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Black and white photo of Derek Kwan, sitting sideways in a high canvas chair with his knees draped over on of the arms of the chair. His hands clasp one knee and his head is bent back laughing.
Photo by Dahlia Katz 2023

CURRENT AND RECENT PROJECTS:

Production shot from the show Old Man and the River. A puppet about 18 inches high of an old man with sparse white hair sits fishing while sitting on a bridge. A river made of blue fabric runs under the bridge and two arms masked with black gloves and sleeves are seen manipulating the puppet.

OLD MAN AND THE RIVER
Spring 2023
Various locations in Ontario

A grumpy little old man lives in his little house in the woods by the river. Every day is the same and he likes it this way-until one day, a magical creature leaps into his world and everything changes!

This beautifully designed puppetry work performed without words to an enchanting musical score, reveals a storybook world where rivers sing, trees laugh, and curious dragonflies come to visit. With its themes of friendship, communication, play, adjusting to change, Old Man and the River is perfect for the youngest theatregoer.

May 11-14: Ottawa Children’s Festival
May 23-25: Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton
May 26-28: WeeFestival at Alliance Française de Toronto
May 30-June 4: WeeFestival at Assembly Hall, Etobicoke

Tickets: Ottawa Children's Festival
Tickets: Alliance Française de Toronto
Tickets: Assembly Hall, Etobicoke
A twelve foot tall puppet of a 10 year old Syrian girl with long hair and wearing a dress stands on a wooden boardwalk. Behind her are a crowd of people. She looks sideways out at the sea.

WALK WITH AMAL
June 11, 2023, 6pm
Toronto Waterfront

Tkaronto bids farewell to their new friend when Little Amal leaves our shores to continue her search for her mother. Encouraged by dancers, musicians, wise words, sweet songs and even tiny puppets, she leaves across Lake Ontario – may fair winds fill her sails.

More Info

CHIMERICA
17 janvier – 17 février, 2024
Théâtre Jean-Duceppe, Montréal

Au deuxième jour de la répression sanglante de la place Tiananmen, juste avant que des soldats du régime chinois ne forcent la porte de sa chambre d’hôtel, le photojournaliste américain Joe Schofield capture un morceau d’histoire : le moment où un homme seul se dresse devant la colonne de chars qui traverse Beijing. Son visage n’est pas visible; son identité et son sort demeurent un mystère. Immortalisée le 5 juin 1989, cette image captivera le monde. Vingt-trois ans plus tard, Joe Schofield apprend que le tank man est toujours en vie et qu’il se trouverait en Amérique. Mettant en péril sa carrière, ses relations et son éthique, il s’engage dans une quête obsessionnelle pour retrouver ce héros inconnu.

Détails et billets
On the left: The cover of The Book of Rain by Thomas Wharton, with title in large black letters, with an illustration of a bird in the background and water droplets covering the entire surface of the book. On the right: headshot of Thomas Wharton, the author.

THE BOOK OF RAIN
Audiobook

The northern mining town of River Meadows is one of three hotspots in the world producing ghost ore, a new source of energy worth twenty-eight times its weight in gold. It’s also linked with slippages of time and space that gradually render the area uninhabitable. After the town is evacuated, the whole region is cordoned off, the new no-go zone wryly nicknamed “the Park.”

Three intertwined stories flow from the disaster of River Meadows. Alex Hewitt and his sister, Amery, were among the first to be shipped out of the contaminated town. Now an accomplished game designer, Alex has moved on, but his sister has not, making increasingly dangerous break-ins to save animals trapped in the toxic wasteland. When at last she fails to return from a trip inside the fence, Alex flies to River Meadows to search for her, enlisting her friend, Michio Amano, a mathematician who needs to transcend the known laws of physics if he and Alex are to succeed.

Info and purchase

THE STANDARD SING
Audio Play

From the corner of Spadina and Dundas in the heart of Toronto’s Chinatown, two friends, Helen and Justin, find themselves led to an old and abandoned theatre after receiving a cryptic note. Known as The Standard in the early 1920s, during the height of Canada’s Chinese Immigration Act, this venue had a history of renting its space to Cantonese Opera performers. Once inside, Helen and Justin run into the theatre’s mysterious and charismatic caretaker, Mr. Sing, who muses enthusiastically about the theatre’s history of Cantonese Opera performance.

Listen Now

CHINATOWN
September 13-17, 2022
City Opera Vancouver

Chinatown is a story of family and neighbourhood, racism and resistance, history and tomorrow. In two acts and two hours it examines six characters, two families, and a chorus of male ghosts, from the building of the CPR through to our own times. It deals with violence and despair, the Head Tax, the Exclusion Act, paper sons, and paper promise.

It is a Western opera, but incorporates Chinese themes, sounds and sensibilities. And it is a love story.

The inspiration for CHINATOWN lies in our history, a great neighbourhood and its people, and its resistance against racism – both historical, and resurgent today.

A recording with the premiere cast will be available autumn 2023.

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