ArtwordList

Nightwood Theatre, Canada’s national women’s theatre, is thrilled to announce Maude Barlow as this year’s Keynote Speaker. National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians and recipient of eight honourary doctorates as well as many awards including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel”), the Citation of Lifetime Achievement at the 2008 Canadian Environment Award, and the 2009 Earth Day Canada Outstanding Environmental Achievement Award. Ms. Barlow is also the best-selling author of 16 books including international best seller Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and The Coming Battle for the Right to Water.

Joining Barlow and Nightwood in celebrating International Women’s Day will be: Jessica Yee, Special Address (2009 YWCA Young Women of Distinction Winner), funny-girl co-hosts Elley-Ray Hennessy (award-winning veteran of stage, radio, film and television) and Lisa Karen Cox (The Penelopiad, Royal Shakespeare Company/NAC); comedian Sandra Battaglini (Hard Headed Woman); Andrea Nann (one of Canada’s most influential dance choreographers and performers); mezzo soprano queen Jean Stilwell and pianist Patti Loach; belly dancer extraordinaire Roula Said (Maza Meze, Sabah) and Maryem Tollar (award-winning Arabic vocalist); a short film by Andrea Dorfman (Parsley Days, Love That Boy), singer Saidah Baba Talibah (daughter of Salome Bey); and the diva of Afro-Brazilian music Guiomar Campbell leading the evening’s House Band.

For the last 30 years, Nightwood Theatre has developed, produced and toured landmark, award-winning plays by women. Since 1983, Nightwood has presented FemCab, the only cabaret in town where politics and art come together in an irreverent, humourous and shameless celebration of women’s success!

Artist Bios

Maude Barlow, Keynote Speaker
Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians and chairs the board of Washington-based Food and Water Watch. She is also an executive member of the San Francisco–based International Forum on Globalization and a Councillor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council. Maude is the recipient of eight honorary doctorates as well as many awards, including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel”), the Citation of Lifetime Achievement at the 2008 Canadian Environment Award, and the 2009 Earth Day Canada Outstanding Environmental Achievement Award. In 2008/2009, she served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the United Nations General Assembly. She is also the best selling author or co-author of 16 books, including the international best seller Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and The Coming Battle for the Right to Water.

Jessica Yee, Keynote Speaker
24-years-old and Two-Spirited from the Mohawk Nation, Jessica Yee is the founder and Executive Director of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, a North American wide organization working on issues of healthy sexuality, reproductive justice, cultural competency, and youth empowerment.   She is the 2009 recipient of the YWCA Young Woman of Distinction award, a 2009/2010 Role Model for the National Aboriginal Health Organization, and was recently named one of 20 International Women’s Health Heroes by Our Bodies/Our Blog.

Elley-Ray Hennessy, Co-Host
Elley-Ray Hennessy is an international award-winning veteran of stage, radio, film and television. She recently created and directed the multimedia extravaganza, Voices Within Walls. She just finished writing her third animation feature film for Paramount pictures called Pappagiorgio the Great, as well as directed and co-wrote Z-BAW for Imagination Films, which will open later this year. Elley was nominated for a Dora Award (Best Actress) for her role of Virginia in Age of Arousal (Nightwood/Factory Theatre) and will reprise her wonderful character, Doris Manetta, in The Right Road to Pontypool (4th Line Theatre) this summer. She can currently be heard voicing many characters for Babar, Side Kicks, Magination among others.

Lisa Karen Cox, Co-Host
Lisa is an Ottawa actor whose past credits include: Guys ‘n Dolls, Edith in Pirates of Penzance; Anita in West Side Story, Dorothy Brock in 42nd St (Desperation Theatre Company); Horatio in Hamlet (Beyond the Cubicle Productions); The Vagina Monologues (8000 Nerves); Timon of Athens, Cymbeline, King John, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Edward II, (Stratford Festival); Klank! (Hatch Festival); Hello, Again! (Tarragon Extra Space); Pompey in Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare in the Rough); Selene in The Penelopiad (Royal Shakespeare Company and National Arts Centre English Theatre); Choir Master in Raising Luke (tiny bird/SummerWorks); The Furies (The Box Social). A graduate from Concordia University’s Interdisciplinary Studies programme Lisa studied contemporary dance, jazz vocal, theatre and business.

Saidah Baba Talibah, Singer
Saidah Baba Talibah is the daughter of Obie award-winner and Tony and Grammy nominated Salome Bey, Canada’s Queen of Jazz, Blues and Spirituals, and is the niece of Andy Bey, also a Grammy nominated musician. She offers up a distinct and fluid blend of bluesy rock, deep funk and hot, buttered soul. She first created stories that reflect the multitude of sounds and styles emanating from the city as a founding member of the seminal soul/rock group Blaxäm and was prominently featured on their 1998 EP, Kiss My Afro. Her most recent project, The Phone Demos, came out on digital release this past October.

