Friendship is the most incredible foundation for art. That is the biggest realization I had while talking to these two outstanding artists. Creating a company and business with someone is a technical task and can be challenging to handle, but when the project is surrounded by love and support, it can only excel and grow stronger. Black Swan had such a beautiful foundation and passion rooted in activism and community. I am so excited to see the company grow and flourish even more. I hope you can feel their passion leap through the screen because their drive is truly a force to be reckoned with.

Black Swan

Meet the Artists.

Alysha Mohamed

Alysha is in her third year at Queen’s University, with an English major and a minor in political science. Since high school, she has been involved in theatre, where Alysha has been writing and acting ever since grade 10. She also writes plays, poetry and has dabbled in all artistic mediums. Alysha wrote a play called My Hands Were Made for This, where she also acted and directed it. The play also went on to be produced in Lunch Box Theatre – Stage One Festival. That play was her introduction to playwriting and the whole theatre world.

Hope Van Der Merwe

Hope is in the BFA Acting Conservatory at York. Since then, she has been acting since she was 13 and has been involved in all aspects of theatre. Hope is also a playwright and a poet. Recently York University produced a play she wrote called Something Wicked (Hope also acted and directed the production). Hope has also had the opportunity to interview Kate Hennig (Creator of Queenmaker series) for the Playwrights Guild of Canada over the summer. In the interview, they both gave a half-reading of some pieces of theatre we’ve been working on.

Together

Hope and Alysha have been collaborating for a very long time. They went to the same high school, and both wrote for their high school One-Act Festival. The pair are happy to be workings together again and are excited for what Black Swan can bring.

The Birth of Black Swan.

Alysha – Hope and I, over the summer, were having a lot of conversations about social justice, and how as artists, we could contribute to this conversation? Activism can be done in so many different ways and forms, and a way that we love so much is theatre. Making that realization together really catalyzed the fact we needed to do something.

We also realized that we had never seen what we want before – Which are two people coming together and forming a production company that has the specific intent of highlighting marginalized theatre artists.

I remember one day we sat down, looked at each other and thought, “why don’t we just do it? Let’s just start doing it!”. Which lead to us brainstorming names, and then everything started flowing together.

Sometimes you get an idea, and you just know that it’s right, and that’s how we felt.

Hope – We are interested in art as activism, which I haven’t personally seen a lot of. Old, white, straight men mostly dominates theatre, and that’s not reflective of the world we live in.

How do all of the current activism movements in Canada and the States affect Black Swan?

Hope – Over the summer with Black Lives Matter, George Floyd being murdered, and the slew of events we saw from America shed a lot of light. In Canada, we also hear, “We are not as bad as America” – but we are.

Through Black Swan, we really, really, really wanted to have people who are from these marginalized communities who can tell stories that belong to them. Rather than having these “people” (white straight men) tell their stories and profit from it.

Alysha – I completely agree. Both of us are very passionate about the mission that is anti-racist, anti-colonial message. It’s great to feel like we are doing something.

The diversity narrative suggests that people are chosen for their diversity and not for the merit of their own work. But I think we marketed Black Swan in a way that showed we wanted work from marginalized communities, and the scripts that we chose were the best.

The scripts are the best everyway. In the way that they are written, in the storytelling and in the style. All of the plays are so diverse, not only in the playwrights but also in the storytelling.

Choosing Artists.

Alysha – In terms of the script submission process, we got a lot more scripts than we were expecting. Initially, we didn’t even know if anyone wanted to submit to us, so getting such a large response was incredible.

When the submissions closed, we both of us read the plays and made notes individually. Then we came together and talked about which ones stood out to us. Which led to the conversation of which ones would be right for our festival.

Hope – The process was pretty instinct-based. We both believed so strongly in the four plays that we picked.

How to reach Artists.

Hope – Networking.

Hope, Alysha, Eunice, Lauren – Lol.

Alysha – Hope and I reached out to our professors at our universities (York and Queens), who then contacted classes and other colleagues who might be interested. We are both from Calgary, so we reached out to some theatre professionals there. My friend Zoey (who is also doing the tec for the show) goes to a school in New York, so she even spread the word there. It really branched out from our own contacts and wanting to spread the word about this new theatre opportunity.

Festival RUNDOWN

Hope – We pick four amazing plays. You can see the casting on our Instagram page (link at the end of the article). They are very different plays.

A little big thing – Arvind Venkat

Alysha – It is essentially about a closeted queer teen in a very traditional Indian household. I have never seen a brown family represented in a way that feels so authentic.

Hope – We hold this play close to our hearts – Arvind moved to Canada from India four years ago. He takes classes at Queens; he’s working full time, he’s never even seen a play before in real life. He took this playwriting class at Queens – luckily, Alysha had a connection to the prof and sent the prof a call for submissions, and this prof urged Arvind to submit something, and he did. In general, it is one of our favourite plays we have ever read. He started from a place of not knowing anything about theatre and then was able to see the process of seeing how new plays are developed and rehearsed. We are just so excited for him.

Love and other drag – Rachel Arnold

Alysha – Very quick wit, and a really exciting show – there’s a drag sequence in it.
Hope – and its entirely queer cast, which we are really excited about.

Fried Rice – Aaron Refugio

Alysha – Fried rice is the balance of the festival, the hearty, emotionally driven piece that is at the heart of the festival. It’s also a one-man show, which is very exciting.

Bug – Araceli Ferrara

Alysha – I’ve never seen someone write the way Araceli writes – she is incredible. She is another York student. Her play confronts death and the afterlife and the relationship between them – in a way I have never seen done before. It is so fresh.

Festival Dates & Times

March 6th & 7th – 7:30 PM EST/5:30 PM MST
March 12th & 13th – 7:30 PM EST/5:30 PM MST
All festival proceeds of the show will be going to BLM Canada.

You can find the festival through this link

Interested in knowing more about Black Swan?

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