For the entire month of April, as part of the City’s Celebrate 27 (celebrating everyone’s right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. – UN Declaration of Human Rights), Jumblies will be enlivening and inhabiting the Cedar Ridge Gallery and grounds with open activities building towards our December 2011 Scarborough adaptation of The Winter’s Tale. Come and help make props, masks, puppets, costumes; sample different types of performance; help build a collective image of the neighbouhood – real and imagined; and enjoy special performances and seminars (see below for more info. on these).

For a detailed program of all our April offerings, please contact us at info@jumbliestheatre.org.

For more information about Celebrate 27 go to: http://www.toronto.ca/culture/arts-services/celebrate27/guide.htm.

7:00 – 9:00 PM, Evening refreshments, PWYC Admission

at Cedar Ridge Creative Centre & Gallery, 225 Confederation Drive, Scarborough, Contact us for directions by car or TTC, and for info. about shuttle pick-ups from Kennedy Subway

APRIL 7 - Poetry by Elana Wolff & Evalyn Parry

7:00 – 9:00 PM, Evening refreshments, PWYC Admission

Elana Wolff has taught English as a Second Language at York University and at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She currently divides her time between writing, editing, and facilitating therapeutic community art. Elana’s poems have appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada, the US, and the UK and her third collection, You Speak to Me in Trees (Guernica, 2006) was awarded the 2008 F.G. Bressani Prize for Poetry. Her most recent book, Implicate Me (Guernica, 2010), is a collection of short essays on individual poems by Toronto-area poets; a new poetry collection is forthcoming this fall. 

Evalyn Parry is an award-winning spoken word artist, songwriter and theatrical creator based in Toronto. From 19th century cycling heroines to 21st century sailors; from “feminine protection” to bottled water to the quest for the Northwest Passage, evalyn’s outspoken creations hold out a powerful vision of social and personal change, while her irreverent wit holds nothing sacred.  Accompanying herself on guitar, water bottle, shruti box and loop pedals, parry shoots from the hip and aims for the heart.  Fierce, funny, poignant and provocative, she has been charming audiences at storytelling, poetry, music and theatre festivals from coast to coast of North America.  Her work has been widely broadcast and anthologized; she has released three CD’s, written and produced five plays, and her latest performance project SPIN (starring The Bicycle as Muse, Musical Instrument, and Agent of Social Change) premiered at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto in 2011, and will be touring over the coming year.

APRIL 21 - Storytelling by Sharada Eswar & Sean Frey

Sharada Eswar hosted her first Children’s Program on All India Radio when she was 11. Since then her love for words has found expression in diverse ways. A trained Indian classical musician (Carnatic School), she was part of the team representing India at the India Abroad show in Paris and New York. She was also one of the three chosen by the Centres Culturels des Lions Clubs de Paris to present Indian culture in Normandy, France. Since then, Sharada has been performing and teaching in Toronto and internationally, drawing on her South Asian ancestry and heritage. Recently she curated and hosted Kootir, South Asian Storytelling, at the Toronto Festival of Storytelling and performed at the Festival of Oral Literature. Sharada will tell part of her new piece, Aandal: Aandal is an 8th century Tamil saint and one of the twelve Alvars (saints) and the only woman Alvar of Vaishnavism.

Sean Frey is a puppeteer, designer, instillation artist and community-based theatre artist. Sean has worked with Fixtpoint and Ahuri Theatre as a designer and performer, at Spiral Garden as a mask and puppet artist, and extensively with Jumblies Theatre  (as a Metcalf Foundation intern in 2008, and from 2009 until the present, as a Lead Artist for Jumblies’ Scarborough Residency) as well as cultivating his own artistic practice and independent projects. In 2008, he was awarded a year-long internship grant with Jumblies from the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation. He was also an artist/participant in Harrel Fletcher’s collaborative art project “Born Out of Pleasure” at the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. In 2009, he worked with shadow theatre and projections artist Clea Minaker and musician Leslie Feist on “The Living Lantern” presented at Casteliers Puppet Festival. Sean’s current artistic interests lead him into exploring the intersection of performance and visual arts, including projections, film, light and shadow.

Part of CELEBRATE 27 at Cedar Ridge

SATURDAY APRIL 16th

Martin van de Ven & Camp Naivelt youth, photo: M. Otto

Co-produced with Raucous Caucus

at Cedar Ridge Creative Centre & Gallery – 225 Confederation Drive, Scarborough – Contact us for directions, & shuttle pick-up at Kennedy subway  ($6 return)

• 1:00 – 5:00 – workshops & presentations
• 5:00 – 7:00 –  dinner (reservations required) & informal sharing
• 7:00 – 9:00 – concert showcase

Guest presenters include: Juliet Palmer, Martin van de Ven, Adam Scime, Julia Churchill, Eric Schwindt and the Parkdale Singers.

Admission: afternoon only: $20; dinner: $10; evening: $15; full program: $40 Space is limited. Advance registration is required.

