cepheloparty!
cepheloparty! is a performance ritual for the end of the world, or at least the one we know. Confined by a looming deadline from a Higher Power™, the facilitators desperately try to bring participants together before everything falls apart. Will you play for your place in the newer world?
Content Warnings: Profanity, Discussion of Death, Current Events, the End of the World
Note: This is a durational piece that takes place in cycles. Please note that while the piece runs approximately two hours, audience members may come and go as they please. The unreal nature of the show is consistently acknowledged and there are regular audience check ins. Audience participation is involved but completely optional, you have full autonomy. Rules will be clearly and consistently communicated.
cepheloparty!
- RUN TIME: 2 hours
- Co-Creators: Jonnie Lombard, Ayesha Khan, Sydney Jinjoe, Paul Smith
- Mentor and Program Facilitator: xLq
The Creators unit wants to say a special thank you to xLq for going above and beyond as mentors to the four of us! We are so grateful for their time and energy in out of the rehearsal room. From savings us from tech nightmares to offering bedazzled helmets they truly jumped in with both feet and this project wouldn’t have made it to where it is without them! Maddie and Jord are such inspirations and getting to work with them has been such a pleasure
Location
Native Earth Performing Art’s Aki Studio
250-585 Dundas Street East
Toronto, ON M5A 2B7
https://www.nativeearth.ca/akistudio/
Accessibility
Native Earth Performing Arts and Artscape strive to provide equal treatment to and equitable benefits of its services, programs and facilities in a manner that respects the dignity and independence of people with disabilities.
- The Dundas Street entrance provides barrier-free access to the building
- Two elevators are located in the South Lobby
- All floors have accessible washrooms and stalls, as well as accessible drinking fountains
- Signage throughout the building is written in Braille
- A hearing enhancement system is available in Aki Studio and the Ada Slaight Hall
NATIVE EARTH PERFORMING ART’S COVID HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY
BOOK YOUR TICKET
Keep an eye on our socials for ticket details!
Ayesha Maria Khan
Ayesha Khan
Ayesha (she/they) is an actor, singer, budding director, and writer, who now calls Toronto home. She takes a keen interest in the human psyche and the behaviour it elicits. She believes in the power of plurality in forms of knowledge and in states of being. She starts with empathy as a foundation for all she undertakes, artistically and personally.
Jonnie Lombard
Jonnie Lombard
Jonnie Lombard (they/them) is an emerging gender-queer theatre artist (and decent baker), who is currently kept up at night by brands tweeting as if they were sentient people. They are so excited to be involved with Paprika and the Creator’s Unit as they continue to dismantle the line between audience and performer and forge community through experimental performance. Jonnie’s practice centres on writing with the body, harnessing the fundamentals of time and space in the studio, and treating theatre as a place of deconstruction; where the familiar is taken apart to expose the absurdities underneath, and where a shared liberation from all binaries, routines, and pressures is possible. They will always find a way to incorporate baked goods into a performance, no matter how little sense it makes.
Sydney Jinjoe
Sydney Jinjoe
Sydney Jinjoe (they/them) is an emerging creator who currently lives in both Tkaranto and the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. They firmly believe in creating work that utilizes live art’s capacity to imagine or even manifest alternative futures. Stemming from a desire to undermine hierarchies and forms of oppression of all kinds, they prefer to create collectively. They are particularly interested in creating event based performances, often integrating game, unusual objects, and community into their work.
Outside of Paprika, Sydney is currently devising with a group of 6-11 year olds to create a piece about youth autonomy in the age of climate change. (Funded by Creative Spark Vancouver) Additionally, they work closely with their communities, focusing on mutual aid solutions to address food insecurity, houselessness, and mental health crises. They’re also a really good gardener.
Paul Smith
Paul Smith
Paul Smith (he/il, they) is a Thursday-born performer, creator, and facilitator from Stittsville, ON., currently based in Tkaronto/Toronto, ON. Today, he explores how narratives that center marginalized bodies can be adapted into stories of reclamation, innovation, and protest, and is interested in the symbiotic relationship between theatre and film. Outside of the Creators Unit, being a Program Assistant at PACT, and acting in Black Theatre Workshop’s Artist Mentorship Program, Paul is writing his autobio-myth “Anansi v. God(s)“, developing their artistic practice through the principles of Sankofa, and listening to Frank Ocean (on repeat).