” – Kevin Loring, Director of Indigenous Theatre, National Arts Centre

Kaha:wi Dance Theatre (KDT) is one of Canada’s leading performing arts companies, renowned for creating and touring performances that share and educate audiences about Indigenous narratives. KDT is an Onkwehon:we artist-founded and run organization whose performances question, re-story and transform while adhering to Indigenous process, connection to land, story and spirit of place. Founded in 2005 by Six Nations based Artistic Director Santee Smith, Kaha:wi means “to carry” in Kahnyen’kehàka. This award-winning company has extensive touring history, including performances at the National Museum of the American Indian and, most recently, Auckland Arts Festival 2019.

“The Mush Hole” is a dance performance about Canada’s Mohawk Institute Residential School. The history of forcibly taking Indigenous children away from parents and sending them to boarding schools is a dark part of history in both Canada and the U.S. Opening a window into the atrocities inflicted upon thousands of Indigenous children by government and church-run schools, it attempts to close the door on historical amnesia. The haunting portrayal weaves through memories of survivors, their traumas, school life, loss of culture and remembrance. Due to the traumatic historical content, an important aspect of company touring includes creating space for dialogue with audiences.

Watch: “The Mush Hole” password kdt1234 | “The Mush Hole” Teaser Traveling: All Indigenous cast of 5 plus technical crew of 2 Technical specifications: Production fits mid- to large-sized theatres and large black box venues with wings. Shipping is required for venues 300+ km from Toronto. Tech Rider | Website Fee: $9,000 per show with discounts for multiple performances; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

Out of respect for artists and their work, please do not repost links or share this document for purposes beyond booking considerations. Finished reviewing the finalists? Help select the artist roster by completing a brief survey. Raven Spirit Dance creates and produces contemporary dance rooted in Indigenous worldviews that honors the communities and artists with whom they work. They share stories through Indigenous perspectives and practices while creating a platform for others to do the same. Raven Spirit Dance values how Indigenous expression is realized through contemporary dance in this way. It values creating an environment for dialogue and critique, and pushing the boundaries of the work and our cultural selves. The company was founded in 2005 by Artistic Director Michelle Olson from the Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation. Raven Spirit Dance has toured widely throughout Canada as well as internationally in the U.S., South America, and Australia.

“Earth Song” is a mixed program of contemporary Indigenous dance featuring choreography by Starr Muranko and Michelle Olson. Two visionary choreographers bring their diverse voices to the act of connection. Moving from spirit to form through currents of spatial tension, these are the songs of the land and body, deeply rooted and ever reaching. Starr Muranko’s “Spine of the Mother” and Michelle Olson’s “Northern Journey” traverse territories of impulse, memory, and landscape. Additionally, the program includes the solo, “Frost Exploding Trees Moon”, choreographed by Michelle Olson and Floyd Favel; this piece follows the breath, instinct, and impulse of a woman on her northern trap line. In addition to the artistic excellence of the company, they are well known for their community engagement practices.

Watch: "Earth Song" Traveling: 5 cast, 1 crew, 1 staff Technical specifications: Tech Rider | Website | Facebook Fee: $5,000 per show, negotiable discount for multiple performances; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

Out of respect for artists and their work, please do not repost links or share this document for purposes beyond booking considerations. Finished reviewing the finalists? Help select the artist roster by completing a brief survey. V’ni Dansi holds the distinction of being the only company in Canada to perform both traditional Métis and contemporary dance, offering traditional Métis jigging, contemporary Métis jigging, and Indigenous contemporary dance. Led by Artistic Director Yvonne Chartrand, in 2001, the company formed the group The Louis Riel Métis Dancers who remain dedicated to preserving traditional Métis dance. The Métis are a distinct Indigenous culture within Canada that has mixed First Nations and European ancestry. Métis traditional dances are a unique blend of European and First Nations dances, creating an intricate and dynamic form.

