Directed by Eva Barrie & Desirée Leverenz
In March of 2020, we Ruffians were preparing our summer production, As You Like It. The world asked us to think differently.
So we did.
As We Live It is a piece created collaboratively with the artists of As You Like It. We used our collective experiences and thoughts to build a play that digs into our lived realities over the past six months. From racism to toilet paper wars to zucchini growing, As We Live It is a celebration of live theatre, that takes the audience on a journey around Withrow Park. A creative compilation of our thoughts on one of the most significant years in recent memory, it is theatre made for today.
As We Live It is a live, socially-distanced promenade show. Tickets are free, and extremely limited. The audience will be divided into five socially distanced “bubbles”. Each bubble fits up to four people, who do not follow social distancing guidelines with each other (for example, members of the same household), comfortably.
Pre-registration is mandatory and tickets will be available on September 24th at 10am through Brown Paper Tickets.
To view Ruff’s full Audience Health & Safety Guidelines click here.
Accessibility:
As We Live It is a promenade show (a show that moves from location to location). The path will travel over sidewalks, and also grassy areas that can sometimes be somewhat uneven. Individuals using mobility devices such as wheelchairs, scooters, or walkers are asked to move at a safe speed and exercise caution, as they would in any city park.
There will be an ASL Interpreted performance on Oct 3rd at 4:30 pm. Members from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community who would like to attend this performance, please email FOH@shakespeareintheruff.com by Oct 1st.
ASL Interpreters: Amanda Hyde & Jessica Kingsbury
As We Live It Team
Eva Barrie
Co-Director
Eva has spent the last seven months trying to grow thicker eyebrows, and learning to French braid her hair, in order to see how long she can go without washing it (results pending). Beyond experiments related to hair growth and hygiene, she is a Dora Award winning theatre artist and the Co-Artistic Director of Shakespeare in the Ruff.
Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho)
Writer
Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho) is a Chinese Canadian theatre artist originally from Hong Kong. He hopes that you’re taking care, eating well, finding peace and calm through this pandemic, and embracing love and equity with yourself and our communities. Much love and gratitude to you and your loved ones.
Christine Horne
Actor
Christine is an actor and mother living not all that far from Withrow Park. She’s enjoyed the bird-watching and gardening that the past seven months have afforded her, but she’s also happy to be making some art again with Shakespeare in the Ruff. Thank you for sharing this experience with us. Welcome back.
Veronica Hortiguela
Actor
Veronica is a born and raised Torontonian and recent-ish BFA graduate of the Ryerson Performance Acting Program. She made her professional stage debut in Cue6’s production of Dry Land, which was praised by the Globe and Mail as one of the Top 10 Theatre Performances of 2018. This past winter she joined the ensemble of The Howland Company’s Casimir and Caroline; the cast was later recognized with the Dora Award for Outstanding Ensemble. Veronica also exercises her muscles as a writer in both English and her native Spanish, enjoys watching the streetcar go by her window, and has mastered the art of scrambled eggs. After months of recording commercial voice auditions in her 2’ x 4’ bedroom closet, she is thrilled to be playing in this little bit of theatre magic with Ruff, and is deeply grateful to see art springing up between the cracks of the 2020 pavement.
Julia Kim
Costume Designer
Julia Kim used to be a Toronto-based set and costume designer, working in theatre and dance. Since the pandemic began, she has been doing nothing but wandering around in the prairies and searching for her purpose of life as an artist. She will be relocating back home in Vancouver with her hopes and dreams. Fingers crossed.
What she would have designed in 2020: set and costume design for Blacktop Sky, Obsidian Theatre; King Henry Five, Driftwood Theatre; be careful with each other (so you can be dangerous together), Toronto Fringe Festival; costume design for Billy Elliot the Musical, Globe Theatre; As You Like It, Shakespeare in the Ruff.
Desirée Leverenz
Co-Director
Desirée Leverenz is a director, creator, and performer living in Tkaronto and hails from Treaty 6. Desirée is a graduate of a few schools and is the associate artistic director of Shakespeare in the Ruff as well as the creator and artistic director of The Orange Girls. Desirée is committed to examining decolonized ways of creating art, especially while decentering the white male voice in our theatrical history. Desirée mostly tries to dismantle capitalism through retweeting memes from her bed.
Jareth Li
Set Designer
Jareth is a stage designer in Toronto, wondering where the past six months have gone. He has spent this strange summer on jaunts to the wilderness, making things out of salvage, and keeping his garden safe from raccoons. Lately he has been finding inspiration in destruction and rebirth/reconstruction, and is excited by the prospects of what a “New Normal” world could be. This will be his third season with Ruff, and he is so thankful that he gets to play in a park a block away from where he lives, with a cohort of absolutely wonderful folk. He hopes that our offering brings you joy.
