Wakefest 2009

ARTISTS

Alexis in Full Bloom - Austria 2007

ALEXIS O’HARA

The androgen, Cimmerian-like, multi-talented, funny, and dubious artist is a fixed star in the Montreal cabaret and avant-noise scene. With pseudo-virtuous verbally, gutturally and technically generated melodies Alexis O’Hara gets tangled up in spontaneous sound and body battles expressing the general absurdities of life. In the form of a living dynamic sound sculpture she embodies wordless stories, a meditation of fear and longing, her voice transformed, multiplied, interfered and alienated by various forms of hi- and lo-technology, the distortion of one’s subjective perspective illustrated through visual projections. Performance poetry, sound art and interactive life art is what O’Hara calls the genres that most closely define her work. Visit Alexis’ website at www.myspace.com/alexisohara.

Photo: Helmut Lackinger

MI CASA's COUNTRIES SHAPED LIKE STARS - HIT OF 2009 OTTAWA FRINGE FESTIVAL

¡Mi Casa!

Artistic co-directors Nick Di Gaetano and Emily Pearlman build theatre from the ground up, creating original works for national and international touring that continue to change and develop through rehearsal and production, working in a fluid manner where the company actively seeks out the creative feedback from other artists and audience.

Blending experience in physically devised work rooted in cabaret, circus and vaudeville with contemporary approaches to interdisciplinary collaboration, ¡MI CASA! creates new work out of disparate vocabularies. The result is an aesthetic fusing of reclaimed traditional forms with post-modern ways of seeing.

Using techniques for performance creation gleaned from such disparate sources as Calgary’s One Yellow Rabbit, Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris, London’s Theatre de Complicité and New York’s SITI Company, physical, vocal and spatial parameters are created in which the company improvises and explores. Throughout their process, play, listening, bad jokes, impulse, wonder and a common love for all things old-timey remain central values. Visit MI CASA!’s website at www.micasatheatre.com.

Franziska Heinze - There are no other kinds

Franziska Heinze

Originally from former East Germany, Franziska is now based in Wakefield, Canada. Franziska’s work has been published, exhibited, criticized and celebrated. For over three years now Franziska has been treating Wakefielders and all to a glimpse of their friends and neighbours in nothing but their skin and their smiles through the NUDES OF WAKEFIELD CALENDAR a local fundraiser for community projects. The black and white images capture the essence of each individual who dares to bare all for charity! Visit Franziska’s website at www.franziskaheinze.com.

Elizabeth Hay

ELIZABETH HAY

Elizabeth Hay was born in Owen Sound, Ontario, the daughter of a high school principal and a painter, and one of four children. When she was fifteen, a year in England opened up her world and set her on the path to becoming a writer. She attended the University of Toronto, then moved out west, and in 1974 went north to Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. For the next ten years she worked as a CBC radio broadcaster in Yellowknife, Winnipeg, and Toronto, and eventually freelanced from Mexico. In 1986 she moved from Mexico to New York City, and in 1992, with her husband and two children, she returned to Canada, settling in Ottawa, where she has lived ever since.

In 2007 Elizabeth Hay’s third novel, Late Nights on Air, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her first novel was A Student of Weather (2000), a finalist for the Giller Prize, the Ottawa Book Award, and the Pearson Canada Reader’s Choice Award at The Word on the Street, and winner of the CAA MOSAID Technologies Inc. Award for Fiction and the TORGI Award. Her second novel, Garbo Laughs (2003), won the Ottawa Book Award and was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award.

Scott Duncan

Scott Duncan is a visual artist and writer. He is interested in landscapes created to support and sustain economic activity. He is currently finishing Ports Tracking Shots, three feature-length videos of the ports of Rotterdam, Vancouver and Montreal. The videos use a cinematic tracking shot (a fixed camera in a moving vehicle) to show the containers, goods, machinery and people in modern sea ports.

Scott will be premiering the Rotterdam sequences of Ports Tracking Shots at Café Molo at the Naked Launch event, beginning 7:30 pm, Thursday August 27.

Scott began his art practice in the mid 1990s as a spoken word performer as part of a Montreal-based group of 5, called the Fluffy Pagan Echoes. The group performed a lot – in cabarets, in cafes, in art galleries. They worked with the sounds of words and gestures to create moments of meaning for the audience, usually around political ideas, interpersonal relationships or just to be funny.

He lives in Chelsea. Visit Scott’s website at www.scottduncan.org

Nick Di Gaetano

Nick is a physical theatre performer specializing in clown, bouffon and performance creation. As an actor, director, musician and teacher, he has worked both across Canada and Internationally. His past work with Theatrophy as a performer and Artistic Director includes The Epoch of Coming and Going (2006) and Moribund (2008 – Rideau Award nominee for Best New Creation) and toured nationally.

