annual report 2008/2009 - Community Knowledge Centre - Toronto ...

THE NAIVELT PROJECTRuth Howard, Jumblies Theatre and the community undertook a projectspanning three summers to celebrate Camp Naivelt’s history andsupport its survival. This project produced The Twelfth Children’s JewishWork Commune Re-enactment and performance of Oy di velt vet vernyinger (Oh, the world will grow younger), at Camp Naivelt in thesummer 2008: and the May 2009 remount of Oy di velt vet vern yingerin Toronto for the Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts.Camp Naivelt is the eighty-year-old summer home of a secular, Jewish,socialist community; a remnant of cottage country captured by suburbansprawl on the Credit River in Brampton; a haven for idealists, artists andactivists; a community swaying between deterioration and renewal,whose future is direly threatened by economic and urban forces.Photo from Commune journal andReenactment PHOTO: M. OttoThe Twelfth Children’sJewish Work CommuneRe-enactmentWhat was it like in the early days ofthe Russian Revolution really tobelieve - despite great deprivations -that a new “younger” world was possible, that Utopia was justaround the corner and that you were part of making it happen? Forone week in July at Camp Naivelt, under the guidance of Jumbliesartists, 27 teens and children entered into a live-in scenario of a1920’s Russian work commune for orphaned or dislocated children.The story they inhabited came from the memoirs of ManyaLipshitz, an early Naivelt member, which includes excerpts from anover-eighty-year-old handwritten journal, chronicling the two-and-ahalfyears she spent in the Twelfth Children’s Work Communebefore migrating to Canada.Shifra Cooper, aged 17, as Margolia/Manya Lipshitz PHOTO: M. OttoAt the end of the week, we children wrote our hopes and dreamsfor the future in our journal.The things I learned from my life in theTwelfth Jewish Children’s Work Commune are too numerous evento understand myself yet, but one great teaching of the week is theimportance of dreams. From a building with hay all over the floor toa finished flower embroidered on a pocket, it was a week full ofbringing our hopes – both in character and out – into realizationthrough our work together.Oy di velt vet vern yinger(Oh, the world will grow younger),at Camp NaiveltThe commune re-enactment experience inspired the subsequentproduction of Oy di velt vet vern yinger - oh the worldwill grow younger.The production was based on the research of EsterReiter (pictured) and the memoirs of ManyaLipshitz, Avram Himelstein and other oralhistories from the community.The work-in progress performance of Oy divelt vet vern yinger - oh the world will growyounger was driven by recorded and live musicand soundscape, with simultaneousinstallations using dance, song, visual arts,object theatre, projections, sewing, and 3Naivelt cottage installations.Mayworks Festival RemountWe re-configured Oy di velt for the 2009 Mayworks Festival, includingthe voices and perspectives of Naivelt community members.The interactive room allowed the audience to argue, reminisce, andfeed their views and utopian images back into the next performance.After experiencing the interactive room, audience members took partin the finale lantern parade.We performed the piece 14 times over 2 days.Core Collaborative ArtistsCreative & Production Team:Artistic Direction Concept, Script: Ruth Howard - Historical Research &Consultancy: Ester