Summer Company 2020
On Zoom!
Summer Company 2020, Image by Kendra Epik
The Summer Company 2020 was on the digital sphere this year under the artistic direction of Frog in Hand co-founder and director Colleen Snell and actor Alice Cavanagh.
During 8 weeks, working on various online platforms and rehearsing in-person under social distancing measures, we worked with 10 emerging dancers, actors, and performers: Zachary Bastille, Drew Berry, Clarke Blair, Michael Derworiz, Rohan Dhupar, Erin Eldershaw, Makenna (Maks) Martinez, Lizzie Moffatt, Jeremy Pearson, and Kaitlyn Seibold; in addition to Production Assistant, Jessica Cen. We had the privilege of working with guest artists Noelle Hamlyn, Sadie Epstein-Fine, Teiya Kasahara, Cole Vincent, Andrew Gaboury, and Callahan Connor. The Summer Company was mentored in voice work and fitness training with Alice Cavanagh, sound and audio exploration, movement sessions with the artistic directors, and researched and developed "Sugar Plum" script by Sadie Epstein-Fine. The performers rehearsed three dance pieces that was filmed for MonstrARTity's Bollywood Monster Mashup that was live on the Bollywood Monster Mashup Facebook. We filmed a short dance film in collaboration with artist Noelle Hamlyn based on her award-winning art work "Lifers" that was submitted to the digital Toronto Fringe Collective and premiered July 4 - 6. We developed Clay and Paper Theatre's mobile performance tour "Cyclops" with lead artists Andrew Gaboury and Alice Cavanagh and performed around neighbourhoods in Toronto and Mississauga. The Summer Company sought out experts in pedagogy, dance-theatre, improvisation, and site-specific performance to develop, write, and film episodes for an online masterclass on YouTube as an educational resource. We performed a score-based improvisational piece called "Distance Dances" with musician and spoken word poet Callahan Connor in front of close family and friends on the grounds nears the Small Arms Inspection Building. We developed an audio / radio play based on War of the Worlds with the Frog in Hand artistic team that is slated to premiere at the 2021 Toronto Fringe Festival.
The Summer Company is graciously funded by the Canada Summer Jobs, The City of Mississauga, Port Credit Community Foundation, and the Hazel McCallion Foundation. Thank you!
Rohan Dhupar, Clarke Blair, Kaitlyn Seibold. Images by Noelle Hamlyn.
Image of Summer Company performing with Bollywood Monster Mashup
Image by MonstrARTity.
Lizzie Moffatt, Callahan Connor, Clarke Blair. Distance Dances. Image by Kendra Epik
Andrew Gaboury, Rohan Dhupar, Makenna Martinez, Drew Berry in Cyclops.
Image by Colleen Snell.
Andrew Gaboury, Drew Berry in Cyclops. Image by Tamara Romanchuk.
Erin Eldershaw, Alice Cavanagh, Clarke Blair in Cyclops. Image by Jessica Cen.
Alice Cavanagh, Erin Eldershaw, Clarke Blair in Cyclops. Image by Tamara Romanchuk.
Lizzie Moffatt, Michael Derworiz, Kaitlyn Seibold, Zach Bastille, Jeremy Pearson in Cyclops.
Image by Emilie de Caen.
Lizzie Moffatt, Kaitlyn Seibold, Jeremy Pearson in Cyclops.
Image by Tamara Romanchuk.
Enjoying the Summer Company 2020 content released so far? Consider supporting us by donating! Thank you for your support!
Audio Projects
Frog in Hand is proud to present our first ever AUDIO PROJECTS. These 11 audio walks and dances are created by the 2020 Summer Company. Imaginative sound stories that will lead you on unique adventures!
YouTube Masterclass Series
The 2020 Summer Company created educational and workshop videos based on pedagogy, dance-theatre, improvisation, and site-specific performance - inspired by our fellow experts in each field. All four series are now available to watch!
SUBSCRIBE to the Frog in Hand YouTube channel and CLICK the notification bell, so you'll be notified when our next videos go live!
Bollywood Monster Mashup
The 2020 Summer Company members performed at the virtual Bollywood Monster Mashup, the largest South Asian Festival in Canada. With the Bollywood Monster Orchestra, they danced to a mix of Bollywood, hip hop and contemporary dance, with choreography by company member Rohan Dhupar. Watch the whole performance and special documentary below to learn about our process in this creation.
