Saturday Salons

Jessica Carmichael & Émilie Monnet

Two artists who would have been part of this season’s line-up join Eda to talk about amplifying Indigenous voices at Centaur.

November 21, 2020
30 minutes
Émilie Monnet’s Okinum, which premiered in French and Anishinaabemowin at Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui in 2018, was to have its English-language premiere as our Brave New Looks offering this season. The play’s title, which means dam, parallels the fate of the beaver with the Indigenous peoples once the Europeans arrived. Jessica Carmichael, of Abénaki-European descent, was to make her directorial debuts both here and at the Stratford Festival until the pandemic shut everything down. Jessica, who also acts, creates and dramaturges theatre, would have directed The Flick in the Spring of 2021 as part of our subscription series.
- Eda Holmes, Centaur Theatre Artistic & Executive Director

About

Émilie Monnet and Jessica Carmichael each have a specific Indigenous heritage which inspires their work as theatre artists. What are the challenges of bridging the gap between mainstream settler culture and the rich Indigenous history that defines them? This question and more will be at the core of this inspiring Saturday Salon.

Émilie founded Onishka Productions, a Montreal-based arts organization created to support artists from different cultures and disciplines and the Scène contemporaine autochtone (SCA), an initiative to bring Indigenous performing arts projects to life. Her artistry is informed by many years of activism with Indigenous organizations in Canada and Latin America as well as her participation in artistic projects involving women offenders and Indigenous youth.

For three years, Jessica was the Artistic Director of the TYA company, Carousel Players. She is a former Artistic Associate for Toronto’s Native Earth Performing Arts and Program Director of their creators unit, Animiikiig. She was a workshop host for “The Study”, presented by the National Arts Centre, Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance and Debajehmujig Creation  Centre. She is currently working as dramaturg for Jani Lauzon and Kaitlyn Riordan’s  “1939”, commissioned by the Stratford Festival of Canada.

Cast

A close up of a womans face standing in front of a tree.
Jessica Carmichael
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A close up of a womans face standing in front of a tree.

Jessica Carmichael

Jessica Carmichael is an artist of mixed Abénaki/Euro heritage. She specializes in directing, acting, creation and dramaturgy. Jessica is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada (Acting), the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art & King’s College London (MA Text & Performance with Distinction) and the University of Alberta (MFA Directing with Distinction). Jessica is a past participant with the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction (Stratford Festival, 2014 & 2016).

For three seasons Jessica was the Artistic Director of Carousel Players,  a professional theatre for young audiences in St. Catharines, Ontario. She is a past artistic associate with Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto and was Program Director of their Creators Unit Animiikiig. She was a workshop leader for “The Study” hosted by the National Arts Centre, Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance and Debajehmujig Creation Centre.

In addition to Jessica’s freelance work, she holds a tenure-track assistant professor appointment of Theatre at Concordia University in Montréal.

a woman stands in the trees
Émilie Monnet
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a woman stands in the trees

Émilie Monnet

At the intersection of theatre, performance and media arts, the practice of Émilie Monnet centres on questions of identity, memory, history and transformation. Her works privilege collaborative processes of creation, and are typically presented as interdisciplinary theatre or immersive performance experiences. As a playwright and director, she is the artist in residence at Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui until 2021. This Time Will Be Different, her most recent installation performance co-created together with choreographer Lara Kramer, will be presented at FTA this coming June. Since 2016, she produces Indigenous Contemporary Scene (ICS), a nomadic platform for the presentation of live arts and creative exchanges between Indigenous artists and communities. ICS’s upcoming edition will take place in Edinburgh, Scotland, next August. Émilie’s heritage is Anishnaabe and French and and she lives in Tiohtià:ke / Mooniyaang / Montréal.

Watch the conversation