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100 Watt Productions – 12

“What happens when you’re told there’s only 12 years and it’s the 11th hour?”

12: an urgent love story between generations – and towards the planet we share. 

12 is not blame, nor is it despair. A unique collision of numbers & truth, outrage & humor, and resilience & frailty, 12 is a theatrical invitation led by youth to stop, listen, and question what it means to take action together at the 11th hour. 

WHEN | Thursday May 4 @ 7pm, Friday, May 5th @ 12pm (school matinee) and 7pm, Saturday May 6 @ 2pm and 7pm

  • WHO | Recommended for Ages 8+: all generations in one space, one time
  • WHERE | Irving Greenberg Theatre at GCTC (1233 Wellington Street, Ottawa)
  • TICKETS | Pick Your Price tickets: $8, $15, $20 | Proceeds support future professional theatre in collaboration with youth!
  • BUY TICKETS: https://www.gctc.ca/shows/12
  • There will be a Visual Art Exhibit, Footsteps through 12, in the GCTC’s Fitzi Gallery that showcases the art of youth in response to climate change and the building 12 since 2018.
  • MORE! 12 includes a digital “Toolbox” for the general public and for educators/students to reflect on 12, dig deeper into its content and creators, and make real world connections to both lives and school curriculum.
  • ACCESSIBILITY | ASL interpretation will be provided for the 12pm Friday and 2pm Saturday matinees.
  • About 12 and 100 Watt Productions: https://12-100watt.com

Kristina Watt Villegas, Creator and Director

100 Watt Youth Ensemble: Co-Creators and Performers

With enormous thanks to the Canada Council of the Arts, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Theatre, the Department of Theatre at the University of Ottawa.

Book Launch: The Future Is Not Fixed

Come Celebrate With Us!

The Arts & Climate Initiative and the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts invite you to the virtual launch of The Future Is Not Fixed: Short Plays Envisioning a Green New Deal. Featuring the 50 plays written for our Climate Change Theatre Action 2021 festival, and a series of essays, this anthology is our latest achievement towards telling the many stories of the climate crisis in a way that empowers all of us.

Join us and playwrights Camila Le-bert (Chile)Madeline Sayet (U.S./Mohegan), and Marcus Youssef with Seth Klein (Canada) who will read their plays 2079What We Give Back, and So Beautiful Today, So Sunny.

This event is hosted by Chantal Bilodeau, Ian Garrett, and Julia Levine. A conversation with the playwrights will follow the readings, and we will raffle off signed copies of the book. 

Admission is free but you must reserve your spot in advance in order to receive the Zoom link. Your registration automatically enters you into the raffle.

Also available from your domestic Amazon store.

A Music Video on Climate Action: “Granddaughter’s Eyes” | An Earth Day Tribute

NEW EMPTY HANDS MUSIC VIDEO RELEASE: “Granddaughter’s Eyes” is a powerful call to action on climate change. Through evocative storytelling, this song and music video urges us to see the world through the eyes of future generations and inspires us to make small changes in our daily lives to help preserve the planet for posterity.

Some lyrics from the song: 

We’re running out of breath, cuz we’re cutting down the pines,
running out of water, so we’re cutting in the lines
7.7, 8 billion and the 9, human beings watching the land sink while the water rises

About the artist: Nimo has performed and shared his heartfelt messages of kindness, gratitude and love in over 20 countries from hundreds of schools, refugee camps and hospitals to international conferences, prisons and music festivals. His songs, music videos and message, have traversed the world to over 100 million viewers through MTV, YouTube, Tony Robbins’ events, the BBC Channel and more. Nimo continues to offer his music and performances as a labor of love, at no charge.

Learn more at www.EmptyHandsMusic.org

Ecoscenography as Design Practice: A Roundtable Conversation – April 5th

The UN has named this the Decade of Action, our last chance to create the transformation to a livable future. What does it mean to align our design practices with a 1.5 degree Celsius global temperature rise? This event focuses on the aesthetics of climate-friendly sustainable design in theatre, as a core design practice, and as part of a larger equitable green recovery. Join the teams from the Sustainable Production Toolkit, and the Canada Council for Arts funded “Old Dogs, New Tricks” project to explore strategies for engaging with sustainable design between PACT Theatres and ADC Designers to discuss how the field is changing, needs to change, and how you can participate in those changes.

