MOTION (Playwright and Performer) is a poet, emcee, playwright and screenwriter who spans the realms of music, spoken word and drama, composing works for stage and screen. A recent Writer’s Lab Resident at Canadian Film Centre, as well as Playwright-in-Residence at Obsidian Theatre, and a Banff Centre Playwright’s Colony resident, Motion’s dramatic works - including Aneemah's Spot and 4our Woman - have been seen at the Summerworks Festival, bcurrent's Rock.Paper.Sistaz, TD Then and Now Series, the Living Arts Centre, International Black Playwright's Festival, and Obsidian Theatre’s Development Series. She is writer of the interdisciplinary
site-specific co-creation Nightmare Dream, which had its world premiere production in the Obsidian Theatre Presentation Series in 2014. She is currently writer of MotherLand, conceived and produced by ift Theatre. Motion’s mix has taken her from the airwaves of the legendary Masterplan Show (CIUT89.5) to the stages of Manifesto Jamaica, the Urban Music Awards, CBC Television, Luminato, Young Centre for the Arts, and HBO Def Poetry Jam. Her writing was featured in Nuit Blanche’s Our Hope for Children, and in the multi-arts co-creation Dancing to a White Boy Song at the Summerworks Festival. As screenwriter, her short film A Man’s Story is produced by Bravofact. She is author of Motion in Poetry and 40 Dayz (Women’s Press) and was published in Give Voice: Ten Plays by Obsidian Theatre’s Playwright’s Unit (Playwright’s Canada Press.) Her latest publication is in In the Black: New African Canadian Literature (Insomniac), and The Great Black North (Frontenac Press). She is currently the host of Headspace Radio, and launches her debut course “Griots to Emcees” at York U this fall.
site-specific co-creation Nightmare Dream, which had its world premiere production in the Obsidian Theatre Presentation Series in 2014. She is currently writer of MotherLand, conceived and produced by ift Theatre. Motion’s mix has taken her from the airwaves of the legendary Masterplan Show (CIUT89.5) to the stages of Manifesto Jamaica, the Urban Music Awards, CBC Television, Luminato, Young Centre for the Arts, and HBO Def Poetry Jam. Her writing was featured in Nuit Blanche’s Our Hope for Children, and in the multi-arts co-creation Dancing to a White Boy Song at the Summerworks Festival. As screenwriter, her short film A Man’s Story is produced by Bravofact. She is author of Motion in Poetry and 40 Dayz (Women’s Press) and was published in Give Voice: Ten Plays by Obsidian Theatre’s Playwright’s Unit (Playwright’s Canada Press.) Her latest publication is in In the Black: New African Canadian Literature (Insomniac), and The Great Black North (Frontenac Press). She is currently the host of Headspace Radio, and launches her debut course “Griots to Emcees” at York U this fall.
L'OQENZ (DJ and Performer) is a powerful force to be reckoned with. DJ, producer, arts presenter - her passion for music and undeniable skills onis a DJ, producer, educator and arts presenter - her passion for music and undeniable skills on the turntables have made her a sought after musical resource at home in Toronto and across the globe. Spinning everything from Hip Hop to Jazz - L’Oqenz has the ability to fuse them all effortlessly. She has toured across Canada, the United States, Asia, the Caribbean and the UK, and has shared the stage some of the most respected artists in the business including Zaki Ibrahim, Motion, Jean Grae, Bahamadia, K’naan, M1 (Dead Prez), Maseo (De La Soul) and Kool Herc. She has been heard at Toronto’s Luminato Festival and played the Roxy in LA as opening DJ for renowned poet Saul Williams. In 2012, during his tour to Toronto, Prince Charles of Wales and later that year Countess of Wessex would get a one-on-one DJ lesson from L'Oqenz. Also in 2012 and 2014, DJ L'Oqenz was music director of the award winning production Aneemah’s Spot (MotionLive Collective) which featured at the Summerworks Festival and TD Then & Now Festival, as well as sound designer of the award winning theatre production, The Emancipation of Ms. Lovely by Ngozi Paul at Summerworks 2015. DJ L’Oqenz is the founder of Inner Voice Music , and can be heard on the Headspace Radio and was recently featured on Okayplayer.com. In 2015, she was invited to DJ at the Brooklyn Museum Basquiat exhibit, and the Tribeca Film Festival.
