National Arts Centre - Centre national des Arts Canada is our stage. Le Canada en scène.

Universal Child Care

Quote Unquote Collective Toronto

Book Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava

Witness the sheer power and force of the unaccompanied human voice in the newest work from Canadian multi-disciplinary performance company Quote Unquote Collective. Part concert, part theatre play (and self-consciously neither of these things), the ensemble screams about the lack of affordable child care and growing inequalities, while comparing different approaches to child care around the globe.

This urgent social and political message features an eight-person a capella choir, highly-stylized movement and songs delivered in multiple languages.

Company

Quote Unquote Collective is a Canadian multi-disciplinary performance company that aims to work outside the boundaries of tradition and expectation. Engaging with urgent social and political themes, the company is founded on the firm belief that art and performance are tools to provoke conversation and change.

Co-founders Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava, who both have a strong background in physical theatre and music, have joined forces to produce work in a variety of genres and disciplines as a means to make new, experimental, and provocative performance work that ignites conversation within the community and the world at large. Defying conventions of style and form, the collective is built on the idea that individual ideas demand to be expressed through different forms, and should be expressed by whatever means necessary. 

Creative team

Book Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava
Music and lyrics Amy Nostbakken
Story  Akosua Amo-Adem, Vicky Araico, Seiko Nakazawa, Amy Nostbakken, Norah Sadava, Stephanie Sourial
Jokes Monica Garrido Huerta
Director  Amy Nostbakken
Choreographer Orian Michaeli
Musical Director Alex Samaras
Lighting design André du Toit
Set design Lorenzo Savoini, Michelle Tracey
Sound design and Sound Consultation Matt Smith
Projection Design potatoCakes_digital
Costume design Christine Ting - Huan 挺歡 Urquhart
Stage Manager Tara Mohan
Assistant Stage Manager Victoria Wang
Sound Engineer  Jess Forrest
Producer Jenna Harris
Workshop producer and additional production support Najla Nubyanluv
Consulting Producers Michelle Yagi, Kelly Read
Workshop Devisors Sturla Alvsvåg, Akosua Amo-Adem, Augusto Bitter, Celia Green, Viktor Lukawski, Kwaku Okyere and Dan Watson
Production Supervisor Crystal Lee
Production Manager Carlos Varela Serra
Technical Director Daniel Bennett
With Joema Frith, Monica Garrido Huerta, Germaine Konji, Norah Sadava, Alex Samaras, Fiona Sauder, Takako Segawa and Anika Venkatesh

National Creation Fund investment

The National Creation Fund’s investment of $200,000 enables the creative team to innovate what the creation process looks like, piloting a new model that changes the game when it comes to family care in theatre. This includes shorter work days, five-day weeks, flexible schedules, and support for care costs for the artists involved. The Fund’s investment also supports a four-week development workshop, with a particular focus on the integration of design to help tell the story.

Credits

Universal Child Care created by Quote Unquote Collective, commissioned by The Broad Stage in association with Nightwood Theatre, Why Not Theatre and the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund, presented by Canadian Stage. 