"In tales people fly through the air on a magic carpet, walk in seven-league boots, build castles overnight; the tales opened up for me a new world where some free and all-fearless power reigned and inspired in me a dream of a better life."
– Maxim Gorky
Schedule
• Sunday, January 23 – festival opener, celebrating stories from around the world
“The King’s Feast: Dilemma Tales from around the World”
• Sunday, February 6 – Valentine’s Day
love stories from Persia and the Middle East
• Sunday, February 20 – Black History Month
stories from Africa and the Caribbean
• Sunday, March 6 – International Women’s Day
wise women and resourceful maidens
• Sunday, March 20 – first day of spring (vernal equinox)
a celebration of spring
• Sunday, April 3 – April Fool’s Day
fools’ tales from Afghanistan, Turkey, Greece, the US, and the UK
Featuring storytellers Aubrey Davis, Brian Katz, Rukhsana Khan, Rainos Mutamba, Leeya Solomon, Dan Yashinsky, Sandra Whiting, and more.
Storyteller Dan Yashinsky photo: Lori Ives-Baine
If you would like to donate to the Open Door East End Arts Collective, please read the following letter for more information.
Dear Neighbour,
You are invited to participate in a new neighbourhood arts initiative!
We are The Open Door East End Arts Collective, a trio of artists and neighbourhood parents committed to bringing rich, beautiful, diverse, affordable, cultural experiences to the families who live in our AMAZING community. This winter, we are launching the Mosaic Storytelling Festival: Tales from Around the World. We are looking for community partnerships to sponsor six all-ages storytelling events at St. David’s Anglican Church parish hall.
We will be bringing together the brightest lights of the Toronto storytelling community to create a festival that celebrates the diversity of our neighbourhood, from African folktales to the love stories of Persia, Celtic creation myths and beyond. Our neighbourhood, which includes Danforth Village, The Pocket, North Riverdale Greektown, and Danforth Mosaic is one of the most culturally diverse yet least served areas in the city in terms of the arts. Our mission is to change that, one fabulous event at a time! JOIN US!!
Support for this project will give you:
• an opportunity to demonstrate your commitment to the neighbourhood and strengthen your brand or businesses’ positive image within the local community
• a unique way to create more customer awareness for your business or company through exposure in our promotional material
• a place to take your friends and family for rich and dynamic cultural experiences every second Sunday from January to April 2011!
What you are supporting by contributing to the MOSAIC Festival:
literacy • imagination • culture • diversity • community involvement and togetherness •cross-cultural curiosity and friendship • affordable family entertainment • powerful live arts experiences — a refreshing antidote to our TV- and video-dominated world!
For donating anywhere from $50 to $3000 you can receive a range of benefits from a pair of tickets to each performance, your logo in the program, and a tax receipt to onsite signage, your company’s name on the poster—or naming rights to the whole festival. (See attached donation form for details.)
Join us in bringing this rich and accessible cultural event to our community!
Sincerely
Jerry Silverberg
Liisa Repo-Martell
Trish O’Reilly
Mosaic Storytelling Series Donor Form
Donor Name:
Contact Name:
Street Address:
City, Province, Postal Code:
Phone: Email:
Yes, I would like to support the Mosaic Storytelling Series!
I can donate:
! $50-$99 – a thank-you from the stage before each show, your logo in the program, an official tax receipt and 2 free tickets to each event.
! $200 – all of the above PLUS your logo on the poster and an opportunity to display brochures and flyers at each event.
! $500 – all of the above PLUS on site signage (any sandwich board, banners etc. you would like to display at each event) and a half page advertisement in our program.
! $1500 – all of the above PLUS your company’s name under the title of the festival on the poster and in all promotional material (e.g. “sponsored by YOUR COMPANY”) and a full page advertisement in the program.
! $3000 – all of the above PLUS Exclusive Naming Rights to the festival ( e.g. The PLACE YOUR NAME HERE’S Mosaic Storytelling Festival: Tales from Around the
World).
Cheque enclosed for $
(Please make cheques payable to: Crow’s Theatre.)
Tax Receipt requested for donation: ! Yes ! No
DONOR SIGNATURE:
DATE:
Return form to:
The Open Door East End Arts Collective
87 Ravina Crescent
Toronto, ON M4J 3L9
416-469-8206
About The Open Door East End Arts Collective
The Open Door East End Arts Collective is a group of artists from Toronto’s east end who love their neighbourhood and the arts with equal passion. We seek to bring rich, beautiful, diverse, affordable cultural experiences to the families who live here. We are Trish O’Reilly, Liisa Repo- Martell, and Jerry Silverberg. Our neighbourhood, which includes Danforth Village, the Pocket, and Greektown, is one of the most culturally diverse yet least served areas of the city in terms of the arts. Each of us have deep roots in various arts communities in the city (theatre, music, storytelling,etc.) as well as a network of relationships and connections in this neighbourhood that put us in the unique position of being able to draw on the most exciting artists in the city as well as connect them with our diverse local audience.
Liisa Repo-Martell is an award-winning actor who works all over the country in both film and television and theatre. She has worked extensively with Soulpepper Theatre Co as well as many other theatres in T.O. She has toured the country with two highly acclaimed one-woman shows, I Claudia and The Syringa Tree. Film and television credits include: The English Patient, Unforgiven, Republic of Doyle, Flashpoint, and a recurring role on This Is Wonderland. She has also won a Gemini for her work in the television movie Nights Below Station Street. She is a passionate Eastender and excited to part of bringing the performing arts to this side of the Don.
Jerry Silverberg is a theatre and visual artist whose award winning company, Cascade Theatre, has performed to over 950,000 children and adults in the GTA and across the country from the east coast to as far away as Inuvik. In 1995 his production of Something from Nothing adapted from the book by Phoebe Gilman, won a Dora Mavor Moore Award. Between 1996 and 2007 he produced a successful family theatre series at the Metro Central YMCA. As a visual artist his fine art work has been shown in many cafes and galleries throughout the city; his illustrative work has been seen the Globe and Mail, Walrus magazine, the Toronto Star, the Washington Post and the New York Times. He also teaches art and theatre in community centres and schools and is a member of CANSCAIP, the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators, and Performers.
Trish O’Reilly is a versatile singer and actor, who began her career singing opera then quickly took a 90-degree turn into theatre. Trish is closely involved in her east end community and is the instigator of various community and arts projects at St. David’s Anglican Church. She has performed roles ranging from Barbarina in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro to Lee in Cowgirls to experimental works at the Fringe and SummerWorks theatre festivals and a season at the Blyth Festival (where she premiered roles in two new Canadian plays). Trish enjoys singing in harmony with both the a cappella Renaissance trio The MadriGALS and the 1940s trio Rumboogie. She is currently writing a show featuring popular tunes of the 40s along with real-life stories of Canadian women during World War II.