Jean Stilwell, Singer
Jean Stilwell has built a career on opera and concert stages on three continents, and is best known as Canada’s most “blisteringly seductive” Carmen. Her flare for high (and sometimes outrageous) fashion is hidden behind the microphone at Classical 96.3FM, but whether she is performing opera at the Hollywood Bowl or cabaret for a smaller audience, Jean brings to the room a special blend of vulnerability and strength and always, a wicked sense of humour.  www.jeanstilwell.com

Patti Loach, Pianist
Patti Loach has been in love with the piano since she was six. A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto and the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, Patti indulges her passion for the contrasting worlds of musical theatre, classical music, cabaret and jazz in her various shows with Jean Stilwell, Carmen UnZipped, Patricia Zentilli, The Shopping Cart of Love and Brad Hampton, The Missing Photograph. www.pattiloach.com

Andrea Nann, Dancer
Andrea Nann is the Artistic Director of Dreamwalker Dance Company and lives and works in Toronto as a choreographer, performer, producer and dance educator. Andrea has developed a repertoire of highly acclaimed collaborations with poets, authors, musicians, visual artists and filmmakers, artists as unique as Michael Ondaatje, Gordon Downie, Wayne Ngan, Peter Mettler, George Gao and Veronica Tennant. Andrea is a graduate of York University (Fine Arts Honours) and was a member of the Danny Grossman Dance Company from 1988-2003. As a freelance dancer Andrea has created over forty-five original roles and continues to work with many celebrated Canadian choreographers and dance companies touring in Canada, Asia and Europe.  Andrea is currently a Resident Artist at the Young Centre.   www.dreamwalkerdance.com

Roula Said, Dancer
Roula Said is a multi-faceted artist who has dedicated her talents to Middle Eastern music and dance. One of Canada’s leading lights in the world of bellydance, she is best known for bringing her unique style to the arena of world music and fusion. She co-founded the Canadian global music ensemble Maza Meze with whom she often guests as the featured dancer. Roula also appeared as a principal actor, dance coach and choreographer for the critically acclaimed feature film Sabah directed by Ruba Nadda and starring Arsinée Khanjian. She continues to sing, play and dance with her Arabic music group Doula, and in numerous projects with her husband, David Buchbinder.

Maryem Tollar, Musician
Maryem Tollar has built a reputation as a singer who can live and thrive in a variety of musical milieus.  She was born in Egypt and raised in Canada with frequent sojourns in the Middle East.  She has toured across Canada with a variety of projects including her own ensemble; Christos Hatzis’ multimedia project, Constantinople and his large scale work Sepulcher of Life.  She premiered a new work From the Song of Songs by Christos Hatzis commissioned by Tafelmusik in March 2008.  Maryem has sung on several film and television scores including the theme music for CBC Television’s Little Mosque on the Prairie and A.R.Rahman’s hit Mayya Mayya in the Bollywood movie Guru.  Her CD Cairo to Toronto was nominated for a 2009 Juno Award in the world music category.  Maryem will be performing and creating the sound design in an upcoming theatre production Nine Parts of Desire, directed by Kelly Straughan.  She is also creating a multi-media project Journey from Alif to Zed.  www.maryemtollar.com

Sandra Battaglini, Comedian
Sandra Battaglini is a dynamic, high-energy comedic actor, stand-up comedienne and cabaret performer. In 2005, Battaglini was nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award for her solo show, A Small Battalion of Soldiers, directed by Mark Andrada. Battaglini’s last tour de force, Hard Headed Woman, also directed by Andrada, premiered at the Diesel Playhouse in October 2006 to sold out houses and travelled to the LA Comedy Festival. Sandra won a Canadian Comedy Award for Hard Headed Woman in the category of best solo show. Past performances include, The Upside Down Widow, 2005 Chicago Improv Festival and Hangin with Jesus, Toronto Festival of Clowns 2007. She is part of Toronto’s newest sketch troupe, The
Orphan Family Players and was part of the 2005 Toronto production of the Vagina Monologues with Shirley Douglas and Rachel McAdams. She will appear in the upcoming feature film Running Mates with Henry Winkler.

Andrea Dorfman, Filmmaker
A Halifax based artist and filmmaker, Dorfman has made lots of shorts through the ’90s, two feature films (Parsley Days, ’00 and Love that Boy, ’03), one documentary (Sluts, ’05) and then started making shorts again… Currently she is working on two short animations at the National Film Board and another feature film, Harmony, with co-writer, Jennifer Deyell.

Guiomar Campbell, House Band
Singer and percussionist Guiomar Campbell, is a native of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and has been performing in Toronto since 1978 in various Brazilian as well as Cuban, South African, and world percussion ensembles.  Guiomar leads the band Parabolica, a Toronto based musical group built on a foundation of Afro-Brazilian folk rhythms, bossa nova, samba, and jazz. Guiomar received an award for her achievement in art and culture from the Ministry of Multiculturalism, Jean Augustine and the National Ethnic Press. Guiomar was also a cast member of Da Kink in My Hair, in 2007 which ran at the Princess of Wales Theatre and recently performed and did the music composition for the play First Hand Woman.
Please join us on April 13th for our raucous salute to the extraordinary achievements of women across the globe!

ABOUT NIGHTWOOD THEATRE
Nightwood Theatre – Artistic Director Kelly Thornton and Producer Monica Esteves.

As Canada’s national women’s theatre since 1979, Nightwood has launched the careers of countless leading theatre artists in the country. We have won Canada’s highest literary and performing arts awards and more than ever our success proves the need for theatre that gives voice to women and celebrates the diversity of Canadian society. We remain actively engaged in mentoring young women and promoting women’s place on the local, national and international stage.

FemCab Details

DATE & TIME:           Tuesday, April 13, 2009 / 8:00 p.m.

TICKETS:                   Ticket price: $30.00
Tickets on sale now!

LOCATION:                Brigantine Room, Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West

BOX OFFICE:            Tickets are available in advance by calling Nightwood Theatre at 416.944.1740
ext. 8 or online at www.nightwoodtheatre.net