Ways of Working: Towards Replenishment
The Festival of Ideas and Creation is a week-long gathering of Artists, Arts Practitioners, and Thought Leaders from a variety of disciplines. The festival is built to be a responsive space to consider creative practices. It is a space for artists and community members to come together, to interrogate and investigate that which is urgent, inspiring, new, or challenging in our artistic communities. It will build and feed the creative imagination of all participants, presenting engaging speakers, workshops, lively guided discussions, and opportunities to share space. This year’s FIC, Ways of Working: Towards Replenishment, will reflect on our artistic practices these past couple of years, and collectively imagine ways of working.
Join us from May 25-29, 2022 to replenish for the new world!
The Homecoming Cabaret
Event Type: Cabaret Performances and Dance
Date & Time: Wednesday, May 25, Doors at 6:30pm, Performance at 7:30pm
Featured Artists: Rookies with Friends Collective, Mira Fantasy, Kurt Cumstain, Ms.G, Coyote Ugly, Azaynia, Tim Blair, DJ Miles, and Sanskruti Marathe
About Rookies with Friends: Rookies with Friends, formerly known as Perverted Assemblages, aims to tell stories for marginalized young adults by marginalized young adults while experimenting with theatrical form, content, and creation methods. The collective first came together in late 2020 to do an independent workshop production of Reid Millar’s “Just Pervs”, which later went on to have a well-received run at 2021 Digital Toronto Fringe Festival. Rookies with Friends uses their multidisciplinary backgrounds to create theatre that accounts for varying identities (2SLGBTQIA+, IBPOC, women etc.). They are also exploring how to create work in a hierarchy-less structure where everyone brings their strengths and collective decisions are made. Currently they are developing "The Liminal Years" by Jahnelle Jones, a new play about marginalized adults in their early twenties told through the lineage of a green velvet couch. You can follow them on Instagram at @rookieswithfriends
Breaking Bread
Event Type: Community Artist Dinner
Date & Time: Thursday, May 26, 6:00pm EDT
Venue: Berkeley Street Rehearsal Hall
Featured Guest: Elder Whabagoon
About: An in-person welcome dinner kicking off the 2022 Festival of Ideas and Creation. We will break bread together, and check in as a community. We will share in a welcome from special guest Elder Whabagoon, offering words to contemplate on as we enter into our days of exchange, sharing and learning. Meet your fellow FIC’ers with food, three-dimentional faces, conversation, and laughter.
The Body and Movement
Event Type: In-studio Movement Workshop
Date & Time: Friday, May 27, 12:00pm EDT
Venue: Berkeley Street Rehearsal Hall
Featured Artists: Aria Evans and Victoria Mata
About: A workshop all art practitioners. As artists, how do we care for our bodies, create from our bodies, and share from our bodies in a sustainable, impactful and effective way? Aria and Victoria will lead us through an hour of movement explorations in relation to consent, body awareness, care and cultivating language of touch. The exploration will be followed by an embodied talking circle on the topic of replenishment and our bodies in space.
Puppetry: Breathing Life into Objects
Event Type: Workshop
Date & Time: Friday, May 27, 3:00pm EDT
Venue: Berkeley Street Rehearsal Hall
Featured Guest: Brad Cook
About: A workshop for both beginner and experienced theatre makers interested in including puppetry and object manipulation in their work. Spend an afternoon learning the foundations of puppetry or fine-tune your skills. Please wear comfortable clothing and bring knee pads if you have them, and be prepared to move. Come in with curiosity and a willingness to play.
Ways of Working: Inclusive Dramaturgy
Event Type: Panel Conversation
Date & Time: Friday, May 27, 6:00pm EDT
Venue: Berkeley Street Rehearsal Hall
Featured Guests: David Geary, Debbie Patterson, Mukonzi Musyoki, Sharada Eswar
About: A panel of dramaturges from across the country share their individual practices and approaches into dramaturgy and creative process. How can we foster inclusive spaces for creation? In our current artistic ecology, how can we examine contemporary and historical works? How do we make room for the full self in creation?
