A couple weeks ago, we started the second round of “ON Indigenous Land” working with racialized youth to foster cross cultural understanding on the challenges facing Indigenous communities in Canada.
The first session with this new group was really inspiring. Simon and I decided to focus this workshop on understanding what they have been learning about Indigenous culture and history. We started by listening to music from an Inuk artist to situate the youth in Indigenous culture.
When we got into discussions, we discovered hurtful similarities between challenges Indigenous communities have faced in Canada, and experiences the newcomer youth had in their previous countries. Challenges like forced abandonment related to identity and stolen land. These stories of co-relation evoked a rich discussion that led to the question – “what now?” The ideas the youth put forward have been shared continuously by participants in this project like creating petitions advocating for Indigenous youth to have the same learning opportunities, and ensuring clean water for Indigenous communities.
A photo of Heather Cherron von Atzigen performing inMixed Company Theatre’s production of DISS.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear through our discussions that, while only small nuggets of history were dropped in the students’ early years at school, there now there are courses on Indigenous studies they can take in later years. Across this project, we’ve seen the youth engage in meaningful exchanges like these that make me reflect on the power of Forum Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed in catalyzing transformative learning.
Throughout my time as an associate artist with MCT, I’ve been involved in many projects within the education system. As an actor, I performed in DISS, a Dora Mavor Moore nominated presentation about gang violence, that was toured to various schools and community organizations in the GTA. I’ve also facilitated Forum Theatre presentations, like “Culture Clash” which was a school presentation looking at students of minority races/cultures experiencing privilege, assumptions, and cultural biases from others at school. The play asked audiences to help disrupt systemic and cultural power imbalances in schools. In projects like these, I have seen students’ attitudes and understanding shift because of the relatable stories presented and the opportunity to roleplay allyship.
Heather Cherron von Atzigen performing in a virtual presentation focused on catalyzing change on ableism in the workplace.
The skills I’ve gained working within Theatre of the Oppressed have certainly enhanced my work in educational institutions outside of MCT engagements. I work as a Standardized Patient in various post-secondary institutions and hospitals which means I roleplay as patients in simulated scenarios for exams and other educational experiences for students. I’ve facilitated these experiences for medical students, residents, specialists, pharmacists, and naturopaths. Learning through TO how to improvise in response to what another person brings to the scenario in a realistic, believable way, has made me more effective in this work, providing rich opportunities for students to learn and be evaluated in their skills.
The opportunities that Theatre of the Oppressed and Forum Theatre give to audiences to step into the shoes of another person and try to make positive change is an incredibly effective tool in learning processes. The resulting discussions that then happen after each intervention allow students and audiences to share their experiences that relate to what they see on-stage. It starts a ripple effect of understanding and empathy that is instrumental in learning.
These early sessions in “ON Indigenous Land” have been very productive in this process of sharing and learning, that I’m excited to see grow as the project continues developing towards the creation of a Forum Theatre script that will be read for the youth in a feedback reading on December 7th.
Written byMCT’s Associate Artist, Heather Cherron von Atzigen
Having been asked to write something about my past relationship with Mixed Company Theatre is like trying to re-cork a djinn that’s escaped from a bottle after 1,000 years. Where do I start? How do I start?
Do I start at the beginning or track back from the present?
Firstly, I must state how extremely privileged I feel to have been just a small part of MCT’s success for more than thirty years now. I have watched, and occasionally participated in, MCT’s growth from its origins as a collective company doing artist-led issue-based productions, to a community-based company doing issue-based theatre for social change. Community-based work that is now created with, for, and sometimes by, the very community that the project’s issues impact.
A flyer for a Scat Cabaret event in the early 1990s.
So, in the spirit of collective creation towards social change, I am taking this opportunity to share my part in the history of Mixed Company’s Cobblestone Theatre projects.
In 1990 I had just finished a 3-year community-based project with Second Look Community Arts, directing and facilitating a Forum Theatre production on AIDS, sex, drugs, and consent with street youth. This project culminated in the award-winning film What’s Wrong With This Picture?. It was then that I was approached by Simon, because of my Forum Theatre experience, and asked to participate in MCT’s ongoing work with the homeless community called Scat Cabaret. The cabaret, at that time, was a loosely organized drop-in, assembled and moderated by Simon, for anyone with performance skills or artistic aspirations from the homeless community. It was an opportunity for isolated people to present and validate their creativity on a public stage.
