a two week celebration of three years of creativity with many places, people and partners across the city, province and country.

Live: evolving exhibition, interactive arts activities and pop-up performances during open hours: Tuesday to Friday 10:00-6:00, & Saturdays 10:00-2:00

Online: daily stories, virtual tours and short films, glimpses of activities and rehearsals - online link will be posted here by February 10th 2022.

Contact us to find out more: info@jumbliestheatre.org

Some People Might Be Good

Composer: Robert Fleitz

Concept collaborator, designer, director: Ruth Howard

Text from Reinhardt Frank’s USC Shoah Foundation Interview 

Program Notes by Robert Fleitz:

Some People Might Be Good is a collection of musical- and movement-improvisation scores inspired by and written for Ruth Howard and Jumblies Theatre + Arts’ Grounds for Goodness project. The overarching project has many iterations: its genesis in lesser known Holocaust histories, spanning into the present through contributions from a variety of community members, in ever-deepening exploration of the mystery and remarkable realization of human goodness and group behavior. In Ruth’s words, it is a project “that speaks from the present and reaches for hope and lightness, albeit rooted in dark inherited memories and places.” Over the long course of development of this music-movement work, there has been an ongoing dialogue between sound and object. Sometimes the tableau of objects influences the sound, sometimes the other way around. This suite of improvisation scores cultivates a musical parallel to the qualities necessary for spontaneous goodness and empathy: listening, patience, ambiguity, ease, gravity, vulnerability. Much like the stories, objects, and contributions that have become the fabric for the project as a whole, my compositional material is also completely rooted in the movement, sounds, and thought of the artists involved in its development. To the extent that there is or will be a “finished” score, it will be from the collective work of these individuals. The basis of the work is the following quote from Auschwitz survivor Reinhard Frank's interview with the USC Shoah Foundation: 

I would tell them, and this is my perhaps idealistic view of the world, that even in the bleakest situation there are always some people who might be good, but very very few, that cruelty can be much worse than we imagine, that human beings have much more strength than most people imagine, and that people really should do the right thing, they should speak up when they see that things are wrong. That’s about it. 

This creation of this piece was supported by funds from the Canada Council of the Arts and Ontario Arts Council. 

Musicians: Natalie Fasheh (voice), Carol Fujino (violin), Arie Verheul van de Ven (viola), Paul Widner (cello), Martin van de Ven (clarinet), Matti Pulkki (accordion), Ryan Scott (percussion) 

Movers: Tijana Spasic, Rakefet Arieli, Pesch Nepoose, Catherine Moeller, Susana Meza, Abir AbouelSadaat, Monica Olvera, Liza Konovalov, Melanie Fernandez Alvares, Ximena Huizi, Hodan Ibrahim, Tasmeen Syed, Deanna Jones, D-Lishus Walton, Summera Khan, Afsaneh Zamani 

Choreographic contributors: Animikiikwe Couchie-Waukey, Michelle Silagy

Developmental phase musicians: Sam Rowlandson-O’Hara, Dennis Fleitz, Giancarlo Latta 

Aprons cut & sewn by Marianne Alas & Arlette Ngung Miniature figures by many artists and participants 

Composer’s Bio

Pianist and composer Robert Fleitz curates idiosyncratic artistic experiences. As a pianist, Robert actively performs new and old repertoire in North America and Europe and made made his debut in Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall in October 2021. As a composer, Robert's work often explores themes of agency and vulnerability, recent commissions including Metropolis Ensemble (NYC) and Hilary Easton Dance Company (NYC). First taught piano at age 4 by his father, Robert received degrees from The Juilliard School and is pursuing further studies in composition and piano at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music as a recipient of the Frank Huntington Beebe Grant. Important composition mentors include Molly Joyce, Eric Wubbels, and Janis Petraškevičs. Born and raised in Florida and later a long-time resident of New York City, he currently lives in Rīga, Latvia with his husband, the composer Krists Auznieks. 

So Here I Am

Composer: Christina Volpini

Audio text: voices from the Gather Round Singers 

Program notes by Christina Volpini:

Co-commissioned by Continuum Contemporary Music and Jumblies Theatre, So Here I Am was composed with the Gather Round Singers, Jumblies' community choir, in mind. 

