The Spee Society (Toronto) - Festival Host
This year we welcome back host The Spee Society. The Spee Society is another name for performer/creator Kiersten Tough, well known to Cooking Fire audiences in a number of guises. She performed at the first ever Cooking Fire Theatre Festival in Zuppa Theatre's Uncle Oscar's Experiment, then again with Zuppa Theatre in Open Theatre Kitchen in the festival's third year, and then went on to create her solo show, Lear's Shadow, for Cooking Fire 2007. In 2008, she was back at the festival, co-creating Hellooo, with festival co-artistic director Sarah Cormier. Now we are thrilled to have her back again to host this year's performance extravaganza.
TheatreRun / Theatre Smith-Gilmour / Why Not Theatre (Toronto) - Spent
Spent is a collaboration between 3 independent theatre companies based in Toronto, Canada. Theatre Smith-Gilmour (founded in 1979), TheatreRUN (founded in 2005) and Why Not Theatre (founded in 2007). All share a passion for international, physical and visual theatre, inspired by their shared Lecoq training. All have extensive backgrounds in touring work internationally.
Edge of the Woods Theatre (Huntsville) and Houppz Théàtre (Strasbourg) - SplasH20
Edge of the Woods Theatre has been in existence since November 2007. Its activities include the annual Nuit Blanche North, the Edge of the Woods Travelling Theatre Festival, various community arts and arts education projects through its Branching Out Theatre and Arts Program, as well as many other artistic projects, performances and events. Founded by theatre artists Dan Watson and Christina Serra, the company serves the Muskoka/Parry Sound region by presenting original theatre and live performance, showcasing the region through affordable public artistic activities, and providing artistic opportunities for the community. www.edgeofthewoodstheatre.com
French Connection (Toronto) - Period of Tranzish
French Connection is an association of three of Toronto's hottest, criticality acclaimed independent theatre companies: TheatreRUN, FIXT POINT and Ahuri Theatre. All dedicated to creating original work, we strive to celebrate the humour of the human condition. Much of our style is inspired by the world of clown, bouffon and image driven theatre. All three of companies share a french connection through our common theatrical training from the Lecoq School and École Philippe Gaulier in Paris, France. You may recognize some of our work from the 2011/12 season, including FIXT POINT's The Tale of A Town: Queen West which opened Passe Muraille's 2011/12 season, TheatreRUN's The Double which played at the Factory Theatre and Ahuri's A Fool's Life which played at the Theatre Centre. Period of Tranzish is our first official creation as French Connection and we are happy to share this work with you! We hope you laugh as you see yourself in what we do.
SNAP Productions & Theatre Hetaerae (Toronto) - Grannie Didn't Go to Florida
SNAP Productions is a sporadic, fly-by-night operation that came out of a long hibernation last year to produce the Summerworks hit Hannah's Turn by Mark MIgotti and Richard Sanger. Theatre Hetaerae develops and produces new Canadian work, under the artistic direction of Leora Morris. The company's debut production, a site-specific staging of Ned Dickens’ HORSE received criticaland popular acclaim at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival.
Échantillon no. 23 (Montreal) - PowerPunch®
Zach Stéphane and Estelle all recently completed the graduate program in contemporary puppet theatre at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM). Originally presented as their final project in June 2011, La Fourmilite (French version of PowerPunch) has since been performed at the 2012 Trois Jours de Casteliers Puppet Festival in Montreal and at the Verdun Street Festival.
Hare Theatre (London) - Mr. F’s Clock Shop
Hare Theatre is the name of Sandy Gribbin’s first foray into solo theatrical work. The shows he aims to create are based on the junction of his clown and a physical theatre work. A co-founder of Halifax’s Zuppa Circus Theatre and Toronto’s Golgi Apparatus Theatre Company, Gribbin is a graduate of Dalhousie University’s Acting Programme, has studied extensively with Phillippe Gaulier, and has worked as an actor, as well as many other things, throughout the Eastern seaboard. He currently resides in London, Ontario where he teaches acting and movement at Fanshwe College.
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