by Tristan R. Whiston and Moynan King | A ReDefine Arts and Theatre Passe Muraille Co-Production
Tristan R. Whiston | Photographer: Henry Chan
How do we reconcile all of who we have been, with who we are now, and who we are yet to become?
Enter the world of Trace: an interdisciplinary performance about the voice in transition.
Created by Tristan R. Whiston and Moynan King, Trace focuses on the ongoing nature of queer being and becoming. By transforming a private story into a public performance, audiences will be taken on a journey across time and identity.
Beginning with archival audio recordings of Tristan’s singing voice across different stages of his gender transition, Trace integrates sound art, music, and video in an immersive and interactive live performance. Archival footage of the 1990’s cabaret act The Boychoir of Lesbos, created by Tristan and co-realized by Moynan, is woven in as a tangible example of the ways that performance can extend and realize gender identification using the voice as a key method of doing so.
In the current iteration of the show, Trace gestures toward a queer future with the live performance of a newly realized trans/non-binary/gender-queer choir that reflects the changing nature of queer community and identity.
Show Runs
April 21 to 30, 2023
Running Time: 65 minutes
Location
Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Avenue) Mainspace Theatre
Tickets
Pay-What-You-Can-Afford
$10 | $30 | $60
Environmental Warnings: Some pulsing and flashing white light. Sound can be very loud at times (and is located all around the theatre space); limited hearing protection is available at the box office.
Credits
Co-Creator and Performer
Tristan R. Whiston
Co-Creator and Director
Moynan King*
Co-Producer
Anna Camilleri
Production Manager/ Lighting Designer
Charissa Wilcox
Stage Manager
Becky Gold
Video Designer
Jeremy Mimnagh
Set Design
Trixie and Beever
Costume Design
Jasmine King
Sound Designer/ Composition
Tristan R. Whiston with Moynan King
Stand-up Coach
Dawn Whitwell
Still Photography
Henry Chan
Access Consultant
Alex Bulmer
The Epic Choir of Traceland
Arin Klein
Annanda DeSilva
Celina Carroll
Eli Holliday
Gehan Udayanga
Isabella Cavalheiro-Chin
Kay Jones
Megan Wilk
Nigel Wynne
Riley Kelk
Theo Ryan
Van Ward
Wy Joung Kou
Zena Lord
* The participation of this Artist is arranged by permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the provisions of the DOT Policy.
Tickets & Show times
Please be aware there is some pulsing and flashing white light during this performance.
All performances of Trace will be Blind Friendly. Blind Friendly performances have been imagined with audiences who are Blind or have low vision in mind. Trace is a sonically rich and layered production.
Theatre Guides will be available on:
Saturday, April 22, 2023 – 2pm
Sunday, April 23, 2023 – 2pm
Saturday, April 29, 2023 – 2pm
Theatre Guides are not trained Audio Describers, but are trained as Theatre Guides who will Lead you through the show experience and describe visual parts of the show.
If you cannot make one of the three Theatre Guide Performances please let us know when you book your ticket(s), and we can schedule you a Theatre Guide to support you at any of the other performances. You can call the Box Office and request a guide at: 416-504-7529 or email Jenn at: jenns@passemuraille.on.ca
All performances of Trace will be Relaxed Performances. Relaxed Performances are designed to welcome audience members and their families who could benefit from a more relaxed environment, including Autistic and neurodivergent patrons. Find out more about Relaxed Performances.
Click here to download the Trace Visual Story (Word Document)
If you would like information on the topics or themes in our productions, or to determine the suggested age for attending a performance, please reach out to our Box Office staff at 416.504.7529 or by email at info@passemuraille.on.ca.
