We are in a time of austerity. There is a lot of fear and uncertainty and yet, In this difficult time, Neworld is choosing to focus on the abundance around us. Abundance does not need to be financial, because no, we don’t have a lot of cold hard cash. But we have so much and we want to share that with you.
We have exciting collaborators working on big ideas including Quelemia Sparrow’s Indigenous futurist project Tumulx, and Ana Lorena Pérez’s puppet show, Moonweavings, built around Latin American children’s songs. We have opportunities to take shows all over the country with Cheyenne Rouleau’s Fat Joke and The Seventh Fire by Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen with Mishelle Cuttler.
With Page Turn we have assembled a national cohort of emerging writers ready to define what’s next for theatre criticism in this country. We have strong partnerships in our collaboration with Touchstone Theatre to present a reading of Christine Quintana’s shocking and fantastic piece El Terremoto and with rice & beans theatre to tour Jasmine Chen’s gorgeous solo work Jade Circle, and with Théâtre la Seizième to present Montreal’s Joe, Jack et John’s striking Cispersonnages en quête d’auteurice.
We have an opportunity to gather, reminisce and share with our Remember November time capsule project. We have ongoing acts of collaboration, community and learning across difference in our LEAD Ensemble and the first LEAD Cabaret. We have celebration and humour with our inaugural Rumpus Awards.
We have an extraordinary studio and office in our home at PL1422. We have generosity and kindness. We have big feelings and conflict.
We have a spirit of resistance and resilience. And, as you see in the season photos, there is also joy and support and care and friendship and fun. We have a lot. And we want to share it.
I propose that the acts of seeing possibility, following creativity and leading with care are radical acts of resistance in a time like this. Neworld is not afraid and we will continue to make work that challenges systems of oppression. We refuse to scale down or to play it safe. We embrace risk and we embrace care.
We will see, seek, and follow abundance because we believe it is the antidote to fear. Abundance is how resistance and integrity remain possible. We will not cower. We have enough. More than enough. And this feeling of enoughness leads us to be brave. We will do something with it.
Sincerely,
Chelsea Haberlin, Artistic Director
Gallery