The piece is rooted in striving for connection and bearing witness to others in relation to us. A listening-based approach to the score offers one form of connection and exchange, while the audio playback heard in the piece is derived from the voices of choir members themselves. 

At a Zoom rehearsal on January 3, 2021, choir members shared stories and experiences related to the prompt: "Tell us about a time when someone stood up for someone else, or was kind to someone else in a moment of need." I selected clips from the recorded stories and used software to perform an extreme sound stretch, removing noise to leave the sound heard in the audio playback. During the piece, these stretched voices are heard alongside recordings of the original stories, sometimes in fragments, sometimes in full. 

I am grateful to the members of the Gather Round Singers for their generosity in sharing their stories, as well as Ruth Howard, Ryan Scott, and the many artists who contributed to the development of the work. 

The creation of this work was supported by the Ontario Arts Council. 

Composer’s Bio Christina Volpini is a Hamilton-based composer whose work explores gradual unfolding through time, found objects, and musical textures. Her music has been performed and commissioned by Esprit Orchestra, Array Ensemble, Continuum Contemporary Music, and others. An avid arts administrator, Christina was a core organizer of the Montreal Contemporary Music Lab (LMCML) and Toronto Creative Music Lab (TCML), and is currently the Operations Manager of Continuum Contemporary Music 

Musicians: Carol Fujino (violin), Carolyn Blackwell (viola), Paul Widner (cello), Matti Pulkki (accordion), Ryan Scott (percussion) 

Jar Lifters: Diego Israel, Monica Olivera, Catherine Moeller, Rakefet Arieli, Deval Soni, Liza Konovalov, Ahmed Hegazy, Abir AbouelSadaat, Melanie Fernandez Alvares, Zohar Segal-Jaeger, Miriam Hawkins, Tijana Spasic 

Live Painters: Alex Videla-Moeller, Shlomit Segal, Charlie Doewich, Tamyka Bullen, Amaya Sennett 

Sound Box design and building: Adrienne Marcus Raja, Steafan Hannigan, Gary Attwood, Monish Ghosh, Navin Ramator, Catherine Moeller 

Gather Round Singers

Director: Shifra Cooper

Manager: Ahmed Hegazy

Associate Artists and Facilitators: Natalie Fasheh, Tijana Spasic, Sharada Eswar, Sam Rowlandson-O'Hara, Animikiikwe Couchie, Catherine Moeller, Rakefet Arieli, Karis Jones-Pard, Tasmeen Syed, Hodan Ibrahim, Risa de Rege, Lisette Cogdell

ASL Interpreters: Latasha Lennox, Emma Dehez, Eboni Ricketts 

Choir members: Sally Wellen, Bettina Harrison, Shelley La Hay, Summera Khan, Joyce Sweet, Harshi Hemachandra, Bernadette Shuman, Marlene Sheehan Carey, Sandra Kanagasabai, Daphne Morgan, Herold van de Ven, Jon Field, Lorna Brown, Daphne Morgan, Ralitsa Rodriguez, Alma Lilia Yañez Gutierrez, Margaret Bojin, Margaret Oldfield, Claudette Davy, Yan Deng, Khal Baksh, Nahilah Dib, Ann Lapenna, Margie Sumadh, Hrnakshi Joashi, Qun Wu 

Grounds for Goodness Production Team

at the Small Arms Building, February 2022: 

Artistic Director: Ruth Howard Props

Media & Exhibition Designer: Adrienne Marcus Raja

Creative Producer: Caroline Hollway

Managing Producer: Sam Egan

Technical Director: Steafan Hannigan

Stage Manager: Conner Bustamante

Assistant Stage Manager: Olivia Zotti

Technical Assistant: Cadman Brooks

Online Producers: Studio Dreamshare (Cameron Montgomery & Dorian Pearce)

Catering: Marianne Alas

Art Station Staff: Arlette Ngung, Tuyaara Fedorova

Production Assistants: Kiyara Ngung, Samuel Perez, Bryan Marcus Raja 

Photo Documentation: Plastique Famille

Continuum Contemporary Music

Artistic Director: Ryan Scott

Operations Manager: Christina Volpini 

Grounds for Goodness at the Small Arms Inspection Building is produced with the support of: