IGNITE! 2024 - Wildfire Showcase #2 from Major Matt Mason

 Readings from:

Tomboy (Chłopczyca), GRINGAS, and Skinhead

Thurs, June 6, 2024 at 7:00pm

Tomboy (Chłopczyca)

By Anais West

Tomboy (Chłopczyca) is a dance-theatre performance using contemporary movement and Polish folklore to investigate gender and memory. In the play, a non-binary university student learns that a boy from their Polish immigrant community committed a disturbing act of violence. This revelation forces them to re-examine their shared adolescence in an insular and tradition-bound culture. But with each remembering, the sequence of events becomes more ambiguous, the choreography of memory more complex, unravelling the narrative they’ve constructed of themself, their gender and the boy's culpability. Were his actions his own, or was he cursed by a monstrous and mythic inheritance? By reclaiming traditions, including folk dance, Tomboy seeks to be both an unflinching autopsy of masculinity, as well as a vision of queer metamorphosis.

GRINGAS

by Mercedes Isaza Clunie

GRINGAS tells the story of 7 Latina-Canadian teenagers who are forced by their mothers to attend a Spanish-only summer camp. Within the confines of shared bunks, they confront their disappearing youth through dreams, dance, and cigarettes, and tackle the intricacies of the looming shadow of their 'gringa-ness'.

Skinhead

by Shyanne Duquette

“Skinhead” follows a group of friends navigating the challenges of growing up and joining groups that prove to be much more insidious than initially expected.

These works in development are the fruits of our 2023/2024 Wildfire programming, includeing the artists who won the Wildfire National Playwriting Competition and those who have been part of this year's Wildfire Development Unit.

The Major Matt Mason Collective in partnership with Sage Theatre and the IGNITE! Festival are proud to be presenting five works-in-progress as part of this year's festival!