“Red River Special” combines the Red River Jig, the Orange Blossom Special, and Métis square dances. Traditionally, dancers would challenge themselves to dance up to 100 “fancy steps” during the Red River Jig, the national dance of the Métis. This work builds on that tradition through a crescendo of steps and “crooked” fiddle tunes. Crooked music is a stand out in the Orange Blossom Special, which has been adopted into Métis culture. As the new generation is losing knowledge of these square dances, this work serves as reclamation of Métis dances and culture. In addition to community engagement offerings, the company includes audience participation at the end of each engagement and aims to create a “Métis Kitchen Party” environment that is a relaxed social dance atmosphere at the heart of Métis culture.

Watch: “Red River Special" (45 min.) | V’ni Dansi excerpts Traveling: Flexible size depending on budget, recommended: 4 dancers, 2 musicians Technical specifications: Tech Rider | Website | Facebook | Twitter Fee: $3,000-4,000; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee. Out of respect for artists and their work, please do not repost links or share this document for purposes beyond booking considerations. Finished reviewing the finalists? Help select the artist roster by completing a brief survey.

Cuatro X Cuatro is a laboratory of artists and creatives founded in 2007. Its members come from different parts of Mexico under the Artistic Direction of Shantí Vera. Their work is situated between availing the body and enhancing the flesh. They explore light, sound, color, and matter as states and spaces as distributions of the sensible. They are interested in gravity (the force and metaphor), choreography and the choreographic, the Mexican context and Latin America, and the South (not geographically but as a missing territory). They have performed in 17 countries in Europe and Latin America and have received multiple awards, prizes, grants, and fellowships. Cuatro X Cuatro does not create to entertain; it develops spaces and projects to play and think.

“EL CUERPO VACÍO” exposes several urgencies for the Latin American context and stage. It aims to liberate the body as an absolute subject in relation to sound, music, color, space, body, and affection, and to liberate the Latin American context, world, and history of the “legal” and “illegal” on stage.

Watch: “EL CUERPO VACÍO” password: 4x4 | “EL CUERPO VACÍO” Teaser Traveling: 2 dancers, 2 technicians Technical specifications: Tech Rider | Light Plot | Website| Facebook| Twitter Fee: $4,000; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

La Serpiente is an independent contemporary dance company working out of Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico. Since their first production in 2001, they have consolidated their own style of feeling and communicating with and to the world. The company is a receptacle for convergence, movement, and the aesthetic vision of each member of the group. La Serpiente is committed to artistic development internally and externally and supports an international dance festival (Red Serpiente), artistic residences, Center of Dance Documentation and Research (Cenddami), and Scholar Dance Program, as well as workshops and master classes.

"TREATISE ABOUT THE LINE" is a contemporary dance performance that explores the body’s complexity moving through a line in space with sensitivity to the time. For fifty minutes, four dancers provoke an architectural look at the body, space, and condensed time. Featuring original music, the performance tries to connect with new audiences from a sensitive place where the images generate poetics in movement. Together, the lighting design and choreography build a dance discourse without requiring grand scenic elements.

Watch: "Treatise About the Line" | About La Serpiente Traveling: 5 dancers, 1 technician, 1 staff Technical specifications: Two minimum requirements: a line of white elastic cutting through the stage space horizontally, as well as a vertical bar of LED light (7 meters). Tech Rider | Website | Facebook | Twitter Fee: $1,500-2,000; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

Kobo Town represents one of the most creative and successful Caribbean bands in Canada, having established touring circuits in Europe, Canada, and elsewhere with a winning blend of strong songwriting and infectious dance beats. Kobo Town is named after the historic neighborhood in Port-of-Spain where calypso was born amid the boastful, humorous, and militant chants of roaming stick-fighters. Situated near the fishermen’s wharf, the area was a site of constant defiance and conflict, a place where sticks and stones, songs and verses clashed with the bayonets and batons of colonial rule. Founded and fronted by émigré Trinidadian songwriter Drew Gonsalves, Kobo Town’s music has been variously described as “an intoxicating blend of lilting calypsonian wit, dancehall reggae and trombone-heavy brass” (The Guardian) and a “unique, transnational composite of rhythm, poetry and activist journalism.” (Exclaim!)

