Angela Sun is a Toronto-based fat East Asian performer, theatre creator, poet, and writer. She is currently a member of the environmental theatre company, Broadleaf Theatre. In her spare time she enjoys reading and writing about art, feminism, pop culture, identity, body image, mental health, and social justice. Ironically, she fell in love with Canadian theatre after seeing a televised production of Kristen Thomson’s I, Claudia on CBC. (She finally saw the remount on stage 5 years later and was over the moon.) You can follow her exploits on her sporadically-updated Twitter @21sungelas.
I attended the SummerWorks Live Art presentation of Soliloquy in English with some trepidation. After having watched numerous plays this year that either exposed the colonialist history behind the spread of the English language or advocated for the inclusion of non-English languages in Canadian theatre, I wondered if we really needed a piece that explored “the dreams it [learning English] makes possible.” Fortunately, the insightful content ofSoliloquy in English exceeded my expectations and encouraged me to examine my own feelings towards the English language.
Chase Scenes #1-58 is exactly the type of experimental, multidisciplinary performance that I expect and want to see at an innovative festival like SummerWorks. Thoughtful, funny, and a little bit strange, Chase Scenes – a should-see SummerWorks Special Presentation – is an extensive exploration of our psychological and cultural obsession with “the chase.”
Playwright/performer Thea Fitz-James juggle the weighty tasks of exploring the importance of female nudity throughout western history and reflecting upon the relationship she has with her own body in the poignant one-woman show Naked Ladies, now playing at the 2016 SummerWorks Performance Festival.
I attended the SummerWorks Live Art presentation of Soliloquy in English with some trepidation. After having watched numerous plays this year that either exposed the colonialist history behind the spread of the English language or advocated for the inclusion of non-English languages in Canadian theatre, I wondered if we really needed a piece that explored “the dreams it [learning English] makes possible.” Fortunately, the insightful content of Soliloquy in English exceeded my expectations and encouraged me to examine my own feelings towards the English language.
