PLAY

COMMISSIONED AND PREMIERED BY MOCEAN DANCE (2023)

Choreography: Jacinte Armstrong
4 performers | 60 minutes

PLAY is an interactive, interdisciplinary performance by choreographer Jacinte Armstrong that blurs the lines between workshop and show, play and performance. Set in an informal, non-proscenium space, the piece explores how colourful large-scale objects shape how we move. Through accessible, structured improvisation, bursts of choreography, sound, drawing, and colourful props, audiences are gently invited to co-create the experience. Audience members are invited to join in or simply observe as the performance unfolds around them. Designed for all ages and abilities, PLAY is low-tech, joyful, and responsive—transforming a shared space into a temporary world of movement, presence, and possibility.

Choreographic Direction:
Jacinte Armstrong

Created with the performers:
Gillian Seaward-Boone, Lauren Runions, Camille-Zoé Valcourt-Synnott, Jacinte Armstrong

Mentor
Lois Brown

Rehearsal Support
Susanne Chui, Sara Coffin

Sound Design
Norman Adams

Music
All music composed by Norman Adams except: Diode by Strata (Norman Adams and Brandon Auger); Chickadees by Mike Vargas; My Misshapen Ear VI by Joe Sorbara; Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 in E-Flat Major by Frederic Chopin

Technical Director/Lighting Designer
Benoit Whitehead-Gravel

Object Design and Costumes
Jacinte Armstrong with the Cast

Seamstress
Alyson Samways

Researching Artists
Norm Adams, Mallory Amirault, Solène Bernier, Laura Bucchi, Lou Cambell, Marcia Connelly, Louis-Charless Dionne, Leigh Gillam, Alicia Grant, D’Arcy Gray, Sara Hartlan-Rowe, Danielle Jubiak, Sebastian Labelle, Matthew Lumley, Andrew MacKelvie, Coral Maloney, Kim Morgan, I’thandi Munro, Gloire Paluku, Nancy Price, Analise Prodor, Julie Robert, Becky Siamon, Leah Skerry