Meridian Arts Centre
Lyric Theatre
Duck Pond
Created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa Ensemble
January 30 – February 1, 2024
Photo credit: Damien Bredberg
About TO Live
TO Live is one of Canada’s largest multi-arts organizations, operating three iconic venues: Meridian Hall, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, and Meridian Arts Centre. In addition, TO Live presents a full range of performing arts, theatrical, and concert events at these venues in both downtown and uptown Toronto. With these two hubs of creativity and content creation, TO Live has a unique place and perspective to activate creative spaces by inspiring local and international artists, connecting audiences, stimulating new ideas, and elevating artistic potential, becoming a catalyst for creative expression that is reflective of Toronto’s diversity.
Photo credit: Jonathan Castellino
TO Live would like to acknowledge Tkaronto (TKahr-on-dOnH), which is a Mohawk word meaning “the place in the water where the trees are standing.”
We live and work on the traditional territory of Haudenosaunee (HODE-en-ohshow-nee)-speaking nations, including the Wendat, Seneca, and Mohawk. Haudenosaunee-speaking nations have been here since time immemorial, and were more recently joined by the Mississaugas of the Credit.
This place has many Indigenous ports, including where the Humber and Rouge rivers meet other waterways such as Lake Ontario. Ancient longhouses, typical Haudenosaunee housing structures, have been found along both rivers and in the north of Toronto as well (near modern-day York University). This territory is covered by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) Confederacy and the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the lands and the relationships around the Great Lakes.
What this means is that by living and working here, we all have a responsibility to the environment and to each other, to treat each other and the environment with peace and respect. This means we have responsibilities to honour, renew, and consistently uphold the values and relationships outlined in the ancient agreements.
Today, Toronto is home to Indigenous peoples and settlers from around the world. Let us all come together in an atmosphere of respect and peace to do Good Work together with Good Minds. Let’s start building stronger and healthier relationships with each other, and the spaces which we inhabit in Tkaronto, Ontari:io (on-dahr-EE-yo), Kanata (Gan-AH-dah).
Let’s hold our minds together in kindness.
Nia:wen. Thank you.
©Dawn T Maracle
About Circa
Circa: circus that moves the world.
Circa is one of the world’s great performing arts companies. Since 2004, they have called Brisbane, Australia, home while touring the world, captivating audiences in over 45 countries and reaching more than two million people. Their award-winning performances have earned standing ovations, rave reviews and soldout shows across six continents.
Everything they do is fuelled by their core values: quality, audacity, humanity.
They are at the forefront of the new wave of contemporary Australian circus, redefining the art form by showcasing how extreme physicality can forge powerful and emotive experiences. They are relentless in the way they push boundaries, blending movement, dance, theatre and circus.
Under the visionary leadership of Yaron Lifschitz, and in collaboration with their extraordinary ensemble of circus artists, they craft a diverse array of productions that constitute “a revolution in the spectacle of circus” (Les Echos).
Each year they tour their shows across the world and premiere multiple new creations. They are a staple at prestigious festivals and venues in New York, London, Berlin and Montreal as well as throughout Queensland and across Australia.
Their extensive engagement programs, including Circa Academy, Circability and Circa Cairns (a First Nations-led circus initiative) provide access, participation and professional development outcomes. They have delivered major projects including the Creative Lead on the Commonwealth Games Festival 2018 and managing Artour for the Queensland Government.
They invite you to join them as they continue to “redraw the limits to which circus can aspire” (The Age).
Credits and creative team
Created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa ensemble.
Director, stage design
Yaron Lifschitz
Composer and sound designer
Jethro Woodward
Costume designer
Libby McDonnell
Lighting designer
Alexander Berlage
Associate director
Marty Evans
Dramaturg/associate choreographer
Rani Luther
Voice over artist
Elise Greig
Footage of brutal swan fight used with the kind permission of Carl Bovis.
Allen Moon Artists’ Representatives
Canada
USA, Canada, Central & South America
Commercial Projects
Shaun Comerford / Circa
Worldwide booking & coordination
Wolfgang Hoffmann / Aurora Nova
New creations & big dreams
Yaron Lifschitz / Circa
Cast List
Asha Colless
Maya Davies
Malte Gerhardt
Oscar Morris
Kimberley Rossi
Sophie Seccombe
Zachery Stephens
Darby Sullivan
Tristan St John
Adam Strom
Circa acknowledges the assistance of the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
Duck Pond is co-commissioned by QPAC and The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, The Art House Wyong, Frankston Arts Centre, HOTA - Home of the Arts, Merrigong Theatre Company and Orange Civic Theatre.
Artist biographies
Yaron Lifschitz
Circa artistic director and CEO
Yaron Lifschitz is a graduate of the University of New South Wales, University of Queensland, and National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), where he was the youngest director ever accepted into its prestigious graduate director’s course. Since graduating, Yaron has directed over 80 productions including large-scale events, opera, theatre, physical theatre, and circus. His work has been seen in over 45 countries and across six continents by over two million people and has won numerous awards including six Helpmann awards and the Australia Council Theatre Award. His productions have been presented at major festivals and venues around the world including Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Barbican, Les Nuits de Fourvière, Chamaleon and all the major Australian festivals. His film work was selected for the Berlin and Melbourne Film Festivals. He was founding Artistic Director of the Australian Museum’s Theatre Unit, Head Tutor in Directing at Australian Theatre for Young People and has been a regular guest tutor in directing at NIDA.
