St David's Anglican Church
At Donlands & Danforth, Toronto ON
Mosaic Storytelling Festival 2012 - Tales from Around the World
Five Sundays of stories for ages 5 to 95
Every two weeks from Jan. 22 to Mar. 18, 2012 at 3:00 pm.
At St. David’s parish hall at Donlands and Danforth, opposite Donlands TTC Station.
Admission: Pay what you can (suggested $5 per person)
For more information call 416-466-3142.
The Open Door East End Arts Collective and St. David’s Anglican Church celebrate the diversity and creativity of our rich East End neighbourhood – and our world – through five afternoons of storytelling with tellers and tales from all across the globe.
Itah Sadu
Sunday, January 22 at 3:00 pm - Festival Opener
Itah Sadu of ‘A Different Booklist’ bookstore shares the rich oral traditions of the Caribbean, Africa, and North America.
Rubena Sinha and Bob Barton
Sunday, February 5 at 3:00 pm
A meeting between East and West with traditional tales and myths of life, love, heroes and demons.
Sandra Whiting
Sunday, February 19 at 3:00 pm
One of Mosaic’s most popular storytellers with West African mythologies, folklore, and traditional tales from the Caribbean — to make both children and adults laugh, cry, and think.
Lorne Brown
Sunday, March 4 at 3:00 pm
Through sing-along songs and story, audiences are transported to magical worlds — Canadian folksongs, folktales, and historical stories at their best.
Rukhsana Khan and Celia Lottridge
Sunday, March 18 at 3:00 pm
Two popular authors/storytellers share folktales, historical and traditional stories from the Middle East, Persia, and worlds beyond.
About our Storytellers:
Our season opener, author and storyteller Itah Sadu (January 22), shares the rich oral traditions of the Caribbean, Africa, and North America. Canadian born, Itah was raised in Barbados, and upon returning to Canada studied political science at York University. Itah appears regularly on television and presents and facilitates storytelling and writing workshops for both children and adults. Her best selling children's books include Christopher Please Clean Up Your Room, Name Calling, How The Coconut Got Its Face, Christopher Changes His Name and A Touch of the Zebra. Itah’s downtown Toronto bookstore, ‘A Different Booklist’, features writers from the Caribbean and the African Diaspora.
Rubena Sinha (February 5) is a dancer, choreographer and storyteller. She is a graduate of the West Bengal Academy of Dance, Drama and Music and has, for over twenty years, created many cross-cultural performances that reflect her training in South Asian and other dance forms, including Manipuri, Kathak, Odissi, Jazz, Ballet and Flamenco. Rubena began her training in dance theatre in India under the direction of Uday Shankar, and went on to be founder and Artistic Director of Winnipeg’s Fusion Dance Theatre. In 1994, during a sabbatical in India and Africa, she trained in the ancient puppetry traditions of Bengal. Since retiring from the Fusion Dance Theatre, Rubena has focused on solo storytelling development and performance, with appearances in Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver.
Professional storyteller Bob Barton (February 5) was born in Hamilton, Ontario and studied at McMaster University. He came to storytelling after a career in teaching and with the Ontario Ministry of Education and has been a featured storyteller at festivals across North America, England and Australia. Since 1969 he has published over twenty books for both children and teachers including The Little Book of Northern Tales: The Bear Says North, and Telling Stories Your Way. His first novel for children, Trouble on the Voyage, was published in November of 2010. He has worked as an artist in schools with Prologue to the Performing Arts and the Writers’ Union of Canada “Writers-in-the-Schools” program.
Sandra Whiting (February 19) was one of the hits of last year’s Mosaic Storytelling Festival — and has been telling stories from the time she could talk. She revels in the spoken word, the well-paced narrative, the stage, the public performance. Her stories draw upon the rich oral traditions of West African mythologies, folklore, and traditional tales from the Caribbean. With the lyrical lilt of her Jamaican accent, her storytelling has been known to make both children and adults laugh, cry and think.
Veteran storyteller Lorne Brown (March 4) has had his voice preserved by the StorySave program of the national organization Storytellers of Canada. His 3-CD album Lorne Brown: A Link in the Chain was released in Yellowknife last spring. “A singer of old songs and a teller of old tales,” Lorne is a co-founder of Storytelling Toronto, co-artistic director of the Legless Stocking, and founder of the Ballad Project. Often accompanied by his 5-string banjo, Lorne has delighted audiences all across Canada with his tales and songs.
