For Sale PROGRAM

For Sale by POLITICAL MOVEMENT
part of: "A REVOLUTION OF LOVE" ARTIST MENTORSHIP

Commissioned by Soulpepper Theatre Company and The City of Toronto’s Awakenings Programming at the Toronto History Museums.

running May 6th (7pm), 7th (2pm) and 8th (2pm) at Colborne Lodge

Choreographer | Director | Writer | Performer:

Aria Evans
Aria Evans is an award-winning, queer, Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist working in dance, theatre and film. Aria is a certified Intimacy Coordinator and draws on their experiences of being multiracial (Afro-Indigenous, settler) to capture meaningful social and cultural themes through their interactive art. With a large-scale vision, collaboration is the departure point to their work created under their company POLITICAL MOVEMENT.

Aria is the current Metcalf Artistic Director Intern with Soulpepper Theatre. Their works have been presented locally and internationally. They were co-Artistic Director of hub14 from 2013-2018 and the Toronto, Ontario, and Canada Council for the Arts have supported their endeavours as well as the National Arts Centre, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, CAHOOTS, Why Not Theatre, Volcano Theatre, Nightswimming Theatre, Jumblies Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts, Nova Dance, b current and many more.

As an active speaker, facilitator and curator, Aria advocates for inclusion and the representation of diversity, and uses their artistic practice to question the ways we can coexist together.

Created with and performed by:

Sam Brown
Samantha Brown is a queer, blended race: Anishinaabe and European settler, storyteller from Onaping, Ontario. She is currently living in T'karonto.

Liz Der
Liz is a queer, mixed-race performer and theater maker based in Toronto. Since graduating from the University of Toronto, she has become particularly interested in how theatre can be used to unpack personal and cultural complexities of identity and belonging. As one of five members of Soulpepper’s 2021 Academy, Liz discovered a passion for playwriting and deepened her appreciation for collective creation.

Past performance credits include: The House of Bernarda Alba (Modern Times/ Aluna Theatre), Mi Casa de Incienso (Mala Theatre/ Soulpepper Queer Youth Cabaret), meintras tanto // 缺口 (Mala Theatre/ Rhubarb Festival), All’s Well That Ends Well (Dauntless City Theatre), Fearless (fu-GEN Theatre), Shadow Girls (Pencil Kit Productions), and Crave (Pure Carbon Theatre). She has also participated in new play development workshops with Young People’s Theatre, Tarragon, and Common Boots Theatre.

Kiah Francis
Kiah Francis is a queer mixed-race dance artist, born and raised in Toronto. They started their physical training as a gymnast, before taking their first hip hop class at age 11. Francis then attended Rosedale Heights School of the Arts, majoring in dance, and went on to graduate from the School of Toronto Dance Theatre professional training program in 2020.

Kiah has performed in the SummerWorks festival show Nashville Stories, Charles Moulton’s 72-Person Ball Passing at Fall For Dance North, and with the hip hop crew Culture Shock both nationally and internationally. During her schooling she has worked with choreographers such as Alyssa Martin, Apolonia Velasquez, Bonnie Kim, David Norsworthy, and Jennifer Dallas. They were also part of the Nike InRun Crew, representing the LGBTQ community of Toronto as a Nike ambassador. Francis has trained in intensives with Riley Sims, Heidi Strauss, Hanna Kiel and Bonnie Kim. Most recently, they completed the first level of training with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators and hope to pursue certification in the future.

Sofí Gudiño
Sofí Gudiño is a dance artist and founder of Inamorata Dance Collective. Raised in flamenco and established in contemporary dance, Sofí’s work is marked by emotional intensity and choreographic risk. Inamorata’s creative focus is on the expansion of flamenco through omitting expectations of the form by classical Spanish traditions. They are exploring strong choreographic and musical risk that are influenced by contemporary, Latinx and queer arts. In Spain, Gudiño has studied with Úrsula López, Alicia Márquez, Pastora Galván and Ramón Martínez, and in Canada with Esmeralda Enrique, Peggy Baker, Christopher House, Katherine Duncanson, Ame Henderson and many others. As a choreographer, Gudiño has enjoyed residencies at The Toronto Dance Theatre, The Chimera Project Company B Lab, and Dancemakers. Choreographic premieres include Nuit Blanche, Pride, New Blue Dance Festival, and with their award nominated piece, Picaza, in Toronto Fringe. In 2021, they premiered their first two dance films, SOLA and TAURA, online to critical acclaim.

Nichole Leveck
Nichole Leveck, A Wyandat artist from Toronto, Ontario. A fancy shawl/Jingle dress dancer for over 13 years, teaching dance for over 11 years at various organizations throughout the greater Toronto area.

