ARTISTS

MARK LAWES

Mark works as a director, and creator of experimental performance with an international, multidisciplinary company of artists. His work is created organically out of a friction between fragments of history, visual art, contemporary dance, music, new media and an alphabet of material coming from dramaturgical research. All of this is put in motion through a process of improvisation.

He first worked on experimental short forms and then initiated work on a trilogy in 2008 which included full length works Little Red River, On the Side of the Road, and Lucy Lost Her Heart.  This work was presented at World Stage in Toronto and at Usine C in Montreal in 2012.

In 2012, Mark had the honor to be selected as a laureate of the City of Paris/Institut Français art-in-residence program at Les Récollets.  With his company, he then began a series of national and international residencies to work on the development of the Supernova Trilogy, which made its world premiered in the frame of the Festival des Francophonies en Limousin, before touring to the Festival International des Arts à Bordeaux in October 2018, and to Usine C in Montreal in March 2019.

In the past Mark worked in Europe in collaboration with musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, visual artists, and directors in opera, theatre, dance, and film. In 2003, he lived in Paris where he worked on projects at l’Opéra national de Paris, le Théâtre de l’Athenée, le Scène nationale d’Orléans, the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, and the Steirischer Herbst theatre festival in Graz, Austria.

Raphaële Thiriet

Raphaële Thiriet studied theatre in France at la Conservatoire National de Région de Toulouse, learning the Grotowski technique under Henry Bornstein. Upon graduation in 1997, she attended the l’Université d’Aix-en-Provence, where she studied philosophical and political views on theatre. In 2001, she honed her dramaturgy and acting skills under Angela Konrad, artistic director of the In Pulverem Reverteris company (now La Fabrik, Montreal). While there, Raphaële performed in Time Is Out of Joint – Part 1, 2, & 3, Richard III, and Traumzeit, and toured throughout France and Germany. She has worked with choreographers Heddy Maalem and Emilio Calgagno (Ballet Preljocaj) and with several other companies in France including Ma Voisine S’appelle Cassandre on works by contemporary writers such as Valère Novarina, Edouard Glissant, and Roland Schimmelpfennig. She also performed in Les Instituteurs Immoreaux (inspired by the writings of Donatien Alphonse Sade) with the company Les Travailleurs de la Nuit and Martin Crimp’s The Country, directed by Chris Abraham of Crows Theatre (Toronto). Raphaële has been part of Theatre Junction’s company of artists for the past 9 years, collaborating as co-writer, performer, and dramaturge. Her most recent work includes the creation and curation of the TJLABS, and the staging of Concord Floral by Jordan Tannahill in collaboration with Erin Brubacher in 2016, with 10 teenagers from the Theatre Junction Mentorship Program.

IAN JARVIS

Ian Jarvis is a musician, composer and performer from Montreal, Quebec. For the past decade he has been active in both the Calgary and Montreal music scenes, composing, recording, and touring extensively throughout Canada and the US. As a composer he has explored the realms of jazz, rock, folk, experimental, ambient, and electronic music, having written for a number of ensembles throughout his career. His improvisational approach to composing has also led him to create music for several contemporary dance pieces, both as live performer and music producer. In his own musical project, Chairs, Ian explores the merging of abstract imagery and pop songwriting, while experimenting with textures and timbres in a multi-layered approach to music production. Using an array of electronic and acoustic instruments, his stylistic pallet draws from an eclectic range of influences, both traditional and modern.

 Ian has released three records as Chairs as well as two records as one half of the synth-pop duo, Galaxius Mons. As a collaborator, he has toured and recorded with Reuben and the Dark, Ghostkeeper, Samantha Savage Smith, Manners, Tamara Sandor and Jay Crocker. He earned a diploma in Jazz Performance from Mount Royal College in Calgary and a BFA in Integrative Music Studies from Concordia University in Montreal.

KYLE THOMAS

Kyle is a Calgary-based filmmaker and musician and alum of the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University in Montreal. His short film Not Far From The Abattoir (2011) was awarded top prizes at the Calgary and Edmonton International Film Festivals for short format work by an Alberta-based director, and was screened in competition at SXSW 2012. Thomas’ latest short film The Post (2013) was presented at Cannes 2013 as part of Telefilm Canada’s Not Short On Talent program. A 2014 recipient of the prestigious Lieutenant Governor General of Alberta Arts Award, Thomas has completed his first feature film, The Valley Below, a multi-narrative drama set in the bad lands of central Alberta. The film was produced with the support of Telefilm Canada and the Alberta Media Fund, and had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014.