Amplifying Practice Workshop Series

The Associated Designers of Canada (ADC) is providing a comprehensive and wide-ranging program of online workshops and conversations designed for live performance designers to amplify their practice. Workshops will roll out from November 2022 through March 2023, and are open to everyone.

Both members and non-members can attend free of charge.
Advance registration is required as spaces are limited.

DATE

Apr 05 2023

TIME

 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EDT

COST

FREE

About Our Facilitators

Ken Mackenzie is a set, lighting and costume designer based between Saskatoon, SK and Toronto ON. He has been a resident artist at Soulpepper Theatre Company since 2011 and has occasionally found himself onstage as an actor there. Ken is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Saskatchewan in the department of Drama and has been the President of the Associated Designers of Canada.

Edward T. Morris is a set and projection designer and sustainability advocate. Along with Elizabeth Mak, Lauran Gaston, Sandra Goldmark and Michael Banta he’s a co-author of the Sustainable Production Toolkit. Edward is a member of United Scenic Artists Local #829, Wingspace Theatrical Design, and United Auto Workers local 8092. He teaches design and dramaturgy at The New School in New York City. He has long been a participant in initiatives by the Broadway Green Alliance and incorporates sustainable practices into most of his designs. www.edwardtmorris.com

Ian Garrett is a designer, producer, educator, and researcher in the field of sustainability in arts and culture. He is producer for Toasterlab, a mixed reality performance collective. He is the director of the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts and Associate Professor of Ecological Design for Performance at York University, where he is Graduate Program Director for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies. He serves on the board of the ADC and IATSE ADC659 as a proud founding member and labour advocate for emerging designers. He maintains a design practice focused on ecology, accessible technologies and scenography. ianpgarrett.com / toasterlab.com / sustainablepractice.org

Lauren Gaston is a costume designer and artisan working in theater and TV. Some of her recent and current credits include working as the head Craftsperson/Milliner on season 1 of Fallout, assistant designing at The Metropolitan Opera and serving on the Steering Committee of the Broadway Green Alliance. She is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local #829 and Theatrical Wardrobe Union Local 764 IATSE.

Michelle Tracey is a scenographer based in Tkaronto working mostly in theatre and opera. She is a founding member of Triga Creative, a collective of designers committed to exploring ecoscenography and sustainable working models. Michelle is also a trained wardrobe technician and has constructed costumes for numerous professional productions. www.michelletraceydesign.com

Virtual Book Launch – the future is not fixed

The Arts & Climate Initiative and the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts invite you to the virtual launch of The Future Is Not Fixed: Short Plays Envisioning a Green New Deal. Featuring the 50 plays written for our Climate Change Theatre Action 2021 festival, and a series of essays, this anthology is our latest achievement towards telling the many stories of the climate crisis in a way that empowers all of us.

Saturday, April 15
2 pm PT / 5 pm ET
Online


Come to hear readings of a few plays, participate in a conversation with playwrights, and for a chance to win your own signed copy of the book! Hosted by Chantal Bilodeau, Ian Garrett, and Julia Levine.

This event is free but you must reserve your spot in advance in order to receive the Zoom link. Your registration automatically enters you into the raffle.

RSVP NOW

This anthology is a useful tool for teachers and professors, a source of inspiration for writers, actors, and theatremakers, and the perfect stepping stone for anyone looking to engage their family and friends in conversation about the climate crisis.

BUY THE BOOK

Also available from your domestic Amazon store.

Artist Report: Aphra Shemza

We are thrilled to share with you this very first Artist Report, which focuses on the work of UK-based multimedia artist Aphra Shemza. A natural extension of the CSPA’s exploration of sustainability and the arts in our publication the Quarterly, Artist Reports focus on a single artist and provide an in-depth look at their practice and the way they engage with sustainability.