Another favourite from last year’s festival, Rukhsana Khan (March 18) is an award-winning author and storyteller. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, she immigrated to Canada at the age of three. Now the author of eleven published books, with more on the way, Rukhsana has appeared on television and radio; has been featured at international conferences in Denmark, Mexico, Singapore, Italy, and South Africa; and has presented all across Canada and the U.S. Ruhksana tells the traditional tales of India, Persia, the Middle East, as well as her own stories. She is a member of SCBWI, The Writers Union of Canada, CANSCAIP, and Storytelling Toronto. She has four grown children (three girls and a boy) and four grandchildren and lives in Toronto with her husband and family.
Celia Lottridge (March 18) has been a member of the Toronto storytelling community since the first Storytelling Festival in 1979. Her stories come from many places, from the African jungles to the Canadian prairie. She loves audiences of all ages. Celia is also the author of many books for children, including The Name of the Tree and Home Is Beyond the Mountains.
About The Open Door East End Arts Collective:
The Open Door East End Arts Collective, who are co-presenting this series along with St. David’s Anglican Church, is a group of artists from Toronto’s east end who love their neighbourhood and the arts with equal passion. We seek to bring rich, beautiful, diverse, affordable cultural experiences to the families who live here. We are Trish O’Reilly-Brennan, Liisa Repo-Martell, and Jerry Silverberg. Our neighbourhood, which includes Danforth Village, the Pocket, and Greektown, is one of the most culturally diverse yet least served areas of the city in terms of the arts. Each of us have deep roots in various arts communities in the city (theatre, music, storytelling, etc.) as well as a network of relationships and connections in this neighbourhood that put us in the unique position of being able to draw on the most exciting artists in the city as well as connect them with our diverse local audience.
Liisa Repo-Martell is an award-winning actor who works all over the country in both film and television and theatre. She has worked extensively with Soulpepper Theatre Co as well as many other theatres in T.O. She has toured the country with two highly acclaimed one-woman shows, I Claudia and The Syringa Tree. Film and television credits include: The English Patient, Unforgiven, Republic of Doyle, Flashpoint, and a recurring role on This Is Wonderland. She has also won a Gemini for her work in the television movie Nights Below Station Street. She is a passionate Eastender and excited to part of bringing the performing arts to this side of the Don.
Jerry Silverberg is a theatre and visual artist whose award winning company, Cascade Theatre, has performed to over 950,000 children and adults in the GTA and across the country from the east coast to as far away as Inuvik. In 1995 his production of Something from Nothing adapted from the book by Phoebe Gilman, won a Dora Mavor Moore Award. Between 1996 and 2007 he produced a successful family theatre series at the Metro Central YMCA. As a visual artist his fine art work has been shown in many cafes and galleries throughout the city; his illustrative work has been seen in the Globe and Mail, Walrus magazine, the Toronto Star, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.
Trish O’Reilly-Brennan is a versatile singer and actor, who began her career singing opera then quickly took a 90-degree turn into theatre. Trish is closely involved in her east end community and is the instigator of various community and arts projects at St. David’s Anglican Church. She has performed roles ranging from Barbarina in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro to Lee in Cowgirls to experimental works at the Fringe and SummerWorks theatre festivals and a season at the Blyth Festival (where she premiered roles in two new Canadian plays). Trish enjoys singing in harmony with both the a cappella Renaissance trio The MadriGALS and the 1940s trio Rumboogie. She is currently writing a show featuring popular tunes of the 40s along with real-life stories of Canadian women during World War II.
About Saint David’s Anglican Church:
St David’s Anglican Church has served the east end of Toronto for over a century. The current church building was built in 1921 and the Saint David’s Anglican community worships there together with St. Andrew’s Japanese Church. St David’s serves the Donlands and Danforth community by hosting a children’s drop in, art camps, concerts and other events. Reverend Warren Wilson and the church are very proud to be hosting this second annual Mosaic Storytelling Festival.