Selected credits include Igor Gouzenko (The Rideau Project, Magnetic North Theatre Festival) Butterball Billy (A Guy Named Joe, Odyssey Theatre), Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet, Torchlight Shakespeare) and Queen Margaret (Richard III in Bouffon, A Company of Fools). Nick is a multi-instrumental actor who is currently writing musical source material for Mi Casa’s next project Tales From the Gasoline Coast – A Disaster Zone Cabaret. He is a graduate of Ecole Philippe Gaulier (Paris, France), The International School of Comic Acting (Reggio Emilia, Italy) and the University of Ottawa (BA Theatre and World History).

CRUSH IMPROV

http://crushimprov.com

The gang behind the wildly successful Improv Awareness shows, Crush Improv stepped onto the scene in 2007 and has been seen improvising at the Ism(e) Cabarets, at the Bytown Tavern and for a variety of corporate clients including the Ottawa Senators, Sleeman Brewery and Bank of America. Crush has also represented at Toronto’s Combustion Festival and the Vancouver International Improv Fest.

STEPHEN LEGARI

Stephen is a recovered graphic designer based in Montreal.

He studies art therapy, practices massage therapy and dreams

of a life in the country.

Chris Ross is a Toronto-based artist whose paintings have been exhibited both nationally and internationally. She is known for her original and often humourously insightful perspectives on media, gender roles and popular culture. In the past couple of years, Chris has turned her attention to writing and directing her own films. Wakefest is proud to present her debut efforts in the realm of cinema. Look for these being featured at the after hours festival bar at Cafe Molo on Friday and Saturday night.

Brian Doyle is the award winning author of over a dozen ya books, that have been read and cherished by several generations. Rooted in the Ottawa Valley and the Gatineau Hills, his work remains a poignant portrayal of all that matters to middle grade kids. His historical snapshots of the area are accurate, and more importantly, entertaining. A self-proclaimed child at heart, Doyle brings to the table a unique ability to interpret the trials and tribulations of our younger generation.

Joan FitzGerald McCurdy is the internationally best selling author of the young adult fantasy series The Serpent’s Egg Trilogy and The Mole Wars series. She is a passionate advocate for literacy and spends much of her free time working with school groups and young writers. In her own words, Joan describes her work: “I believe in using literature to elevate humankind to our highest potential, to encourage kids to take responsibility for their actions, to show them that it’s OK to fail because self-confidence doesn’t come from winning all the time.”

A retired lawyer, McCurdy has also worked as a documentary film writer. She lives in Ottawa where she is working on her seventh novel. Visit her Web site at www.jfitzgeraldmccurdy.com.

NADIA ROSS

STO Union is a production company dedicated to the creation of original contemporary theatre for presentation in Canada and abroad. Founded in 1992, the company produces workshops and full-scale productions and offers educational programs. Productions have toured around the world to numerous international festivals and venues. This fall, STO Union’s production of 7 Important Things will be presented at the Baltic Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia; Calgary’s Theatre Grand Junction and in Bergen, Norway at Theater Garasjen.

The company creates contemporary performance, theatre and interdisciplinary work. All productions are original creations: text, design, media and performance style emerge out of a collaborative process. STO Union made its official move to Wakefield in the winter of 2009 and is currently developing new work with local artists. Artistic Director Nadia Ross grew up in Aylmer, Quebec and has lived in Toronto and Berlin until returning to this region in 2005. Nadia will present an abbreviated version of the “Real Time On Stage” workshop at Wakefest 2009.

ROB SCOTT – WAKEFIELD ART COLLECTIVE

WAC Rev in Therapy set

Wakefield Art Collective is the name given to an ever-changing and expanding group of local artists that come together periodically to work on specific projects. WAC members have created design and video elements for theatre productions; silkscreens and banners; trophies and videos. Rob Scott is a founder of WAC and will be presenting Basic Silkscreening at this year’s Wakefest.

Guerilla Heart Juice!

Alix Sideris, Andy Massingham and Peter Ryan

We are a physical theatre training company based in Ottawa.

We offer vigorous kinetic experiences through intensive workshops for serious professionals. Our aim is to challenge your performance level and to delve into areas of risk where you may wish to go but perhaps don’t know how.

Peter Ryan has been involved in dance and theatre as a teacher, performer and writer since 1975. He has taught and performed across North America and Europe and was a founding member of EDAM, Vancouver’s innovative dance and music collective. Currently, he teaches in the Theatre Department at the University of Ottawa, trains dancers and actors in improvisation for performance in Ottawa and Athens, Greece and teaches public classes in Improvisation at Ottawa’s Dance Network.

Peter is currently the Chair of Dance Ontario, has served on the board of the Council for the Arts in Ottawa, and was a member of the Arts Advisory Committee to the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

VISUAL ARTISTS - EXHIBITIONS ALL AROUND TOWN