Archive
Kisapmata
2024
Co-Produced with Lunchbox Theatre
Direction by Gina Puntil
Written by Bianca Miranda
The Tagalog word “kisapmata” means “blink of an eye.” It’s also the title of a punk banger by Filipino band, Rivermaya. Inspired by this song, this new Canadian play tells the love story of two Filipino women—one living here in Canada and the other, born and raised in the Philippines. Through intimate vignettes, we see the longing, the diving in, and eventually, the letting go.
Kisapmata has been in development since 2021, when it was part of our IBPOC Playwrights Unit, and it was featured in both the Stage One Festival of New Canadian Work and Stage Two at Lunchbox Theatre in 2022.
Stages of Transformation: feel ur feels (CRINGE LIBERATION)
2023
Presented at Rumble Festival
Created by Kris Vanessa Teo Xin-En
As we attempt survival in a white supremist and capitalistic society, it is so easy for us to cut ourselves off from how we are feeling, to deny ourselves pleasure, to move at high speeds, to ignore our needs, to bypass processing our lived experiences, to numb sensations that come up, to live through our days on autopilot, to hide who we are and to fast-forward anything that feels uncomfortable.
Creating feel ur feels (CRINGE LIBERATION) is a way for me to practice the small actions and connections of listening to the deep feeling and nonrational eroticism within me, and to practice with my friendos, pals and buddy buds, through conversation, stopping to notice what’s around me, in me, and to follow the curiosities that come up along the way.
Hookman
2023
Co-Produced with University of Calgary SCPA
Direction by Jenna Rodgers
Written by Lauren Yee
First year university life gets even harder for Lexi when she’s feeling homesick, her roommate is super weird, and a hook-handed serial killer is slashing girls’ throats. When Lexi discovers what really happened to her high school best friend, she learns what it means to grow up – and it isn’t pretty.
我的名是张欣恩 (Gimme Chance Leh) Redux: A Team Together
2021
Direction by Thomas Geddes
Written by Kris Vanessa Teo Xin-En
Chromatic Theatre is proud to present the AUDIO PLAY version of 我的名是张欣恩 (Gimme chance leh) written and performed by Kris Vanessa Teo.
Thanks to support from the CBC Digital Originals program, this project is now streaming live and 100% FREE from the CBC website. Grab a snack, strap on a pair of your favourite headphones, click here and give it a listen!
The Green Line
2022
Co-Produced with Downstage Theatre
Direction by Jenna Rodgers
Written by Makram Ayache
During the Lebanese Civil War, Naseeb wants his sister to withdraw from her university studies and move to the mountains. But Mona is secretly falling in love with her classmate Yara. Forty years later, Rami, a Lebanese Canadian student, comes to Lebanon to bury his father, Naseeb. That night, he meets Zidan, a drag queen at a queer Beirut nightclub and things take an unexpected turn. Past and present braid together in The Green Line’s contemplation of how memories are inherited or erased.
Cowboy Versus Samurai
Direction by Jenna Rodgers
Written by Michael Golamco
Cowboy Versus Samurai is a modern-day comedic take on the Edmond Rostad classic, Cyrano de Bergerac. Our protagonist Travis Park is the only Korean American in the dusty cowboy town of Breakneck, Wyoming. When the beautiful and clever Veronica Lee moves to town to fill the post of science teacher, he’s immediately smitten – until she reveals that she only dates white men. Travis must choose whether to ally with the “cowboy”: the handsome gym teacher, Del; or the “samurai”: best friend, and militant Asian of unknown origin, Chester. He must choose between the Asian and the American within himself in the pursuit for love that may only be as real as the love letters he writes on behalf of someone else.
Winners and Losers
2018
Presented at Summerworks Festival
Written by James Long and Marcus Youssef
Adapted by Valerie Planche, Makambe K. Simamba and Jenna Rodgers
Winners and Losers is one part game, one part conversation that leans into our universally flawed human logic, and the desire to win at all costs. Valerie Planche and Makambe K. Simamba, two powerhouse performers at different stages of life and careers, debate whether people, places or things – Robin Williams, camping, Meghan Markle, private schools – are winners or losers. This exploration of female friendships leads us down a spiralling path of staunch sisterhood and deep-seated difference. As the discussion gets personal, how far is too far when confronting deep-seated beliefs?
Based on the Governor General Award-nominated text by Marcus Youssef and James Long, this homegrown adaptation – re-written and re-cast with an all-female team – premiered to rave reviews at Toronto’s SummerWorks Performance Festival!
Medea
Direction by Alyssa Bradac
Written by Euripides, Translated by Robin Robertson
Chromatic Theatre is producing a highly contemporary and anti-colonial production of Euripides’ classic tragedy, Medea. After Jason captures the Golden Fleece, in large part because of Medea, her magic, and her betrayal against her family, Jason takes Medea as a wife. A few years pass, their sons grow and prosper, when Jason decides to take another bride from his Grecian homeland for political reasons, offering to keep Medea as a mistress, illegitimating their children in the process. To keep her agency, self-respect, and cultural identity, she pays the ultimate price and kills her children.