The Open Door East End Arts Collective, who are co-presenting the Mosaic Storytelling Festival 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, which will be performed at the Legless Stocking in April 2013.
About St. 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 St. David’s Anglican community worships there together with St. Andrew’s Japanese Congregation. 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 the annual Mosaic Storytelling Festival and other events.
Follow this blog!
Follow us on Twitter @OpenDoorStDs
No comments:
Post a Comment