RISER Project 2020 Show Announcements
First up for #RISER20 we’ve got Theatre Nidāna‘s “Gods Like Us”, co-created by Vince Deiulis and Zazu Oke, directed by Ben-Eben Kwabena Tawiah Mfoafo-M’Carthy. Set in 1917, during the Great War, a Nigerian farmer’s morality is challenged when a Canadian army recruiter asks him to join the Allied Force to push back the German advance in East Africa. An allegory interwoven with traditional Nigerian songs and folklore, “Gods Like Us” urges audiences to question what they know about this truly global conflict. (Photo by Kenny Wong)
Next is Nautanki Bazaar’s “An IMM-Permanent Resident”, co-created by Neha Poduval and Himanshu Sitlani, directed by Miquelon Rodriguez. This two-hander comedy uses Bollywood elements to tell the “adventures” of Himanshu and Neha in obtaining Permanent Residency status, putting their dreams on pause to navigate the mundane and tiresome bureaucracy of Canadian immigration. (Photo by Siddharth Kumar)
Opening the second half is Political Movement‘s “heart2heart”, created by Aria Evans. Weaving together a series of six unscripted duets, “heart2heart” is a compassionate dance theatre work that questions how we seek to build relationships across difference, across sameness, and across generation. Featuring true stories of 12 movement-based artists from Toronto’s dance and theatre community, “heart2heart” seeks to blur the line between public and personal. (Photo by Aria Evans)
Closing out RISER 2020 is Tiny Bear Jaws‘ “The Worst Thing I Could Be (Is Happy)”, co-created by Elena Eli Belyea, Ira Doré, Tori Morrison and Philip Nozuka, directed by Tanya Rintoul. “The Worst Thing I Could Be (Is Happy)” is an interdisciplinary, devised performance that investigates the subjects of technology, privilege, queerness, discomfort, and grief through confessions, choreography, memes, live-streams, eulogies, home videos, online shopping, and more. Through a variety of onstage experiments, the creators confide and lambast their collective objective to be happy, despite their awareness of the pursuit’s problematic consequences and futility. (Photo by Dahlia Katz Photography)
Learn more about RISER Project and the 2020 line-up at http://www.theatrewhynot.org/project/riser-project-2020/