For more information and to purchase: https://www.lulu.com/shop/aphra-shemza-and-catherine-baxendale-and-chantal-bilodeau/artist-report-aphra-shemza/paperback/product-8p8vjd.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Conscient Podcast: Interview in The Charlatan Newspaper (March 3, 2023)

Combining sound and art, local podcast producer and retired music composer Claude Schryer is reinventing the podcast medium with the fourth season of his climate-themed podcast, conscient.

In the podcast’s new season, titled “Sounding Modernity,” Schryer reflects on sounds in his everyday life. From the dripping of his tap to the heating system in his house, he explores various sounds in relation to their impact on climate change while addressing feelings of climate anxiety approximately 40 per cent of Canadians experience daily.

“I call it a personal learning journey,” he said. “I’ve decided to learn out loud and to use the medium of podcast to reach people.”

READ MORE

The post Interview in The Charlatan Newspaper (March 3, 2023) appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

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About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.

season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity

About

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation :

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/interview-in-the-charlatan-newspaper-march-3-2023/

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Creative Climate Leadership Canada (online) 2023: Participants Announced

We are pleased to share the full applicants list of who will be joining us for our Creative Climate Leadership (CCL) programme in Canada, online.

The 4-month online programme is for arts and cultural professionals who want to take a lead on climate change, adapted from the CCL week-long residential course.

What is Creative Climate Leadership?

The CSPA (Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts) and Julie’s Bicycle (JB) have partnered up to host a second edition of the CCL programme in Canada, this time online, with the support of theCanada Council for the Arts.

CCL is an international training and transformation programme to empower artists and cultural professionals to take action on the climate and ecological crisis with impact, creativity, and resilience.

The programme will take place remotely from February to May. This year’s candidates work in areas as varied as photography, music, visual art, activism, research and curation.


Creative Climate Leadership Canada 2023 (online) – Full List of Participants

Alejandra Nuñez

she/they

Alejandra Nuñez is a vocalist, percussionist and composer.

Born in Santiago Chile, Alejandra has lived and worked as a musician in Canada and the United States, she has performed in Europe as well as North and Central America. Alejandra has performed with The Toronto Dance Theatre and written scores for various plays, including Princes Pocahontas and the Blue Spots by Monique Mojica, and many more.


Allison O’Connor

she/her/elle

Allison O’Connor is a Franco-Ontarian multidisciplinary visual artist and art administrator working at the intersection of ecology and public art.

She is the co-creator of internationally touring artworks entitled Trophy as well as a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa.


Alyssa Kostello

she/her

Alyssa was born and raised in a small town in North Eastern Ontario.

She is a graduate of the Acting for Stage and Screen program at Capilano University and has taken multiple courses and programs around Sustainability Leadership including Climate Reality Training and IMPACT Sustainability Leadership Training. For 5 years she was Artistic Director of NOW! Theatre, and is a former member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.


Amy Ash

she/they

Amy Ash is a queer, white-settler interdisciplinary artist engaged with collective care through processes of shared meaning-making.

Amy’s work traces connectivity through the intersections and overlaps between memory, learning, and wonder, to incite curiosity and kindle empathy.


April Marie Glaicar

she/her

April Glaicar is a circumpolar photographer and artist whose work has a strong connection to the northern world and Arctic conservation while embracing traditional knowledge and cultures.

In November of 2022, April participated as the Expedition Artist-In-Residence and co-lead of arts programming for the Sea Women Expeditions’ snorkel research project – while observing Orca and Humpback Whales north of the Arctic Circle in the Norwegian Sea.


Bailee Higgins

she/her

Bailee Higgins is a Unama’ki (Cape Breton, NS) based settler, emerging artist, educator and researcher with a focus on community-based art education.

Bailee is passionate about fostering thoughtful community building through creative practice. She recently completed her Master of Arts in Art Education from NSCAD University and holds a BFA from Mount Allison University.


D’Andrea Bowie

she/her

D’Andrea Bowie is an artist living and working in the rural outskirts of Toronto, and a current MFA candidate at York University.

She has held solo exhibitions at Station Gallery in Whitby and Central Art Garage in Ottawa, most recently she is the recipient of a SSHRC research grant.


Diego Narváez

he/him

Diego Narvaez is a Mexican visual artist living and working in the unceded territories of the T’sou-ke Nation, Vancouver Island, BC.

