Digital Program: The Land Acknowledgement

By Cliff Cardinal

CAST & CREATIVE TEAM

Cliff Cardinal Writer and Creator
Logan Cracknell Lighting Designer
Jennifer Stobart Stage Manager
Chris Abraham Artistic Director, Crow’s Theatre
Sherrie Johnson Executive Director, Crow’s Theatre

A Message from NYU Skirball

On behalf of everyone at NYU Skirball and Under the Radar, we want to thank you for joining us for the U.S. premiere of Cliff Cardinal’s new play. In Shakespeare’s As You Like It, his heroine Rosalind, who has spent much of the play dressed in disguise as a man, tells her would-be lover Orlando “I pray you, do not fall in love with me, for I am falser than vows made in wine.” It was with a sense of spiritual kinship with Shakespeare, and an awareness of the power and hazards of deception, as well as the special role of Shakespeare’s wise fool, that we embarked on our own deception.

The play has two names; William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, a radical retelling by Cliff Cardinal, as well as its original title The Land Acknowledgement. This dual identity shapes the audience’s experience in a particular way and invites the audience (we hope) to think about the action of the artist, our expectations as theatregoers, and the social, political, and economic conditions that underpin the theatregoing experience. We hope you will walk away tonight thinking about your experience of the show and live with the feelings and thoughts you have had while watching it.

We are very grateful for the very many aspects of Cliff’s risk-taking, but especially grateful to be working with him, supporting his artistic journey, and for the opportunity to share this work with you.

If you’re looking for ways to respond to this show through action, and wish to make a donation to the indigenous community, here are a few organizations to consider:

1) Urban Indigenous Collective
2) American Indian Community House
3) Manna-hatta Fund

If you’d like to recommend the show to friends and family, please do. In the spirit of the show, use a quote from Shakespeare. For example, tell them you met a fool in the forest of Arden “A fool, a fool! I met a fool i’ the forest”. Recommend this Shakespeare production, in whatever way tickles you.

COMPANY BIOGRAPHIES

Cliff-Cardinal
Photo of Cliff Cardinal by Dahlia Katz

Cliff Cardinal (Creator and Writer)

Named by The Globe and Mail as a Canadian Cultural Icon in 2022, Cliff Cardinal is a polarizing writer and performer known for his black humour and compassionate poeticism.  His AS YOU LIKE IT, A RADICAL RETELLING has been performed across Canada, was shortlisted for the Ontario Trillium Book Award, and was the recipient of the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama.

Other solo theatre productions including Stitch, Huff, Cliff Cardinal’s CBC Special, and (Everyone I Love Has) A Terrible Fate (Befall Them) have toured across Canada and won numerous awards. He is an associate artist at VideoCabaret where he develops his new work. Born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, he studied playwriting at the National Theatre School of Canada and fronts the hilarious and nefarious Cliff Cardinal and The Skylarks.

Cardinal’s first multi-character play, Too Good To Be True, opened VideoCabaret’s 2019 season at The Busy Street Theatre in Toronto with Cardinal himself directing. A workshop version of the script debuted at Summerworks ’13, where NOW Magazine said, “This captivating tale of an off-grid mother and her desperate children solidifies Cardinal as one of the most talented and intriguing writers in the country.”

Prior to premiering AS YOU LIKE IT, A RADICAL RETELLING, Cardinal was best known for his one-man play Huff, which he has performed over 200 times. This harrowing yet hilarious show about youth who abuse solvent, at high risk of suicide won the Buddies in Bad Times’ Vanguard Award for Risk and Innovation, two Dora Mavor Moore Awards (Outstanding Performance, Outstanding New Play), RBC’s Emerging Playwright Award, The Lustrum Award (which recognizes the greatest moments at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and was shortlisted for Amnesty International’s Freedom of Expression Award. The production garnered a five-star review in The Guardian Observer titled “a hard-hitting tour de force.” Huff has been published, translated into French, continues to tour, and was released as a podcast by the CBC.

Cliff Cardinal’s CBC Special, a songwriter/storyteller performance, toured festivals in Ottawa, Calgary, St. Catharines, through Canada’s North starting in Yellowknife with a stint at Theatre Kingston and won the Jon Kaplan Spotlight Award for the top performance at Toronto’s SummerWorks Festival. 

Cliff Cardinal and The Skylarks’ first recording, This is Not a Mistake was released in 2016 and their follow up Gonna Be Fine was released in 2020, both are available online. The band’s third album Suicidal Valentine is out on Merlainen Music. The title track has risen to number six on the Indigenous Music Countdown.

