Category: your contribution matters
Margaret Evans (l) Plays Jim Watts, Aviva Armour-Ostroff (r) plays Dorothy Livesay in Jesus Chrysler ~ Photo by Will O’Hare
JESUS CHRYSLER
Written by: Tara Beagan & Directed by: Michael Wheeler
Starring: Margaret Evans*, Aviva Armour-Ostroff* and Jeffrey Wetsch*
Produced by: Aislinn Rose
Costumes & Set Design by: Scott Penner
Sound Design by: Verne Good
Lighting Design by: David DeGrow
Stage Managed by: Dini Conte*
Assistant Director: Laura Nordin
Movement Coach: Leora Morris
*Appearing courtesy of CAEA
Legendary activist and director Eugenia “Jim” Watts and poet Dorothy Livesay are embroiled in a mix of socialist organizing, sexual relationships, theatre rehearsals, and personal betrayal…
A world premiere by Dora-Award winning playwright Tara Beagan, Jesus Chrysler is an immersive production that revolves around Toronto activist and director Eugenia “Jim” Watts and poet Dorothy Livesay. An unsung icon of 1930s Toronto theatre, Jim had her work banned by a Prime Minister before enlisting in The Spanish Civil War, becoming its sole female ambulance driver. Livesay went on to become a two-time Governor General Award winner for poetry and an Officer of The Order of Canada. Jesus Chrysler invites you to explore their complex relationship in a show that engages with and questions the intersection of art and politics.
Location
Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace
16 Ryerson Avenue, Toronto ON
Click here to buy tickets
Dates
Tuesday November 29th & Wednesday November 30th:
Previews – 7:30pm
Thursday December 1st: Opening Night – 7:30pm
Tuesdays through Sundays – 7:30pm
Saturday & Sunday Matinees – 2pm
Closes Sunday December 11th – 7:30pm
Tickets
Tickets available though Arts Box Office
www.artsboxoffice.ca
416.504.7529
$15 – $30
*Due to the immersive nature of this production, seating in the Backspace is limited*
We need your help.
Click here to donate & receive a charitable receipt
This is an exciting time for Praxis Theatre. It’s our first production as part of the season of an established Toronto theatre, and the first time we have employed our artists as signatories to the Canadian Theatre Agreement.
All of this costs money and we couldn’t do it without the support of our donors. We are so close to reaching our goal, but we need your help to get us there… so we’re calling on our friends across Canada to help this indie company out.
For a short time, you can donate to Praxis Theatre via Theatre Passe Muraille and receive a charitable receipt. We promise, after Jesus Chrysler, we can leave you alone for a while!
Hope to see you at the theatre.
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Jesus Chrysler has been generously supported by:
Toronto Stop the Cuts Network’s flyer for tomorrow’s meeting in
Dufferin Grove Park
by Aislinn Rose
Earlier today, a communiqué was released because The City of Toronto appeared to be trying to shut down a meeting in Dufferin Grove Park, organized by the Toronto Stop the Cuts Network.
The meeting was intended to bring Torontonians together for refreshments at 12pm, and then break into smaller groups from 1pm to 5pm to come up with a “a clear set of demands to deliver to City Hall”. The Facebook event can be found here.
The Toronto Stop the Cuts Network, a group made up of community organizations and individuals, released this statement:
In a blatantly anti-democratic move that smacks of Rob Ford’s authoritarianism, Toronto City is attempting to stop the Mass Meeting to Stop Ford’s Cuts from taking place. The city is shutting down programming at Dufferin Grove Park, where the meeting is scheduled from 12pm to 5pm on Saturday, September 10. Organizers from the Toronto Stop the Cuts Network say they are expecting thousands of residents to attend, to write a Toronto Declaration, ‘a vision for the Toronto people need and deserve’.
You can read the entire post here.
After a call to Councillor Ana Bailão’s office, I learned that the Toronto Police had issued a demonstration alert, and that the plan to close the park and its services was seen by the City as a “safety measure”. However, Bailão’s office felt this was unacceptable, and have ensured that the park will instead by kept open all day.
The park’s regular services will also be running in the morning and in the evening, but will be stopped only during the 5-hour meeting organized by Stop the Cuts. Bathrooms, however, will also be kept open during the meeting.
When asked why a demonstration alert would be issued for a meeting, Bailão’s office said they also believed the event to be a meeting rather than a demonstration, but that postings about the meeting on other sites had raised concerns.
Let us know your thoughts on these issues in the comments section. We also welcome anyone who has any updates regarding Stop the Cuts and their meeting in Dufferin Grove Park, to post them here.
Image by Adam Scotti licensed under Creative Commons
by Aislinn Rose
“Everything a voter should know” can be accessed here on the Elections Canada website, but I’ve broken it down into a few of the more significant categories below for you. Elections Canada has put out a warning telling voters not to trust any information about voting from any other source after some voters have been deliberately misled, so all of the voter info links I have provided will take you directly to pages on their site.
Do you know what riding you live in?
Click here to search for your riding via your postal code, or by the name of a candidate and your province/territory.
Do you know the candidates in your riding?
Once you have found your riding via the link above, you can find your list of candidates by clicking on the “candidates” button along the top of the page.
Do you know where to vote?
On the same page where you found your riding, there is a link for “where do I vote?” along the right-hand side, where you will then be prompted to fill in your street address.
Do you know what you need to bring with you?
I don’t have a driver’s licence, and I’ve neglected to get a new health card with my current address, so when I go to vote this morning, I’ll be bringing my passport, and a recent credit card statement. See below for a list of options on what to bring, with more info available by clicking on the picture.