From their home in Toronto, the Juno Award winning group has brought their distinct calypso- inspired sound to audiences across the world, from Port-of-Spain to Paris and from Montreal to Malaysia. At once brooding and joyous, intensely poetic and highly danceable, Gonsalves’ songs betray deep roots in Caribbean folk music, while the band delivers them with an indomitable energy that has earned them a considerable following far beyond the niche world of calypso fans.

Watch: “Scarborough Girl” ft. Calypso Rose| Kobo Town Live Traveling: 6 on stage | Website| Facebook Fee: $3,500-6,000; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

Lemon Bucket Orkestra (LBO) is a Balkan-klezmer-gypsy-party-punk-band like no other. Getting their start busking on the streets of Toronto in 2010, the original quartet of guerrilla-folk troubadours quickly amassed a battalion of troops armed with brass, bows, accordions, and drums, and soon the Orkestra was born. The band has been nominated for several awards, including 2 Junos, and they’ve been heralded as a ground-breaking, genre-bending phenomenon by international and local media alike. Live, the band is a veritable juggernaut. Equal parts high precision and reckless intensity, their shows are a fully immersive experience that ranges from the ecstatic to the cathartic. Their 2015 album, Moorka, includes several re- worked folk songs the band learned from local virtuosos while touring in Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, and Macedonia. Each chestnut is spiked with the unique blend of funk, punk, psychedelia, blues, and swing that give LBO its signature sound. As at home in a speakeasy as in a concert hall, the Lemon Bucket Orkestra has stormed the international scene with their irresistible brass band mayhem. LBO also has experience offering folkloric music and dance workshops, cooking workshops, and discussions about the historical context of their music.

Watch: LBO Promo Video | LBO Live Traveling: 12 on stage, 1 technician Technical specifications: No backline required | Stage Plot | Website| Facebook| Twitter Fee: $5,000-10,000; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

A Saskatoon native transplanted to the Niagara Region of Ontario, Roots and Blues singer Suzie Vinnick is a 3 time Juno Nominee, CFMA Award winner, and a 10-time winner (21 nominations) of the Maple Blues Award for songwriting, female vocalist, acoustic act, and more. Suzie is a crowd pleaser with a voice you’ve heard a thousand times and one you’ll never forget. Accompanying her decadent vocals, she plays wicked electric, acoustic, and bass guitar. Her songs are well-crafted and her delivery is powerful and endearing at the same time. Suzie is a troubadour who represents Canada well, having grown up in Saskatchewan, worked in Ottawa and then Toronto. Her acclaim from many awards and nominations is capped by having been the singing voice of the Canadian donut chain Tim Hortons for five years. As much as her voice was anonymous in their ads, she was a signature to the brand, and the nation. Suzie has toured nationally with Stuart McLean’s The Vinyl Café, the John McDermott Band, and has performed for Canadian Peacekeepers in Bosnia and the Persian Gulf.

Watch: “Happy as Hell” | Additional Clips Traveling: 1 | Stage Plot | Website| Facebook| Twitter Fee: $1,000-2,000; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

“Vox’s music encapsulates the very things that make Montreal’s music scene unique: it is multi- ethnic, multilingual and multicultural in nature,” – Noisey, Music by Vice

Vox Sambou is an MC, poet, and multilingual performer who writes and performs in Creole, French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese. He is a founding member of Montreal-based hip-hop collective, Nomadic Massive. Vox has performed across North America, France, Chile, Brazil, Senegal, Mali and Burkina Faso, Colombia, Morocco, and Spain. A Haitian-Canadian, his music focuses on the traditional rhythms of Haiti mixed with elements of Afrobeat, jazz, reggae, and hip-hop. Vox’s artistry is influenced by a strong commitment to calling out injustices and social imbalances. His message is one of great positivity that not only reflects the realities of life in Montreal as a Caribbean immigrant, but also the relationship between artists in the Americas.