But Simon saw great potential in the various and numerous talents that consistently performed at Scat and asked if I could help him/MCT towards creating a full stage production by this community about their stories of survival. Having recently learned and trained on Forum Theatre, Simon sought my help to create MCT’s first Forum Theatre production about homelessness on Toronto streets. Simon would direct while I worked with the cast to collectively create/write the scenes and plays in a Forum Theatre structure.
Thus, the Cobblestone Theatre project was conceived.
For societal context, MCT’s Cobblestone Theatre was spawned during the Premier Mike Harris Ontario Conservative government’s ‘Common Sense’ era (1995-2002). This period in Ontario saw homelessness peak (over 20,000 homeless families), financial support for social programs and shelters cut, along with massive government deregulations that led directly to deaths caused by unscrupulous private ownership of former provincially-run infrastructure maintenance.
Dollars over services.
The formative years of Cobblestone saw exponential growth in participants, imagination, audiences and venues and (surprise!) funding. By 1994 MCT had acquired sufficient funds from a variety of agencies to expand the project from a four-week voluntary project to a 12-week process with paid honorariums for the participants. MCT was also able to hire theatre trainers with their own specialties to train the now core group of between 8 to 10 Cobblestone Theatre members – Ruth Howard to train in set and costume making, Tony Nardi to train in commedia dell’arte style, Fiona Griffith to train clown, etc.
And MCT was able to link to Toronto Public Health to provide social support links towards financial aid and housing for participants.
A production photo from Cobblestone Youth Troupe’s production of Voices (2006).
Governments at all three levels began to recognize that homelessness was a real and critical issue and began to support social agencies with special grants. This also allowed Cobblestone Theatre a certain autonomy from MCT where the core group members were given more responsibility towards the next production. Training and support by MCT was so efficacious that one show was completely devised and written by Cobblestone Theatre member John Burgess (The Legend of Harris Hood).
By 1995, Simon had recognized that Cobblestone was comprised of two branches; the adults, whose housing insecurity revolved around mental health issues, and the youth, whose precarious housing derived from family crises, sexual identity, drugs and addictions. He then took the astute initiative to inaugurate MCT’s Cobblestone Youth Theatre; two companies with the same issue (homelessness) yet with divergent causes. This was a bold endeavour as it split funding for one project into two until new funding sources – specifically for youth homelessness – could be found.
Part of the programme forCobblestone Street Theatre’s production No Fixed Address (1995), directed by Luciano Iogna.
Productions by Cobblestone Theatre:Home Street Home; No Fixed Address; Mr. We’ve Been…; The Drug Circle; The Legend of Harris Hood; Conspiracy; Dire Streets; Zen and the Art of Homelessness; Not Out of the Cold; Just Another Day
Productions by Cobblestone Youth Theatre:Living On Chaos Street; Spare Change; Wild Child; Swept Away; Runaway Dreams; Voices; A Place of Your Own; Street Song
Inter-generational productions: This City of Angels; The Three Loonie Opera
In 1995 the Ontario Conservatives were elected as government and the remainder of the 1990s saw erosion of funding to social support agencies, as well as the Arts. This directly affected how MCT could create and process the Cobblestone projects. Now, due to budgetary constraints, MCT could no longer afford time for collective development. Playwrights (Rex Deverell or myself) would write the scripts in consultation with Cobblestone members and the plays were written for a limited number of actors – meaning Cobblestone members had to audition for each show – and honorariums were reduced. The creation and rehearsal time was cut from twelve weeks to three (which included performance runs!). Costumes, props and set-pieces were re-cycled through productions and pennies were pinched; whatever necessary for ‘the play to go on’.
What never diminished was the will of Cobblestone members and MCT to endure.
The cast of Wild Child (1999).
Despite 1998 being officially declared the Year of Homelessness and the federal government’s singular injection of funds to do a ‘deep’ examination of the homeless issue, the only thing that decelerated the slow demise of the Cobblestone project was a special grant for a tour of Cobblestone Youth Theatre’s production of Wild Child. This production became the poster-child for political manipulations. Radio and television interviews, magazine articles, national awareness and praise for government intervention on the issue, a performance at the National Mayor’s Conference on Homelessness…
Yet, here we are today, thirty years later and there are tent-cities in urban parks. Food Bank usage has tripled and families are still being torn apart. The only thing that has changed is terminology; homelessness is now a ‘housing’ issue.
Over time, the core members of Cobblestone found support or drifted away or passed away. The various support agencies found some restored funding once the Ontario Conservatives were deposed and were then able to provide more programming which drew from Cobblestone’s profile. Community Arts funding still had not developed enough to provide sufficient financial support for Cobblestone at that time. Attrition took its toll and Cobblestone slowly came to an end in 2012.
