Hunters Bay Radio
ARTS R US CHRISTINA SERRA SEPTEMBER 8 2024
"Your source for community, MSCOCA made talk shows are on MSCOCA Magazine, the bay, ADA7." Hey, this is Dr. Shervin. MSCOCA Magazine is brought to you by Dairy Lane Dental, keeping MSCOCA smiling for over 30 years. Please visit DairylaneDental.com. "This is ArtsRUs on the bay." Good morning and welcome to ArtsRUs. My name is Karen Cassian and I'm here with my co-host, Noreen Mitchell and today we have the pleasure of interviewing artist Kristina Sarah. Kristina is a professional theater artist and educator and specifically for our interview today, she's a teacher for the Huntsville Festival of the Arts Programs for Children. Welcome, Kristina. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. So the mandate of the Huntsville Festival of the Arts is to provide educational opportunities for students of all ages and to encourage their participation in an interactive format wherever possible to develop their appreciation of the arts and identify potential career paths. That's a lot. That's a lot. But they have an incredible fall program that we would like you to talk about. You're one of the instructors. Yes. So the Festival of the Arts is offering so many great programs this fall and the ones that I am instructing are a song called, the class called Baby Song and Bounce, which is for toddlers, really babies to toddlers who are newborns to 17 months old. And that's on Thursdays at 9.30. And it's a class where parents and babies, little ones can come and experience music. And I provide instruments and different kinds of implements like scarves and tactile things that the babies can use or different ways to stimulate them visually or tactile in a tactile manner. But it's also a chance for moms to meet each other and to interact and discuss mom things. That's important. Yes, it's the, I think, the most important part of the class. So although I am gearing the class towards children, the babies, there's definitely a large component of it that I am aware that the moms need a chance to chat with each other. So I facilitate time for that as well. And there's not too much of that around, I imagine. Classes like that. Well, there probably are a couple of and the library probably has something. Yeah. And early on, of course, is a fantastic place for that kind of interaction. And this is just another place locally that I focus mostly on music. And I also have a large portion of the classes with my guitar. And I will tell you, that is the most hypnotizing part of the class. I could not even explain what it does to babies and how it attracts them and soothe them and interest them. And I am truly the Pied Piper. I've had kids just crawl up to me, crawl onto the guitar. And, you know, I let it all happen safely so they don't get their fingers caught. But the guitar is magic. And I never know what's going to happen. You should offer audience part audience being able to watch. Well, that, well, I don't, I don't typically allow anyone to come in that's not participating because I want the moms to feel like it's a place to relax. Exactly. Yes. I say, come in your pajamas. Please don't, don't put on any makeup. Just come as you are. Because I know it's so hard to get out of the house with little ones and you just want to be out and comfortable. I think that's wonderful. I want to know about disco ducks. Yes. So, disco ducks is the next level of my music class, which is for toddlers 18 months to four years old. So it's a primary age music class, music and movement class. So this came from, I was educated in a program called Kinder Music, which is targeted towards the same age range. And it's a program that you lead children through different kinds of musical instruction and awareness of their body movement. However, I loved it. It was fantastic. But what I really saw with these kids wanted to move, they wanted to dance. They wanted to move around. They loved when I turned on music or, like I said, when I play the guitar. So in combination with that and seeing how much my family, my, the little children in my family love to be at a wedding, who doesn't love to be at a family wedding, how can I marry those things together? Disco music. Everybody gets up. Everybody gets up. Everybody gets up. Anyway, so I have a disco ball that I turn on every time I turn on the recording music. Yeah, it's a studio and it is so much fun. And so it's very, you know, disco songs are very fun. And so we use instruments with them and I make sure they're all appropriate. And there's lots of simple dancing and just moving. Again, I'm really aware that toddlers like to move. So as the class is going on, if there are children that like to move, I facilitate that as best as possible. We try to keep a focus on the circle, but if kids are ready to move, I say, okay, let's change what we're doing and we're going to move. So it's not a class where you need to feel that your kids have to be quiet. And I, I say that to all the parents, I understand toddlers. I am not a school teacher. I'm not going to make them sit down and behave structured. I mean, the structure is we're going to go with the flow. You know, like I say to everyone, we try to keep a focus in the circle if someone really needs to run around. There's a big studio space right behind us in the room. They're free to move. So, you know, it's a bit of give and take. I don't want total chaos, but I do understand that those little kids need to move and I want them to move and I want to help facilitate that. Great. And sometimes I want to move theatrically. What else do you teach? So I also teach a program called Theatre Kids on Saturday mornings at 11 a.m. And that is for children ages four to six and that is based all in drama. So the kids come in and we do some fun theatre games, warm up games, just so they get to know each other. And then simple things