Chris-Abraham

Chris Abraham (Co-Conspirator, Crow’s Theatre Artistic Director)

Crow’s Theatre Artistic and General Director, Chris Abraham has been the driving force of Crow’s since the 2008.09 season. He has successfully led the company through several major milestones: the 25th, 35th, and 40th anniversaries of the company as well as building Streetcar Crowsnest, a pioneering, state of the art facility with three venues in the east end of Toronto.  At Crow’s, Chris has directed numerous award-winning plays including Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, The Master Plan, Uncle Vanya, MixTape, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Stars: Together, The Wedding Party, True Crime, Boy in the Moon, The Assembly, The Watershed, The Seagull, Winners & Losers, Someone Else, Eternal Hydra, and I, Claudia. In 2003, Chris directed the film adaptation of Kristen Thomson’s award-winning hit I, Claudia for which he won a Gemini Award. A graduate of the National Theatre School’s renowned directing program, Chris served as co-director of the program from 2006 to 2010, In 2013, Chris was awarded the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre for Directing.  Chris’ artistic practice spans the spectrum of solo work, documentary, highly lauded Stratford and Shaw productions, hybrid music theatre concerts, opera, and filmmaking. This summer, Chris will direct One Man, Two Guvnors at the Shaw Festival.

Logan-Cracknell

Logan Cracknell (Lighting Designer)

Logan Raju Cracknell is a Toronto based theatre artist specializing in lighting design and live stream creation. Their work has taken them across the country, and they are truly excited to see what journeys lie ahead. Recent works include: Prodigal (The Howland Company, Crow’s Theatre), William Shakespeare’s As You Like It: A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal and Orphans for the Czar (Crow’s Theatre), The Extinction Therapist (Theatre Aquarius), Alice in Wonderland (Bad Hats Theatre), BLACKOUT (The Musical Stage Company), Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Theatre Calgary), Dixon Road (The Musical Stage Company, Obsidian Theatre), As You Like It (Canadian Stage Company), and Concord Floral and Casimir and Caroline (Theatre Sheridan), and Fairview (Canadian Stage Company, Obsidian Theatre).

Jennifer-Stobart

Jennifer Stobart (Stage Manager)

A veteran of live theatre, having stage managed over 170 professional productions, in theatres both grand and modest, Jennifer has toured coast to coast in Canada and the United States several times, to Dublin, Ireland, London, England, Sydney, and Perth Australia, and Edinburgh, Scotland. Most recently, in addition to stage managing the world premiere of (Everyone I Love Has) A Terrible Fate (Befall Them) and As You Like It, a Radical Re-telling in Ottawa, Peterborough and Toronto, she assistant stage managed Tosca with the Edmonton Opera Company, stage managed Huff with Neptune/Prismatic Theatre in Halifax, our place with Cahoots Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille, Dreaming Roots with The Yukon First Nations Arctic Arts Summit, in Whitehorse, and Indigenous Fashion Arts Runways at Harbourfront Theatre Centre. As always, she sends her love to her Mom, her adventuring travelling companion. 

Sherrie-Johnson-greyscale

Sherrie Johnson (Crow’s Theatre Executive Director)

Sherrie Johnson began her tenure at Crow’s Theatre (Toronto) in February 2019, becoming Crow’s first Executive Director. Sherrie brings a wide range of experience as an arts leader to her role at Crow’s Theatre. Sherrie was a member of the leadership team at Canadian Stage (Toronto) from 2013-2019. Prior to joining Canadian Stage, Johnson’s artistic career includes serving as founding Artistic Director of Outside The Box in Boston, MA; Senior Curator at the highly esteemed PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver, B.C.; and Co-Founder/Artistic Director of the Six Stages Festival in Toronto, Prague, Berlin and Glasgow. An active producer and agent, she’s worked with Germany’s internationally renowned triumvirate Rimini Protokoll, Antwerp based artists Bart Baele and Yves Degryse of Berlin, filmmaker and installation artist Srinivas Krishna, and visual artist Stan Douglas. Sherrie successfully led the indie company da da kamera with Daniel MacIvor from 1993-2007. Sherrie was the inaugural recipient of the John Hobday Award for outstanding achievement in arts management from the Canada Council and the recipient of the 2019 Leonard McHardy and John Harvey Award.