Watch: "Lavi" |"Rezistans" | “My Rhythm” | Additional Clips Traveling: Flexible depending on budget, 6-9 artists and 1 crew Technical specifications: Tech Rider| Website| Facebook| Twitter Fee: $4,000-8,000; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

From ruminations on life and love’s little treasures to tales of everyday homegrown heroes, the music of William Prince unfurls like a classic campfire story, midnight road trip conversation, or well-worn, dog-eared novel passed down through generations. Each line delivered in his dusky baritone evokes a journeyman, troubadour spirit buoyed by stained glass soul with the gusto to reach steeple-sized heights. Given this emotional heft, it makes sense that the art form bears a metaphysical significance for the Juno award-winning singer and songwriter.

Born and raised on the Peguis First Nation of Manitoba, Canada, William has been honing his craft since the age of nine when he first picked up the guitar and piano. Counting Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Charley Pride, Merle Haggard, and Willie Nelson among chief influences, he ultimately cites his preacher and musician father as the biggest inspiration. “My whole life I listened to my dad’s deep voice singing gospel,” he says. “In a sense, I make folk-country tunes inside of a gospel framework. It can be really powerful, but it brings a calm.” William is a diamond in the rough and an incredible songwriter and storyteller. Audiences are moved by his music and his life story. As anticipation for the 2020 follow-up to William’s Juno Award winning debut album Earthly Days builds, Prince is busy with touring that has included a run of shows opening for Neil Young, a slot at Stagecoach in the heart of California, and festival dates across North America.

Watch: "Breathless" | “Bloom” Traveling: 4 musicians, 1 technician, 1 staff Technical specifications: Stage Plot | Website| Facebook| Twitter Fee: $5,000; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

Considered one of the most avant-garde ensembles in Mexico, duo Cabezas de Cera (CDC) has performed in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and North America. With eight albums to their credit, their label-free music is characterized by a balance between the acoustic and electronic, featuring unconventional instrumentation and hand-crafted metal and stringed instruments. Their music expertly transits rock, jazz, traditional Mexican folk music, and improvisation. By also employing live-looping, the duo generates music on an orchestral scale with the Chapman stick, guitar, vihuela, tricordia, charrophone, jarana, harp, bass, bass drum, cymbals, box, kitai, drums, whistle, and harp.

“México Industrial” is a performance that deftly combines cinematographic archives from Mexico’s national film heritage and CDC hybrid instrumentation. The film “México Industrial” (1923) features the textile production and accompanying industry boom at the beginning of the 20th century. The one hour performance offers an analogy between the body and sound the workers generate through their use of the textile machines with the musicians who are physically connected to their creation machines (instruments and electronic looping), thus imaginatively recreating the sonorous environment inside the Fábrica de Textiles de Metepec (Metepec Textiles Factory). CDC offers a live-sound production process in synchrony with the textiles production, creating a continuous moving sonogram that brings us from the past to the present. The production is as powerful in presence as it is in concept.

Watch: “México Industrial” Teaser |Cabezas de Cera instrument creation Traveling: 2 artists, 2 technicians, 1 staff Technical specifications: Tech Rider | Website| Facebook| Twitter Fee: $4,000; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee. Out of respect for artists and their work, please do not repost links or share this document for purposes beyond booking considerations. Finished reviewing the finalists? Help select the artist roster by completing a brief survey.

