Inertia & Museum of the Lost and Found

Loose Tea Music Theatre and Highlands Opera Studio are proud to present two new operas from the BIPOC Composer Librettist Development Program.

August 18 & 20, 2022
Northern Lights Performing Arts Pavilion, Haliburton County

Inertia by composer Ashley Au and librettist Christene Browne is a story about elderly isolation, perceptions of death, and a meditation on stagnation, dying, love, and friendship. It tells the story of two elderly neighbours, Evelyn and Addison, who live next door to each other for decades but have little interaction with each other or anyone. When Death comes to collect the two, he instead decides to allow them to live, if they can get past their entrenched ways to become friends.

The Museum of the Lost and Found: gaakaazootaadiwag by composer Olivia Shortt focuses on a fictional museum in the woods that exhibits items from various Lost and Found boxes. It is an allegory about how Western society treats missing person cases. Specifically MMIWG2S: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People. The work asks, “What happens to people and items when they are no longer being looked for?”

CAST & CREATIVE TEAM

Creators

Inertia by Ashley Au, composer and Christene Brown, librettist
The Museum of the Lost and Found: gaakaazootaadiwag by Olivia Shortt, composer

Cast

Tamar Simon, soprano | The Guide (The Museum of the Lost and Found: gaakaazootaadiwag)
Queen Hezumuryango, mezzo-soprano | Evelyn (Inertia), The Attendee (The Museum of the Lost and Found: gaakaazootaadiwag)
Olivier Zerouali, baritone | Death (Inertia), Chorus (The Museum of the Lost and Found: gaakaazootaadiwag)
Matthew McLellan, bass | Adison (Inertia)

Musicians

Tristan Durie, flute
Brad Cherwin, bass clarinet
Janelle Fung, piano
Darya Zonoozi, cello
String Quartet

Creative Team

Nicole Brooks*, director (Inertia)
Alaina Viau, director (The Museum of the Lost and Found: gaakaazootaadiwag)
Joshua Anand Slater, music director
Natasha Strilchuk*, choreographer
Maureen Russell, costumes
Logan Cracknell, LX & set
Kat Elms, producer and stage manager
Autumn Coppaway, manager/technical director

Producers

Loose Tea Music Theatre, Highlands Opera Studio

*The participation of these artists is arranged by permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the provisions of the Dance Opera Theatre Policy (DOT).

We wish to thank the Azrieli Foundation and The Canada Council for the Arts for their support of the BIPOC Composer Librettist Development Program.