There’s something I’ve learned to expect when I tell somebody I’m part of the Paprika Festival, and it’s not a gasp of recognition or a bow of respect, it’s that person asking me what exactly the Paprika Festival is. It’s funny, because for a while I wasn’t sure what to tell them. It’s a lot easier to do now that I’ve got a good chunk of experience, but at first, this question left me almost as stumped as them.
The Paprika Festival’s Tenderhooks crew has quite the commute. Planes, trains, automobiles, helicopters, spaceships and Greyhounds (the racing kind) are all needed to get this bunch from their home in Ottawa to the Paprika clubhouse in Toronto. The once a month road trip doesn’t seem to slow down Hannah, Connor and Alysa. It fuels their excitement. This party of three is on a mission for artistic and creative fulfillment. From the Paprika Training days, the Toronto theatre scene and many trips to Value Village this sorority of thespians are getting their fill.
Paprika's last training day was in the cold of January12. We, the Advisory Board (or as I like to think of us, The Paprika Prom Committee), gathered the participants into groups and brought up questions such as "How can paprika improve?" How can we be not just "hot" but "hotter". Not be only in Toronto, but spread across the nation and globe, across the boundaries of age groups and even professions.
WHO: The Paprika Production 'Genesis' written by Rosamund Small and directed by Vivien Endicott-Douglas
My name is Paige and I'm in my second year at the University of Toronto, doing a double major in drama studies and cinema studies. In my spare time, I'm an intern at Theatre 20. In my spare spare time, I work an exhausting retail job selling handbags. In my spare spare spare time, I'm a member of the Paprika. To say that I am busy is an understatement. I'm a Libra, so my life is all about balance.
My involvement with the Paprika Festival was spurred on by a desire to be a part of something different. I wanted to learn more about the world of theater and I wanted to get an inside look at the administrative side of running a festival. Most of all, I wanted to show my support for this community. Prior to my interest in the festival, I had no interaction with the theater community of any kind. Luckily for me, the theater enthusiast is a personable and extroverted breed of artist. At every board meeting or training day, I find that it takes no time at all to be approached by the friendly face of someone I’ve never met before.Although I’ve come to Paprika with a certain air of naivety, I am certainly no stranger to the world of the arts. I have been a musician for as long as I can remember and I have been professionally performing for two years. My experience in music certainly brings me closer to those involved with theater because we are all constantly obsessing over the same questions:
On Saturday, November 24th, we had yet another successful $2 Clothing Sale to raise money for the Paprika Festival! In the weeks leading up to the event, participants and staff of the festival, Youth Advisory Board members, and anyone else who wanted to help out ran around the city collecting clothing and piling it all up at the Clothing Sale Headquarters. Helpful friends of friends left garbage bags full of goodies on the porch and bit by bit, a mountain of goodwill in garbage bags grew.
2012 marks the introduction of a new program to the Paprika Festival, called the Resident Company. The Resident company brings together independent artists, actors, directors, designers and stage managers and casts them in a play previously produced in the festival.