These students impressed in their Level 1 Grad Show and are now back for more! Come and witness 6 weeks of hard work and dedication boiled down to one amazing comedy night! These students will speak from the heart and (hope to) make you laugh till you drop!

Originally from Costa Rica and Colombia, Stephan Dyer and Juan Cajiao are bilingual corporate leadership and communication trainers who also happen to be award-winning comedians and improv experts. 

Leaving their executive positions in the banking world in 2017 to pursue their professional careers in stand up comedy, they have successfully founded MalPensando, a bilingual (English, Spanish) comedy and public speaking school.

CREATIVE TEAM

Juan Cajiao

Stephan Dyer

This program was made possible by the generous support of The Slaight Family Foundation in partnership with North York Arts.

CONTENT WARNINGS

Loud sounds

Swearing / Mature language

Sexual Content

Keywords: BIPOC Experience | Community | Depression | LGBTQ2S+ | Racism

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

A Voice Through The Melt, a multi-disciplinary piece incorporating spoken word and music, is a collaboration between musician Anda Zeng and writer Natalie Wee. In this performance piece spanning 11 to 12 minutes, the collaborating artists open new pathways for entering belonging, mental health, selfhood, and grief. 

Individually, Anda’s cinematic songwriting allows for an embodied engagement with feeling, whereas Natalie’s written words create a cerebral experience guided by the reader’s input. In this crossover collaboration, Anda’s voice and harp create a sonic resonance with excerpts from Natalie’s new poetry collection, Beast at Every Threshold, performed in spoken word style. This creative call and response not only allows audiences to engage the work in a new way but also explores new interdisciplinary possibilities.

Natalie Wee (she/her) is a queer creator whose work explores themes of race, gender, queerness and nationhood. She is deeply informed by grassroots communities. She has written two poetry collections: Our Bodies & Other Fine Machines (San Press, 2021) and Beast At Every Threshold (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022). Born in Singapore to Malaysian parents, Natalie is currently a settler in Tkaronto.

Learn more at natalieweewrites.com. 

Anda Zeng (she/her) writes cinematic night songs for the daydreamer. Her years of creating impressionistic blends of harp, piano, dreamy vocals, and visceral lyrics culminated in the release of her debut EP, Night Dress, produced by Jonathan Wu. At once soothing and wounding, Night Dress lures listeners through the small hours into dawn, through the thicket of our illusory selves into our vulnerable human core. Anda is also a vocalist, harpist, and songwriter for the band Tiger Balme.

www.andazeng.com

CREATIVE TEAM

Natalie Wee: Spoken Word Artist

Anda Zeng: Singer and Musician

Keywords: Anxiety | BIPOC experience | Community | Depression | Grief

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

Asha and her best friend sit together in a tense familiarity and plan, in detail, the end of Asha’s life. She has suffered for decades, unable to be treated, despite truly valiant efforts to be well. Her best friend, conflicted between her belief in the right to die with dignity and her increasing desire to save a life, has become integral to carrying out the suicide plot. The Suicide Key infuses a sense of dark humour to comment on the absurdity of living with severe mental illness, and the complex and difficult decisions to be made surrounding life, death, and the pursuit of an acceptable happiness.

Laura Piccinin was born to tell stories. Whether as a dancer/aerialist with Tokyo Disney, a playwright and performer for the new Canadian musical Every Silver Lining or her solo shows LESBIHONEST and The Suicide Key, a teacher at the Toronto District School Board, or as a comédienne in Footloose with Just for Laughs, Laura’s unstoppable passion in life lies in telling people all sorts of eccentric stories — whether they want to hear them or not.

CREATIVE TEAM

Creator and Performer: Laura Piccinin

Dramaturg: Cass Van Wyck

CONTENT WARNINGS

Swearing / Mature language

Sexual Content

Suicide

Addiction

Subject matter: Medical assistance in dying (and the right to die with dignity).

Keywords: Alcoholism | Depression | LGBTQ2S+ | Trauma | Suicide

Talkback following performance.