However, during the 20 years of Mixed Company Theatre’s Cobblestone Theatre projects (1992-2012) societal impacts were made. Because of the influence of Cobblestone Theatre’s exposures and presentations, policies for shelter programs changed, education in alternative schools adapted and training for social workers in local community colleges were modified to reflect the present realities of the people they were serving.
Cobblestone Theatre projects helped bring a face and voice to the previously invisible multitude on Toronto streets; Theatre had made a social change.
My connection to Mixed Company Theatre (MCT) started when I was in my undergrad at York University in Theatre. I was doing a research project archiving the history of a Canadian Theatre organization and decided to focus on MCT. I had the opportunity to interview Simon and go through material to understand the evolution of MCT and its extensive history of community-engaged arts. Through that project, I became fascinated with MCT’s process and impact on communities, so I kept volunteering for a bit, helping to organize documents in the office, and jumped at the chance to apply for a marketing internship with the company coming out of school in August of 2020.
A workshop photo from Resiliency through Virtual Action (2021).
In my time as a marketing intern, I learned so much about how to promote community-focused arts programming. I was fortunate to then have my role adapt after that internship to involve project coordination, so I began to see firsthand how our programming impacts community members directly. Being involved in workshops and performances, I could see how much it meant to communities to have a chance to give voice to their experiences and work together to find new ways of approaching their challenges. Some of the most impactful learning I have had in getting involved in these projects has been about how to adapt processes I use in coordinating the logistics of projects to better support community needs. I am constantly looking for ways to remove barriers, so everyone has a better opportunity to participate and find it very rewarding when I can do that.
When I first arrived at MCT, the company had already transitioned the key elements of the Forum Theatre process to work online so much of my work initially was focused on virtual programming. Resiliency through Virtual Actionwas the first project I coordinated and the first time I saw our entire process from start to finish with a community group, ending with the community performing their own stories online. I was deeply touched watching the groups work together each week to develop a bond, share personal experiences, and support each other as they prepared to perform their stories.
A production photo of Two-Sided Mirror (2022). Photo by Aaron D’souza.
I have found it fascinating seeing how this process can adapt, based on the project – like when we sometimes have the community perform the final presentation, and then sometimes it’s professional actors. Or when we have used our FT methodology in research projects. In those, I’ve seen how adaptable our facilitators are in setting activities and questions for the group that feed into the specific research objectives but are still flexible to respond to what the group brings to the conversation.
Two-Sided Mirroris the project that I’ve worked on the longest with MCT and it’s been a unique journey in that the workshops and feedback reading were all done online, and then it was performed both in-person and virtually. There were lots of ups and downs as I navigated and learned how to coordinate for in-person performances again. Fortunately, we had a great team working collaboratively to coordinate, book, and manage each presentation to make the tour a success.
I am very grateful for all the opportunities I have been given at MCT to learn and then in turn mentor and support volunteers and interns who have worked with us. I have loved collaborating with the incredibly talented artists, facilitators, staff, Board members, partners, and interns to develop and deliver programming. Seeing groups have a chance to “rehearse for reality” is a truly special experience that I’m excited to see continue into the next season and beyond.
This April, Mixed Company Theatre is proud to present the second installment of its InterGEN Project, SPRING MOON / 春明 !
Based on the real-life experiences of the Toronto Chinese community, Spring Moon tells the story of a resilient immigrant peoples through the eyes of three Chinese grandmothers who survived hardship and crossed oceans to give their granddaughters a better life. Although separated by differences of language, culture, and distance, the unconditional love that exists between grandmothers and their granddaughters is a connection that cannot be broken. Spring Moon reveals to us that to find out who we are, we will have to understand where we come from.
Spring Moon is an exploration of Chinese intergenerational relationships in Toronto and features community performers and emerging artists from across the GTA. The show was created with the input of Chinese youth and seniors from Eastview Community Centre, Scadding Court Community Centre, Broadview Manor, The Phoenix Arts Academy, the Markham youth and Toronto Community Housing.
The show is presented in Cantonese, Mandarin, English, and French with Chinese and English surtitles.
Photo of Mikaela Cordero, Susan Chou, Betty Chou, and Shasha Huo by Yuli Scheidt.
SPRING MOON / 春明
April 20 – 23, 2017
The Citadel, 304 Parliament Street
Written by Diana Tso
Directed by Karthy Chin
SHOWTIMES:
Thursday April 20th – 7:30pm Friday April 21st – 7:30pm Saturday April 22nd – 2:00 pm Saturday April 22nd – 7:30pm Sunday April 23rd – 2:00 pm