The 2020 Summer Company
Colleen Snell's image by Nettie Seip
Colleen Snell Frog in Hand Artistic Director
Summer Company Co-Artistic Director
Colleen works with a broad range of dance and movement organizations as a dancer, educator, choreographer, collaborator, outside eye, fight director and performer. She is the proud Artistic Director of Frog in Hand Productions Inc, a dance-theatre company she co-founded with her sister, Noelle Hamlyn. Frog in Hand has received support from the Port Credit Village Foundation, Hazel McCallion Foundation, City of Mississauga, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council and the Federal Government. Colleen joyfully and playfully devises original, multidisciplinary work with diverse artists from many backgrounds; she loves to stage site-specific performances in surprising and unusual places. Her work has been called "measured and clear" (The Dance Current), and "simply brilliant" (Mooney on Theatre). Colleen holds a Masters Degree in Dance from England's London Contemporary Dance School (University of Kent). Independently Colleen regularly choreographs and dances with a variety of dance-theatre/physical-theatre companies, including a new collaboration with installation artist and scenographier Troy Hourie ("Odditimes"), which will be live-streamed to Portugal in August 2020.
Alice Cavanagh's image by Dahlia Katz
Alice Cavanagh
Summer Company Co-Artistic Director
Alice is an Australian actor and physical performer who has been working with Frog in Hand over the last three years. Trained as an actor at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Alice continued to explore physical storytelling through further training and work as an actor, fight choreographer and movement coordinator.
Since leaving Australia in 2016, Alice travelled the UK and Canada to dig deeper into the craft of stage combat and movement performance. She is an advanced actor combatant with the FDC in Canada and the BADC in the UK. For the last three years Alice has been based in Toronto working as an actor and movement coordinator. This time in Canada has been a wonderful journey, from developing and honing skills in stage combat with Rapier Wit, to diving into the independent film and theatre community as an actor, stunt performer, fight choreographer and movement coordinator.
Alice has had the absolute pleasure of continuing her exploration of physical storytelling with Frog in Hand and she is super excited to be working with Colleen Snell and the Frog team as co-artistic director for the Summer Company 2020. Let's bring it on!
Jessica Cen's image by Jennifer Xie
Jessica Cen
Production Assistant
Jessica Cen (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Scarborough. She specifies in stage and production management, theatre administration, public relations, and design. Jessica graduated from Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute as an Arts & Culture Specialist High Skills Major and Ryerson University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in Theatre Performance Production and minoring in Acting & Dance. She was the Production Assistant and Stage Manager for the Frog in Hand Summer Company 2019, assisting and facilitating in a variety of roles. She collaborated with Frog in Hand in the following fall season for their site-specific outdoor promenade-style performance, Stories in the Woods, as the Assistant Stage Manager and Production Assistant. She was also the Volunteer Coordinator for the 18th Annual 2020 Female Eye Film Festival. Today, she is the Business Manager of Frog in Hand and is extremely grateful and ecstatic to be a part of the Frog in Hand Summer Company once again as the Production Assistant.
Zachary Bastille
Zachary (he/him) is a performing artist specialized in dance. Originally from Quebec and now based in Toronto, he is going into his third year in the Performance: Dance BFA program at Ryerson University. During his time in Toronto, Zachary has developed a passion for all forms of theatre. His most recent credits include Alysa Pires’ "not with a bang, but a whimper", performed at Ryerson Dances 2019 and Dance Ontario 2020. He also had the opportunity to dance pieces by Apolonia Velasquez and Robert Glumbeck during Kenny Pearl’s Emerging Artist Intensive. Zachary got to act as assistant choreographer for the play "Soap", which premiered during the New Voices Online Festival in 2020. He was to perform in Ryerson EnChoreo’s "s/in" choreographed by Emilio Colalillo, and have his own short piece "is it my charisma?" presented in March, but the performances were cancelled due to Covid-19. Zachary hopes to perform and create works that impact, inspire, and move audiences emotionally.
Image by Noelle Hamlyn
Drew Berry
Image by Noelle Hamlyn
Drew Berry (she/her) is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary performance artist and teacher. Her mediums include dance, theatre, photography, videography, and classical piano. In 2016, Drew joined Rock Bottom Movement as a company member and since has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre, Canadian Stage, Canada’s National Ballet Open Space Program, and Toronto Dance Theatre as well as performing in five full-length works. Her most recent production with Rock Bottom Movement, hollow mountain, was awarded two Dora Mavor Moore awards for Outstanding Production and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble. Drew performed in the ensemble of No Woman’s Land, by Jaberi Dance Theatre co-presented by DanceWorks, which was nominated for 5 Dora Mavor Moore awards and will be touring Ontario in spring 2021. Drew also works with Kaeja d’Dance as a dancer, marketing & development assistant, photographer/ videographer and over the last 3 years has been working closely with Karen Kaeja as a scribe, documenting her latest project which is set to premiere in 2021.
