About Kickstart A leader in the international disability arts world for over 10 years, Kickstart (formerly the Society for Disability Arts and Culture) was the first to take up the challenge of creating a ‘disability arts movement’ in Canada, a movement that has gained strength and respect around the globe. The impetus behind our artistic vision is to present dynamic and non-sentimental images of disability, and authentic interpretations of the disability experience.
p r e s e n t:
Kickstart creates, commissions and presents work from a broad range of artistic disciplines including music, visual arts, theatre, dance and film/media. The organization produced international festivals in 2001, 2004 and 2007 in Vancouver and Victoria; as well as numerous visual art exhibits, and music and dance commissions. We provide workshop and development opportunities to artists, and support mentoring situations among artists with and without disabilities through our association with other arts organizations in the Lower Mainland and beyond. For more information about Kickstart upcoming events: www.kickstart-arts.ca To volunteer, become a member of Kickstart or find out about other ways to support us, contact: info@kickstart-arts.ca Artistic Director Executive Director Office Manager Outreach Coordinator
Geoff McMurchy Rina Fraticelli Bongi Ngugama Meg Towrl
F e b r u a r y 1 5, 2 0 0 9
In addition to its artistic production and presentation, Kickstart has produced workshops and master classes for the arts community, including acting, choir direction, dance, painting and voice, as well as community outreach events designed to broaden the audience and raise awareness of the power and range of disability arts. Audio Description Training Workshop Audio Description (AD) makes theatre performances, museum exhibitions, and other cultural opportunities more available to persons who are blind or partially sighted. The listeners are issued a single earphone and receiver through which they can hear a trained Describer depict the sets, costumes and nonverbal onstage action via a portable transmitter. Training in Vancouver will be provided by Deborah Lewis, AD Trainer and Executive Director of the Ethel Louise Armstrong Foundation in Altadena, California. The bulk of the training will take place over one weekend - Friday evening, March 27, and Saturday and Sunday daytimes, March 28 - 29, 2009. Auditions will be held Sunday, March 8 and Monday, March 9, 2009. People interested in learning this skill and being part of a pool of paid Describers in the future, should visit our website for further information. Human Writes - A Story Creation Lab Kickstart is very pleased to offer a story development workshop in three parts, led by Jan Derbyshire. Preferring to call it a "playshop" rather than a "workshop", Jan invites writers - and potential performers - of all skill levels to explore improvisation, writing and performance in a safe, encouraging environment that is free of judgment or criticism. The Creation Lab will take place over three weeks, with one four-hour session per week, and there will be a nominal $20 registration fee for all three sessions. Dates and times in March are to be announced. Watch, also, for news about the Kickstart Festival 2010! www.kickstart-arts.ca
The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC Gary Andraza Carl Armstrong Wendy Atkinson Cindy Behrmann Donna Caedo Audrey Chan Alison Cumming Kristi Fuoco
Systems Coordinator Events & Customer Service Manager Programming Manager Director of Development Ticket Operations Manager Development Officer Financial & Programming Clerk Marketing & Communications Assistant Coordinator Associate Managing Director – Programming & Administration Managing Director Operations Clerk Financial Coordinator Marketing & Programming Coordinator Associate Managing Director – Facilities & Operations Ticket Office Supervisor Programming & Communications Assistant Coordinator Head Audio Technician Production Clerk Events & Front of House Coordinator Head Lighting Technician Assistant Technical Director Reception/Clerk
Joyce Hinton Sid Katz Beng Khoo Flora Lew Rachel Lowry Cameron McGill Gilda Morra Christine Offer Jay O’Keeffe George Pereira Karolina Piotrowska Andrew Riter Owen Schellenberger Kristen Wong Administration Ticket Office
T: F: T: E:
604.822.919 604.822.1606 604.822.2697 chan.centre@ubc.ca
For more information about all the events taking place at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, please visit www.chancentre.com The Chan Centre would like to thank our 2008/2009 Season Sponsors:
The Chan Endowment Fund of the University of British Columbia
Program 8 pm
Welcome
8:10 pm
Christa Couture
8:40 pm
Intermission
9 pm