Crow’s Theatre Staff

Chris Abraham Artistic Director
Sherrie Johnson Executive Director
Paolo Santalucia Associate Artistic Director
Christopher Manousos Assistant to the Artistic Director
Katie Pounder General Manager
Heather Landon Senior Producer
Beth Wong Producer
LJ Savage Production and Facilities Manager
Ryan Borshuk Technical Director
Amber Rea Assistant Technical Director
Carrie Sager Director of Marketing & Communications
Ryan Hildebrandt Senior Marketing Manager
Laura Langlois Director of Philanthropy
Nazli Nahidi Senior Manager of Philanthropy
Alex Pompilii Philanthropy Associate
Jordaan Mason Manager of Ticketing and Venue Services
Walter Ho Finance Manager
Claudia Padilha Accountant
crowstheatre.com @crowstheatre

About Crow’s Theatre (Producer)

For 40 years, Crow’s Theatre has been a leading force in the Canadian theatre landscape, recognized for provocative and award-winning new theatre works that premiere in Toronto often followed by national and international tours. Crow’s Theatre is distinguished as a preeminent cultural destination for its far-reaching imagination, ideas, exchange, diversity, and grassroots belief that the arts are essential to healthy and thriving communities. In January 2017, following the completion of a $12 million capital campaign, Crow’s Theatre opened the doors to its first permanent home, Streetcar Crowsnest, at the corner of Carlaw Avenue and Dundas Street East. Led by Artistic and General Director, Chris Abraham and Executive Director Sherrie Johnson, Crow’s Theatre is located at the corner of Carlaw Avenue and Dundas Street East in Toronto’s east end. Our home at Streetcar Crowsnest is comprised of four venues for dynamic cultural and community programming: the Guloien Theatre (200 seats); Studio Theatre (80 seats); the Nada Ristich Studio Gallery (80 seats); the full- service Lobby Bar; as well as an onsite restaurant which can accommodate 60 seated indoors and 75 on the outdoor.

ABOUT NYU SKIRBALL

NYU Skirball holds close James Baldwin’s dictum that “artists are here to disturb the peace.” Our mission is to present adventurous, transdisciplinary work that inspires yet provokes, confirms yet confounds, and entertains yet upends. We proudly embrace renegade artists who surprise, productions that blur aesthetic boundaries, and thought-leaders who are courageous, outrageous, and mind-blowing.

A roster of international artistic visionaries command our stage, often with North American or World Premieres, including directors Milo Rau and Toshiki Okada; choreographers Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Florentina Holzinger, and Faustin Linyekula; composers Du Yun, George Lewis, and John Zorn; the theatre ensembles Elevator Repair Service, Forced Entertainment, Gob Squad, Wooster Group, and Teatro La ReSentida; along with the dance companies A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, Big Dance Theater, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance. Eminent scholars, authors, and paradigm shifters headline our events and have included Kwame Anthony Appiah, Judith Butler, David Chalmers, Angela Davis, Zadie Smith, and Slavoj Žižek.

NYU Skirball’s engagement programming supports the University’s academic mission with conjunctions of cutting-edge live art and practical, experiential curricular resources, including artists’ conversations, workshops, scholarly essays, and diverse public events. Our work promotes encounters with boundary-pushing art forms, enhances critical thinking, nurtures imaginations, and employs the performing arts as an essential means of teaching, researching, and lifelong learning.

We are NYU’s largest classroom. We want to feed your head.

NYU Skirball Funding

NYU Skirball’s programs are made possible in part with support from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and by Howard Gilman Foundation; FUSED (French U.S. Exchange in Dance), a program of FACE Foundation in partnership with Villa Albertine; General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA; Collins Building Services; Korean Cultural Center New York; Marta Heflin Foundation; Harkness Foundation for Dance; Van Cleef & Arpels; as well as our valued donors through memberships, commissioning, and Stage Pass Fund support.

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NYU SKIRBALL ACADEMIC ADVISORY COUNCIL

Sheril Antonio
Senior Associate Dean, Strategic Initiatives, NYU Tisch

Ulrich Baer
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Georgina Dopico
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Professor of French Literature, Thought, and Culture,
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Judith Graves Miller
Professor Emerita of French and Collegiate Professor, NYU Arts & Science

Pamela Pietro
Arts Professor; Chair of Dance, NYU Tisch

Rubén Polendo
Associate Dean, Institute Of Performing Arts, NYU Tisch

J. Ryan Poynter
Associate Vice Provost for Academic Affairs & Chief of Staff

Karen Shimakawa
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Catharine Stimpson
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Justin Townsend
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Tomi M. Tsunoda
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Julia Wolfe
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