COLLIDER
COLLIDER
Pathetic Fallacy by Anita ROCHON
Photo by Peter POKORNY
K BODY AND MIND by Conor WYLIE
Photo by Dan O’SHEA
SmartSmart by Adrienne WONG
Photo by Chelsey STUYT
New Age Attitudes: Live in Concert
by Amanda SUM
Photo by Reagan JADE
Mid-Light by Mahaila PATTERSON-O’BRIEN
Photo by Sepehr SAMIMI
About the program
COLLIDER is a project-centered incubator that provides key opportunities for experimental artists through mentorship, access to studio space, a commissioning fee of $5,000 as well as presentation opportunities in HOLD ON LET GO. Artists are invited to dream up and begin to activate works engaged in a global conversation of art-making, and whose processes embrace experimental and interdisciplinary practices. Excerpts of the works are then highlighted at HOLD ON LET GO (formerly PushOFF) in both in-development and tour-ready formats, in subsequent years.
The COLLIDER residency was born out of an opportunity we recognized around PushOFF, to foster the practices of artists in our home community who are interested in, and whose works speak to, international markets. We want to make a tangible difference to artists and artistic practice in Vancouver. As one of Canada’s most consistent touring companies, TR has experienced first-hand what working in international contexts can do for the development of artists and their work. We want to create space for artists to push against the more dominant forms of performance-making and test the boundaries of theatrical form. This is not only a reflection of TR’s own artistic interests, but a direct result of the work that has evolved out of Vancouver.
COLLIDER Artists and projects have included Anita Rochon with Pathetic Fallacy, Conor Wylie with K BODY AND MIND, Mahaila Patterson-O’Brien with Mid-Light, Amanda Sum with New Age Attitudes: Live in Concert and Adrienne Wong with SmartSmart.
The residency is open to all performance-based artists. For more information, contact Maiko@theatrereplacement.org
2023 COLLIDER artist:
Keely O’BRIEN
KEELY O’BRIEN is an interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, BC, on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Her practice incorporates intricately handmade objects with innovative theatre creation. Devoted to a thoroughly DIY process, Keely’s work includes immersive installations, imaginative ephemera, and interactive experiences. As an educator and facilitator Keely creates collaborative art projects with community members and organizations. Frequently site-responsive and engaged with questions of place, home, and belonging, Keely's work aims to celebrate the potential for creativity and community in the place and people around her. Keely is Co-Artistic Director of experimental theatre company Popcorn Galaxies. She holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from Simon Fraser University.
COLLIDER piece:
Secret Ingredients
Secret Ingredients is a theatre project created by Keely O’Brien that uses cake to explore the intricacies of human relationships. Leading up to the performance, the public is invited to consider messages that they find too difficult to express directly to someone in their life, and submit them via an online form. These messages are translated into beautiful, subversive, and delicious cakes, which are delivered to the intended recipients as an edible form of communication. The project culminates in a live performance and cake tasting, inspired by the cakes and the stories behind them.
Like overhearing tantalizing gossip at a neighbouring cafe table, Secret Ingredients satisfies a human itch to peek into intimate and relatable details of other people’s lives, while also inviting reflection on our own unspoken feelings. The project pairs sweet flavours with challenging messages: the dark chocolate of embarrassment, the citrus zest of annoyance, the tart cherry jam of grief. Secret Ingredients takes a playful and intentionally inefficient approach to the challenges of honest communication, and provides a window into the quirks, nuances, joy and heartache of real relationships.
2024 COLLIDER artist:
Anjela Magpantay
Anjela is a multidisciplinary artist working as an actor, director, producer, clown, teacher, devising collaborator and anything in-between with various artists of different disciplines. She has worked with various companies: Bard on the Beach, Theatre Replacement, Upintheair Theatre Society, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Rumble, Theatre Conspiracy, Pacific Theatre, Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, Arts Club, Neptune Theatre, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Soulpepper, Odd Meridian, and A Wake of Vultures. She is a graduate from SFU with a BFA in theatre performance. She has worked nationally and internationally as a performer and collaborator in Hong Kong, the Philippines, in the UK and across Canada. Her interests are extensive but they have always led her back to wondering about the influence of space and environment on human behavior. Previous selected works: hear her voice in the video game 1000X Resist, made by Sunset Visitor, director of Happy Valley (rice & beans theatre) and Fly, Love (Studio 58), performer in Walking at Night by Myself (Nancy Tam and A Wake of Vultures), and Host of Foreign Radical (Theatre Conspiracy). Anjela is currently the interim Artistic Director of rice & beans theatre and works on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
COLLIDER piece:
it is for when you meet me
it is for when you meet me is an interactive theatre piece that explores and draws upon cultural gift-giving and the human nature of acceptance. Intermingling autobiographical material, verbatim texts and personal family histories, it is for when you meet me will guide the audience through a process of asking: what does it mean to gift-give as a way of connecting with loved ones who we are separated or distanced from?
it is for when you meet me will engage with the Filipino cultural phenomenon of gift-giving, in which travelers bring or send a ‘Pasalubong’ home from their travels. The English translation of Pasalubong is: “A gift for when you welcome me.” It is customary for the one traveling to bring thoughtful gifts back home, often packed in big cardboard boxes, called “Balikbayan boxes”. Overseas Filipino Workers have modernly adapted this custom in situations where they can’t go back home right away, stuffing large boxes with Tim Hortons ground coffee; Centrum vitamin pills; SPAM; name brand clothes and much more to express love and the sentiment: “I am coming soon.”