Jarrett Siddall
Jarrett Siddall is a Dora nominated artist who started his performance career in Edmonton, Alberta dancing for the Ukrainian Shumka Dancers and Citie Ballet. Jarrett attended The School of Toronto Dance Theatre in 2009, and was awarded the Hnatyshyn Foundation Developing Artist Grant in contemporary dance in his first year. Graduating in 2012, Siddall joined Toronto Dance Theatre for five seasons and now works with various independent choreographers and companies including Peggy Baker Dance Projects, Vazari Arts Company, and Frog In Hand. Jarrett also works as an actor in film and television, focusing primarily on using his experience with movement research and creation to develop as a creature performer and action actor. For more information about Jarrett and his upcoming projects you can visit his website at www.jarrettsiddall.com

Outside Eye:

Augusto Bitter
Augusto Bitter is a Venezuelan-born, Dora Award-winning performer, writer, facilitator, and producer for stage and screen based in Toronto. With artistic residencies at Factory Theatre, Canadian Stage, Aluna Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, and hub14, Augusto’s first play, CHICHO, is also a short film embarking on a festival circuit, while Reina, a dance-theatre hybrid, is in development with musician Y Josephine. Augusto is currently participating in BIPOC TV & Film’s Kids TV Writing Intensive, and has made audio- and video-poems like Reina (in Isolation), cannibal, golden girl, and for this child I prayed with the support of TO Live, Toronto Queer Film Festival, Glad Day Lit, and Montréal Pride. Augusto has been an artist educator with Soulpepper and the Paprika Festival, and facilitates creative-writing workshops across the GTA with Story Planet. More at www.augustobitter.com

Awakenings Mentors:

Seika Boye
Seika Boye is a scholar, writer, educator and artist whose practices revolve around dance and movement. She is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream and Director of the Institute for Dance Studies at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Toronto. She works as a dramaturg with artists including Natasha Powell/Holla Jazz, Syreeta Hector and Mix Mix Dance Collective. Seika curated the archival exhibition It’s About Time: Dancing Black in Canada 1900–1970 and co-curated Into the Light: Eugenics and Education in Southern Ontario (2019). She was an Artist-in-Residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario (2018), Toronto District School Board’s African Heritage Educators’ Network Arts Honoree (2019) and a 2020 recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Heritage Trust Award (co-curator, Into the Light). Seika lives and works in Toronto with her husband and their two sons.

Rachel Forbes
Rachel is an award-winning, Toronto-based Set and Costume designer creating for theatre, dance, opera and film. Her designs have been seen on stages and sites all across Canada. She is currently a board member for the Associated Designers of Canada. Rachel is particularly interested in the development of new works, interdisciplinary explorations, experimental creation methods and designer-led theatre projects. She received a Dora Mavor Moore award for costume design for The Brothers Size (Soulpepper 2019) and a Merrit Award for set design for The Bridge (2B/Neptune 2019).

Producer:

Sue Balint
Sue Balint is a live art producer, curator, and facilitator. Recent projects include curation of The Theatre Centre's Hybrid by Design B-Side Series, and festival producer for the CAMINOS Festival (Aluna Theatre), Weesageechak Begins to Dance (Native Earth), and Progress (SummerWorks / The Theatre Centre). Sue was recently named Executive Director of the Bonavista Biennale in Newfoundland.

Technical Director | Production Manager:

Charissa Wilcox
Charissa most recently worked at Iconic Queer Canadian Art Organization, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (BIBT) as the Head of Production. As a Production Manager/Technical Director she has worked with Aluna Theatre, Tapestry, Modern Times, Coal Mine Theatre and Nightwood Theatre.

Charissa Wilcox is the Artistic Producer and co-founder of FLYING SOLO and the lead designer and fabricator of FLYING SOLO’s cutting edge circus apparatuses.

Stage Managers:

Helin Gungoren
Based in Toronto, Helin Gungoren (she/her) works primarily as a stage manager and arts administrator with a focus on dance, festivals and events. Some of the companies Helin has worked with/for include princess productions, School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Soulpepper, Citadel + Compagnie, Granite Motion Gallery, Toronto Fringe Festival, Wild Rabbit dance projects, and New Blue Dance. She received her BFA in Performance Production from TMU’s School of Performance.

A.J. Morra
Based in Toronto, A.J. is a graduate of the Technical Theatre Program at "X" University, and has enjoyed an active career as a Technical Director, Production Manager, and Stage Manager for contemporary dance, circus, and theatre. Selected credits include three seasons with Toronto Dance Theatre, and assorted projects with Groundling Theatre Company, Zero Gravity Circus, Dreamwalker Dance Company, Kaeja d'Dance, Soundstreams, and Signal Theatre.