APPETITE

volcano USA presents the Exchange Rate Collective's production of Appetite: an award-winning dance theatre piece to make your mouth water, your groin contract, and your bowels sing. Clown, song, text and dance collide in a vibrant rumination on where exactly our appetites lead us.

Conceived and directed by Philadelphia's own Sarah Sanford (of leading U.S. physical theatre company Pig Iron), Appetite is a haunting, virtuosic, and often painfully funny work, Appetite excavates the intimate battles we wage with our desires for food and sex.

What do we want? Are we prepared to kill – or be killed – to get it?

"a gloriously physical and clown-inspired show that makes you hunger for more works like it.”
NOW Magazine, Toronto

 

Director Profile: Sarah Sanford

Appetite marks the promising directing debut of Sarah Sanford, acclaimed Philadelphia stage actress and recent finalist for the 2008 F. Otto Haas Award for Emerging Philadelphia Theatre Artist. Seeking to develop an original, idiosyncratic vision and drawing on her extensive dance and theatre backgrounds, Sarah began a cross-border, cross-disciplinary collaboration in Toronto with choreographer Kate Alton, and three virtuosic actor/dancers. The show premiered at Toronto’s 2007 Summerworks Theatre Festival, where Sarah was awarded the Festival's Best Emerging Director Award.

“Physical theatre ace Sarah Sanford helms a visual and visceral work about our appetites for food, sex, and whatever else is on life’s menu. The hard-working collective uses all of their muscles to help us digest the show’s humor and insights, while the design elements tease and seduce all five senses.” NOW Magazine, Toronto

 

The Cast

Claire (performer / co-creator) is an active Toronto theatre artist who works extensively in creation-based performance with credits including Katherine Mansfield, Chekhov’s Heartache (Theatre Smith-Gilmour/Factory), A Fool’s Life (Ahuri Theatre) and Defenestration (La Corporacion Columbia de Teatro in Bogota, Columbia). Claire is the co-Artistic Director of tiny bird theatre with Jenny Young. She was the recipient of the Crow’s Theatre Emerging Director Award for Raising Luke (Summerworks 2008) and her play Inanna was voted ‘Most Outstanding Production’ by NOW Magazine (Fringe 2004). Additionally, Claire has performed for Tarragon Theatre, Independent Aunties/Cooking Fire, Buddies in Bad Times, Lyndesfarne, Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People and Theatre Columbus.

Claire also works extensively with youth. She is in demand as an instructor and is the founder and co-Director of The AMY Project (Artists Mentoring Youth) with Weyni Mengesha. The group will present its fourth annual show at the Factory Theatre in May.

Claire is an Artistic Associate at the Canadian Stage Company in 2009 and the Associate Director of its second Festival of Ideas and Creation. She is a graduate of Studio 58 in Vancouver and will next appear in the Crows/Soulpepper co- production of Antigone.

Adam Lazarus (performer / co-creator) is a Toronto-born and -raised actor, director and teacher. As an actor, Adam most recently appeared in Convergence Theatre’s smash hit Yichud/Seclusion and Crow’s Theatre production of Darren O'Donnell's [boxhead] at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. He has directed and co-created many award-winning clown, bouffon and character-driven shows, including Rachelle Elie's Joe: The Perfect Man (Best of Ottawa Fringe 2008); Jesse Buck's Bubkus (current Cirque Du Soleil performer); Shawn Hitchens' Homogenius; and Melissa D'Agostino's Lupe: Undone (Best of the Toronto Fringe 2008).

Adam is a sessional instructor of acting at The National Theatre School of Canada (NTS) and the University of Toronto. He is a regular facilitator of physical theatre workshops for professional and non-professional artists, including consultations for Theatre Passe Muraille, Apostle of Hustle, Buddies in Bad Times, DanceMakers, Tapestry New Opera Works, The Canadian Stage Company, Volcano, and Mike Kennard's The Hollow. Adam also co-produces the annual Toronto Festival of Clowns.

Linnea Swan (performer / co-creator) Originally from Saskatoon, Toronto-based dance artist Linnea Swan is a graduate of Main Dance Place (Vancouver) and The School of Contemporary Dancers (Winnipeg). Throughout her career she has performed with many of Canada's leading dance companies and artists including Ruth Cansfield Dance, TRIP dance company, Dancemakers, Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers, Serge Bennethan, Rachel Browne, Lesandra Dodson, Susanna Hood, D.A. Hoskins, Claudia Moore, and Yvonne Ng. She is featured in the short film Fabric, and the Bravo!FACT Slip. She just returned from a month in Pond Inlet, Nunavut where she was working on the collaborative creation of Night with Human Cargo Theatre. Night will premiere at the NAC in January, 2010. She is also a member of the Exchange Rate Collective, and rehearsal director for The Dietrich Group.