Harbourfront Centre - Fresh Ground new works

Combining elements of oral history, storytelling, written and spoken text, visual imagery, movement, music, domestic ritual and community engagement practices, Bridge of One Hair is a three year residency in central Etobicoke building links between the juxtaposed residential communities of Mabelle, a Toronto Community Housing high-rise complex, and the Village of Islington.

Playing with rituals and objects of tea drinking as a focal point of story-sharing and image-expressing, and inspired by the life story and poetry of Hawa Jibril, an elderly Somali woman now living at Mabelle, the project involves several hundred community members of all ages, backgrounds and abilities as creators, cast and crew.

The Bridge of One Hair installation/performance — both a record of the process and a presentation of the new performance work arising from it — will be premiered at Harbourfront Centre, after which the project will continue in its host Etobicoke community.

jumbliestheatre.org

The Collaborators

Artistic Director, Concept, Script, Design: Ruth Howard
Poetry by Hawa Jibril and Duke Redbird
Translation: Faduma Ahmed Alim
Composer: Alice Ping Yee Ho
Director and Dramaturge: Faye Dupras
Musical Director: Erna Van Daele
Choreographer: Penny Couchie
Assistant Directors: Noah Kenneally & Lisa Marie DiLiberto (a Metcalf Intern)
Installation Designer: Loree Lawrence
Lighting and Co-Set Designer: Trevor Schwellnus
Production Manager: Abby Callard
Stage Manager: Les Stockley
Performers: Faduma Nkruma, Zeinab Labadhagax: Singer & Sid Bobb, Diana Tso, Shadya Yasin, Renwick Herry, Kristin Mueller-Heaslip (Soprano), Mark Daboll (Baritone), Bashir Adan Dirir Jochli (Oud), Graham Hardgrove (Percussion), Elizabeth Loewen (Violin), Rob MacDonald ( Guitar & Mandolin), Marianne Pack (Cello), Ronda Rindone (Clarinet), VIVA Youth Singers and Jubilate Singers.

Other Artists involved: Cath Campbell, Day Milman, Leah Houston, Heather Frise, Katherine Fleitas, Clea Minaker, Marianne Alas and many others.

Partners: Montgomery's Inn and the City of Toronto Culture Division, Toronto Community Housing Corporation, Madbakh, Islington Middle School, Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre and others.

Supported by: Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Trillium Foundation, TCHC Social Investment Fund, United Way of Greater Toronto, New Horizon's For Seniors, Laidlaw Foundation, Harbinger Foundation, Metcalf Foundation, Raptors Foundation, Lawrence Family Foundation, J.P. Bickell Foundation

Pigeon Print: Noah Kenneally
Photo: Day Milman

Pigeon print: Noah Kenneally
Photo: Day Milman

Commissioned in 2006

Presented as part of World Stage 07
April 26 – 29, 2007

Fresh Ground new works is made possible by the generosity of several major individual donors who have actively assisted in the creation of new Canadian artworks: Peter Allen, Lionel F. Conacher and Joan Dea, Margaret and Jim Fleck, John Kazanjian and Susan Soloway, Michael and Sonja Koerner, Judy and Wil Matthews, George E. Myhal, and grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the J.P. Bickell Foundation.

Fresh Ground new works

Commissions

Bridge of One Hair

Jumblies Theatre

The Collaborators