World Premiere, October 17 - November 12
A Poem for Rabia by Nikki Shaffeeullah
About
Undercurrent Creations is a small arts organization that dreams of a big world with joy, possibility, and freedom for everyone. Here in the not-too-distant present, we work toward that end through the creation of new theatrical work, films, community-engaged arts projects, and changemaking initiatives.
We see artistic creation as a means of fostering community dialogue and transformation at every opportunity – in creation, in sharing with audiences, and beyond. We believe that artistic processes that enable us to better understand ourselves, our communities, our ancestral lives, and our possible futures, is a kind of social justice work: healing and action in one, that moves us all closer to liberation.
We interrogate the status quo of society, and the arts sector within, and offer interventions. We develop initiatives that imagine new ways to collaborate and create together, grounded in equity and access.
Undercurrent Creations is based on Dish With One Spoon Territory, on land that has been stewarded since time immemorial by the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Wendat and other nations. Resisting the ongoing harms of colonialism is a central preoccupation of our work and we hold ourselves accountable to past, present and future Indigenous leaders as we work toward social, environmental, and economic justice, through the arts.
Team:
Artistic Director: Nikki Shaffeeullah
Operations Manager: Sasha Tate-Howarth
Associate Artist: Adri Tavares
Consulting Creative Producer: Rachel Penny
History
Undercurrent Creations was born in 2017 as a vehicle for artistic and sector change projects led by Nikki Shaffeeullah and in collaboration with a wide community of artists, activists, and facilitators.
Undercurrent signifies those flowing forces that run, perhaps, just under or out of sight of the main stream, but still with incredible power to change the waters.
Our first theatre-making endeavour was Betty’s House, a new play by Nikki Shaffeeullah exploring queer Indo-Caribbean stories and abolitionist activism across generations. We hosted a workshop performance at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in 2020. The play’s development continues.
Our first filmmaking project is Lemons, a short film conceived by Nikki Shaffeeullah and Sonja Rainey and built by a community of queer theatre artists who reskilled in film production in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our first changemaking project was Parallel Tracks, which first ran in 2017 and is iterating again 2021. Parallel Tracks is a series of programs to support BIPOC, LGTBQ2I+, Deaf, Disabled, and other equity-seeking artists to increase their capacity to lead community-engaged arts projects in ways that are safe, joyful, and rigorous in their activism, and artistically excellent.
The use of the word “Undercurrent” came from “Undercurrent Theatre”, an artist-activist theatre group founded by Nikki in amiskwaciy-wâskahikan (Edmonton) in 2011. Undercurrent Theatre quickly developed into a collective endeavour, as Nikki was joined by Saima Butt, Neelam Chattoo, Aliya Jamal, Rebecca John, and Natalia Knowlton.
Undercurrent Theatre created two seasons of performance work that explored questions of ancestry, gender, race, and futures. This included two full length collectively created plays, Escape Velocity (Azimuth Theatre, 2014) and un(earthed) (Arts-Based Research Studio, 2013), and several short theatre pieces including Chola Face by Natalia Knowlton, From and Two by Neelam Chattoo, My Other Self by Rebecca John, and the performance-installation Colonial Cravings by Aliya Jamal.
In 2017, back in her home city of Toronto, Nikki was looking to cultivate a home for new projects, and went to “Undercurrent”. Using the same key word honours the legacy of Undercurrent Theatre, and shifting to “Creations” both allows “Undercurrent Theatre” to remain what it was, i.e. grounded in the land of amiskwaciy-wâskahikan and in the relationships of that collective. Additionally, “Creations” reflects the possibility for this iteration of the organization to hold work that transcends genre and form.
Undercurrent Theatre presents Escape Velocity. Photo by Girl Named Shirl Photography.
Undercurrent Theatre presents un(earthed). Photo by Tariq Jamal.