WAYS of WORKING: The Hybrid Artist
Event Type: Artist Talk/Lecture
Date & Time: Saturday, May 28, 11:00am EDT
Venue: Berkeley Street Rehearsal Hall
Featured Artist: Donna-Michelle St. Bernard with Tawiah M’Carthy and Alison Wong
About: An artist is many things and often has to put on many hats. How do we create, collaborate, and produce our work in sustainable ways? How do you know what hat to wear when? How do you create and maintain boundaries? Join Donna-Michelle (Producer/Director/Playwright/Performer) in conversation with Tawiah M’Carthy (Director/Playwright/Performer/Curator/Reluctant Producer) and Alison Wong (Director/ Performer/Producer/Creator).
Ways of Working: Knowledge Cafe - Towards Replenishment
Event Type: Peer Round Table Discussion
Date & Time: Saturday, May 28, 2:00pm EDT
Venue: Berkeley Street Rehearsal Hall
Featured Host: CulturalBrew.art
Moderators: Aidan Morishita-Miki, Augusto Bitter, Philip Geller, Davinder Dalhi, Chris Gatchalian
About: An Artist round table discussion to exchange knowledge, visions, hopes and practical ways to better collaborate and support each other. An opportunity to distill and build on the sharings of the FIC and establish connections with fellow artists to move beyond the container of the festival.
As part of this year’s knowledge cafe, the round table discussion will be followed by an information session with culturalbrew.arts
Stone Soup: Re-Past
Event Type: In-person Workshop
Date & Time: Saturday, May 28, 6:00pm EDT
Venue: Berkeley Street Rehearsal Hall
Featured Artists: Derek Kwan and Maziar Ghaderi
About: Foodways and cuisine are rich repositories for meaning and metaphor that deserve to be celebrated. Join Maziar Ghaderi and Derek Kwan as they cook family dishes from their home cultures; explore intersections of food, culture, memory, and history; and engage with participants to examine their own personal connections between food and identity. A cooking demonstration, participatory roundtable, recipe exchange, and theatrical workshop rolled into one, we’ll delve into the ingredients that shape our lives, and the recipes that tell our stories. Stone Soup: Re-Past is part of a larger exploration of food, culture, and diversity in theatrical contexts.
Creative Rest - even the land takes a season to replenish
*Due to unforeseen circumstances, Creative Rest - even the land takes a season to replenish is unfortunately CANCELLED. All registrants will be contacted by box office.
Event Type: Guided, Interactive Crafting for All Ages
Date & Time: Sunday, May 29, 11:00am EDT
Venue: Berkeley Street Rehearsal Hall
Featured Artist: Star Nahwegahbo
About: “Children remind us to be playful, and the winter reminds us of the importance of rest. Teachings from my child and the land lead the way in this self-initiated and soothing workshop space. Choose anyone of multiple activities, or try them all. Create independently or with small groups. Activities include, oversized land-based collaborative colouring pages, food and medicine strawberry art (working with the heart: Ode’min/Heart berry). Be playful, make a mess and creatively rest.” - Star Nahwegahbo
Sunday Social
Event Type: Social and Networking
Date & Time: Sunday, May 29, 1:00pm EDT
Venue: Berkeley Street Lobby
About: As we checked in, we are checking out: a social networking event, opportunity to snack, chat, dance and celebrate each other as we bring the festival to a close.
Schedule at a Glance
| WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 | THURSDAY, MAY 26 | FRIDAY, MAY 27 | SATURDAY, MAY 28 | SUNDAY, MAY 29 |
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The Body and Movement 12:00pm |
WAYS of WORKING: The Hybrid Artist 11:00am |
Creative Rest 11:00am |
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| Puppetry: Breathing Life into Objects 3:00pm |
Knowledge Cafe 2:00pm |
Sunday Social 1:00pm |
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| The Homecoming Cabaret 7:00pm |
Breaking Bread 6:00pm |
Inclusive Dramaturgy 6:00pm |
Stone Soup: Re-Past 6:00pm |
This year’s FIC events were curated by Aidan Morishita-Miki, Alison Wong, Star Nahwegahbo and Tawiah M’Carthy.
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