We would like to wish everyone the happiest of Holidays and the very best for a New Year filled with peace and joy, happiness and good health and every other good wish for YOU, our fantastic friends!

2018 was an amazing year with the World Premiere of  Patrick Friesen’s A Short History of Crazy Bone, the first ever Interlake Chautauqua Tour and Stephen Massicotte’s beautiful drama, Mary’s Wedding!

A few special nods to our community:

We congratulate Patrick Friesen on his Evie Award for Best New Work and celebrate the entire team led by director Andraea Sartison, choreographer Tanja Woloshen and  the incomparable Tracey Nepinak, as Crazy Bone.

The Interlake Chautauqua Fundraiser on May 3rd launched us up Highways 6, 7 and 8 with The Interlake Chautauqua Tour! Thank you to all our community partners for opening their hearts and homes to our merry band of artists! We look forward to sharing more from our adventures at our April  30th Salon -Save the Date!

The culmination of 18 months of work, the Chautauqua tour included everything from perogy and vinarterta workshops, a Historical Art Tour through New Iceland, over 150 hours of theatre workshops for children and youth, and three screenings of Andy Blicq’s documentary, A Song for John Ramsay with special guests Scott Nolan and William Prince were held in Riverton and Peguis. Mary’s Wedding was performed in high schools and community halls across the region and Salons were held in greenhouses, bars, halls, and a big boisterous kitchen party rocked the Arborg Legion! Dances for teens and seniors were hosted with the Country Pride band. (PLUS Andraea was 7 months pregnant when she started the tour… we’re happy to have now welcomed the newest member of TPM!)

As the year drew to a close, Grant Guy conducted a sold out Object Theatre Workshop which included visiting artists from Théâtre de la Pire Espèce and a special performance of their show Ubu on the Table. Thanks to our partners at Théâtre Cercle Moliere for making this cultural exchange possible.

Finally, our hearty thanks to the Goodwill Social Club for hosting our Salons. Good cheer and warm hugs to our volunteers for all their enthusiastic help. And a special shout out to Debbie Patterson, Grant Guy, Gislina Patterson, Zorya Arrow and Prairie Fire for partnering on the salon programming in 2018.  Salons in the New Year to be held on January 29th, February 26th and April 30th!

We want to thank you for all of your support and love – we really appreciate each and every one of you! Not to mention, a huge heartfelt thanks to this year’s partners & generous sponsors!

With love,

TPM Staff – Ardith, Andraea, Rea, Ian and Corinne

TPM Board – Clay, Janet, Bill, Carolyn, Ray, Lisa, Justin and Chris!

Photo credit – Dylan Hewlett –  A Short History of Crazy Bone

Linda Beech – Set Design, Itai Erdal – Lighting Design, jaymez – Sound Design, Claire Thérèse Friesen – Costume Design
Ensemble – David Arial, Zorya Arrow, Arne MacPherson, Tracy Penner, Tracey Nepinak

Photo credit – Duncan McNairnay – Mary’s Wedding

Featuring Justin Fry and Sarah Flynn
Set Design by Rebekah A.M. Enns, Costume Design by Joseph Abetria, Lighting Design by Adam Parboosingh, Sound Design by Matthew Waddell, Composition by Scott Nolan

Photo credit –  Chris Sousa – Interlake Chautauqua – Featuring Claire Friesen

We know that sometimes you need a wonderful (and clutter-free!) gift for your favourite hard- to-buy-for person. We think we can help you out: Tickets to Dragonfly, playing March 14-24, 2019! Buy a ticket (or several) to see Dragonfly by Lara Rae – a raw and heartfelt story of a half century long (and counting) gender odyssey.

Not sure which performance they will be attending? No problem! We don’t expect you to be Kreskin and we won’t charge a fee if they need to shift to a different performance date.  Just have them call or email us and we’ll make it work in their calendar!

One size fits all, nut and gluten free, and fast! – can’t go wrong! Plus, giving the gift of great theatre AND supporting your local non-profit theatre makes you look like a star – win-win!

To purchase, click below!

Call us – 204-989-2400 – if you need assistance! Sometimes online purchases prove tricky, and we can also process your request over the phone. Happy Holidays!

November. 5, 2018

4 weeks. 8 communities. A whole new expanded family. This sums up the last month for a group of rag-tag artists in the Interlake. Little did we know how when we set out about how rewarding this experience would be. As our tour wrapped up yesterday in Teulon, we can’t help but feel full: full of love, and full of inspiration.

In previous letters from the road I’ve repeatedly mentioned the theme of family, and though that theme may seem over used here, I feel it sums up the Chautauqua tour perfectly. Whether it was a bright high-school student not wanting us to leave, or an elderly community member asking one of us to dance, or a billet introducing us as “my girl” or “my son” we felt truly at home everywhere we went. The way each community welcomed us in with open minds and open hearts, showed us that art can live anywhere.

Reflecting back on the tour as a whole, the only regret was not being able to do more. At the end of each week we felt we had just begun to crack the shell that was the artistic potential of each community and begin to find our place within it.

When we entered our last week and I could feel tour coming to an end. I had an odd mixture of feelings. As the week progressed, it felt like each day was getting shorter and shorter, and it wasn’t because of daylight savings time.

We clung to each night as we were able to- not ready for the tour to end. Our last night was spent together at the Teulon Hotel playing pool, and dancing with what the bartender called the “special lights” on. You could say we lit up the town, or at least the bar! A local asked us who we were, and never did we feel more like heroes than when we responded, “we’re artists!” and explained to them our mission in their community- make connections, learn local stories, bring theatre and art to the rural and remote locations. We were very proud.

In each community we would learn about local history, and also engage in conversations about the struggles of the present and hopes for the future. This came to life in a new way as we prepared for our final presentation in Teulon- where we hosted an afternoon of performances and activities to help the town brainstorm ideas for its Centennial Celebration next year. We shared stories we dug up from research at the museum and demonstrated ways we thought they could teach this history, while engaging the whole community in making plans and dreams for the next 100 years.

On the drive home I felt a peaceful accomplishment- we had done good.

Today as I sit at home reflecting on the weeks that have recently passed, a few names still ring in my head: Patsy, Joel, Adeline, Merle, Emily, Ray, among many others. These people are what made our time so special. So in the closing moments of the Chautauqua tour I personally want to say thank you to each and every one of those people- and all the community members who supported us.

Each week I’ve ended these letters saying “Until next time, it’s been nice Winnipeg. Talk soon.”, but now that we’re back in Winnipeg for good it feels only right that I should address our other homes. So, it’s been nice staying with you Steep Rock, Eriksdale, Arborg, and Teulon. We will see you soon.

Love,

Chris Sousa and the rest of the TPM team.

Many thanks to our community partners and hosts and our generous sponsors!

Community Sponsor: Teulon

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