Tiffany Martin
Actor
Tiffany is an actor who has spent the last 6 months not acting. Mostly learning how to use a knitting machine making scrafs A.KA. the training wheels of knitting. I am so grateful for my bubble and excited to be hanging out with hese wonderful humans; consistenly being reminded of the resiliency and the generosity of our community and what unification of the human Spirit can do for our world. #UBI
Elizabeth Morris
Deaf Community Consultant
Elizabeth Morris is a professional Deaf actor. She She is a graduate of Washington, D.C’s Gallaudet University for the Deaf. While in D.C. she was a member of “Quest for Arts”, with which she performed in Mexico, Romania, South Africa, Japan and Australia. She had the honour of performing at the Deaf Olympic’s opening ceremony in Australia.
Elizabeth also holds MDes in Inclusive Design from OCAD University. Her thesis was based on creating ways to make live theatre more accessible and inclusive for Deaf and Hard of Hearing audience members, including their families and friends. She won a medal for the best exhibit in her program at OCAD U’s 102nd Graduate Exhibition.
Elizabeth was the very first Deaf signing actor at the Stratford Festival, and has performed at the Young People’s Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, and Shakespeare Link Canada (Toronto), National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Concrete Theatre and Citadel Theatre (Edmonton). She is a co-founder of the Deaf Spirit Theatre company.
Kwaku Okyere
Actor
Kwaku Okyere is a Ghanaian-Canadian multidisciplinary theatre artist. He was named an Artist to Watch in NOW Magazine, and received the MyTheatre Critics’ Pick Award for Outstanding Actor in a Small Production for originating the role of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin in Steven Elliot Jackson’s award-winning play, The Seat Next to the King. Most recently, Kwaku played Oberon in the Dora-nominated ensemble of Theatre Rusticle’s acclaimed swan song production of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Kwaku is also an emerging director, most notably having assisted acclaimed director and now Obsidian’s AD Mumbi Tindyebwa-Otu on her multiple award-winning production of The Brothers Size for Soulpepper Theatre. Kwaku looks forward to continuing his journey as a director as he’ll be co-directing the 2nd Year Period Study project alongside veteran director Jeannette Lambermont-Morey at George Brown theatre School in March of next year.
Sepehr Reybod
Actor
Sepehr Reybod is an emerging actor, playwright, and creator based in Toronto. He’s had the pleasure of working with such companies as Factory Theatre, Geordie Theatre in Montreal, and Canadian Stage, among others. He recently completed the Foundry program, run by Factory, to develop his newest play, The Karkhaneh: a story of orgies and rebellion in the Middle East. He begins his residency there this upcoming season to further develop his play. Sepehr’s main goal for 2021: head back to school to study the culinary arts.
Kaitlyn Riordan
Writer
Kaitlyn Riordan has not learned another language in the past six months, though intended to. She had baked a lot, read many books, wept, had too many Zoom meetings, spent as much time in parks as possible, made a new friend, thought a lot about the injustices in the world and her place in it all, and dreamed of a day when we could come together again to watch a play. She’s also Ruff’s Co-Artistic Director, an actor, and a playwright. She’s very grateful to all the artists gathered here today and to the community that surrounds them. May the winter be short and our hearts be big!
Emilio Vieira
Actor
Emilio Vieira is an actor/singer based in Toronto who has recently made the ‘Covid pivot’ to writing and producing: two areas he’s very excited to grow in. Previously, Emilio spent several seasons at the Stratford Festival, most notably appearing in the critically acclaimed Coriolanus which toured south of the border. He has also worked with Crow’s Theatre, Project Humanity, Canadian Stage, Guild Festival Theatre and Shakespeare BASH’d. Emilio is a passionate Shakespeare practitioner. He also loves cricket and The Lord of the Rings. This is his debut with Shakespeare in the Ruff!
Tamara Vuckovic
Stage Manager
Tamara is a Toronto based Stage Manager, Director and Producer in primarily Theatre and Opera. Her work has taken her across Canada, from Toronto to Vancouver, Montreal, Edmonton, and Halifax, to various cities in the US, internationally to Italy and Estonia, and then right back to her Covid-free condo downtown. She is the Managing Producer and Resident Stage Manager of indie performance company ARC, and the SM of opera performance company Off Centre Music Salon. Tamara has SM’d international shows, touring shows, festival shows, musicals, and outdoor shows. That includes Ruff, with which this is/would have been her fourth consecutive summer.
Front of House Manager: Giovanni Spina
Site Safety Manager: Jenna Borsato
As We Live It was also shaped by creative contributions from David Costello, Gloria Mok, Maddie Bautista, Annie Clarke and Jeff Yung.