This is the second annual Mosaic Storytelling Festival. Details of last year’s Festival can be seen here.
Five Sundays of stories for ages 5 to 95
Every two weeks from Jan. 22 to Mar. 18, 2012 at 3:00 pm.
At St. David’s parish hall at Donlands and Danforth, opposite Donlands TTC Station.
Admission: Pay what you can (suggested $5 per person)
For more information call 416-466-3142.
The Open Door East End Arts Collective and St. David’s Anglican Church celebrate the diversity and creativity of our rich East End neighbourhood – and our world – through five afternoons of storytelling with tellers and tales from all across the globe.
Itah Sadu
Sunday, January 22 at 3:00 pm - Festival Opener
Itah Sadu of ‘A Different Booklist’ bookstore shares the rich oral traditions of the Caribbean, Africa, and North America.
Rubena Sinha and Bob Barton
Sunday, February 5 at 3:00 pm
A meeting between East and West with traditional tales and myths of life, love, heroes and demons.
Sandra Whiting
Sunday, February 19 at 3:00 pm
One of Mosaic’s most popular storytellers with West African mythologies, folklore, and traditional tales from the Caribbean — to make both children and adults laugh, cry, and think.
Lorne Brown
Sunday, March 4 at 3:00 pm
Through sing-along songs and story, audiences are transported to magical worlds — Canadian folksongs, folktales, and historical stories at their best.
Rukhsana Khan and Celia Lottridge
Sunday, March 18 at 3:00 pm
Two popular authors/storytellers share folktales, historical and traditional stories from the Middle East, Persia, and worlds beyond.
About our Storytellers:
Our season opener, author and storyteller Itah Sadu (January 22), shares the rich oral traditions of the Caribbean, Africa, and North America. Canadian born, Itah was raised in Barbados, and upon returning to Canada studied political science at York University. Itah appears regularly on television and presents and facilitates storytelling and writing workshops for both children and adults. Her best selling children's books include Christopher Please Clean Up Your Room, Name Calling, How The Coconut Got Its Face, Christopher Changes His Name and A Touch of the Zebra. Itah’s downtown Toronto bookstore, ‘A Different Booklist’, features writers from the Caribbean and the African Diaspora.
Rubena Sinha (February 5) is a dancer, choreographer and storyteller. She is a graduate of the West Bengal Academy of Dance, Drama and Music and has, for over twenty years, created many cross-cultural performances that reflect her training in South Asian and other dance forms, including Manipuri, Kathak, Odissi, Jazz, Ballet and Flamenco. Rubena began her training in dance theatre in India under the direction of Uday Shankar, and went on to be founder and Artistic Director of Winnipeg’s Fusion Dance Theatre. In 1994, during a sabbatical in India and Africa, she trained in the ancient puppetry traditions of Bengal. Since retiring from the Fusion Dance Theatre, Rubena has focused on solo storytelling development and performance, with appearances in Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver.
Professional storyteller Bob Barton (February 5) was born in Hamilton, Ontario and studied at McMaster University. He came to storytelling after a career in teaching and with the Ontario Ministry of Education and has been a featured storyteller at festivals across North America, England and Australia. Since 1969 he has published over twenty books for both children and teachers including The Little Book of Northern Tales: The Bear Says North, and Telling Stories Your Way. His first novel for children, Trouble on the Voyage, was published in November of 2010. He has worked as an artist in schools with Prologue to the Performing Arts and the Writers’ Union of Canada “Writers-in-the-Schools” program.
Sandra Whiting (February 19) was one of the hits of last year’s Mosaic Storytelling Festival — and has been telling stories from the time she could talk. She revels in the spoken word, the well-paced narrative, the stage, the public performance. Her stories draw upon the rich oral traditions of West African mythologies, folklore, and traditional tales from the Caribbean. With the lyrical lilt of her Jamaican accent, her storytelling has been known to make both children and adults laugh, cry and think.
Veteran storyteller Lorne Brown (March 4) has had his voice preserved by the StorySave program of the national organization Storytellers of Canada. His 3-CD album Lorne Brown: A Link in the Chain was released in Yellowknife last spring. “A singer of old songs and a teller of old tales,” Lorne is a co-founder of Storytelling Toronto, co-artistic director of the Legless Stocking, and founder of the Ballad Project. Often accompanied by his 5-string banjo, Lorne has delighted audiences all across Canada with his tales and songs.
