cATHY gORDON
Photo credit: Jeremy Mimnagh
Cathy’s multidisciplinary practice has spanned the gamut from intimate one-on-one performances to large-scale participatory spectacles. Her seminal piece, ON MY KNEES – a public divorce ceremony (2007), marked her departure from experimental theatre/dance performance and her foray into durational performance and new media. Since then, her work has encompassed the “social” vibrating between two approaches to performance, that of theatre and visual arts histories.
Highlights include Croeso, a commission for National Eisteddfod in Wales, commission of Little Big Man Remix (by The Contrary Collective) presented at Toronto Free Gallery (Toronto, 2012), Dunlop Gallery (Regina, 2012) and Viva! Art Action (Montreal, 2013), premiere of Moles Dancing at Chapter Art Gallery (Cardiff, 2012), remounted at Rhubarb! (Toronto, 2013) and a mini-tour of Movie Monster (Art City, Winnipeg & Intrepid Theatre, Victoria, 2012). Her latest solo Hammer: The History of Cathy Gordon’s Anger – Six Strategies for Sublimation was first conceived at Playwrights Workshop Montreal in a residency exchange with hub14 art & performance. Hammer was further workshopped at SummerWorks (Toronto, 2013), which led to two dramaturgical retreats with Nadia Ross (Sto Union, Wakefield, QC), further development at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, presentations at Experimentica Festival in Wales, PuShOFF (Vancouver), The Theatre Centre (Toronto) and Mark Morris Dance Centre (Brooklyn, NY, 2016).
Cathy has appeared on panels across the country including PuShOFF (Vancouver), Magnetic North (Ottawa & Vancouver), PlayRites (Alberta Theatre Projects) and IMPACT (Kitchener). Her “deconstructed panel” for ACAQ Symposium in Montreal was reimagined for SummerWorks.
For two years she was the Live Art curator for SummerWorks festival, with a focus on unique audience experiences. Since programming Bang! Block IN One Spot for four years at The Theatre Centre, Cathy has tried to bring artists of various disciplines together as a way to push forward the possibility of what performance might be. She currently produces for both SummerWorks and the Luminato Festival.
She is the winner of the Ken McDougall Emerging Director Award, a Harold for her contribution to the Independent Theatre community; a three-time Dora Award nominee for Best Space Design and Best Production; two-time nominee for the K.M Hunter Award for choreography; and 2005 nominee for Canadian Comedy Awards.