KAIROS (καιρός):
1. an ancient Greek word for “opportune moment”
2. a time of crisis
3. a passing instant when an opening appears which must be driven through with force if success is to be achieved.
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MISSION + MANDATE
An artist-driven company working on a project-to-project basis, theatrekairos is dedicated to engaging the talents of emerging performers, writers, directors, visual artists, and musicians of diverse backgrounds who have the gifts and drive to generate exciting Canadian theatre. Theatrekairos encourages the collaboration of these artists through its writers’circle program, and the HOTscrawlsFestival. These opportunities aim to create, develop and produce innovative multi-disciplinary works while building connections between professional and emerging artists in an environment that fosters positive creativity and artistic process.
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ARTISTIC TEAM
LISA LI
artistic director
’11|HOTscrawlsFestival Producer
Lisa Li is primarily an actor and writer but also works as a director and dramaturge. Selected performance credits include The Penelopiad (Nightwood Theatre in association with the Shaw Festival), The SCUM Suite (Hysteria Festival/Buddies in Bad Times), SPRAWL (Threshold Theatre), Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (Deus XM/Summerworks), The Comedy of Errors (The Canadian Stage Company), 43 Regulations (CrossCurrents/Factory Theatre), Now With Sweetness!, Pigeon (Groundswell/Nightwood) and A Dream Called Laundry (Diaspora Dialogues). She has also worked with various other independent theatre companies and festivals. For TV: Rookie Blue (ABC/Global) and Warehouse 13 (NBC/Citytv). Lisa has directed for Driftwood Theatre’s Trafalgar 24 and was the Assistant Director on First Hand Woman presented at the Montreal Fringe Festival and Toronto’s Next Stage Festival. As a playwright, Lisa has completed the fu-GEN playwright’s unit where she conceived and developed her first play, All These Things. An excerpt was read at CrossCurrents in 2007 and had its debut performance at the Erindale Fringe. Lisa holds an Honours BA in Theatre from the University of Toronto and is a graduate of the Acting Program at Sheridan College.
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TAMARA CHANDON
writers’circle program director
An annoying Crash Test Dummies song got Tamara writing. In grade eight, Tamara commented that the song was “shit” when one her classmates sang it. Mrs. Cali heard that, and demanded that Tamara write an apology letter. A few days later, Tamara stood in the principal’s office. “I have never read an apology letter that blamed swearing on the CRTC and poor censorship,” Mr. Sytnyk tried not laugh. After four years in an arts high school, four years in a nutty theatre and acting program, and two years in a professional writing program, Tamara considered herself an Actor and Writer. She possesses many educational pieces of paper: a high school diploma, a bachelor of arts, a diploma in acting, a certificate in publishing, and by 2013 will have a master of fine arts, too. In 2010, Tamara published her first book, Freezer Cats, with Life Rattle Press. Her work has appeared in numerous Life Rattle publications since then, and she now works with Life Rattle’s radio program, which features new writers reading their work. Freezer Cats contains lots of swearing, and no apology letters will be written for that.
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REBECCA WARDEN
co-founder
Rebecca Warden is a co-founder and co-artistic director of theatrekairos. Since graduating from the Sheridan College/University of Toronto joint acting program, Rebecca has performed in Toronto and across Canada in a variety of Shakespeare, musical, and new works productions, while also trying her hand in film & television. Rebecca now lives in Ottawa, where she is completing a Masters degree in Sociology. She is thrilled to be doing research on food security & urban agriculture (her second love), but truly misses the passionate hearts and creative minds of her Toronto community!
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BRIANA BROWN
associate artist
Briana is happy to be continuing her work with theatrekairos and all the wonderful people this company brings together. As a writer, she has completed Nightwood Theatre’s 2008 Write from the Hip program, the theatrekairos writers’circle and was commissioned by SeriousFUN! Theatre Company to develop The Line. She has created and performed in a number of her own works and collaborations including The Star (Spring Arts Fair), Medusa Moves (Rhubarb! Festival), and More Than Breath (Paprika Festival). Her one woman show, Cassandra was presented as part of FemFest in Winnipeg, following a national fringe tour and will be making another appearance at the London Fringe this summer with a new –ten year old- actor taking over the role. She has directed productions at the Toronto Fringe, New Ideas Festival as well as the 2009 Toronto production of The Vagina Monologues (V-Day Toronto). Assistant directing credits include Misery (Canadian Stage, David Storch) and True Love Lies (Factory Theatre, Brad Fraser). She is the Director of Artistic Programs with the Paprika Festival and Associate Producer of Seventh Stage Theatre Productions.
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ADAM KIRKHAM
associate producer
Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Adam Kirkham is an artist with a knack for community engagement. At the age of eleven, he was the youngest recipient of a community safety award from the Toronto Police Services. As a musician, photographer and theatre maker, he facilitated the launch of Arts Alive, an interdisciplinary celebration of art by students at Etobicoke Collegiate Institute. The event has since become an annual event at the school. At sixteen, Adam began his professional career as a Stage Manager with Theatre Orangeville’s Young Company and various touring Fringe artists. He studied at York University focusing on both Theatrical Production and Collectively Devised Theatre. Here, Adam participated in and eventually became Artistic Director of the school’s annual theatre festival, playground. Through YorkU’s independent study program Adam worked as an apprentice stage manager for Canadian Stage’s Dream In High Park in 2006. Adam has worked in the festival circuit as a participant and organizer. He was hired to coordinate the 20th anniversary celebrations of The Fringe of Toronto Theatre Festival and was promoted to Development & Communications Manager later that year. He has worked in operations for Tarragon Theatre’s Spring Arts Fair, the SummerWorks Theatre Festival, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah and the Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi, UAE. In 2007 Adam became a core collaborator of the film collective, Flemish Beauty. The collective produced an award-winning short film, based on his screenplay The Inquisitive Snail. In 2008, the film was chosen to represent Canada at the Worldwide One Minutes as part of cultural programming at the Beijing Olympic Games. Later that year, Flemish Beauty was acknowledged as one of Canada’s Top 20 Most Promising Film Makers by a jury that included producer Michael Donovan (Bowling for Columbine), director Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo) and Maclean’s film critic Brian D. Johnson. As part of this honour, Adam was invited to participate as a Springboard Speaker at the Victoria International Film Festival in 2009 with notable artists including Don McKellar, Richie Mehta, and Michael McGowan. Adam has participated in fundraising initiatives for SOY’s Youth Line, various arts events, and has hosted a fundraiser in support of the David Kelly Services provided through Family Service Toronto.
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