Afro-Mexican singer and composer Chogo Prudente, comes from Santiago Llano Grande La Banda, a village on the West coast of Oaxaca. He is known throughout Mexico as perhaps the most important Afro-Mexican musician, one who stays true to the styles of music popular in his village, rather than reinventing something that is new and more sophisticated. Chogo Prudente’s village is isolated and forgotten, he says. Despite this, Santiago Llano Grande La Banda has always been Chogo’s passion and his muse. His music is inspired by the songs he heard on the village loud speakers as a kid, the poetic boleros that accompanied his trysts, the corrido ballads he heard in cantinas and at cock fights as well as chilena upbeat dance music, flavored with improvised verses. Chogo’s repertoire reflects this music with original songs written by him and by his godfather, Paco Melo, an epic figure in this region of Oaxaca who brought musical instruments, teachers, and schools to the village and subsequently put Santiago Llano Grande on the map as the home of ‘La Banda.’

Passionate about the traditions and identity of his Afro roots, Chogo recreates local repertoire with percussion from the Devil Dances. Joining him on stage is a virtuoso guitarist from Oaxaca, two percussionists from his village, and the founder of the Mexico City band Polka Madre. Chogo, apart from being an accomplished singer and composer, is a secondary school teacher and a small-scale cattle rancher.

Watch: “Luz de Luna” | Chogo Prudente Teaser Traveling: 6 artists, 1 technician Technical specifications: Tech Rider | Website Fee: $4,350; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee. Out of respect for artists and their work, please do not repost links or share this document for purposes beyond booking considerations. Finished reviewing the finalists? Help select the artist roster by completing a brief survey.

Declared by the Mexican press as “The new voice of the Mexican bolero”, Las Hermanas García are two teenage sisters who, at the tender age of 9, began singing professionally with their father after learning a repertoire of old love songs. Their first album as a duo was released in 2016, winning them a place in the prestigious Festival Internacional Cervantino, provoking an enormous media response and leading to an epic ascent on Spotify Mexico. Following a flurry of media attention, they have played major venues in Mexico, toured across England and are eager to make their U.S. debut.

The exquisite, natural voices of Las Hermanas García breathe new life into romantic repertoire which travelled the world in the 1950s and 60s with songs covered by Frank Sinatra. With an innocence that contrasts with the raw poetry of the lyrics, Las Hermanas García reveal the original life blood of those great boleros with fresh arrangements that appeal to new fans of the old classics. Between love songs, their concerts make time for dancing to wild chilenas and to a couple of irresistible sones cubanos, like the timeless “Lágrimas Negras” and the little known “El Chico de Mi Rosal” in which the climax is a call against domestic violence. In addition to boleros and sones, their repertoire includes classic laments of immigrants who are far from home and a traditional chilena which they have rewritten to raise awareness about climate change, all played with a natural virtuosity and charm that captures the hearts of audiences everywhere.

Watch: Live at el Cervantino | "Que Sepan Todos" |Interview Traveling: 5 performers, 1 technician Technical specifications: Tech Rider | Website Fee: $4,650; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

Xalapa’s Silvana Estrada has created a jazz-tinged species of indie folk that's quickly flown onto international radar. The explosive success of her first releases, paired with frequent collaborations with the likes of Natalia LaFourcade, Mon Laferte, David Aguilar, and beyond, have the young artist staged for greatness. “Every now and then, you’ll see a claim by some music writer, blogger, or critic, that the subject they are profiling is or will be ‘the voice of a generation.’ Well, even though I often try and not engage in hyperbole… I wish to proclaim Silvana Estrada as ‘one of Mexico’s greatest young talents and vocalists.’ Estrada is 21 years old, and she sings and composes songs about heartbreak, lament, and passion. She does so with the most soulful and dulcet voice.” – José Galvan for KCRW.