He is currently Artistic Director and CEO of Circa and was Creative Director of Festival 2018: the arts and cultural program of the 21st Commonwealth Games.
Jethro Woodward
Composer & sound designer
Jethro Woodward is a Melbourne-based composer, musical director, arranger, musician and sound designer recognised for his expansive and highly layered film, theatre and dance scores. A multi Green Room Award winner and Helpmann nominee, he has worked with some of Australia’s leading major and independent companies including; Malthouse Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Opera Victoria, Chamber Made Opera, Back to Back, Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin, Australian Dance Theatre, Aphids, Stuck Pigs Squealing, Rawcus, Kage and more.
A composition graduate from the Victorian College of the Arts, Jethro draws upon his detailed understanding of contemporary music and its uses in live performance,
Libby McDonnell Costume designer
including innovative uses of technology, combining live instrumentation with prerecorded, electronic, musical and sound elements into a seamless flexible and responsive score.
Jethro regularly tours his work internationally and has won Green Room Awards for his work on; The Bloody Chamber (Malthouse Theatre), Moth (Malthouse Theatre/ Arena Theatre), Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd (Malthouse Theatre/Arena Theatre) and I rony Is Not Enough (Fragment 31). As a guitarist and singer, he regularly performs with Meow Meow and Paul Capsis, and has been a member of the band Cordarzine over the past 15 years. He most recently was the composer of Rapture at Sydney Festival 2021, directed by Michael Kantor and starring Paul Capsis and iOTA.
Libby is a designer and choreographer and she is currently Head of Design at Circa. Libby works in diverse genres and forms. At the heart of her work is people and movement.
Libby has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) in Visual Art from Queensland College of Art -Griffith University and an Associate Degree in Dance from Queensland University of Technology. Her professional career has included performing and making independent dance work, as an Artistic Director of Ballet Theatre of Queensland and Choreographer for Blue Roo Theatre Company. For eleven years Libby has worked with the team at Circa to imagine, develop and deliver their productions locally, nationally and internationally. During her time at Circa she has designed costumes for over thirty productions, codirected 3 main stage productions and led many of the company’s engagement projects including the pilot of the Circability program.
Libby is based in Brisbane with her family.
Alexander Berlage Lighting designer
Alexander Berlage is an award-winning director and lighting designer. He is co-artistic director of the Old Fitz Theatre. Alexander has won the Sydney Theatre Award Best Direction of a Musical for the past two years in a row – for American Psycho and Cry-Baby at Hayes Theatre Co.
As a lighting designer, Alexander has worked for Sydney Theatre Company, Opera Queensland, Circa, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Sydney Chamber Opera, Sydney Dance Company, Griffin Theatre, Ensemble Theatre, Hayes Theatre Co., Australian Theatre for Young People, and Redline Productions.
His smash-hit, sold-out production of American Psycho won 9 Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Direction of a Musical, Best Production of a Musical, and Best Lighting Design of an Independent Production and more.
Alexander’s production of Gloria was nominated for 2 Sydney Theatre Awards. Alexander’s production of Cry-Baby received rave reviews, sold out and won 4 Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Direction of a Musical, and Best Production of a Musical. The same year, his productions of There Will Be a Climax, Home Invasion and Cry-Baby received a combined total of 12 Sydney Theatre Award nominations. For There Will Be a Climax, Alexander was nominated for Best Direction of an Independent Production and Best Independent Production.
Alexander’s directing work includes: Diary of One Who Disappeared, Future Remains (with Sydney Festival), Resonant Bodies (Sydney Chamber Opera); Young Frankenstein, American Psycho, Cry-Baby (Hayes Theatre Co.); Gloria (Outhouse Theatre Co); There Will Be a Climax (Redline Productions/NIDA); Home Invasion (An Assorted Few/Old 505); and The Van De Maar Papers (An Assorted Few/PACT).
Alexander holds a Bachelor of Dramatic Art (Production) and a Master of Fine Art (Directing) from the National Institute for Dramatic Art, Sydney. In 2019, Alexander was awarded a Mike Walsh Fellowship.
B R UE GGERG OS S MAN - LE E , TIA WOO D , AN D Z E B BAN G ASH
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT? WITH ROB KAPILOW FT.GRYPHON TRIO
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Donor recognition list as of September 2024. For the updated version, please visit tolive.com.
TO Live staff and board
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Lori DeGraw
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TO Live staff and board list as of October 2024. For the updated version, please visit tolive.com.
The TO Live Foundation is committed to creating a future where art engages and inspires all Torontonians. A future where all the creative voices of our diverse communities are heard and celebrated. A future where artists have the support they need to experiment and grow.
Visit tolivefoundation.com to learn more about how our Foundation is committed to building a better city through the arts.