Through his paintings, he creates metaphors so we can question our relationship with the environment. From city issues to fragile and faraway environments such as Antarctica and Iceland, he creates sublime landscapes of an ever-changing world.


Dominic Lloyd

he/him

Originally from the Yukon Territory, Dominic grew up working and volunteering in the arts.

He was Artistic Director of the Dawson City Music Festival for 6 years before moving to Winnipeg to work at the West End Cultural Centre, where he was Artistic Director until 2009 when he joined the Winnipeg Arts Council.


Emily McKibbon

she/her

Emily McKibbon is Head of Exhibitions and Collections at Art Windsor-Essex.

She has worked in curatorial, collections and research capacities with the MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie; George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York; Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; The Image Centre, Toronto; Seneca College, Toronto; and the University of Guelph.


Hayley Roulstone

she/her

Hayley is an environmental activist and passionate about saying ‘yes’ at every opportunity to learn more about tackling the climate crisis.

Hayley’s Caymanian and First Nations cultures are disappearing in exchange for mass production and the expansion of global elites. She aims to challenge herself more and use her creative talents to bring attention to the climate issues that the people of her cultures face.


Jane Gabriels

she/they

Jane Gabriels, Ph.D. supports artists and other non-profits as Executive Director, Dance West Network (based in Vancouver).

Jane’s dissertation (Concordia University, Montréal) focused on artists, creative processes, curation, and non-profits in the Bronx, NY, her professional and artistic home for over 20 years.


Julie Fossitt

she/her

Julie is a passionate advocate for access to arts, culture and heritage.

She has held marketing positions at the National Arts Centre, the Victoria Symphony and is currently the Manager, Marketing and Revenue Development for the City of Kingston.


Kate Declerck

she/her/elle

Kate Declerck, of British and Belgian ancestry, currently lives and works on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. Kate is a Program Officer with the Canada Council for the Arts.


Kim Fry

she/her

Kim is a co-founder, board member and coordinator for Music Declares Emergency Canada.

She has spent over a decade as an activist and environmental educator/naturalist working for a number of environmental organizations after doing two degrees in Environmental Studies at York University.


Lara Aysal

she/her

Lara is a climate justice and human rights activist, performance artist and facilitator of community-oriented projects.

She has collaborated with communities across borders and facilitated research projects in development and conflict settings with refugees, prisoners, minorities and Indigenous communities.


Luciana Erregue

she/her

Luciana Erregue is a cultural worker, writer, editor, and publisher, owner of Laberinto Press, dedicated to lifting up hyphened Canadian voices in literature.

Luciana is a Banff Centre Literary Arts program alumni, and Edmonton Arts Council artist in residence. Laberinto Press has won the 2022 BPAA Award for Best Emerging Publisher.


Marian Wihak

she/her

Marian Wihak is a multi-award winning Production Designer.

She is active in numerous sustainability initiatives within the film industry (DGC National Sustainability and Climate Action Committee, Ontario Green Screens, GreenSpark Group Round Table, and the Sustainable Production Forum).


Marta Keller-Hernandez

she/her

Marta is Managing Director at Mural Routes and is the co-founder of Paralia Newcomer Arts Network.

Originally from Spain, Marta holds Degrees in Tourism and Humanities, a Masters in Social Media Marketing from the University of Alicante (Spain), and a Graduate Certificate in Culture & Heritage Site Management from Centennial College (Canada).


Sandra Lamouche

she/her

Sandra Lamouche is a member of the Bigstone Cree Nation in Alberta, living and married in Blackfoot territory.

She has an M.A. on Indigenous dance and well-being. She is a champion hoop dancer, award winning educational leader, two-time TEDx speaker, writer and researcher.


seeley quest

sie/hir

seeley quest is a trans disabled environmentalist from the US working in literary and body-based composition, curation and facilitation.

Sie landed 2017, in Montreal and 2022 in Halifax, after presenting in the San Francisco Bay Area 2001-14 and touring the US. Hir play “Crooked” is in At the Intersection of Disability and Drama, and first game narrative was in Canada’s National AccessAbility Week 2020.