Born in the state of Veracruz to two luthiers, Silvana grew up surrounded by music and literature. She began her studies at 16 at the local university’s jazz department and left school at 19 to record and perform in NYC with renowned guitar player Charlie Hunter. When she came back to Mexico, she plunged into the indie music scene in Mexico City, sharing the stage with Alex Ferreira, Ainda Duo, Pedro Pastor Guerra, and even Snarky Puppy during a sold-out Metropolitan Theatre performance. Accompanying herself on the Venezuelan Cuatro, in her music, listeners will find the sum of jazz, the signature appearance of folk music from her Veracruz homelands, and smatterings of guapango, cumbia, and other Latin genres.

Watch: "Te Guardo"| "Sabré Olvidar" Traveling: 2 artists, 1 technician, 1 staff Technical specifications: Tech Rider | Website| Facebook| Twitter Fee: $5,000; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee. Out of respect for artists and their work, please do not repost links or share this document for purposes beyond booking considerations. Finished reviewing the finalists? Help select the artist roster by completing a brief survey.

In their native Mexico and worldwide, Tambuco Percussion Ensemble is known for its unique repertoire and breathtakingly vibrant performances. From body percussion to sticks and stones to modern percussion instruments, Tambuco's approach to sound and rhythm is virtuosic, visceral, and extraordinarily enjoyable. With over 25 years of international concerts and recordings, as well as four GRAMMY nominations, Tambuco is one of the finest percussion quartets performing today. Tambuco has toured across Latin America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the United States, and Canada. Recently, they toured with the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra in the great concert halls of Europe, featuring Javier Álvarez's percussion concerto, in addition to showcasing at the 2018 WAA conference.

In 2019 Tambuco premiered Gabriela Ortiz's Los Angeles Philharmonic commission “Yanga” for orchestra, choir, and percussion ensemble, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel to celebrate the orchestra's centennial year. The year also includes headlining at PASIC in Indianapolis and holding the Jean Wentworth Music Residency at Sarah Lawrence College.

Watch: "El Devenir de la Noche" | "Rhythmic Structure of the Wind I" Traveling: 4 artists, 2 technicians Technical specifications: Tech Rider | Website | Facebook Fee: $9,000-12,000; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee. Out of respect for artists and their work, please do not repost links or share this document for purposes beyond booking considerations. Finished reviewing the finalists? Help select the artist roster by completing a brief survey.

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is Toronto’s leading destination for artistically rigorous alternative theatre and a world leader in developing queer voices and stories for the stage. In its 40-year history, Buddies has welcomed over one million people into its home in the heart of Toronto’s queer village and has premiered nearly 1,000 new works for the stage, making it the largest and longest running queer theatre company in the world.

A concert and a conversation, “Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools” is the meeting place of two people and the North and South of a country. Inuk artist Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and queer theatre-maker Evalyn Parry met on an Arctic expedition from Iqaluit to Greenland. Now sharing a stage, these two powerful storytellers map new territory together in a work that gives voice and body to the histories, culture, and climate we’ve inherited, and ask how we reckon with these sharp tools. In the Inuktitut language, when a knife is dull it is said to “have no face.” The word “Kiinalik” translates to mean the knife is sharp – or, “it has a face”. Embodying the stories of their heritage, Evalyn and Laakkuluk put a face to the colonial histories, power structures, and the changing climate that lie between them. Featuring a uajeerneq (Greenlandic mask dance), throat singing, and storytelling, critical response to the production has been overwhelmingly positive.

Watch: “Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools” | “Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools” Teaser Traveling: 5 artists, 4 technicians, 1 staff Technical specifications: Tech Rider | Website| Facebook| Twitter Fee: $7,000-10,000; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

One of the most important emerging theatrical voices in Canada today, Cree actor and playwright Cliff Cardinal’s solo play “Huff” delivers audiences an unabashed view of the realities facing Indigenous youth growing up on First Nations Reserves across Turtle Island (North- Central America). “Huff” is the wrenching, yet darkly comic tale of Wind and his brothers, caught in a torrent of solvent abuse, struggling to cope with the death of their mother. Wind’s fantastic dream world bleeds into his haunting reality as he’s preyed on by the Trickster through the hallways at school, the abandoned motel he loves more than home, and his own fragile psyche. “Huff” is a story of Indigenous resilience and, ultimately, hope for the next generation.

