Page Text: Website: alanabridgewater.ca
Erin Brandenburg
Erin Brandenburg is a theatre artist, director and playwright originally from Essex County, Ontario. Based in Toronto, she works with a collective of artists under the company name Kitchenband. Erin is a graduate of the directing program at the Soulpepper Academy, winner of the Enbridge Emerging Playwright’s Award, a finalist for the Gina Wilkinson prize, participant of the Stratford Playwright’s Retreat, and The Banff Playwright’s Lab. Most recently, she was an artist in residence at the Toronto Public Library through Artists in the Library, where she created the Albion VR Project in collaboration with Toasterlab. Selected directing credits include Selah’s Song (Theatre of the Beat), Remembering the Winnipeg General (Zeitpunktheatre), Everything I Couldn’t Tell You (Riser/Spiderbones), Blood Wedding (Soulpepper), This Will Lead to Dancing (Theatre of the Beat), Petrichor (Summerworks), Deceitful Above All Things (Favour The Brave) The CNR, Route 66 (Soulpepper Concerts), A Good Man is Hard To Find (Soulpepper Academy). Her plays include BOBLO (Theatre Centre/Kitchenband - Dora Nominated for 5 awards, winner of 2), The Great Lakes Project (Kitchenband), Petrichor (Summerworks), Drive (Kitchenband/Edge of the Woods Theatre), Detroit Time Machine (Rhubarb), Pelee (SummerWorks) and Reesor (Best of the Fringe, Next Stage - co-written with Lauren Taylor).
Tehseen Jaafri, Aasim Jaafri
Tehseen Jaafri started dancing at the age of 6 with Tushna Dallas at The School of Classical Ballet and Western Dances, Mumbai (the Ballet School). When she was 19 years, she completed a Diploma to become a Royal Academy of Dance teacher in London, UK after which she did a Bachelors in Law at City University, London, UK. She returned to Mumbai in 2006 to work with the Ballet School. Currently, she spends her time enjoying yoga and dabbling in art.
Aasim Jaafri, is an experimental sample musician, born in Yorkshire, England and currently lives in Toronto, Canada.
Azad Imanirad
Azad Imanirad is an Iranian-Canadian artist based in Toronto. Azad's body of work include writing and performing in several Canadian web series, films, performance installations and stage productions, both in Farsi and English.
Sina Gilani
An award-winning Iranian-Canadian actor/writer at home in Toronto via Tehran, Sina Gilani trained at Humber College and York University. A poet himself, Gilani finds his work is often inspired by world mythology, classical texts and folklore stories. He is an alumnus of the Buddies in Bad Times Emerging Creators Unit (2013-2014) and a playwright member of the Soulpepper Academy (2016-2018) and CFC Cineplex Entertainment Film Program 2018. selected credits include: 20th of November, Wedding at Aulis, and In Case of Nothing.
Marie Farsi
Marie Farsi is an award-winning director and theatre maker who works between Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, both in English and French. She is the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of the formal experimental company Babelle Theatre in Vancouver. She has directed for and collaborated with companies from across the country such as Théâtre La Seizième, Theatre SKAM, and Porte-Parole. For the 2018/19 season, she worked as the Associate Artistic Director at Crow’s Theatre with Chris Abraham. She was also an Assistant Director at the Stratford Festival, Bard on the Beach, and the ArtsClub. Favourite and noticeable directing credits include: GHOST QUARTET (Crow’s Theatre & Eclipse Theatre Company - six Dora Award nominations including Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Production in the Musical Theatre division); THE HUNS (Patron’s Pick and Best of Fringe Awards at the Toronto Fringe 2019); SURVEIL (Hip. Bang! - Artistic Risk Award at the Vancouver Fringe 2018); ALL MY FRIENDS ARE ANIMALS (Babelle Theatre & Axis Theatre); MOVEMENTS 1&2; RIVULETS (Babelle Theatre - seven Jessie Richardson Award nominations including Outstanding Direction and Production in Small Theatre); SEABIRD IS IN A HAPPY PLACE (2015 winner of the OOB Short Play Festival/NYC) and THE 4th GRADERS PRESENT AN UNNAMED LOVE-SUICIDE (Rumble Theatre). She was the recipient of the 2020 Toronto Theatre Critics' Award for Best Director of a Musical and the 2019 Ray Michal Award for Outstanding Body of Work by an Emerging Director. More at mariefarsi.com
About the Project
Artistic Director Alan Dilworth commissioned ten artists to create short digital works in response to their personal experience of isolation and change during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The commissions were staggered over thirty seven weeks, from April 28th to January 20th 2021, weeks 7 - 44 of the Pandemic.
Each work is a personal artistic snapshot of a now past, present moment. The only parameters given the artists were that their piece needed to be between one and five minutes, and they needed to be both personal and, given the great uncertainty and precarity of this time, an offering for others.
For Necessary Angel The Resilience Project SHORTS have been a way for us to centre and serve artists, and a way to meditate and reflect on the moment. Moving forward, they are both a collection and a reminder of this unforgettable time.
We are grateful to Manuel Rodriguez Saenz, Debashis Sinha, Carlos Rivera, Abdi Mohamud, Meegwun Fairbrother, Alana Bridgewater, Erin Brandenburg, Tehseen and Aasim Jaafri, Sina Gilani and Azad Imanirad, and Marie Farsi for their unique and personal offerings.
Necessary Angel Theatre Company stands in solidarity with the members of the Black community, the Black Lives Matter movement, and we support continued calls for justice. We acknowledge the sustained suffering of the Black and Indigenous communities as a result of centuries of systemic inequities and racism, and we acknowledge our place as an organization in that.
We also recognize the vulnerability of, and stand in solidarity with, freelance artists and technicians at this time.
Please consider making a donation to Indspire, Black Legal Action Centre and/or The AFC .
About Indspire: Our vision is to enrich Canada through Indigenous education and by inspiring achievement. In partnership with Indigenous, private and public sector stakeholders, Indspire educates, connects and invests in First Nations, Inuit and Métis people so they will achieve their highest potential.
Donate to Indspire - https://indspire.ca/
Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) delivers legal aid services to low and no income Black Ontarians. We work to combat individual and systemic anti-Black racism by providing legal representation, summary legal advice and brief services to individual clients, among other services.
Donate to BLAC - https://www.blacklegalactioncentre.ca/
The AFC is the national charity with a mission to help entertainment professionals maintain their health, dignity, and ability to work. During the COVID-19 crisis The AFC have been working to provide emergency financial assistance and other supports to arts and entertainment workers whose lives have been derailed by the pandemic.
Donate to The AFC at https://afchelps.ca/resilience .