Jumblies Theatre

Infobox Company
name = Jumblies Theatre

type = Non Profit
foundation = 2001
founder = Ruth Howard
location_city = Toronto, Ontario
location_country = Canada
area_served = flag|Canada|name=Toronto
key_people = Ruth Howard, Founder
industry = Entertainment: Community Art
products =
services =
num_employees =
divisions =
subsid =
homepage = [http://www.jumbliestheatre.org/ www.jumbliestheatre.org]
intl =

Jumblies Theatre is a Community Arts Theatre Company with the over all concept of social inclusion.

Origins

Jumblies Theatre was founded in 2001 by its Artistic Director, Ruth Howard. Ruth’s work is inspired by the British Community Play form, pioneered by the Colway Theatre Trust, and brought to Canada in the 1990s by Dale Hamilton.

In bringing the community play to Toronto, Ruth Howard and Jumblies Theatre, created the necessity to adapt the form to an urban community. The new format focus’s on multiculturalism, engaging newcomers, and working with public housing residents. The company also maintains community arts’ guiding principles of inclusive community engagement, a value that ‘everyone is welcome’, along with a focus on artistic quality and respect for process and product.

Residencies

Jumblies Theatre creates residency projects, which typically involve over 300 community participants from each community it works in, along with 20 to 30 professional artists from a range of disciplines and cultural traditions. Toronto residency neighbourhoods to date include South Riverdale, Lawrence Heights, Davenport-Perth and Central Etobicoke.

Projects

South Riverdale (2001) Project Partners: South Riverdale Community Health Centre, WoodGreen Community Centre, Ralph Thornton Centre, Jimmie Simpson Recreation Centre and Park, Queen Street East Presbyterian Church, Riverdale Community Business Centre, WoodGreen United Church

Arts for All (2001-current) Project Partners: Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre, the STOP Community Food Centre, Pelham Park (TCHC), Davenport Perth United Church

Mabelle Arts (2004-current) Project Partners: Montgomery's Inn (City of Toronto Culture Division), Toronto Community Housing Corporation, Madbakh, Islington Junior Middle School, Mabelle Community Action Committee

Naivelt (2006- current) Project Partners: United Jewish Peoples Order, Morris Winchevsky Centre

Jumblies Studio (2007-current) Project Partners: Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre, Ontario Trillium Foundation, George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation
*Launched in 2007 as a training and mentorship program. Through the program, artists participate in workshops, learning sessions and apprenticeship opportunities in community arts [http://jumbliestheatre.org/now/studio.html]

Productions

"Twisted Metal and Mermaids Tears" (2000)

"I’m Taipingi Too!" (2001)

"More or the Magic Fish" (2002)

"The Land of Three Doors" (2003)

"Once A Shoreline" (2004)

"Your Name is Written in the Sky" (2005)

"Where I’m From" (2005)

"Tea and Bridges" (2006)

"Bridge of One Hair" (2007)

Awards and Honors

2000 Our Millennium Award for South Riverdale "Lives and Legends"

2000 South Riverdale CHC, Citizen of the Year ( Ruth Howard)

2002 Community Arts Ontario, Best Practices for "More or the Magic Fish"

2004 Toronto Urban Institute, Urban Leadership Award Nomination

2005 Toronto Community Foundation, Vital People Award ( Ruth Howard )

2005 Fresh Ground Commission, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto

2007 Great Grants Award, Ontario Trillium Foundation

2007 nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Costume Design for "Bridge of One Hair"

2007 participant in the New World Stage Festival, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto

2008 Toronto Community Foundation, Vital Ideas Grant

Further reading

Jumblies Poem by Edward Lear

"Easy to Say: Reflections on the roles of art and the artist in Canadian adaptations of the Colway Community Play form" funded by Canada Council for the Arts, Co-written with Rachael Van Fossen and Ruth Howard, Jan 2005

Produced short video on "Once A Shoreline" process as part of "Documenting Engagement" Vancouver, by Ruth Howard Jan. 2004

"The Cultural Equivalent of Daycare? ", written byRuth Howard, funded by In Print Dialogue, Community Arts Ontario, 2004

"The Aesthetics of Including Everyone", written by Ruth Howard, Alt Theatre, Fall 2002.

ee also

Community art

Community Theatre

Ruth Howard

External links

* [http://www.jumbliestheatre.org Jumblies Theatre website]
* [http://www.educ.uvic.ca/communityarts/JumbliesTheatre.htm University of Victoria]
* [http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/December2007/03/c6486.html| Trillium Great Grants Award]
* [http://inclusion.ifsnetwork.org/examples/communitydrama.asp Inclusion: Once a Shoreline]
* [http://www.communityarts.net/training/archivefiles/apprenticeshipinternship/ Jumblies Studio]