MUMBI TINDYEBWA (Director) is a Kenyan-Ugandan-Canadian Theatre creator and Director raised in Kenya and Victoria, BC and now based in Toronto. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Dora Nominated company IFT Theatre and the 2015 recipient of the Pauline McGibbon Award for Directing. Mumbi has also been nominated for the John Hirsch Award for Directing and been the recipient of the Mallory Gilbert Leadership Protégé Award. Mumbi is also an alumni of the distinguished Michael Langham Workshop in Classical Direction at Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Her most popular work includes the sold out, critically acclaimed site-specific show Nightmare Dream (IFT Theatre, Dora Nomination), Just Me You and The Silence (World Pride, Buddies in Bad Times), Because I Love You (IFT Theatre/TD Then and Now Festival), My Name is Rachel Corrie (Best Director, Best Design, Best Actress Nomination, My Theatre Award/My Entertainment World). Other work includes directing and assistant directing projects for the Stratford Festival, Canadian Stage, Obsidian Theatre, Volcano Theatre and DVxT Theatre. Mumbi received her training in directing at York University. Most recently, Mumbi is the Co-Director for the Artist Mentoring Youth (AMY) Project, a 2015 Artist In Resident at University of Toronto and the co-founder of the Kendu Hearth International Theatre Conference in Uganda.
ROGER C, JEFFREY (Choreographer) was born and raised in New York City where he began his training at Bernice Johnson Cultural Arts Center in Jamaica, Queens. A graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts, he received his B.F.A. from The Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy. Mr. Jeffrey has performed in the companies of Bernice Johnson, Kevin Iega Jeff, Obediah Wright, Earl Mosley, Zvi Gotheiner, Twyla Tharp, Lar Lubovitch, Metropolitan Opera Ballet and with Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project. Mr. Jeffrey is a New York based freelance choreographer/director. Mr. Jeffrey has choreographed and or directed various theatrical productions including Death of the Diva featuring Amanda Seales, The Emancipation of Ms. Lovely featuring Ngozi Paul, Blood Claat featuring D'bi. Young, Gemini Rising and Da Kink in my Hair featuring Angie Stone, Melanie Fiona and Terri Vaughn to name a few. He is also the artistic consultant for Rasta Thomas and associate artistic director of Dawn Branch Works. In 1997, Mr. Jeffrey founded Subtle Changes, Inc., a nonprofit artist collective committed to the presentation, development, and exposure of the arts. "Roger C. Jeffrey is one of the most sensitive and savviest of young producers in New York.” -New York Times
JACKIE CHAU (Sets & Props Designer) has worked as a set and costume designer across Canada and her work has toured internationally. In addition, she is a production designer and art director for film and television. Selected theatre design credits include: Sexy Laundry (Theatre Aquarius) Annie Mae’s Movement, The Place Between, Salt Baby, Almighty Voice and His Wife, Giiwedin, Tombs of the Vanishing Indian, From Thine Eyes, HUFF (NEPA), Antigone Insurgency, Someone is Going to Come, Talking Masks, Like the First Time, Charge of the Expormidable Moose, Ubu Mayor (One Little Goat), Gas Girls (New Harlem Productions), The Making Of St. Jerome (eastBOUND Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (TD Dream in High Park/Can Stage), Zadie's Shoes (Factory Theatre), Brown Balls (Fu-Gen), The Swearing Jar (Prairie Theatre Exchange), Dirty Butterfly (Bound to Create), Fish Eyes Trilogy (Nightswimming), Moment (ARC Theatre), Canada 300 (Watermark Theatre) and Cannibal the Musical (Starvox Entertainment), Cowboy Versus Samurai (Soulpepper). Jackie was named in NOW magazine's Top 10 Theatre Artists of 2009 and has received 5 Dora nominations for outstanding set design.
MARIUXI ZAMBRANO (Costume Designer) is a Toronto based multidisciplinary artist and curator. She is the Artistic Associate for ift Theatre where she contributes to create culturally diverse work that is interdisciplinary and experimental in style. Mariuxi is the Storyboard Artist, Props and Costume Designer for the current work Motherland/Because I love you. She has worked with Chinedu Ukabam as Set Designer and Photographer for Afrotropolis in Wonderland, a multidisciplinary fashion and art project. Mariuxi was the Set and Costume Designer for My Name is Rachel Corrie at Hart House Theater (Best Design Nomination by My Theater Award/My Entertainment World), and for Tender Napalm in SummerWorks (“Outstanding Designer” by NOW magazine). She also contributed as Set Designer for “TimeOut” in the Fringe Festival, and did wardrobe for the short films Wounds and The Holdout. She has trained at Lynda Rayno Dance Academy in Victoria, and at Broadway Dance Center in New York. Mariuxi holds a B.A. (Hons.) in Fine Arts and Visual Studies from the University of Toronto and has an Associate of Arts Degree from Camosun College. Currently, Mariuxi is collaborating in a community based theater project as the Interactive Scenographer. She is on a creative journey with Aiding Dramatic Change in Development and community members with cerebral palsy as part of the Imagining Possibilities Project.
