program > main stage
Ian Kamau
Loss
Presented by The Apollo
photos: Bryan Brock, Brian Medina
“Ian Kamau spins sadness into the sublime” – CBC Arts
Loss is a deeply honest, live retelling of an intergenerational family story, written by Ian Kamau and his father Roger McTair. This multi-media performance begins as a mirror into a winter of depression, then slowly unravels the mystery surrounding the death of his paternal grandmother Nora Elutha Rogers. An orchestration of memories using live music, video, and storytelling, Loss is an exploration of grief in Afro-Caribbean communities and an immersive experience towards healing shared with the audience.
Note: This production contains flashing images and describes the experience of grief in Afro-Caribbean communities. It is appropriate for audiences aged 13 and older.
SCHEDULE
Thursday, January 9 @ 8pm
Friday, January 10 @ 8pm
Saturday, January 11 @ 2pm and 8pm
Run time: 90 minutes
CREDITS
Creator and Performer: Ian Kamau
Writers: Ian Kamau and Roger McTair
Filmmaker: Tiffany Hsiung
Video Designer: Jeremy Mimnagh
Composer: Bruce A. Russell
Environment Designer: Javid Jah
Lighting Designer: Shawn Henry
Dramaturg and Rehearsal Director: Aislinn Rose
Co-sound Designer: David Mesiha
Co-sound Designer: David Heeney
Costume Designer: Cat Calica
Stage Manager*: Hazel Moore
Producer for the Theatre Centre*: Liza Hersh
Production Manager and Technical Director*: Navid Amini
**with thanks to our original Production Manager/Technical Director Daniel Bennett, Associate Production Manager/Technical Director Maya Royer, Stage Manager Tara Mohan, and Producer Rachel Penny.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ian Kamau is an artist, writer, and designer from Toronto. He has released seven music projects including the self-produced album One Day Soon (2011) and has published articles, short stories, and poems in publications by Vice, Coach House Press, and Book Thug. The son of pioneering filmmakers, he was the founding executive director of Nia Centre for the Arts, has a Bachelor in Design and a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University, and a Masters in Strategic Foresight and Innovation from OCAD University
Roger McTair is a Trinidadian-Canadian writer, pioneering documentary filmmaker, and poet whose stories and poems have been published in the Caribbean, Canada, and the U.S. An alumni of Ryerson University’s Film and Photography program, he taught media writing at Seneca College at York University in Toronto, and has a keen critical interest in literature, theatre, and philosophy. He has lived in Toronto since 1970.
CREATION + FUNDING
Loss was developed in Residency at The Theatre Centre.
Residency is generously supported by:
Developed with support from the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Why Not Theatre, School without Borders, and TO Live
Loss was originally produced by The Theatre Centre at Luminato 2023.
The Theatre Centre is a nationally recognized live-arts incubator and community hub in Toronto, Canada. Residency is The Theatre Centre’s structured two-year program (sometimes longer!) providing groups/artists with the necessary space, funding and mentorship to craft ideas still in their infancy into finished works that are provocative, innovative, and ambitious. The Theatre Centre looks for good ideas, drawing them to projects led by directors, designers, composers, choreographers, architects, visual artists, and even a neurologist. Residency facilitates a highly collaborative artistic process that starts by asking: “what do you need?”