like I bring out costumes and get them to pick something they like, they get to dress up. And I facilitate different games that encourage their comfort in the room, as well as comfort with each other and mostly being part of a group. And then once I feel that they're mostly comfortable with that, I offer the opportunity to stand in front of the group and do something fun. But switching from age groups, is that difficult for you? Like, got it all right? Yeah, it's a mother of three. Well, that's true. That's true. When I get to the Sage group of three to four, I feel that they're so old because I've been with the babies the rest of the time. So I will say that I don't underestimate them because I feel like they're so much older than the toddlers and the babies that I've been with. So it's fun for me because I can ask them questions and they will chat with me. And the parents aren't in the room. This is a program for children without their parents, typically some of the first programming because it's so young. So kids are, I mean, everybody, if you have kids, they're different when you're not there. So they're very fun. And it's been great. There's been kids who have come in quite trepidatious, but we've created a nice little community of kids that they've had a good time. And that's my goals for them too. And they're learning to be without their parents. Yeah. And that's a big thing too. I was going to ask you, I've seen your kids in your classes, how does that work? Mixing with the other kids who don't have kids? It's good because they're helpful. And they know a lot of what I do. They've been with me since on my back. I had them in carriers on my back playing the guitar. They're familiar right from Bert. Because as an artist, you don't get a maternity leave or anything of the sort most of the time. Maybe some artists out there do. So I had to go back to work quite early. And so my kids always came with me. There was always a baby somewhere. And I've asked you this before, were they your best audience? Are they still your best audience? Sometimes they are. Sometimes they're free to tell me, this isn't my favorite one. I say, move on. Say that for after the class. That's funny. Do you also do the tweens? Yes. So then the oldest age group I do is the tween class. And that's from seven to 12. And that's something that we started last year. Obviously for kids who are a bit older. And that is a class, again, drama. They just get used to using their voices. That one, I really try to get them to really draw on their imagination and take it further. How can they? Is that an introduction to t-pan for the? Sure. It would be the next. It would be the level before t-pan. Yeah. And differing a lot. I think so. Just different teacher styles. I'm pretty sure so Elberta, Robene, and Sarah Benas run the t-pan. And I know it's a fantastic program. And just from knowing those women, I'm sure our goal is to encourage confidence. As theater always does, it's a chance for you to discover your voice and feel comfortable in a group of people. And I specifically focus on you don't need to stand up and be loud. That's not my focus. I just want to hear some ideas. I want to hear your ideas, and I want to hear the kids feel free to share their ideas, especially at a young age. They might not be ready to blast into a song or do something silly. I want to make sure that those kids that are a little more reserved, still feeling incorporated, still feel heard. Okay. Well, we're going to take a short break right now. We're here with Christina Sarah, and she's telling us about the HFA Fall Programming for Children, and we'll be right back on Karen Cassian with Marie Mitchell on Arts for Us. I'm Dr. Sherman from Dairy Lane Dental, and you're listening to Miskoka Magazine. This is Arts for Us on the Bay. And we're back on Arts for Us. I'm Karen Cassian here with my co-host, Marie Mitchell, and we're interviewing artist Christina Sarah, and we're talking about HFA's the Huntsville Festival of the Arts programs for children. And we want to hear more about Christina, too. So we're just going to list a few more programs, and then we're going to ask her some questions about herself. Yes, so like I was saying, there's lots of good programming this fall through the Huntsville Festival of the Arts. In addition to my music classes and drama classes, there's an after-school art program called "Imaginative Dreamscapes," led by Katherine Luz, which begins--all of these programs begin in October, so the best time to register is now. That after-school art program is for ages 7 to 12, and as we mentioned before, there's a fantastic program called TPAN, Teen Performing Arts Night, which is the third Tuesday of every month, and that's for ages 12 to 18. A brand new program that's beginning this fall is called sean sean sean, which is a French program. On Thursdays after-school for grades one to three, for kids who are interested in French immersion, who are interested in dance and improving their French skills through the joy of music and movement. That would be Hannah Neiman? That's Hannah, yes, yes. Another new one is the HFA Radio Kids. That looked really cool. Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be fantastic, and that's for grades six to eight on Monday evenings. And then in addition to that, we have a couple of P.A.A. camps for the P.A.A. in October and a P.A.A. in November, and then the last one I'll mention is an HFA community dance, which is in September at the end of--there's three actually, September, October and November, which is all ages. Out at Sanfield Nursery and that's Hannah. And that's Hannah again. Yes, yeah. Well, there's so much happening. I mean, it's wonderful. We live in such a great community and offer all of this. So people can actually find this program guide on the HFA website and download it, and it's really a gem. So tell us more about you, Christina. Your background in teaching. I know you're the partner of Dan Watson, who's the executive director of the Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and you created a play, Ralph and Lena, which was amazing when it was nominated in one Adora award. Tell us a bit about yourself. Well, I'm originally from Peterborough. Yeah, I could not find that information. I assumed you from tomorrow because you went to college in Toronto. It's very funny to be up here and everyone assume I'm from Toronto. Because really Huntsville is a very familiar feeling for me because I'm from small town Peterborough. So, but did go to school in Toronto for theatre at Humber College, and that's where Dan and I met, and we lived there for, oh my goodness, over 20 years, had all our kids there, and then we decided to move up here when the Dan offered the opportunity to apply for the job. Had you already had some time up here? Yes, we did. Yes, we'd done a festival called the Edge of the Woods Festival that we brought up to Muscoca, and it was an outdoor festival that included, I think, five theatre pieces, four or five, depending on the year, incorporated with, like, a community supper, outdoor cooking fire supper, and we did that here, and I believe in 2016, I think. Yes, and how did Nui Blanche North come out of all that? Nui Blanche North was Dan, mostly. Well, Dan entirely, I should say, so I believe him and Rob Saunders were thinking of, but it was the popularity of the interactive kind of things that Edge of the Woods did that I think carried on. Yeah, I think they were, how can we expand that into something else, and then Nui Blanche is enormous in many big towns, especially in Toronto, and I think that was the idea, where the idea came from. Ralph and Lena was the story of your grandparents. Do you want to talk about that and how you created it? Sure, so Dan and I, when we were in theatre school, we were exposed to many different styles of theatre and two things that we were both really drawn toward, which I think kind of ignited our interest in each other, was a form of theatre called Comedia de Larte, which is an Italian comedy, old, really old comedic theatre with the use of masks. And then there was another style of theatre that was Collective Creation, where you took stories and then you made your own theatre out of it. But it wasn't written with a script, it was very much interpreting it through movement and all kinds of different things. There was no text involved at all for the initial part of the creation. So Dan and I always wanted to work on something, and I had brought the story of my grandparents up a lot in theatre school, using it for different kind of things. And Dan always said, I want to try to work on just you and I doing the story of your grandparents. And I always thought, it's too big, it's an enormous story, I don't know how we're going to do it. So we had just started piece by piece, we started with a little bit that we sometimes, we were asked to do a little piece of theatre for a fundraiser, for a company that we love from Toronto. And we based it on my grandparents waking up in the morning, which is the first part of Ralph and Lena, that's where that first part came from. And it went over so well, everyone was saying, oh, you need to develop it, you need to make it into more. So we thought, okay, let's start there and then we'll keep going. So through this process of Collective Creation, where you really just take an idea and run with it and kind of flesh out what's good, what's bad, what works, what's interesting, what's not interesting, that's how Ralph and Lena was developed with, I should say, our director, Michelle Smith, who is a part of the Smith Gilmore Theatre in Toronto, who Dan and I had adored for years. That's great. And it was very successful, Ralph and Lena. Yeah, it was. Was it ever run in 1990, 1990 performances and all over Canada. 14 of them in Huntsville, in the first go around and then you came back and did it in 2022 and sold out three performances. A truly, truly wonderful film. I would play rather, truly wonderful play. Tell us about the Snow Queen. Snow Queen. So Snow Queen, during the lockdown, we wanted to provide some sort of programming for children. And so Dan and I thought, well, we could do it outside around a campfire outside of the studio. This studio has that great little courtyard in the front. And we thought, what can we, we come from a background in Toronto to outdoor festivals. We've done a lot of outdoor performing. So it's so beautiful here in the winter. We thought, what can we do? Can we do something outside? So we had this idea for our snow village where, you know, we had many helpers come up and design. Loosely based on Huntsville. Yeah. Design a beautiful village in River Mill Park. And then we thought, let's do a traveling show outside. And so we talked about stories and we decided on the Snow Queen, which was appropriate. And so I had this collection of kids. I had two groups of kids that would come on different nights throughout the week. And I would give them, I would told them the story and I would say, okay, today, I want you to split up into these groups and just make this little scene up. And so from the things that they had done, which is very much like collective creation, we would, I would write down and take out things that they had done that I thought, well, that can work. That'd be good. And then I'd flush it out a little bit more and bring it back the next week and say, okay, let's try that again this way. So over the course of, I think, not very long, maybe two months, these two groups of kids worked on different pieces that were eventually put together to make the show. But the show also had, if you saw it, enormous puppets. Yeah, larger than life, larger than life, which is also something that we were