This week a special presentation of The Title Block Live, presented in partnership with The Associated Designers of Canada on Supporting a BIPOC cast with your design. A panel of fantastic Canadian theatre designers and artists discuss several questions around how our designs and collaborations can support or hinder the flourishing of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour in live performance.
This week’s panel consists of Carmen Alatorre, C.J. Astronomo, Sammy Chien, Deanna H. Choi, Rachel Forbes, Camellia Koo, Sage Paul, Kimberly Purtell, and Emily Soussana, and is moderated by Michelle Ramsay.
Please go to designers.ca for more information about the ADC. All members of the panel were paid a honorarium by the the ADC to sit on the panel. The Title Block and Michael Kruse did not accept any fees for this.
The Panel:
Originally from Mexico City, Costume Designer Carmen Alatorre artist who earned her MFA degree in Theatre Design at UBC and lives in the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (Vancouver) since 2006. Some of her recent design credits were seen in companies such as: Arts Club Theatre Company, Bard on the Beach, Globe Theatre Regina, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Citadel Theatre and Electric Company. Carmen is the recipient of three Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards. For more information visit: carmenalatorre.com
C.J. Astronomo is a freelance lighting designer, originally from Tkaronto, who has worked across Turtle Island, Australia & New Zealand. She is currently fortunate to be working as an Associate Technical Director at the Stratford Festival.
Sammy Chien is a Taiwanese-Canadian immigrant and queer artist-of-colour, who’s an interdisciplinary artist, director, designer, performer, researcher and mentor in film, sound art, new media, performance, movement and spiritual practice. His work has been exhibited across Canada, Western Europe, and Asia, worked with pioneers of digital performance: Troika Ranch and Wong Kar Wai’s Cinematographer Christopher Doyle, and active in projects engaging various underrepresented communities. Sammy has been featured on TV and commercials such as CBC Arts and BenQ. Sammy is the official instructor of Isadora and Artistic Director of Chimerik似不像 collective.
Sound Designer Deanna H. Choi is a recovering violinist with a background in behavioural neuroscience. Her latest project is designing the sound of her kitchen production of Into the Woods, starring her KitchenAid stand mixer, Matilda.
Rachel Forbes is an award-winning Toronto-based set and costume designer. She creates for theatre, dance, opera and film all across the country. You can find her work at rachelforbesdesign.com
Camellia Koo Camellia is a Toronto based set and costume designer for theatre, opera, dance and site-specific performance installations. Recent designs for theatre include collaborations with Cahoots Theatre Projects, Factory Theatre, The National Arts Centre, Soulpepper Theatre, The Shaw Festival, The Stratford Festival, Tarragon Theatre and Why Not Theatre. Recent designs for opera and ballet include collaborations with Against the Grain, Banff Centre, Boston Lyric Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Edmonton Opera, Helikon Opera (Moscow), Minnesota Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, Santa Fe Opera, and Tapestry New Opera. She is a graduate of Ryerson Theatre School and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (U.K.). Camellia has received six Dora Mavor Moor Awards (Toronto), a Sterling Award (Edmonton), a Chalmers Award Grant, 2006 Siminovitch Protégé Prize, and the 2016 Virginia and Myrtle Cooper Award for Costume Design.
Sage Paul is an award-winning artist & designer and a recognized leader of Indigenous fashion, craft and textiles. Sage is also founding collective member and Artistic Director of Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto. Her art and design practice is conceptual, creating narrative-driven garments, crafts and costumes for artistic presentation, fashion, film, TV and theatre.
Kimberly Purtell is an award winning Toronto based lighting designer for theatre, opera and dance. She has had the opportunity to design across the country and internationally.
Emily Soussana is a projection, set, and lighting designer based out of (jo ja jay) (Montreal). They are the co-founder of potatoCakes_Digital, a production design and digital arts collective whose mandate orbits around the integration of technology into traditional art forms and the exploration of how visual art can help facilitate the telling of a story.
Michelle Ramsay is an award winning Toronto based lighting designer who works with dance, theatre and opera companies across the country. She is also on the board of the Associated Designers of Canada. For more information see michelleramsaydesign.ca.