Bike Circus
Bike Circus is a dynamic collective of circus-theatre practitioners - Natalie Frijia, Zita Nyarady, and Morgan Johnson - who create performances fusing narrative-driven theatre with contemporary circus. Past collaborations include the acrobatic I’ve Got Your Nose (InspiraTO’s 2015 Theatre Safari), and Susannah Bird (Rhubarb 2015, Winnipeg Fringe 2015, and Edmonton Fringe 2015) which is performed entirely on a static trapeze.
Natalie Frijia (playwright)
Natalie is a Toronto-based writer currently in the PhD program at the University of Toronto's Graduate Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies and the School of the Environment. During the summers, she takes her bicycle, picks a country, and goes exploring in search of stories and adventure. So far, she has cycled over 18,000km in countries around the world, including across Canada, and has written stories and plays based on several of the characters she encountered along the way. Her work has been published by Scarborough Arts, and performed in Rhubarb, New Ideas Festival, Theatre Passe Muraille’s Crapshoot Series, and Back Burner Productions’ What Are You Doing Up There?! Festival. Natalie began writing Susannah Bird while overhearing a conversation on skydiving experiences.
Zita Nyarady (director)
Zita (B.Phil, BA, MES, PTP, PhD in progress) is a Canadian independent dance theatre-circus artist. Her choreography and interdisciplinary collective creations have been presented across Canada, USA, Jamaica, Scotland, Sweden and Denmark. Zita makes performances: ones that involve giant stilt-birds building nests in cities, ones that involve the reincarnation of Amelia Earhart tangled in aerial silks, ones that involve 100+ canoes paddling in a clown production of The Odyssey and ones that have yet to be created. Zita performs various characters from Olive the book-ish clown to the tall and french Annette-Babette-Claudette.
Morgan Johnson (Susannah)
Morgan is a Toronto actor/creator with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Windsor during which time she also studied at the Moscow Art Theatre School and with the SITI company. Recently, Morgan created, produced and performed a one-woman show on the life and writings of Rachel Carson, which toured to the Ottawa Fringe Festival last June. Other theatre credits include Jake’s Women, Welfarewell, Spain, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In all things theatre Morgan seeks to create new work that is physically and mentally innovative and provocative. Morgan currently studies trapeze and aerial silks at Cirque-Ability and Hercinia Arts and will be playing the airborne Susannah.
Emma Mackenzie Hillier (Dramaturg)
Emma is a dramaturg and producer based in Toronto. Recent producing credits include Mine (Discord and Din, Next Stage 2014) Moment (ARC), Of Mice and Morro and Jasp (U.N.I.T. Productions), Why We Are Here (Nightswimming Theatre), Two Gents and Richard III (Shakespeare in the Ruff). Dramaturgical credits include the award-winning production of He Left Quietly (Theatre Heteratae/SummerWorks); Intern Dramaturg on Same Same But Different; The Maple Leaves by Heather Debling. Emma is also the Special Project Manager at STAF where she is developing a National Arts Administration Conference. This past year Emma was the 13/14 Metcalf Dramaturgy Intern and Associate Producer at Nightswimming Theatre.