Other collaborators include: Frog in Hand, Emma Kerson, Nico Al Ajillio, Irma Villafuerte, Kate Hilliard, Opera 5, Alias Dance Project, Nostos Collective. Film/TV Credits include: Titans TV series (Netflix), Stevie (Alter Ego Films), Mary Kills People (Global), Reign (The CW), and A Nutcracker Christmas (Hallmark). Drew is on faculty at Centennial College teaching Ballet and Choreography and is working for Quinte Ballet School of Canada as their Social Media Manager. A graduate from Quinte Ballet School of Canada’s post-graduate program, Drew holds her BFA (Honours) from the Performance Dance program at Ryerson University.
Clarke Blair
Clarke Blair (she/her) is a new generation dance artist and developmental biologist based in Toronto. She trained with the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre (CCDT) in Toronto and danced with the CCDT Company for three years while attending high school at the Etobicoke School of the Arts as a music theatre major. Clarke has furthered her training at various intensive programs, including recently at b12 (Berlin) and TransFormation Danse (Montreal). Clarke is currently working as a collaborator with Social Growl Dance (Riley Sims), Frog In Hand (Colleen Snell), and Naishi Wang, and she recently premiered her first solo work "a reshaping of flesh" at Dance Matters in Toronto. In the spring of 2020, Clarke graduated with High Distinction from the University of Toronto with an Honours BSc in neuroscience and cell biology.
Image by Noelle Hamlyn
Michael Derworiz
Michael Derworiz (they/them) is a queer, intersectional, multidisciplinary performing artist and creator, who originates from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Treaty 6 Territory. They are a graduate of Sheridan College’s Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance program, and now reside in Tkarón:to/Toronto. Michael is passionate about the development and creation of new socially conscious work, and challenging and dismantling racist and oppressive institutions in society and the arts. Currently Michael is a co-curator of Art Pop-Up Toronto, which gathers a community of artists of different mediums together to grow and examine the craft of creating, under one unifying prompt. They have had the opportunity to perform with organizations such as: Theatre Rusticle, Drayton Entertainment, Thousand Island Playhouse, Paprika Festival, and Eclipse Theatre Company. Michael is incredibly honoured and excited to be a part of the Frog in Hand 2020 Summer Company.
Image by Noelle Hamlyn
Rohan Dhupar
Rohan Dhupar (he/him) is a Mississauga-based multidisciplinary performer, creator and arts leader with a diverse training background spanning dance and theatre. He is a second generation Canadian with a South Asian background, and is a recent graduate of the musical theatre program at Sheridan College. Rohan has performed in productions with the Charlottetown Festival, Frog in Hand, Theatre Sheridan, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, and various other credits for film, television and stage. Rohan is an emerging choreographer, having set original work on Frog in Hand’s summer company and as a guest choreographer at Cawthra Park, including their most recent production of Chicago. He is also a co-founder of Theatre Oculus, a new Mississauga/Etobicoke-based company with a focus on re-imagining and re-contextualizing existing theatre and musical theatre works through movement-based creation. Rohan’s creative practice promotes ongoing and action-inciting discussions surrounding equitable representation in theatre, decolonizing theatremaking practices, and the world’s evolving civic climate.
.jpg)
Image by Noelle Hamlyn
Erin Eldershaw
Image by Noelle Hamlyn
Erin Eldershaw is a Toronto based multi-faceted performer and educator, specializing in acting, stage combat, and movement. As a graduate from George Brown College's Classical Theatre Conservatory program, Erin has since worked with a multitude of theatre companies across Ontario and has been nominated for two awards as "Best Supporting Actor" with my Entertainment World, winning in 2017. On screen, Erin has had roles in Murdoch Mysteries, Reign, Baroness Von Sketch, All For One (webseries), and created and co-starred in The Witness Box (short film). As an actor-combatant, Erin is certified with the Fight Directors of Canada as an Advanced violence performer with her P.A.L. certification and training in Motion Capture. She is currently apprenticing to become a certified Instructor under the mentorship of Casey Hudecki. Fight Direction credits include: Theatre By the Bay, Waterford Old Town Hall, Army of Sass Toronto, The Secret Sessions, and more. As a mover, Erin has worked on many devised theatre projects with creators across the GTA and has danced with variantly styled companies including; Tsingory Dance (PanAm Opening Ceremonies), Army of Sass Toronto (lead dancer in Snow White), and Frog in Hand (Off The Wall). She is incredibly thankful and honoured to be a part of the 2020 Summer Company.