Delve into music and sound art in community-engaged arts and performance – what has been done, what might be done, new ideas and collaborative approaches, how to let untrained participants into your composition process, while still ending up with an exciting musical outcome for the composer and audience. The day will include presentations, panels, discussions, audio-video samples and mini musical/sound explorations; and an evening showcase. Activities will also connect to Jumblies’ East Scarborough residency and exploration of themes, imagery and text from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.

Presenters will include: Juliet Palmer, (composer and interdisciplinary artist who has composed with sewing machines and boxers), Wende Bartley (composer and sound artist – creator of live and electro-acoustical score for Jumblies Once A Shoreline in 2004), Martin van de Ven (Clarinetist, music educator, composer and Klezmer music expert), Eric Schwindt (composer, community artist, rock musician and founding director of the Parkdale Singers), Adam Scime (composition graduate student at U.ofT.’s Faculty of Music), Chris Wilson (multi-faceted musician, music creator and ethnomusicologist, who has worked over the years with several Raucous Caucus companies), Julia Churchill (singer-songwriter and Jumblies’ 2011 Metcalf Intern). Other music creators are invited to bring samples of community-engaged work to share over the dinner break (please let us know if interested).

Raucous Caucus is Jumblies, Clay&Paper, Shadowland and Puppetmongers Theatre. This is one in a series of 4 professional development gatherings funded by the OAC Arts Education Department.

For info. & Reservations contact: info@jumbliestheatre.org or 416 834 4460

Part of CELEBRATE 27 at Cedar Ridge

Thursday March 24, 2011 -  Fixt Point Studio, 1550 Queen St. West

6:30PM: arrivals & refreshments; 7:00PM: presentation; 8:30-9:00PM: informal discussion

Guest Presenter: Laura Hale

PWYC Admission, Light Refresments, Cash bar

Laura Hale is a visual artist from Saskatchewan who has come to work with Jumblies Theatre for a year, partly through a professional development grant from the Saskatchewan Arts Board. Laura has worked and collaborated with a variety of diverse communities, groups and individuals through the Saskatchewan Arts Board Artist in Residence Program. Her choice of media is diverse and depends on what she creates in partnership with the people she works with in a given community. She will present and discuss her work and experience with artist residencies in Saskatchewan communities.

Buena Vista Winter Festival Mosaic Fish Project, 2011

On March 1st, Jumblies held a Winter Feast at 4205 Lawrence Avenue East to mark the end of our winter arts activities in Scarborough. The feast was attended by about 80 people: participants, partners, artists and a visiting contingent from MABELLEarts. The cooks were Yo Utano, Marianne Alas and AGreenCulture from the East Scarborough Storefront. The entire meal was a choreographed, artistic experiment, lead by Sean Frey and Beth Helmers, with special roles – conveyed by colour-coded snow-flakes – for all. Musicians were Chris Bartosch, Steve Cooper, Eli Howard, Veronica Johnny, Julia Churchill, Sharada Eswar, Shifra Cooper, with songs by Tamil seniors and a group of young children from our Tuesday drop-in. Thanks to all who helped out and took part. Our Scarborough arts activities will resume again in April, as part of the City’s Celebrate 27 Month. A schedule of activities will be posted soon.

photo by: Katherine Fleitas

On Feb. 12th, MABELLEarts presented A Light In Midwinter by MABELLEarts. This was a glorious event, bringing together artists, people, partners and projects from across the city. It provided a wonderful first outing for our Scarborough participants to meet the another community arts project. Parading down Dundas West with puppets, banners and lanterns, music, Faduma Nkruma singing from the top of the hill at Montgomery’s Inn, freshly baked bread, hearty soup, a delightful video by Sean Frey and Leah Houston, many old and new friends of all ages, dancing – couldn’t be better. Here’s to Leah Houston for her vision, courage and energy and to everyone at MABELLEarts for making it happen and for including us all.

photo by: Katherine Fleitas

From March 3 to 9, Jumblies Artistic Director, Ruth Howard, was at Nipissing First Nation,  collaborating with Aanmitaagzi Storymakers to adapt and deliver Jumblies’ 6 day intensive workshop, Arts For All Essentials. The Aanmitaagzi artists and hosts were Penny Couchie and Sid Bobb (Co-Artistic Directors), Sherry Guppy, Carol Guppy and Bonnie Couchie. Also co-facilitating the whole workshop was Lisa Marie DiLiberto (Jumbllies Associate Artist and Fixt Point Artistic Director) Other guest presenters were Laurie McGauley from Sudbury, June Twain from Bear Island and Toronto composer Juliet Palmer. Also attending the workshop were 8 other artists and residents from Nipissing First Nation, North Bay and Ottawa.The venue was the beautiful new Big Medicine Studio. A wonderful time was had by all. Thanks to the Ontario Arts Council (Multi-Arts) and the Canada Council For the Arts (Flying Eagle Program) for supporting this initiative.