VOICES OF ARTISTS is a new IGTV series featuring emerging artists across preforming arts disciplines, sharing their struggles, epiphanies and life experiences. Theatres may be closed, and the audience & performer relationship may be different now with digital Theatre. However, as the saying goes, the show must go on…even online. Shakespeare’s Hunnie’s is creating a short series called Voice of Artists to highlight the experiences of artists creating work online during the quarantine. “VOICES OF ARTISTS” is showcasing how art is still alive—in our bedrooms, kitchen, on the street, on our walls, and in our ears, always flooding our thoughts. Preforming can never be restricted by the stage. Art can manifest anywhere, and these artists that we are featuring exhibited performances in spaces that feel most comfortable to them. And a way that you, the online audience, can encourage more artists to create digital Theatre is by simply sharing them with peers, following them and supporting their work.

“Voices of Artists“

Featured Artists

Zachary Strom

Zachary Strom is an Edmonton-based performer and creator entering his fourth year of the BFA in Acting at the University of Alberta. Most recently, he created a dance piece titled Torpor Temper as part of The National Theatre School’s Art Apart project. Other select performance credits include The Boyfriend, Mad Forest (University of Alberta), Mary’s Wedding (Shattered Glass Theatre), Sondheim on Sondheim, Cloud 9 (Macewan University), and the role of Valentine in The Two Gentleman of Verona (Primestock Theatre).

Online Art

Torpor Temper
NTS Arts Apart Festival

Exhausted by lethargy and deeply missing the joys of daily dance classes, the dancer passes through the awkward and restrictive spaces of his shared rental house in a piece created because of, and not in spite of, the current circumstances. Torpor Temper: Dances to Break the Pattern, created and performed by Zachary Strom, is an exploration of movement through gloom and joy, a personal struggle to find clarity in what feels like a cloud of beige. The dance score stretches into action that often feels cumbersome, while still finding moments of contrasting extension that sometimes succeed, and at other times do not. 

https://ent-nts.ca/en/art-apart-torpor-temper

Cindy Ansah

Cindy Ansah is a dance artist and emerging choreographer based in Calgary, Alberta entering her final year of study in the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance degree at the University of Calgary. Within her degree, Cindy passionately seeks opportunities to expand her choreographic and creative horizons through multidisciplinary collaboration. As a choreographer, Cindy first developed four choreographic excerpts in We Gon Be Alright Black History Month Cabaret in 2019. Her seminal dance work Everything, Nothing has been showcased in Triple Bill Weekends, the IGNITE! Festival for Emerging Artists: Dance Series in 2019 and the Physical Therapy Cabaret in Fluid Fest 2019. Her collaborative multidisciplinary dance film RE:New, featured in the 2020 IGNITE! Festival for Emerging Artists: Hyperspace Edition, has been her most ambitious creation to date. Branching into dance writing, Cindy’s work has been featured on The Dance Current, Springboard Performance, and Alberta Dance Alliance platforms. As a mover, Cindy remains open to the idiosyncrasies that live in beings, places, and things to explore curious connections and inspire creative investigation.

Online Art

Re:New
Ignite! 2020 Festival

As we pass through time and space, we leave imprints of ourselves. Do we dare strip away from stasis and embark into the unpredictable? At a physical distance, Cindy Ansah and Stephanie Jurkova-Abaco contemplate the confines of negative space and how to distort it – attuning to the most nuanced body parts and allowing impulses to reach the furthest expanse of the kinesphere. In collaboration with pianist Daniel Szefer and Alyssa Maturino bringing the work to life for the screen, the pair present Re:New, a multidisciplinary dance film that is at once gradual, gentle, violent, and chaotic. With a rich movement and musical language shared between performers, Re:New attempts to bridge our collective consciousness to the uncomfortable stillness that perpetual change disrupts.

Marguerite Lawler

Marguerite Lawler is an actor, improviser, comedian and singer grateful to be living and creating on Treaty 6 Territory. Marguerite is a senior improviser with RapidFire Theatre, and holds a BFA in Acting from the U of A (2019). Marg has done improv in New York City, as well as at festivals in Canmore, Calgary, Vancouver, and right here at home. Recent theatre credits include Titus Bouffonius (Theatre Network, Sterling Nomination), Tracks (Vena Amoris/Fringe Theatre Adventures), and Working It Out with Alberta Worker’s Health. Marg also really loves painting, summer camp, and Molly the dog. Marg is currently focusing on becoming a better ally to BIPOC in the rehearsal halls, and studying ways to make anti-racist theatre thanks to the incredible work of BIPOC artists who have been doing this work long before. Marg is grateful to all the many people who have shared knowledge, support, love, and guttural laughs over the years.

Online Art

Youtube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4l26iQnle23V7SLTb0Sz0A

Thank you for watching and reading about “Voices of Artists” this is part 1 of the series we are planning on sharing a second list of artists so stay tuned for more. If you are interested in participating in a future project feel free to click the link below and reach out!