For Immediate Release: May 19, 2021
Theatre Projects Manitoba is delighted to share with our community programming for our 30th Anniversary Season; Online and On the Land 2021 featuring Chautauqua: The Interlake Trail and End of the West Collective. All performances and events taking place from June through November 2021.
“The pause on live performance has given us a period of incubation and our focus on individual artists and collectives has enabled us to support our community financially and artistically as we explore new models of creation.
This season has unfolded not on stage, but in collaboration and art making, bringing new artists into the company’s circle and developing original work. We are inspired to work with End of the West and to see our stage take shape on new horizons- literally outdoors on Manitoban landscapes.”
-Artistic Director, Ardith Boxall
We launch the season with Chautauqua: The Interlake Trail, the world premiere of 10 new works to be released between June and September 2021, all inspired by the land and waterways of Manitoba’s Interlake Region.
Chautauqua: The Interlake Trail is a live/virtual hybrid of art offerings to share with Interlake folks and all Manitobans. This is our second Chautauqua project- back In 2018, our inaugural Chautauqua included a month of touring and free live programming in the Interlake and was awarded Manitoba Arts Council’s Connecting Creative Communities Prize. Fast forward two seasons, and public health restrictions on live performance and in person gathering could not quash our plans for a second Chautauqua!
Instead we’ve dug deeper, commissioning artists from across disciplines who have spent the year creating and exploring community engaged art practices. The resulting festival, Chautauqua: The Interlake Trail, includes dance, music, theatre, visual art, storytelling, VR, skateboarding, film, and audio installations that invite viewers to join online, in person, through soundwaves, art installations, and as collaborators.
Chautauqua: The Interlake Trail is our foray into creating theatre with rural communities. Spanning generations and sparking conversations between artists and communities, rural and urban, Indigenous and settler, seniors and students, this touring festival involves everyone in the art making.
“Through the Chautauqua we understand our purpose as artists in new ways- realizing our value isn’t found only on large stages, but in storytelling and relationship building. The Chautauqua allows us to flourish as artists through intimate art making, the exchange of stories and putting our imaginations to work for new communities.”
-Artistic Producer and Chautauqua architect Andraea Sartison
Brand new works premiering for Chautauqua: The Interlake Trail
*These projects will all be available through digital platforms – podcasts, live streaming, broadcast and recordings which will be shared throughout the summer and autumn. All details and access points for individual projects can be found on our website as they are available. Pop up performances are being planned for summer and fall in both Interlake and Winnipeg communities
i carry your heart is an outdoor experience created in a creative partnership between eight Interlake citizens and Claire Thérèse Friesen, culminating in a large-scale performance installation that audiences experience promenade style. The project will be available as an audio tour in June, and as a film later in the summer, with the full live realization slated for fall.
Songs of an Inland Sea. Singer Songwriter Daniel Jordan aka Jonny Moonbeam of Red Moon Road, brings the history of the Interlake alive with a five song EP release on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. New music videos featuring on location recording (at the Hecla lighthouse, for example) will be released between June and August. Pop up concerts later this summer, followed by fall dates in the Interlake.
Joseph Pilapal of the Travelling Sign Painters installs four new murals in the Interlake, beginning this June, in Selkirk. Designed and painted in collaboration with schools and community groups, watch for three more murals this fall in St. Laurent, Arborg and Riverton.
AltspaceVR Interlake Secrets Gallery. Hañwakañ Blaikie Whitecloud premieres a virtual Interlake museum of Chautauqua content, and other fancies. Online opening party set for June 24th via AltspaceVR, with a tour of the Interlake’s Skateparks and skate jams underscored by Boogey the Beat set for August/September.
A Foley Full Community Radio Series. Marsha Rasmussen Knight leads an epic investigation of radio drama- collaborating with Winnipeg playwright Jo McDonald to bring to life stories of the Interlake region to be performed by its citizens both on radio, online and in person.
My Trail Up Number 6, created and performed by Ian Ross as Joe From Winnipeg. Stories will be recorded for summer listening and live performances in the fall.
Pathways of Home: A Reflection of Selkirk is a performative installation using glass and clay to contemplate movement in the Selkirk area before the city came to be by RBC Emerging Artist Shayna Pollock.
Other RBC Emerging artists Tanner Manson(Walk & Talk Theatre), Emily Solstice Tait(dancer and devised creator) and Joshua Banman(TPM’s digital director) collaborate with community members via cuisine, dance and poetry, monologues and love letters with their pieces in development throughout June and premiering thereafter.
All Chautauqua projects and updates are found here.
Chautauqua Live! Season Launch: Wednesday, June 23rd & Friday, June 25th
Part kitchen party, part salon, Chautauqua Live! is a streamed cabaret performance where viewers will experience the vast sound, feel and artistry of the Interlake as Chautauqua artists and community members share excerpts of their artistic projects. A glorious Chautauqua amuse bouche…full smorgasbord to come when we go live…really live!
Tune in for free on TPM’s facebook and youtube platforms at 7pm nightly.
AltSpaceVR Opening, Thursday June 24th
Visit theatreprojectsmanitoba.ca or sign up for our newsletter for a direct link closer to the date!
TPM’s return to indoor live theatre is anticipated November 2021 with the World Premiere of End of the West Collective!
One ancient campfire story told through three different expressions, developed through three different personal lenses, individual histories and arts practices.
End of the West Collective is: Architect David Thompson, Indian classical dancer Avinash Muralidharan Pillai Saralakumari, designer Scott Henderson and theatre artist Jacquline Loewen
This multi disciplinary collective has been hard at work creating an immersive theatrical experience for one. The collaboration was ignited when these neighbours would gather in a backyard, safely, and tell stories around a fire; the ancient stories of Myth, where a myth is not a lie but a story that is Truer than truth.
The story they have crafted to share with TPM’s audience is of the god Janus: the two faced powerful -yet limited- deity of doorways. In a cave-like workshop, Destiny will bring a god and a human together, though they remain obscured from each other’s sight by the mortal veil. Creating an opening for them to truly see each other will require a magic outside of either of their creation.
A powerfully intimate performance, End of the West’s work is creating three tellings of this story, integrating puppets, masked dancers, and film, each telling created expressly for a single audience member to experience at a time.
A sneak peek of End of the West’s work in progress, artistic bios and insights into their creation process can be found on the Theatre Projects Manitoba website.