Now performed over 200 times, this hard-hitting, yet hilarious show has won the Buddies in Bad Times’ Vanguard Award for Risk and Innovation, two Dora Awards (Outstanding Performance, Outstanding New Play), RBC’s Emerging Playwright Award, The Lustrum Award (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), and was shortlisted for Amnesty International’s Freedom of Expression Award. Among its rapturous critical acclaim, the production received a five-star review in The Guardian and called it a “hard-hitting tour de force.” “Huff” will have its U.S. premier at the Kennedy Center in February 2020. Recommended for ages 16 and up.

Watch: “Huff” password: huff2019 Traveling: 1 actor, 1 crew, 1 staff Technical specifications: Set travels easily in two oversized bags; flexible staging and lighting. Tech Rider | Website| Facebook Fee: $3,500-5,000 depending on the number of performances; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee. Out of respect for artists and their work, please do not repost links or share this document for purposes beyond booking considerations. Finished reviewing the finalists? Help select the artist roster by completing a brief survey.

Hong Kong Exile (HKX) is a groundbreaking interdisciplinary arts company led by Vancouver- based artists Natalie Tin Yin Gan, Remy Siu, and Milton Lim. They value investigation of cultural politics in an era of globalization, inclusion of under-represented narratives and identities, and are committed to exploring multimedia innovation and integration with live performance. Since 2011, HKX has premiered and toured more than fourteen original works in dance, theatre, film/media and new music across Canada and in Seattle. Their coming season includes international touring to the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Ottawa, Glasgow, Singapore, Toronto, Winnipeg, and more. Toronto’s fu-GEN Theatre is a company determined to carve out a space in the cultural landscape for vibrant Asian-Canadian voices. They are dedicated to exploring the underlying Asian-Canadian story and believe in diversity of practice using non-traditional space, time, methodology, and philosophy.

“No Foreigners” is a collaboration between HKX and Governor General’s award-winning playwright David Yee of fu-GEN Theatre in association with Theatre Conspiracy. The multimedia production meditates on North American Chinese shopping malls as spaces of cultural creation and clash. Malls become a portal into surreal worlds that carry the nuanced stories of loss and resilience from the Chinese diaspora. Weaving together multilingual text, miniatures, digital backdrops and live cameras, the show is “an interdisciplinary innovative wonder… a nuanced, layered and exceedingly clever look at the diasporic experience.” – Globe & Mail.

Watch: “No Foreigners” password: tonyleung | “No Foreigners” Teaser Traveling: 4 artists, 2 technicians, 1 staff Technical specifications: Tech Rider | Website| Facebook Fee: $2,500-$3,500; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

Colectivo Macramé is a transdisciplinary arts collective that works simultaneously in Mexico and Switzerland. Born in 2008 with the aim of reinventing forms of play and inclusive artistic experimentation, they strive to make accomplices of their audiences in order to better understand our shared reality. Company founder and playwright, Mariana Gándara, is the winner of several awards for playwriting and theatre direction, and is currently the Coordinator of the Bergman Chair in film and theatre at UNAM. Community engagement is the backbone of the company’s work.

“Nada Siempre, Todo Nunca” is a unique production intended as a both a party and a protest. Featuring an all-female cast, the audience immediately becomes an active collaborator in the performance, guided by a workbook to be used during and after the performance. Fatigued and in need of energy and peace, the artists turn to the audience to collectively stop the clock and, in doing so, create an ephemeral community where a mix of playfulness, fiction, and conviviality allows a group of strangers to share their fears, vulnerabilities, longings, and frustrations with others. During the show, the audience members listen to each other's needs and dreams and try to fulfill the wish of a stranger. The show is a joyous celebration of togetherness and of the possibilities of radical tenderness as a means of revolt.