Makenna (Maks) Martinez
Maks Martinez is an 18 year old dancer and recent graduate from the Regional Arts program at Cawthra park secondary school, where she majored in dance. She has been dancing since the age of 3 beginning at Cristina Pora Balaceanu Classical Dance Academy and later moving on to compete with the Canadian Dance Company. In recent years Maks has studied extensively in Limón modern with The Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre in Toronto, as a full time company dancer. She has travelled across the United States and Canada, performing and studying various styles of dance. Next year she will be moving to Ottawa to attend Carleton University as an International Business major. She hopes to continue to explore movement and find new ways to integrate dance into the world of business!
Lizzie Moffatt
Lizzie Moffatt is a Toronto theatre artist specializing in performance, directing and devising. Lizzie's past credits include Director for QMT’s production of Cabaret, performing in the digital, feminist-verbatim piece ‘Talk to Me’, 'Sally Perks & Others' in The Lower Ossington Theatre’s production of Puffs and performing in New & Used with The Cellar Door Project which was presented in collaboration with the Canadian Theatre Research Conference. Lizzie also enjoys creating with young, emerging artists – having worked with Mainstage Theatre Company as an Assistant Director on shows like Seussical and The Secret Garden and previously performing with Kingston’s children’s theatre troupe, The Barefoot Players. Lizzie has also collaborated with physical theatre company Reflex Collective for two years at the Kingston Storefront Fringe Festival, winning the 2017 Best Ensemble and Pick of the Fringe. Recently, Lizzie completed a residency at the Banff Centre with Victoria Hunt practicing BodyWeather and physical theatre. Lizzie has a BAH in Drama from Queen's University and is currently attending George Brown’s Acting Conservatory at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.
Image by Noelle Hamlyn
Image by Noelle Hamlyn
Kaitlyn Seibold
Kaitlyn Seibold is an emerging artist and dance educator who recently received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Dance Performance Degree from Ryerson University and is now completing her Master of Fine Arts at York University for Dance, Choreography & Collaboration. She created a multitude of works that were chosen to be featured in EnChoreo 2017, Choreographic Works 2018, Choreographic Works 2019, and Springworks 2019. She was awarded the Lipson Family Endowment Award for the most promising emerging choreographer. Throughout her professional training, she was able to work with many prominent choreographers including Robert Glumbeck, Matjash Mrozewski, Vicki St. Denys, Angela Blumberg, Josh Beamish, Ryan Lee, Hanna Keil, and Apolonia Velasquez. Knowledgeable in many techniques and styles of dance, Seibold’s choreography respects the technique of classical training and the understanding of lines, clarity, movement quality, and rigor. Her studies pertain to discovering boundaries between physicalized theatre and contemporary movement while exploring the meaning of gesture and recognizing physical impulses. Her most recent work Birth of a B was featured in the Night Shift platform at the Citadel & Compagine, Toronto ON. This choreography was inspired by researcher Laurence Packer and the study of wild bees.
Image by Noelle Hamlyn
Jeremy Pearson
Image by Noelle Hamlyn
Jeremy (they/them) is an interdisciplinary arts worker. They are an actor, stage manager, stage combat instructor and choreographer, theatre technician, and singer. They have a passion for storytelling and performance and are incredibly grateful to be a part of this year's Summer Company. Recently they have worked with a number of different groups including TYT Pantomimes (Rapuzel) - in progress, Aquarius Theatre (Sweat), The Crafts Room Productions (Of Wise and Earnest Men), The False Claims Collective (False Claims), The Small Arms Society (In Situ), Gangway! Theatre Co. (Six Stories Told at Night), Théâtre Français de Toronto (Traversée; Les Zinspirés 6), Sawitri Theatre (Savita Weds Satish; Where There's a Will; GRAMMA), Gaussian Film Productions (three 48-hour film challenges), and Frog in Hand (Block Party; Home; Off the Wall; Creature; Dee and Dum; The Competition; Checkmate). They are also an in-house technician with the Toronto Public Library. They have a Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College.