Shumaila Hemani

she/her

Shumaila Hemani, Ph.D. is an Alberta-based singer-songwriter, acousmatic composer and community-engaged artist addressing climate challenges with expressive arts sculpting with sounds of the environment and addressing the climate crisis in the world.

The Cultural Diversity Award winner released her debut album, Mannat (2022) which was applauded as “powerful” in evoking a spirit of perseverance in supporting victims of climate disaster in Pakistan and featured on CBC’s What on Earth, Edmonton Journal, and Calgary Herald.


Terri Hron

she/her

Terri Hron is a musician, a performer, a multimedia artist and is Executive Director of the Canadian New Music Network.

Her work explores and questions historical performance practice, field recording, invented ceramic instruments and videoscores. She practices and researches collaboration and scoring.

DOWNLOAD FULL PARTICIPANT BIOS


The Aims of the Programme

Creative Climate Leadership will:

  • Explore the role of culture and creativity in responding to climate change and environmental challenges;
  • Bring together a range of expert guest speakers to share case studies, research, approaches and practical solutions for environmental sustainability in the cultural sector;
  • Enable each participant to develop their leadership and ideas;
  • Prepare participants to apply their learning and new skills when they return to their work, and support ongoing learning and exchange through an alumni network.
  • CCL recognises the unique role of culture to influence new ways of being, doing and thinking, and supports creative professionals to apply these abilities to the climate challenge through a programme of events, training programmes and policy labs.

Sustainable Theatre: Theory, Context, Practice (by Iphigenia Taxopoulou)

How does the world of theatre and the performing arts intersect with the climate and environmental crisis? This timely book is the first comprehensive account of the sector’s response to the defining issue of our time.

The book documents a sector in transition and presents theatre professionals, practitioners and organizations with a synthesis of information, knowledge and expertise to guide them to their own endorsement of sustainable thinking and practice. It is illustrated with inspiring case studies and interviews, from London’s National Theatre, to Sydney Theatre Company, to the Göteborg Opera and the American Repertory Theatre. These foreground the work of pioneering institutions and individual practitioners whose artistic ingenuity, creative activism and sense of public mission have given shape, content and purpose to what we can now call ‘sustainable theatre’.

Spanning almost three decades, the book approaches the topic from multiple angles and through an international perspective, recording how climate and environmental concerns have been expressed in cultural policy, arts leadership and organizational ethics; in the greening of infrastructure and daily operations; in the individual and institutional practice of sustainable theatre-making; in performing arts education; and in touring practices and international collaboration. It investigates, too, how the climate crisis influences theatre as a story-teller – on stage and beyond.

Written by a leading expert in the field of culture and environmental sustainability and distilling many years of research and hands-on experience, Sustainable Theatre: Theory, Context, Practice is intended to be relevant and useful to professionals involved in the theatre and performing arts sector in many different capacities: from policy-makers, arts leaders and managers to administrators, technicians, artists, scholars and educators.

For more information and to preorder the book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/sustainable-theatre-theory-context-practice-9781350215702/

CATR: Re-Imagining the Future

You are invited to Re-Imagining the Future: a teach-in on fostering Environmental Stewardship in Theatre and Performance Education hosted by the CATR Working Group: Environmental Stewardship in Theatre and Performance Education. This online event will take place March 18th at 1pm – 4pm CST. Experts will present on sustainability in post-secondary education and share practical tools rooted in environmental activism to bring back to your theatres and classrooms. We’ll also actively explore how to ecologize your syllabus.

Re-Imagining the Future is a teach-in on fostering environmental stewardship in theatre and performance education, conceived of, and hosted by, the Environmental Stewardship Working Group of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR).

Our event partners are: the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA), the Canadian Green Alliance (CGA), Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency (SCALE), and the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT).

The first 90 minutes will consist of presentations, followed by break-out rooms that support the integration of ecological principles into existing curriculum.

Please register in advance and identify your syllabus area: design, theatre history, theory/analysis, production, performance/acting, directing, or new play creation.

If you have any questions, please reach out to CATR Environmental Working Group Co-Leaders Hope McIntyre (U Winnipeg) h.mcintyre@uwinnipeg.ca and/or Kimberly Richards (UBC) kricha05@mail.ubc.ca.