Watch: Nada Siempre, Todo Nunca | Nada Siempre, Todo Nunca Teaser Traveling: 7 artists, 2 technicians, 1 staff Technical Specifications: Dossier | Website| Facebook| Twitter Fee: $4,000-5,000 negotiable by package; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

Los Colochos Teatro Company was founded in Mexico in 2010, and in less than a decade it has emerged as a leader in the Ibero-American theatre scene. Their minimal staging is coupled with strong acting grounded in a critical discourse on their national identity. The company’s brutal 2014 adaptation of Macbeth (“Mendoza”), set in Aztec country, was met with critical acclaim in Chicago, Miami, Spain, and beyond. The company follows this success with their second of three Shakespearean plays adapted for a Mexican context, “Nacahue: Ramón y Hortensia” an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set among the Uto-Aztecan indigenous Cora and Huichol peoples, in commemoration of the UN’s International Year of Indigenous Languages.

Star-crossed lovers Ramón (Cora) and Hortensia (Huichol) meet after Hortensia crosses the river that splits their respective communities. Though the lovers hail from different cultures and are divided by language, the heart feels what the head cannot comprehend. Performed in Spanish and in the Cora Naáyeri language, there are no subtitles for the Naayeri language, inviting non- Naáyeri speaking audiences to focus on the sensory elements of the storytelling, feeling and listening to the musicality of the language to convey the emotion of the story and emphasize the metaphor’s simplicity. Written by Juan Carrillo of Nayarit with translations and guidance from Edisa Altamirano Dominguez (Cora) and teacher of the Autonomous University of Nayarit, the plot is woven literally and metaphorically among a simple set using fabric strips that allude to the colors of Huichol crafts. Supertitles in English are available for Spanish text.

Watch: "Nacahue: Ramón y Hortensia" | Press Coverage on "Nacahue: Ramón y Hortensia" Traveling: 7 performers, 2 technicians, 1 staff Technical specifications: Tech Rider | Facebook| Twitter | Critical Response Fee: $4,000-6,000, negotiable; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.

Out of respect for artists and their work, please do not repost links or share this document for purposes beyond booking considerations. Finished reviewing the finalists? Help select the artist roster by completing a brief survey. For more than 25 years, Seña y Verbo Teatro de Sordos (Sign and Verb: Theatre of the Deaf) of Mexico City has produced and internationally toured theatre featuring Deaf and hearing actors for audiences of all ages. Using a mix of Mexican Sign Language, pantomime, and spoken Spanish and English, their work is grounded in cultural inclusion. The ensemble puts Deaf culture center stage in high quality theatre productions bolstered by seminars and cultural outreach workshops. Among its many accolades, the company won the Premio Ciudad de México 2018, PEN Club México Award for Editorial Excellence, the Alas y Raíces Audience Award for Best Show “UGA”, and the México en Escena grant on five occasions.

“Music for your Eyes” is born from the dialogue between two worlds, the world of silent images of the Deaf and the seemingly intangible world of music, joined in a common language, the theater. Suggestive of a small chamber orchestra, three Deaf actors and a hearing director interpret four small stories inspired by music from some of the greatest composers of all time: Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn. Through the director, the actors strike up a conversation with the music, a seemingly impossible dialogue, that translates the essence of the musical language into the language of images and puppetry. Aimed at children between ages three and five, but enjoyed by the whole family, this play takes us to new worlds, all without the use of spoken language.

Watch: “Music for Your Eyes” Traveling: 4 performers, 2 technician, 1 staff Technical specifications: Tech Rider | Facebook| Twitter Fee: $2,500-$3,000; plus a portion of expenses, such as domestic and international travel costs, accommodations, visas, agent expenses, and CWA preparation, to be split among all presenters forming a part of the tour. Presenters would be eligible for grant support of up to 50% of the inclusive fee.