ANDRE DU TOIT (Lighting Designer) is a lighting designer for theatre based in Toronto. Recent selected designs include Paolozzapedia, The Double (Bad New Days), The Assholes, Take Me Back to Jefferson/As I Lay Dying (Theatre Smith-Gilmour), The Bakelite Masterpiece (Tarragon Theatre), Watching Glory Die (Canadian Rep Theatre),Florence (The Dietrich Group) Art (Theatre North West) SPENT (Theatre Smith Gilmour, Why Not Theatre, TheatreRUN), Ralph + Lina (Edge of Woods Theatre),Mouthpiece (Quote Unquote Collective) Little Death, The Biographer, (Tango Co.),Business As Usual (Zou Theatre Company), Dirty Butterfly (Bound to Create Theatre) and The Rez Sisters (Factory Theatre). Andre has won two Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Lighting Design.
RAMON CHARLES (Video Designer) is an experience editor, designer and artist. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Toronto and is a graduate of Sheridan College's Media Arts program. He's spent the past 10 years working in television while juggling a myriad of freelance projects in his off-time. From music videos, short films, animations, promos and commercials, he always creates content that's engaging, thought-provoking, but most of all... memorable. Oraltorio is Ramon's first venture into theatre and he can't wait to put his creative stamp on the projection design. It's important that his work connects with the audience, draws them in, and becomes an immersive experience they won't forget.
DAVID MESIHA (Associate Sound Designer) is a Toronto and Vancouver based award wining composer and sound/video designer. He is known for his music composition and multimedia installations alike. After graduating from the music program at Simon Fraser University, David started professionally composing music for theatre, film and multimedia installations while constantly seeking out new collaborations with innovative artists and companies. David's compositional styles are wide ranging and versatile, from traditional music in orchestral and Chamber settings to electro-acoustic music that is fuelled by his own research and computer programming interests. David has been nominated for and won multiple awards for many shows and across multiple categories from music composition to projection and innovation. Among these shows are Project (X) by Leaky Heaven, Terminus by Pi Theatre, Street car Named Desire by Leaky Heaven and The busy world is Hushed by One2 theatre. David co-created and composed the music for Foreign Radical which premiered in Vancouver in 2015 to critical acclaim and won a Jessie Richardson critic’s choice award for innovation while being nominated across multiple other categories. In the production, David is thrilled to be reuniting with director Mumbi Tindyebwa and this talented team to help support the music and words of L’Oquenz and Motion. As a sound designer in this piece, David excited to be helping transform the music and soundscape into a fully immersive multichannel audio experience while building new technology tools to achieve this goal.
REMINGTON NORTH (Associate Video Designer) is a Toronto based Production Dramaturge currently working at The Theatre Centre as the Director of Facilities & Productions. Aside from working with these great folks Remington is happy that this story and experience is getting produced. Selected design credits include: Taking Care of Baby, Storefront (video) Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival @ The Theatre Centre (Production) Promises to a Divided City, Mammalian Diving Reflex (Lighting) Orlando/Lunaire, Opera Erratica (Video) Warriors, TheatreLab (Production) Falling: A Wake, Blyth Summer Theatre Festival (Lighting).
MEL HAGUE (Dramaturge) is a Toronto based dramaturge. She is the Play Development Coordinator at Obsidian Theatre Company. Mel is the Rhubarb Festival Director and Company Dramaturge at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Mel has worked with Factory Theatre, bcurrent performing arts, fu-Gen Asian Canadian Theatre, Eastern Front Theatre, Queer Acts Festival, The Paprika Festival, and Mulgrave Road Theatre. Other theatre credits include Litmus Theatre’s Birth of Frankenstein (Dora Nomination – Outstanding New Play Independent Category). Mel has an MFA in Theatre from York University.
SACCHA DENNIS (Assistant Director) is thrilled to be a part of Oraltorio as an assistant director. Her recent work as an assistant was with Obsidian Theatre's production of Up the Garden Path. Originally from Montreal, she is mostly known as an actor and musical theatre performer across Canada, in shows such as Jacob two-two meets the Hooded Fang, James and the Giant Peach (Dora nomination for best ensemble) at Young Peoples Theatre. Deloris in Sister Act (Rainbow Stage), Avenue Q (Citadel) Dreamgirls, Little shop,(Stage West/ Theatre Aquarius) Shaw Festival’s Ragtime, My Fair Lady, Sunday in the Park with George and 1st U.S National tour of We Will Rock You to name a few. This marks her fifth endeavour in assistant directing/directing in hopes of continuing in this field. Saccha would like to thank Mumbi,Tara, Motion and DJ L for embracing a fellow artist in pursuit of her directorial dreams!