Weights written and performed by Lynn Manning directed by Robert Egan musical accompanist Gary Bergman music and sound design by Bridge Multimedia and Gary Bergman
In Canada, the United States and around the world, artists and performers with disabilities are contributing to one of the most radical and effective aspects of disability culture -challenging conventional notions of beauty, form and motion. The immediate reward is pleasure in ourselves and each other. The longterm reward, no longer simply a dry concept, comes alive and present in our collective identity. We find ourselves living as if we have already won the rights, freedoms and respect for which we fight. Catherine Frazee Co-Director, Ryerson RBC Institute for Disability Studies Kickstart Advisory Board
Lynn Manning Lynn Manning is an award winning poet, playwright, actor, Paralympic SilverMedalist, and former 'World Champion' of blind judo. In 1996, the Los Angeles based artist cofounded Watts Village Theater Company (WVTC). Lynn's autobiographical solo play, WEIGHTS, most recently received a Fringe Review Theatre Award for 'Excellence In Theatre' at The 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Since its 2000 premiere , Lynn has performed WEIGHTS from Chicago to Off Broadway and from Croatia to the United Kingdom. A live performance audio CD of WEIGHTS (one blind man's journey), was released by Bridge Multimedia in 2005 and is available at, www.bridgemultimedia.com/weights. Lynn Manning wishes to express his unmitigated thanks to the following people and institutions for contributing to the development of WEIGHTS: Robert Egan, Victoria Anm Lewis, Paul Oppenheim, Irene Oppenheim, Christina Kokubo, Wanda Coleman, Quentin Drew, Dorothy Raybon, Gary Bergman, The Firehouse Theatre Company, The Plum Foundation, the staff and volunteers of The Braille Institute of America, Center Theater Group (Los Angeles), Theater By The Blind (New York City), Amaryllus Theatre (Philadelphia), Bridge Multimedia, Remote Recordings, and Theatre Tours International. As always, I dedicate this performance in memory of my late mother, Mrs. Stella Williams (1935–1999) and my recently departed brother, William A. Moore Jr. (1959–2007). Gary Bergman is a legally blind actor, playwright, sound designer, licensed massage therapist, composer and writer. He is currently affiliated with an Off-Broadway New York theater company, Theater Breaking Through Boundaries (TBTB). He designed sound for TBTB's Dial M for Murder, Murder In Baker Street and Vassa, was music director for Brecht on Brecht, and acted with TBTB in Ten Little Indians, Brecht on Brecht, Murder In Baker Street, Misalliance, Light Up The Sky, It's Only A Play, and workshops of Hamlet, As You Like It, and The Merchant of Venice. Three of his one-acts were given staged readings by TBTB in June, 2000 and two were performed in Love Creek's One-Act Festival in the fall of 2001. He provided the auditory
arrangements for several small independent films in New York and has also performed at the Blind In Theater Festival in Croatia in 2001, 2003 and 2005. Recently, he created and performed the score and sound effects for the NY premiere of Weights; several of these pieces can be found on the commercial CD release. He performed Weights with Lynn Manning for the U.K. premiere and month-long tour in 2005.
Christa Couture “Christa Couture sings with heart-onsleeve intensity... her gorgeously intimate voice somewhere between the tough vulnerability of Amy Rigby and the passionate, sophisticated folk of Joni Mitchell” - Pop Matters Vancouver-based alt-folk all-star Christa Couture was born with music in her blood. Her mother sang in sixties folk trio “The Cellar Dwellers” (and still performs music today) while her Native-American father performed ceremonial music his whole life. After performing and studying musical theatre throughout her teens, Couture left her Edmonton home at age 18 for the bright lights of Vancouver and began to write music of her own. The years since have seen Couture tour across Canada and England and the independent release of three albums. On her 2005 cd “Fell Out of Oz“, the adolescent cancer survivor wrote honestly about illness, being an amputee and self-discovery “with a wide-eyed and inviting tenderness” (Edmonton Sun). The next chapter of autobiographical songs formed her most recent release, “The Wedding Singer and The Undertaker”, released in 2008. The album won “Best Folk Acoustic Album” at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards and hit the Top 10 on CBC Radio 3. For the Chan Centre performance, Couture is joined by: Sara Ciantar (accordion, vocals), Cris Derkson (cello), Niko Friesen (drums), Jeremy Holmes (stand-up bass) and Aaron Joyce (electric guitar).
Lynn Manning Lynn Manning is an award winning poet, playwright, actor, Paralympic SilverMedalist, and former 'World Champion' of blind judo. In 1996, the Los Angeles based artist cofounded Watts Village Theater Company (WVTC). Lynn's autobiographical solo play, WEIGHTS, most recently received a Fringe Review Theatre Award for 'Excellence In Theatre' at The 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Since its 2000 premiere , Lynn has performed WEIGHTS from Chicago to Off Broadway and from Croatia to the United Kingdom. A live performance audio CD of WEIGHTS (one blind man's journey), was released by Bridge Multimedia in 2005 and is available at, www.bridgemultimedia.com/weights. Lynn Manning wishes to express his unmitigated thanks to the following people and institutions for contributing to the development of WEIGHTS: Robert Egan, Victoria Anm Lewis, Paul Oppenheim, Irene Oppenheim, Christina Kokubo, Wanda Coleman, Quentin Drew, Dorothy Raybon, Gary Bergman, The Firehouse Theatre Company, The Plum Foundation, the staff and volunteers of The Braille Institute of America, Center Theater Group (Los Angeles), Theater By The Blind (New York City), Amaryllus Theatre (Philadelphia), Bridge Multimedia, Remote Recordings, and Theatre Tours International. As always, I dedicate this performance in memory of my late mother, Mrs. Stella Williams (1935–1999) and my recently departed brother, William A. Moore Jr. (1959–2007). Gary Bergman is a legally blind actor, playwright, sound designer, licensed massage therapist, composer and writer. He is currently affiliated with an Off-Broadway New York theater company, Theater Breaking Through Boundaries (TBTB). He designed sound for TBTB's Dial M for Murder, Murder In Baker Street and Vassa, was music director for Brecht on Brecht, and acted with TBTB in Ten Little Indians, Brecht on Brecht, Murder In Baker Street, Misalliance, Light Up The Sky, It's Only A Play, and workshops of Hamlet, As You Like It, and The Merchant of Venice. Three of his one-acts were given staged readings by TBTB in June, 2000 and two were performed in Love Creek's One-Act Festival in the fall of 2001. He provided the auditory
arrangements for several small independent films in New York and has also performed at the Blind In Theater Festival in Croatia in 2001, 2003 and 2005. Recently, he created and performed the score and sound effects for the NY premiere of Weights; several of these pieces can be found on the commercial CD release. He performed Weights with Lynn Manning for the U.K. premiere and month-long tour in 2005.
Christa Couture “Christa Couture sings with heart-onsleeve intensity... her gorgeously intimate voice somewhere between the tough vulnerability of Amy Rigby and the passionate, sophisticated folk of Joni Mitchell” - Pop Matters Vancouver-based alt-folk all-star Christa Couture was born with music in her blood. Her mother sang in sixties folk trio “The Cellar Dwellers” (and still performs music today) while her Native-American father performed ceremonial music his whole life. After performing and studying musical theatre throughout her teens, Couture left her Edmonton home at age 18 for the bright lights of Vancouver and began to write music of her own. The years since have seen Couture tour across Canada and England and the independent release of three albums. On her 2005 cd “Fell Out of Oz“, the adolescent cancer survivor wrote honestly about illness, being an amputee and self-discovery “with a wide-eyed and inviting tenderness” (Edmonton Sun). The next chapter of autobiographical songs formed her most recent release, “The Wedding Singer and The Undertaker”, released in 2008. The album won “Best Folk Acoustic Album” at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards and hit the Top 10 on CBC Radio 3. For the Chan Centre performance, Couture is joined by: Sara Ciantar (accordion, vocals), Cris Derkson (cello), Niko Friesen (drums), Jeremy Holmes (stand-up bass) and Aaron Joyce (electric guitar).