familiar with in Toronto that we had worked with. So our dear friend, Son Yurini, from Toronto, came up to work with us to help build the puppets. But that was also a part of the children's programming is that during these rehearsal periods, half of it was dedicated to helping build the puppets, build the costumes. And they had these beautiful raccoon masks. There were all kinds of great costume and prop pieces that the kids helped build as well. And it was a totally wonderful success. I was a sick, unfortunately, it was three bitterly cold nights. I remember way beginning. It's February 2023. And I was up in the apartment looking out over and watching it. But I could just see the enjoyment even despite the cold. It even snowed. It snowed. It was lovely. Yeah, it was beautiful. Yeah, no, that was very successful. Are you planning to do any more of things like that? Winter or not? Winter? You never know, Nori? Yeah, I'm not sure. It would be great. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Well, I think you said after Ralph and Lena, that was the last time I did. And then Dan said, I don't say that. Don't ever know. People love it. Well, anyway, so we would like to know, are there any things you'd like to try to do, write, perform, direct, or other things that you haven't done yet? Yes, always. I'd love to make another show with young people. They're just so much fun. They have wild energy. They have so fortunate to come across youth and ambition beyond belief. They're amazing. I'd love to make something else with Dan. There's other artists in the community that I would love to collaborate with to make different things. Yes, there's lots of things. I'm sure whatever it is, it's going to be wonderful. I'd like to just comment on what Suzanne River and said in 2018, when you were coming here full time about both you and Dan, they have so much talent. Their incredible commitment to the arts and to collaborative work will manifest itself in incredible ways. And it is so true. Yeah, you're such a wonderful contribution to our community. Do you think Huntsville is a special community? I was just going to say, what I find fantastic about Huntsville, there is an arts community here that is so excited about art. There's a strong theater community here who love theater. Coming from Toronto, it's such a different energy of theater. Of course, I'm coming from a theater community, but people are so excited about it up here in a way that's just different from Toronto. But I didn't expect it. I didn't expect so many people to be excited about theater, so excited about the community musicals, excited about their smaller performances. There's just such a great energy around theater and arts in general. I think Huntsville has a very nice arts community. I always think there's creative vortexes all over Huntsville that bring the people here. Anyway, we're out of time. We need to have you back to talk more about this. Thank you so much. But we're going to send people to the Huntsville Festival.ca. Yes, Huntsville Festival.ca under the educational programs. You'll see it all there. And you can register now. All the registration is open. And if you have any difficulty, feel free to contact the number or email. Somebody will help you. All right. Well, thank you again. Yes, thanks so much. Thank you for having me. Lorena, I just wanted to talk briefly about the Huntsville Festival's Fall lineup. Some of these are out at Sandhill Nursery, Elliot Brude, September 14th, Denny Michelle, September 21st, Madison Violet. I have tickets to see her too. Yeah, September 28th, Angelique France, October 5th. Also at the Elgonquin Theatre, Matt Goode and his band in their September 19th. And Tom Cochran's coming out to Dearhurst, Donovan Woods at the Elgonquin Theatre, Matt Das, George Canyon. Again, go on the website and check out the Fall lineup, because it's pretty exciting. In terms of visual arts, we have the Huntsville Art Society artist on now. The artist is Carol Milne in Partners Hall. And we also have Huntsville Art Society members in the Huntsville Public Library and in hospice. And we have also, I'm sorry, I'm just looking at members of the Huntsville Art Society who had a show in Partners Hall in July. Jeanine Marson, Terri Howell, Ken Biggs and Rick Biggs. And they're currently showing their works that are Elgonquin related in the Elgonquin Room Gallery in the Elgonquin Park. And that's on until September 25th. And part of that sale of each anything that is sold there, it goes to Friends of Elgonquin Park for education and instruction. So that's something important to know. And don't forget the Arts Center too also. And sculpt arts and crafts is very busy as well with their fall programs. And I just wanted to mention that they are having an art exhibition. This is so interesting. The Prince Edward County, rather, is doing an exchange of art and that will be on currently, sorry, let's just see. I'm looking up that where that I can't read it, actually. The Prince Edward County art swap is called, and that is happening until September 24th. And it's on now at Mac on Maine. And there's also a downtown autumn art market on September the 28th, the same day that there is a student Musculka youth art and craft market at Rotary Gardens. So things are happening at Mac look that up. And don't forget the Town of Huntsville has a couple of programs coming up comic drawing for ages eight to 12. And you go to the Town of Huntsville website and you can also teen and tween manga course of people that like to draw. So we're covering all the arts here today. Don't forget Sound Art and nasa nasa.ca in South River. And I think that's all we've got towards the time for today. But lots of things happening. Steen and one more time. Thank you, Christina, Sarah. And we're signing off on arts for us. There's only 100 spay radio. We are Musculka. (upbeat music)