Click the image for more information
Not sure if you’re registered?
Don’t let that deter you from voting. You can register at the same location as where you’ll be voting, using the same pieces of identification listed above. Let the person at the door know you’re not sure if you’re registered and they’ll point you in the right direction. More voter registration and eligibility information can be found here.
Haven’t decided whether or not to vote?
Obviously I’m hoping you will vote. Click here to read the amazing letters that were presented at Wrecking Ball 12: Are you dying to vote?, by some of PEN Canada‘s Writers in Exile, about their views on democracy.
I’ll be tweeting on and off throughout the day via @praxistheatre using the hashtag #elxn41arts, which you can follow with or without an account. But I won’t be tweeting the results until the polls have closed… I can’t afford the fine. Happy voting day everyone!
by Aislinn Rose
I want you to vote. You have until 8pm tonight to get to your polling stations and participate in the democratic process. If you live in Toronto, this is what you need to know:
- Click here to find your ward, and here for a list of councillors running in your ward.
- Click here for your polling station. Once you’ve submitted your address you can scroll down to the bottom of the page and even get a sneak peak at the ballot you’ll be voting on. Here‘s an example.
- Click here to find out what identification you’ll need to bring. When I voted last weekend, I didn’t have a driver’s licence, so I brought my passport and a credit card statement. There are all kinds of acceptable combinations. I didn’t have a voter card and wasn’t on the voter list either… so don’t let that stop you.
- Praxis Theatre will be “live tweeting” the joint Torontoist/ArtsVote party at the Cadillac Lounge from 7pm onwards, but maybe the Keith Cole For Mayor Victory Party is more your style. No matter what you decide to do (after you have voted…) you can follow along with Praxis at www.twitter.com/praxistheatre.
- Happy Voting!
Last week Calgary’s annual theatre awards, The Bettys, took place. It was a good night for Alberta Theatre Projects (ATP), which garnered eight awards, but especially for ATP Artistic Associate Vicki Stroich, who accepted an Outstanding Achievement Award for her work as a dramaturg and advocate for new work.
Word of the awesomeness of her acceptance speech has spread far and wide, so we were pleased to see it posted on the ATP blog, which we have reprinted below with her permission.
Click here for a list of all the Betty nominees and winners
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Vicki Stroich holds her Outstanding Achievement Award after giving an outstanding speech
I have a lot of people to thank because any contribution I have made has come with the support, guidance, encouragement and inspiration of the people around me.
First, thank you to the Betty Mitchell Awards Steering Committee and especially Adrienne Smook for this surprising and humbling honour.
I have to thank my teachers, my friends and my family. My parents (who are here tonight) for showing me the value of hard work and for supporting my choice to live a life less ordinary.
I need to thank all the collaborators and co conspirators I’ve worked with, all the playwrights, directors, actors, designers, stage managers and crew for the amazing and unique experience of creating new things together year after year, with all the challenges and triumphs that process brings.
I want to thank my fellow dramaturges, the ones in this room and the ones across Canada, across the border and in other parts of the world for reminding me what a vital role we have.
I thank the Canadian theatre community and most especially I have to thank this community of artists here. I grew up here in Calgary both as a person and an artist and every year I am reminded that this is a community of artists who make things happen. There is ambition and heart and an ingenuity here that is constantly inspiring. No matter how big and bold the idea, I know we will find a way to make it happen. And that’s rare. And I treasure it.
And I must thank Alberta Theatre Projects and the people who have raised me up in the theatre, who supported me, gave me not only the encouragement but the resources to foster the work and make things happen and who have done so with a great deal of love and a massive amount of good humour; Bob White, Dianne Goodman, Vanessa Porteous, Lyndee Hansen and all the great people I have worked with.
I can appreciate what goes into supporting someone or something. It’s what I have chosen to do. And as someone who has chosen to support and advocate for the vision and work of other people, it seems strange to be up here at the mic alone accepting an award for something that is meant to be behind the scenes.
But when people ask me what it is I do, exactly, I use that word “support” a lot. I also use words like listen and witness. On the surface these words might seem passive, but I have learned not to think of them that way. It has been my experience from working with artists that the act of listening, the act of witnessing is a powerful and rare contribution to someone’s work. I used to take it for granted. I don’t anymore.
The other part of that “support” is more vocal; I ask questions and advocate. I use my voice to help people understand their work better (at least that’s the goal) and if I can, I help them gather the resources and team together to make their project everything it deserves to be. I used to take that for granted, too; my voice. I don’t as much anymore.
I chose to support people because I wanted to make some contribution to the world they wanted to create, to the voice they wanted to express, to a vision they wanted to share. The unique quality of theatre to create an exchange of ideas and emotions and most of all, energy, captivates me. I didn’t think about what the result of 9 years of listening and witnessing and questioning and advocating day to day would contribute. I choose to do it everyday because, like you, I love the theatre. Because I wanted to contribute to it. Because it means something.
That I am standing here being given an award for the sum of those contributions (so far) is truly humbling. I will not take it for granted. It inspires me to contribute my eyes and my ears and my voice and my heart tomorrow and the next day and the next day and on and on.
Listening and witnessing and questioning and advocating is something we can all do. These are contributions that we can all make to our community, to our culture and to this art form that we all love. Please don’t take your own individual contributions day to day for granted. They mean something.
Click here to read the a longer post by Vicki on the ATP website for more context and inspiration!
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