Another favourite from last year’s festival, Rukhsana Khan (March 18) is an award-winning author and storyteller. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, she immigrated to Canada at the age of three. Now the author of eleven published books, with more on the way, Rukhsana has appeared on television and radio; has been featured at international conferences in Denmark, Mexico, Singapore, Italy, and South Africa; and has presented all across Canada and the U.S. Ruhksana tells the traditional tales of India, Persia, the Middle East, as well as her own stories. She is a member of SCBWI, The Writers Union of Canada, CANSCAIP, and Storytelling Toronto. She has four grown children (three girls and a boy) and four grandchildren and lives in Toronto with her husband and family.
Celia Lottridge (March 18) has been a member of the Toronto storytelling community since the first Storytelling Festival in 1979. Her stories come from many places, from the African jungles to the Canadian prairie. She loves audiences of all ages. Celia is also the author of many books for children, including The Name of the Tree and Home Is Beyond the Mountains.
About The Open Door East End Arts Collective:
The Open Door East End Arts Collective, who are co-presenting this series along with St. David’s Anglican Church, is a group of artists from Toronto’s east end who love their neighbourhood and the arts with equal passion. We seek to bring rich, beautiful, diverse, affordable cultural experiences to the families who live here. We are Trish O’Reilly-Brennan, Liisa Repo-Martell, and Jerry Silverberg. Our neighbourhood, which includes Danforth Village, the Pocket, and Greektown, is one of the most culturally diverse yet least served areas of the city in terms of the arts. Each of us have deep roots in various arts communities in the city (theatre, music, storytelling, etc.) as well as a network of relationships and connections in this neighbourhood that put us in the unique position of being able to draw on the most exciting artists in the city as well as connect them with our diverse local audience.
Liisa Repo-Martell is an award-winning actor who works all over the country in both film and television and theatre. She has worked extensively with Soulpepper Theatre Co as well as many other theatres in T.O. She has toured the country with two highly acclaimed one-woman shows, I Claudia and The Syringa Tree. Film and television credits include: The English Patient, Unforgiven, Republic of Doyle, Flashpoint, and a recurring role on This Is Wonderland. She has also won a Gemini for her work in the television movie Nights Below Station Street. She is a passionate Eastender and excited to part of bringing the performing arts to this side of the Don.
Jerry Silverberg is a theatre and visual artist whose award winning company, Cascade Theatre, has performed to over 950,000 children and adults in the GTA and across the country from the east coast to as far away as Inuvik. In 1995 his production of Something from Nothing adapted from the book by Phoebe Gilman, won a Dora Mavor Moore Award. Between 1996 and 2007 he produced a successful family theatre series at the Metro Central YMCA. As a visual artist his fine art work has been shown in many cafes and galleries throughout the city; his illustrative work has been seen in the Globe and Mail, Walrus magazine, the Toronto Star, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.
Trish O’Reilly-Brennan is a versatile singer and actor, who began her career singing opera then quickly took a 90-degree turn into theatre. Trish is closely involved in her east end community and is the instigator of various community and arts projects at St. David’s Anglican Church. She has performed roles ranging from Barbarina in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro to Lee in Cowgirls to experimental works at the Fringe and SummerWorks theatre festivals and a season at the Blyth Festival (where she premiered roles in two new Canadian plays). Trish enjoys singing in harmony with both the a cappella Renaissance trio The MadriGALS and the 1940s trio Rumboogie. She is currently writing a show featuring popular tunes of the 40s along with real-life stories of Canadian women during World War II.
About Saint David’s Anglican Church:
St David’s Anglican Church has served the east end of Toronto for over a century. The current church building was built in 1921 and the Saint David’s Anglican community worships there together with St. Andrew’s Japanese Church. St David’s serves the Donlands and Danforth community by hosting a children’s drop in, art camps, concerts and other events. Reverend Warren Wilson and the church are very proud to be hosting this second annual Mosaic Storytelling Festival.
This is the second annual Mosaic Storytelling Festival. Details of last year’s Festival can be seen here.