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

The Flin Flon Cowboy is a new musical created and performed by Ken Harrower. This cabaret  presentation centres around Ken’s life, his mysterious origins in Flin Flon, Manitoba, his experiences as a child with a disability in the Winnipeg foster care system, and his adventures in Toronto searching for connections in the gay community while creating a life as an artist. The story touches on issues of consent, sexuality, queerness, mental health, addiction, forgiving others and one’s self, and moving forward with accountability. Ken shares his experience with addiction and mental health with honesty, integrity and grit. He does not shy away from the dark and difficulties that come with being a gay disabled person navigating this world.

Ken Harrower is an award-winning film and theatre actor. His recent work includes Boys in Chairs (Summerworks – Winner of the John Kaplan Spotlight Award) and What Dream it Was (Dora nomination – Outstanding Ensemble 2017). He starred in the short film Hole (Canadian Screen Award 2015) and Luk’ Luk’i (TIFF 2017 – Winner of Best Canadian First Feature). Ken graduated from The Toronto Film School and has collaborated with ARTS4ALL and Jumblies Theatre as an actor and choir member. Ken identifies as a member of the disabled community and the LGBTQ community, advocating for equal rights and freedoms for those communities.

CREATIVE TEAM

Created and Performed by Ken Harrower

Written by Ken Harrower and Erin Brandenburg

Music by Ken Harrower and Johnny Spence

Narrated by Xavier Lopez * appears courtesy of CAEA

Directed by Erin Brandenburg

Musical Direction by Johnny Spence

Dramaturgy by Debbie Patterson

Lighting Design by Echo Zhou

Set/Costume Design by Michelle Tracey

Additional Set Design Elements by Sonja Rainey

Sound Design by Johnny Spence

Stage Management by Nazerah Carlisle

Video Design by Kejd Kuqo

CONTENT WARNINGS

Swearing / Mature language

Violence

Sexual Content

Suicide

Keywords: Addiction | Disability | Depression | LGBT2S+ | Suicide

There will be a talkback following each performance.

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

A special live music and cinema event featuring Newfoundland’s award-winning performer Rozalind MacPhail. DON’T LET ME FALL TOO FAR tells a timeless story of self-discovery experienced by a young woman navigating her way through a vulnerable period in her life. 

MacPhail’s live music score features moody vocals, electrifying flute loops and driving electronics reminiscent of Pink Floyd, Mazzy Star and New Order.

Raven Blue’s film HOMELESS tells a timeless story of self-discovery experienced by a young woman navigating her way through a vulnerable period in her life. Haunting, lonely, dreamy and deeply honest. The film adapts the Indigenous tradition of the vision quest and explores themes of attachment, loss and longing. Filmed in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Newfoundland’s award-winning songwriter, looping flutologist and inspirational speaker explores new ways of combining image, inspiration and sound in audio-visual works that speak honestly of people, place and the human experience. A classically trained flutist, MacPhail layers moody vocals, electrifying flute loops, omnichord and driving electronics through her effects pedals and the digital audio workstation, Ableton Live. MacPhail has received multiple honours and awards, including an East Coast Music Award for Electronic Recording of the Year and MusicNL‘s Female Artist of the Year. She has recorded 12 albums, composed music for film and toured internationally over the last two decades.

CREATIVE TEAM

Live Performance by Rozalind MacPhail 

Film by Raven Blue

CONTENT WARNINGS

Strobe Lights

Keywords: Anxiety | Depression | Family | Homelessness | Youth

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

These students impressed in their Level 1 Grad Show and are now back for more! Come and witness 6 weeks of hard work and dedication boiled down to one amazing comedy night! These students will speak from the heart and (hope to) make you laugh till you drop!

Originally from Costa Rica and Colombia, Stephan Dyer and Juan Cajiao are bilingual corporate leadership and communication trainers who also happen to be award-winning comedians and improv experts. 

Leaving their executive positions in the banking world in 2017 to pursue their professional careers in stand up comedy, they have successfully founded MalPensando, a bilingual (English, Spanish) comedy and public speaking school.

CREATIVE TEAM

Juan Cajiao

Stephan Dyer

This program was made possible by the generous support of The Slaight Family Foundation in partnership with North York Arts.

CONTENT WARNINGS

Loud sounds

Swearing / Mature language

Sexual Content

Keywords: BIPOC Experience | Community | Depression | LGBTQ2S+ | Racism

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion