Prime Mover Theatre Company announces 2022 Season

Toronto (Canada) - Prime Mover Theatre Company forges ahead with its inaugural season featuring ambitious programming, international collaboration, dynamic training opportunities for artists, and unique open door experiences for audiences.  The electric mix of programming is headlined by a fresh collaboration with UK-based tour-de-force artist, Selina Thompson and includes a staggering 22 original works, a feature length film, and fresh takes on how theatre is created in the 21st century.

Prime Mover Theatre Company opens the season in February with The Story Lab, a training series dedicated to decolonizing the creative process led by Canadian artists playwright Marcia Johson, choreographer Esie Mensah, and composer Kevin Wong.  The Story Lab aims to transform creative practices by unlocking great story-telling through a deep exploration of cultural specificity.  Participation is limited to 10 artists.  Two artists per discipline will be chosen to participate via an open call submissions process in February 2022.  The remaining eight spots will be available for registration beginning February 2nd, 2022 on a first come first served basis.

In March the company brings back their popular conversation series: Private Conversations/Public Spaces.  This year’s conversations bring Canadian icons from the global majority into conversation with emerging artists to discuss Artistic Direction with Ray Hogg, Kodie Rollan, and Nina Lee Aquino, Design with Patricia Cerra, and special guests and Stage Direction with Jordan Laffrenier, Marie Farsi, and Mumbi Tindyebwa.   Private Conversations/Public Spaces are open to the public and invite listeners to sit in on what are typically private conversations between arts leaders about the artist's life-cycle, myth-making, creating access, and more.   

Anchoring the season in April is a co-production with British interdisciplinary performance company Selina Thompson LTD on  Race Cards (in Two Acts). PMTCo founding Artistic Director Ray Hogg notes that “despite Race Cards being presented in the UK, the US, Brazil and Australia capturing global attitudes towards race, there has never been a long-form response to this work. Our project, Race Cards (In Two Acts), opens a broader dialogue based on the source material by inviting ten professional artists to respond to these questions through a rigorous creation period facilitated by Selina Thompson: resulting in ten new works that grapple with urgent questions about race and identity.” The ten original works created and Thompson’s Race Cards will be presented together in Toronto in  April 2022 

Says Thompson: "I’m incredibly excited to bring Race Cards back to Toronto, and to deepen and expand the conversation that the work seeks to instigate beyond my own experience. It is especially rewarding to be bringing this work back in partnership with a company whose work and approach to the subject matter feels deeply resonant with mine…" 

To date, six widely-celebrated artists have been commissioned for Race Cards (in Two Acts): choreographers Andrea Nann and Esie Mensah, playwrights Sarena Parmar, Tanisha Taitt, and Zach Running Coyote, and composer Alexandra Kane.  The remaining four artists will be selected from an open call competition in February 2022.

In August 2022; Prime Mover Theatre Company will premiere First Verse, a feature-length live action and animated hybrid musical film produced by Robyn Hoja, directed by Jordan Laffrenier, cinematography by Sandro Pehar and with illustrations by Sara Mizannojehdehi . First Verse features 12 original, culturally specific, ten-minute musicals written and composed by 24 Global Majority artists.  The works were originally created as a part of Prime Mover Theatre Company and The Musical Stage Company’s previously announced co-produced re-imagining of their flagship musical theatre writing program NOTEWORTHY in 2021 (details here). 

The season will wrap up in September 2022 with the second iteration of Theatre Making Movement; a symposium  co-produced with Stephanie Graham and Sarah O’Brecht, of the Dance Me A Song Collective, which explores integrating movement with early stage new musical development.  Last year’s symposium brought together Tony Award-winning director Susan Stroman, Hollywood composer David Krane, a who’s who of Canadian composers and choreographers Britta Johnson, Suzy Wilde, Allison Wither, Kevin Wong, Corey Payette, Nicole Brooks, Colleen Dauncy, Jewelle Blackman Stephen Cota, Esie Mensah, Jeff Dimitirou, Nicola Pantin, Robin Calvert, and more.

The Legacy Fellowship is a season-long fellowship that sees  Prime Mover Theatre Company partner with theatres across Canada to advance the careers of marginalized artists.  This season we are proud to partner with The Shaw Festival, The Grand Theatre London, The Musical Stage Company and The Arts Club Theatre Company, investing in the work of Legacy Fellows Vanessa Sears, Fiona Sauder, Alexandra Kane, and Shakeil Rollock

Prime Mover Theatre Company is Canada’s newest not-for-profit, professional theatre company dedicated to the advancement of marginalized artistic voices through advocacy, artist training, and large-scale co-production.

Founded in June 2020, by award winning theatre director & choreographer Ray Hogg, Prime Mover Theatre Company seeks to redefine equity, inclusion and representation for the world stage by championing exceptional artists and their works, developing new live-performance work, and assembling production partners from flagship organizations across the country. In October 2020, the company developed its creative artist development program - The Legacy Project (which includes Legacy Fellowship, NoteWorthy, and the RBC Chrysalis project).

For media inquiries please contact:
Contact: Ray Hogg, Artistic Director (Prime Mover Theatre Company) | 416-427-9836 |     ray@primemovertheatre.com

For more information visit:www.primemovertheatre.com 

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