Tristan R. Whiston is a multi-disciplinary artist who has worked in Toronto’s arts community for over 30 years as a director, dramaturge, writer, performer, teacher and community artist. His work as an audio artist has gained him international acclaim and attention – he wrote and directed five audio documentaries for CBC; most notably, his work, Middle C, won the 2007 Premios Ondas Award for International Radio. Tristan collaborated with Moynan King on an integrated art and sound performance piece called trace, which was co-presented by ReDefine Arts and FADO in association with New Adventures in Sound Art in August, 2012 and toured Canada in 2015. Trace was featured in the Fall 2020 edition of Canadian Theatre Review journal. As Artistic Co-Director of ReDefine Arts, Tristan has co-led 30+ community-engaged arts projects including Drift Seeds, (a site-specific performance with a cast of 150+) and co-created numerous interdisciplinary arts projects including May I Take Your Arm and Where There is Smoke. Recently, Tristan was dramaturge on the dance-theatre production Dancing With the Universe by Vivian Chong and Kathleen Rea that premiered at the Harbourfront Centre’s CoMotion: International Festival of Disability Arts.
Moynan King is a performer, director, curator, writer, and scholar. She was the recipient of a 2020 Canadian Screen Award for her writing on CBC’s Baroness von Sketch Show on which she also made regular appearances as an actor. She is the author of six plays, and the creator of many performances including TRACE with Tristan Whiston. Moynan was the co-founder and director of the Hysteria Festival, the co-director of the Rhubarb! Festival (for four years), and has been the curator of multiple cabaret events including Cheap Queers. As an Assistant Artistic Director and Associate Artist at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre for a total nine years, they developed such works as The Beauty Salon and Bathory among many others. Moynan holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from York University. Her critical writing on theatre and performance is widely published and they are the editor of Queer Performance: Women and Trans Artists (CTR 149), Queer/Play: An Anthology of Queer Women’s Performance and Plays, and co-editor of Sound & Performance (CTR 184) with Megan Johnson. As of September 2022, Moynan will be post-doctoral fellow at the University of Western Ontario working with Dr. Spy Dénommé-Welch on a sound-based research project entitled Queer Resonance. Moynan is thrilled to be part of the Theatre Passe Muraille season!
To schedule an interview with the artist, or staff members at Theatre Passe Muraille regarding this production, please email Red Eye Media at Suzanne@redeyemedia.ca. We will try out best to accommodate your media requests, however they are not guaranteed.
- Pulsing and flashing white light
- Sound can be very loud at times (and is located all around the theatre space), limited hearing protection is available at the box office.
Ryan Hayward, Diane Frankling Co-operative Homes, Coman Poon, Arcadia Housing Co-op, Dafydd Hughes, Sherry Hay, Shannon Cochrane, FADO Performance Art, NAISA (New Adventures in Sound Art), Darren Copeland, Adrien Whan, Video Fag, Studio 303, YK ARCC, (S)hiver Arts Festival, The Canada Council for the Arts, The Ontario Arts Council, The Boychoir of Lesbos, Trisha Lamie, Eryn Dace Trudell, Gwyneth Baillie and Leslie Peters.
Book Club: Wednesday, April 19
prelude: Sunday, April 23
Post-Show Q+A: Saturday, April 22 & Friday, April 28 (7:30pm)
ReDefine Arts (established in 2005 as Red Dress Productions) creates and presents interdisciplinary and community grounded performance, installations and public artworks that advance disability justice, collaborative processes, and artistic innovation.
Alongside its collaborators, community members and partners, ReDefine Arts is re-defining what it means to be an artist. ReDefine Arts views the artist as a creator and visionary, and also: co-creator, listener, connector of ideas, guide, and choreographer. While there is space for this definition to grow in tandem with our work, core to this understanding is that the artist’s role is to facilitate community-centred practices that remain accountable to the artistry, the stories, and the people telling them.
Trace – to copy something by putting translucent paper on top of it and drawing the visible outlines.
Trace – to find out where somebody is, or who somebody was.
Trace – a sign, such as a footprint, that remains behind to show the former presence of a person or thing no longer; a physical sign of the passage of a person.