Reiter - Composer, Musical Director: Martin van deVen - Theatre Director: Lisa Marie DiLiberto - Designer-Directors: SeanFrey, Noah Kenneally – Choreographer: Michelle Silagy - InstallationResearch & Design: Leah Houston, Maggie Hutcheson - Musician & SongWriter: Mitch Willer -Yiddish Singer:Allan Merovitz - Project Manager(Naivelt): Michaela Otto - Production & Stage Manager (Mayworks):AbbyCallard - Lighting Designers:Allan Day (Naivelt), Magi Oman (Mayworks) -Technical Director (Mayworks): Joey Morin - Costumers: Mary Ford,Marianne Alas,Amina Beegun - Other Project Artists: Shelly Hering, LizRucker, Michael Burtt.Youth Creative Team:Shifra Cooper, Helah Cooper, Sasha Tate-Howarth, Dylan Tate-Howarth,Zoe Jenkins, CJ Sharpe,Tessa Alexanian - Summer Only: Russel Staunton &Ben Cope (Service Canada), Magdelena Jennings,Abby Cope, SierraMichaelides, Persephone Greco-Otto, Keiren Brennan Hinton.Other Contributors, Creators,Performers and Participants:David Abramovitz, Larry Adler, Liam Alexanian, Suzanne Alexanian,TessaAlexanian, Estelle Anderson,Abe Arnold,Terry Azar, Robin Barbier, RitaBergman, Sherri Bergman, David Bishop, Barbara Blaser, Sol Blaser, MichaelBlazer,Tina Blazer, Robin Blue, Ruth Borchiver,Alexander Bornet, StephenBornet, Melanie Brennan, Josh Burton, Nadya Burton, Michael Burtt, ZackBurton, Basil Butler,Venetia Butler,Amelia Cameron, Roy Cameron,AlanCantor, Edmund Chano, David Chudnovsky, May and Gerry Cohen, MichelleCohen, Steve Cooper,Abby Cope, Shelley Cope, Eve Danziger, MeghanDeere, Mitzi Dolgoy, Mari Drexler, Simon Drexler, Sadie Epstein-Fine, HelenFine, Izzie Fine, Lois Fine, Marsha Fine, Rochelle Fine, Shirley Fistell, JesseFrayne, Lisa Freeman, Leith Freudenthaler,Andrea Gacich, Charlotte Gacich,Nevine Gacich, Sean Gacich, Diana Giardino, Dylan Gold, Karen Gold, JudyGoldie, Sybil Goldstein, Goldie Gord, Charna Gordon, Bessie Grossman, RuthGrossman, Merle Harley,Astrid Harrison, Zack Harrison, Beth Helmers,Maxine Hermolin, Eli Howard, Rob Howarth, Linda Hutcheson, Lev Jaeger,Zohar Jaeger-Segal,Tracy Jenkins, Cecilia Jennings, Naomi Kates, CharlesKetchabaw,Aasha Kilroy, Katrina Kilroy, Shayle Kilroy, Kate Kingfisher, MaxKingfisher, Brian Kirby, Hilarie Klapman, Becky Lapedes, Bob Laxer,Tiina Leivo,Barb Lipton, Ronit Little, Bill Livingstone, Delma Lobo, Henry Lowi, DanaLowi-Merri, Stuart Lubin, , Jude MacDonald, Emma Manchester, Emma McKie,Coleen MacPherson, Dan Meaney, Kai Meister, Gord Meslin, SierraMichaelides, Lil Milton,Valerie Morris,Arthur Moukhortov, Charles Murdoch,Carla Myers, Rebecca Myers, Brenda Nietupski, Hannah Novak,AlvaroAntonio Orozco, Inti Paredes-Morris, Cassie Parkin, Esther Pflug, SimonePflug-Taylor, Maya Popovich, Estaban Puchalski, Sonia Reichman,AdeleRosenbloom, Jessie Rosenbloom-McKinnon, Erica Ross, Lisa Ross, ZekeRothfels, Lisa Roy, Ilan Saragosti, Hala Sayed, Marty Schechter, Leigh Schechter,Gabe Schiller-Lederman, Shlomit Segal, Mara Shaughnessy, Lilya Shapiro, SaulShapiro, Deb Sharpe, Ben Shek, Raven Shields,Al Soren, Rick Sterrit, CoryStaunton, Devin Staunton, Rick Sterrit, Cheryl Tallan, Marilyn Tate,Adam Tate-Howarth, Judith Taylor, Label and Hilda Temkin, Faten Toubasi, Kevin Urquhart,Roz Usisskin,Arie Verheul van de Ven, Rachel Vickerson, Grace Vincent, GraceWalsh, Dan Watson, Jack Wilcan, Mary Winter, Dianne Wintermute, MaddyWintermute, b.h. yael,Anna Yanovsky.JUMBLIES THEATRE -11- Annual Report 08/09 JUMBLIES THEATRE -12- Annual Report 08/09PHOTO: M. Otto