As the TRANSFORM Cabaret Festival, co-presented by Urban Ink and The Cultch, prepares to get underway next week, Urban Ink is announcing its upcoming hybrid season.
For its 21st season, Urban Ink continues to adapt to the ever-changing world with a season of digital and in-person performances. In the current cultural and political climate, Urban Ink’s mission to uplift Indigenous and diverse artists through storytelling and performance, could not be more relevant. Throughout the last months, the company has been creating exciting opportunities propelling works in a new expanded direction.
“We are so thrilled to be bringing new works from our circle of artists this season. Never has there been a more timely moment to bring our stories to the world,” stated Corey Payette, Artistic Director. “I hope you’ll join us!”
“While our theatres have been quiet, we’ve been busy! We’ve been working hard to share our stories in a big way,” says Melissa Tsang, Managing Director. “We can’t wait to share this season’s digital offerings, including a digital festival, a documentary and a feature film, across Turtle Island and beyond.”
The season kicks off with the return of TRANSFORM Cabaret Festival, delivering seven days, Sept. 23 to Oct. 2, 2021, of bold, uncompromising, political, and interactive performances in a hybrid. The festival is a platform for IBPOC artists to share their stories, featuring local and international Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists in a variety of styles including theatre, music, drag, burlesque, circus, comedy, and everything in between
Next spring, the season is book-ended by honouring Sedna, a musical production that was postponed from last season. In Spring of 2022, Urban Ink will present Guide My Way: A celebration of the music from Sedna – a concert providing an opportunity to celebrate some of its music and showcase an array of our beloved Indigenous and diverse music performers.
In between TRANSFORM Cabaret Festival and Guide My Way: A celebration of the music from Sedna, Urban Ink delivers a season full of ground-breaking, creative works including:
Stories That Transform Us: a 90-minute documentary film celebrating Urban Ink’s 20th Anniversary, showing at VIFF on October 6th at 8:30pm. Stories That Transform Us is much more than simply a look at Urban Ink’s history; it’s a reflection of a time in history when diverse voices and their stories were not heard.
Les Filles du Roi: by Corey Payette and Julie McIsaac
January 2022 at The Cultch.
Screening of a filmed adaptation of Urban Ink’s award-winning Canadian musical, written and performed in English, French and Kanien’kéha (Mohawk)
Terror/Forming: written, and directed by Rylan Friday,
In Production – Terror/Forming is being shot by the multi-disciplinary writer, director, curator and producer from Cote First Nation, Saskatchewan in one continuous take over the course of one evening, as Parker, along with his boyfriend, Darren, are on a weekend trip at a cabin filled with disturbing and unexplained events.
Artists in Development: Urban Ink continues its ongoing commitment toto supporttheatre creators in development of the following productions;
Wolf Cull: a new play by Cheyenne Scottwhich explores personal discoveries made by a group of five Indigenous womxn on a hunt.
Homecoming byKamila Sediego, a play byfirst generation Filipino Canadian, centering on stories of the Filipino-diaspora and an attempt to understand and give reverence to her roots, identity, and her parents.
Confluence: a new musical by Khari Wendell McClelland, a talented musician and evolving artist originally from Detroit. Set in the future, Confluence tells the story between Indigenous and black communities, across genres and generations, invoking the spirit of his ancestors who straddled the United States-Canada border in efforts to escape slavery and discrimination.
Rebellion, a developing new work with book, music and lyrics by Corey Payette, commissioned by The Musical Stage Company and The Aubrey & Marla Dan Fund for New Musicals.
A Conversation with Burnt Cork byMonice Peter, another play in development for the season explores deep-seated questions about race, racism and what was acceptable in the all too misunderstood art form of Blackface. It also explores how the present artistic generation can learn and honour those artists that came before.
To honour Sedna, the musical production that was postponed from last season, Urban Ink will present Guide My Way: A celebration of the music from Sedna. This concert provides an opportunity to celebrate some of its music and showcase an array of our beloved Indigenous and diverse music performers.
For more information and to keep up to date on details of how and when the Urban Ink 21st season productions will be presented, follow the ground-breaking company, online at urbanink.ca, on Facebook at urbaninkproductions, on Twitter @urbaninkvan and Instagram @UrbanInkVan