“What do I need to do for you to see me?” asks Meyen Quigley, a Filipina poet and performer.
Reflecting on her migration to Canada, Meyen with the cast of im:print 2024, brings us to her hometown in the Philippines through nostalgic aural elements of roosters crowing and vendors busking. This sound sketch of an immigrant’s journey is just one part of a beautiful vignette that probes into issues of identity, equity, belonging, and social justice in our highly globalized world.
Indigenous and immigrant theatre is alive on Vancouver Island. In the last five years, the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria (ICA) has been at the forefront of fostering Indigenous and immigrant empowerment through the creative performing arts. For this third iteration of im:print, creative collaborators and story weavers Monique Salez, Paulina Grainger, Krystal Cook, and Francis Matheu highlight the capacity of the Indigenous and immigrants as Artists.
im:print 2024 is a multidisciplinary and multi-sensory showcase that weaves personal stories of Indigenous, immigrant, newcomer, and settler community members of Greater Victoria. The cast was gathered through an open call held in the spring and the production was devised through the summer. Most of the cast do not have professional performance experience but you do not sense this at all during the show. All action and attitude onstage were deliberate and wonderfully delicate resulting in a most powerful embodied offering.
Each cast member gestures toward times and places that may not be known to us but are all too familiar to the heart. Naomi Graham’s ode to Palestine is a mixed-media exploration on memory marred with personal and political conflict. Nancy Potvin’s song reminds us of inherent Indigenous strength. William Ngenda’s provocation on rights and entitlement is a timely introspection. Vitor Freitas’ movement is a necessary questioning of freedom and its legitimate expressions.
Individual narratives are told through spoken word, song, skin on surfaces, breath, and silences. The most glaring silence is broken by a coda initiated by Raino Dance’s director Monique Salez with Flamenco stomping and strong assertions of belonging to a land that does not belong to us. The strong percussive number finishes with all cast members standing in one line and the lights cast the tallest shadow before the stage dims. Such illumination, however fleeting, is a whisper of assurance that says, “you are bigger than you think you are.”
The Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria (ICA) is a not-for-profit organization that encourages full integration of people across cultures by providing resources and enabling networks. im:print 2024 is a community endeavor facilitated by the ICA in collaboration with the University of Victoria’s Department of Theatre. They scheduled three more shows at the Phoenix Theatre at the University of Victoria. Show times are 7:30pm on October 10 (Thursday) and 11 (Friday, with talkback); and 2:00pm on October 12 (Saturday). im:print 2024 is produced with generous support from Canadian Heritage and United Way Southern Vancouver Island.
I write this in honor of Indigenous and immigrant artists Ann K. Chou, Meyen Quigley, Vitor Freitas, Anais Brusel, Mahtab Saadatmand, Naomi Graham, Nancy Potvin, Laurie Bayly, and William Ngenda and the rest of the artistic and production crew of im:print 2024. I see you. More people should.
Clarissa Cecilia “Issa” Mijares is a Filipina dance sociologist currently completing her PhD at Simon Fraser University. This review is written with sensibilities of an immigrant and deep appreciation of the transatlantic travails of those seeking their place in the world. Follow Pancouver on X (formerly Twitter) @PancouverMedia and on Instagram @PancouverMedia.
