In 2022, Odyssey is supporting 9 artists and collectives working in the field of physical theatre arts, which includes: mask, clown, Commedia dell’Arte, circus arts, puppetry, and dance-theatre, through the Ontario Arts Council’s Recommender Grant .
Starting Tuesday, April 5th, we will be profiling an artist and their project once a week, showcasing these recipients, so keep an eye out on this page!
Vincent Leblanc-Beaudoin, a theatre artist working in fields of physical and social issue-based theatre, will be continuing to develop his new play, Os, through a workshop with actors, and an interdisciplinary team of puppeteer/movement director, projection designer, and percussionist. Os will be a tragicomedy revolving around 5 skeletons as they interact while grappling with their own mortality.
Vincent Leblanc-Beaudoin
Van Gogh. Head of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette. 1886, oil on canvas. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
Neta J. Rose is a Toronto-based painter, poet, theatre creator and veteran Odyssey actor. They will be undertaking a collaborative creation period with Ottawa-based South African artist and storyteller Jacqui Du Toit, to develop Duckling: Neta’s “non-identity-play identity play”, about coming out as non-binary in their 30s. With Duckling, Neta hopes to create a show that combines poetry, story, clown, and mixed media, resulting in a “warm and colourful gift” for both audience and performer.
Neta J. Rose
Neta Rose, Multimedia Still
Alix Sideris, is a movement director, physical performer, writer, director, and intimacy professional. A veteran Odyssey actor, Alix will conduct the first stage of development for her new physical creation project, Ants through intensive research into ant culture. With Ants, Alix hopes to conduct an investigation and interpretation of the structure of an ant colony and its hierarchy, to create a performance that considers the human concept, ‘community’.
Alix Sideris
Sanskruti Marathe, a trained Bharatnatyam and Kathak dancer, and actor/writer/educator from Brampton, will be completing the first draft of their solo show, At the end of Kaliyuga, through a devised process including Bharatnatyam Dance with the guidance of their dance guru. In At the end of Kaliyuga, Sanskruti explores the themes of destruction vs. rebirth, through performance and the stories of Hindu myth.
Sanskruti Marathe
Sanskruti Marathe
Eish Van Wieren and Jay Northcott– The Parasite
Toronto-based performance collective, Eish Van Wieren and Jay Northcott, will be taking their mask and puppet-based creation, The Parasite to the next stage of development through refinement and new and developed mediums. The Parasite is a “a mask and puppet based, alien-esque vapour-wave new theatrical work”, exploring procreation through the lens of two queer trans nonbinary artists asking “what are the implications of choosing to have or not have children as queer folks are and how we strive towards new familial models?”.
Eish Van Wieren, Jay Northcott
Chandel Gambles, a physical theatre performer from Temiskaming Shores and veteran Odyssey actor, will be developing an initial script for her new one-actor masked theatre touring show, That kind of Girl, to work with rural and remote youth. That kind of Girl exhibits a tale of female empowerment via a teenage girl’s experience as she is taken over by women of various tragic tales.
Chandel Gambles
Hoquet/Hiccup, an ad-hoc collective initiated by France Huot and Jenny Hazelton of Sudbury will be developing their new creation, Unravel, through experimentation of physical exercises, improvisation, object manipulation, and other mediums. Through devising Unravel, Huot and Hazelton will explore the effects of toxic work environments on one’s mental and physical well-being, particularly for women, and how this can be changed.
France Huot
Jenny Hazelton7
Maryse Fernandes, a physical theatre artist and writer from Ottawa and veteran Odyssey actor, will develop their new project, Happy To Be Here by producing a live creation process, resulting in a scripted work interspersed with clown. With Happy To Be Here Fernandes is developing an exploration of Canada’s current mental health industry and the experience of its patients, incorporating clown, and verbatim testimonies.
Maryse Fernandes
Viktorija Kovac, a theatre director from Waterloo, will be digitizing Cosmic Fishing Theatre’s in-development project, DiSCoVeR through a 5-day collaborative workshop. With DiSCoVeR, Kovac looks to create an immersive experience meant to engage with a very young audience (ages 1-6) and their caregivers using puppetry and other object animation, and also offer an accessible experience through a covid-safe digital lens.
Viktorija Kovac
Nada Abusaleh, Kate Kamo McHugh, Ahmad Meree