The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC Gary Andraza Carl Armstrong Wendy Atkinson Cindy Behrmann Donna Caedo Audrey Chan Alison Cumming Kristi Fuoco
Systems Coordinator Events & Customer Service Manager Programming Manager Director of Development Ticket Operations Manager Development Officer Financial & Programming Clerk Marketing & Communications Assistant Coordinator Associate Managing Director – Programming & Administration Managing Director Operations Clerk Financial Coordinator Marketing & Programming Coordinator Associate Managing Director – Facilities & Operations Ticket Office Supervisor Programming & Communications Assistant Coordinator Head Audio Technician Production Clerk Events & Front of House Coordinator Head Lighting Technician Assistant Technical Director Reception/Clerk
Joyce Hinton Sid Katz Beng Khoo Flora Lew Rachel Lowry Cameron McGill Gilda Morra Christine Offer Jay O’Keeffe George Pereira Karolina Piotrowska Andrew Riter Owen Schellenberger Kristen Wong Administration Ticket Office
T: F: T: E:
604.822.919 604.822.1606 604.822.2697 chan.centre@ubc.ca
For more information about all the events taking place at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, please visit www.chancentre.com The Chan Centre would like to thank our 2008/2009 Season Sponsors:
The Chan Endowment Fund of the University of British Columbia
Program 8 pm
Welcome
8:10 pm
Christa Couture
8:40 pm
Intermission
9 pm
Weights written and performed by Lynn Manning directed by Robert Egan musical accompanist Gary Bergman music and sound design by Bridge Multimedia and Gary Bergman
In Canada, the United States and around the world, artists and performers with disabilities are contributing to one of the most radical and effective aspects of disability culture -challenging conventional notions of beauty, form and motion. The immediate reward is pleasure in ourselves and each other. The longterm reward, no longer simply a dry concept, comes alive and present in our collective identity. We find ourselves living as if we have already won the rights, freedoms and respect for which we fight. Catherine Frazee Co-Director, Ryerson RBC Institute for Disability Studies Kickstart Advisory Board
In addition to its artistic production and presentation, Kickstart has produced workshops and master classes for the arts community, including acting, choir direction, dance, painting and voice, as well as community outreach events designed to broaden the audience and raise awareness of the power and range of disability arts. Audio Description Training Workshop Audio Description (AD) makes theatre performances, museum exhibitions, and other cultural opportunities more available to persons who are blind or partially sighted. The listeners are issued a single earphone and receiver through which they can hear a trained Describer depict the sets, costumes and nonverbal onstage action via a portable transmitter. Training in Vancouver will be provided by Deborah Lewis, AD Trainer and Executive Director of the Ethel Louise Armstrong Foundation in Altadena, California. The bulk of the training will take place over one weekend - Friday evening, March 27, and Saturday and Sunday daytimes, March 28 - 29, 2009. Auditions will be held Sunday, March 8 and Monday, March 9, 2009. People interested in learning this skill and being part of a pool of paid Describers in the future, should visit our website for further information. Human Writes - A Story Creation Lab Kickstart is very pleased to offer a story development workshop in three parts, led by Jan Derbyshire. Preferring to call it a "playshop" rather than a "workshop", Jan invites writers - and potential performers - of all skill levels to explore improvisation, writing and performance in a safe, encouraging environment that is free of judgment or criticism. The Creation Lab will take place over three weeks, with one four-hour session per week, and there will be a nominal $20 registration fee for all three sessions. Dates and times in March are to be announced. Watch, also, for news about the Kickstart Festival 2010! www.kickstart-arts.ca
About Kickstart A leader in the international disability arts world for over 10 years, Kickstart (formerly the Society for Disability Arts and Culture) was the first to take up the challenge of creating a ‘disability arts movement’ in Canada, a movement that has gained strength and respect around the globe. The impetus behind our artistic vision is to present dynamic and non-sentimental images of disability, and authentic interpretations of the disability experience.
p r e s e n t:
Kickstart creates, commissions and presents work from a broad range of artistic disciplines including music, visual arts, theatre, dance and film/media. The organization produced international festivals in 2001, 2004 and 2007 in Vancouver and Victoria; as well as numerous visual art exhibits, and music and dance commissions. We provide workshop and development opportunities to artists, and support mentoring situations among artists with and without disabilities through our association with other arts organizations in the Lower Mainland and beyond. For more information about Kickstart upcoming events: www.kickstart-arts.ca To volunteer, become a member of Kickstart or find out about other ways to support us, contact: info@kickstart-arts.ca Artistic Director Executive Director Office Manager Outreach Coordinator
Geoff McMurchy Rina Fraticelli Bongi Ngugama Meg Towrl
F e b r u a r y 1 5, 2 0 0 9