Who is We:
Voices Across the Divides

May 12-14, 2022

harbourfront centre theatre, Toronto

This was an invitation from the Art of Time Ensemble and Writers Collective of Canada to experience the transformative and healing aspects of writing, of creativity.

How can writing transform a life? Of the writer, of the listener?  How are we rescued by a new voice, finding within us a purpose we’ve never experienced before?  Whose voices matter?

Who is We?

Who Is We is a question asked by a single voice in pursuit of community, about questioning our notions of “Us and Them”. The past couple of years have made it clear that whatever each of us may have assumed our We to have been – whether sentimentally rooted in family, practically framed by politics, or idealistically the human race  – the time has come to acknowledge that questions need to be asked.

🎥 Who is We (2022) Full Performance

🎥 Dee Hope
Testimonial
Who is We

🎥 Ahana Das Sarkar
Final Pilgrimage
i. The Before
ii. The Durin
iii. The After

Shirin Tobie-Paul
Monarch Machinations

Ellise Ramos
Ruptures

🎥 Joe Da Silva
Frustration with English My Father’s House
Redemption
Land Hard
Bitter Soil

Christina Walsh
Family - The F Word

🎥 Wrecks Ricardus
Stop a Moment

Rooth Vimalanathan
Suvaasam
We are the key
I am

🎥 Kan Cheung
Reflection: On Being a Chinese Psychic Sherpa

Luxshie Vimaleswaran
When I Say I Have Not Written in Three Years

Marta McIlroy
Tribe of the Small Hands

Paul Eng
The Fentanyl Release

🎥 Roberta Taylor
Inside the Rooms of Holiness
Where I am From
Nothing Fits
Perfection
The Broken World

All music composed by Jonathan Goldsmith

Jonathan Goldsmith piano, Peter Lutek woodwinds, Hugh Marsh violin, Rob Piltch guitar, Scott Peterson bass

🎥 Daniel MacIvor, Director
Jill Carter, Dramaturge
Laurie-Shawn Borzovoy, Projection Designer
Arun Srinivasan, Lighting Designer
Arwen MacDonell, Production Stage Manager
Sam Shaw, Technical Director

All photos by John Lauener

Shakespeare: If Music be…

march 28-29, 2008

harbourfront centre theatre, toronto

An evening of readings, music and dance inspired by the works of William Shakespeare. The highlights included music by Erich Korngold, Richard Strauss, John Cage & Sergei Prokofiev; choreography by Peggy Baker and James Kudelka; and staged scenes from Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo & Juliet.

Words about Shakespeare, Jorge Luis Borges, Herman Melville, Virginia Woolf, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Flaubert, Iris Murdoch, Cioran and Mel Gibson
Tom McCamus, Chick Reid, Marc Bendavid, Cara Ricketts, readers

Songs From Shakespeare, Erich Korngold
Desdemona's Song
Hey Robin
Come Away, Death
For the Rain, it Raineth Every Day
O Mistress Mine
Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind
Under the Greenwood Tree
Monica Whicher soprano, Andrew Burashko piano

More Words About Shakespeare, Vladimir Nabokov, Harold Pinter and Boris Pasternak
Tom McCamus actor, Chick Reid actor

Romeo and Juliet, Prologue, William Shakespeare
Tom McCamus actor
March of the Montagues and Capulets, Sergei Prokofiev
Andrew Burashko piano
Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene V, William Shakespeare
Marc Bendavid actor, Cara Ricketts actor
Romeo and Juliet before parting, Sergei Prokofiev, Choreography by James Kudelka
Rebekah Rimsay dancer, Piotr Stanczyk dancer, Andrew Burashko piano

INTERMISSION

And more words about Shakespeare, Voltaire, Henry Miller, Charles Darwin and Lord Byron
Cara Ricketts actor, Marc Bendavid actor

Four Scenes from “Much Ado About Nothing”, William Shakespeare & Four Pieces from Much Ado About Nothing, Erich Korngold
i. Act I, Scene I
ii. The Maiden in the Bridal Chamber
iii. Act IV, Scene I
iv. Dogberry and Verges March
v. Act V, Scene II
vi. Garden Scene
vii. Act V, Scene, IV
iix. Masquerade
Tom McCamus actor, Chick Reid actor
Andrew Burashko piano, Marie Berard violin

Ophelia’s Mad Scene, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene V, William Shakespeare
Cara Ricketts actor
Ophelia Lieder, Richard Strauss
i. Wie erkenn ich mein Treulieb
ii. Guten Morgen, ‘s ist Sankt Valentinstag
iii. Sie trugen ihn auf der Bahre bloss
Monica Whicher soprano, Andrew Burashko piano
Ophelia/Why the Brook Wept, John Cage/Peggy Baker
Peggy Baker dancer/choreography , Andrew Burashko piano

David Ferry, director
Andrew duToit, lighting designer

Photos by John Lauener

Shakespeare: If Music Be… (2005) - Toronto, ON

Shakespeare: If Music be… (2010) - Toronto, ON

Shakespeare: If Music Be… (2024) - Stratford, ON