Hoodrats 2.0

Back, way back, before George Zimmerman cemented Trayvon Martin's modest hoodie as the twenty-first century's gangster marker, Native Earth Performing Arts launched a campaign we called Hoodrats. We gathered the theatre makers who excited us, who were making change in our communities. We asked everyone to wear a hoodie and meet us in a back lane in downtown Toronto where Leon Aureus took our photo. The text was "Local Hoods Take Over Toronto Arts Scene … coming soon to a theatre near you." We were prescient. A decade after the release of that 2006 postcard, those (theatre) rats have indeed infiltrated the 'hood. Marjorie Chan is the Artistic Director of Cahoots Theatre; Franco Boni has built a permanent home for the Theatre Centre; Waawaate Fobister created and toured the multi-Dora Award winning Agokwe; Naomi Campbell is holding open doors at Luminato Festival; and Nina Lee Aquino now runs Factory Theatre, the first Canadian theatre to devote itself exclusively to Canadian plays. Factory just launched its Beyond the Great White North season, an entire season by playwrights of colour, beginning with the newest play by Governor General Award winning playwright David Yee. All fifteen Hoodrats have gone on to make work, to make room, to make change. The postcard was something of a wish, something like prayer. By saying it into the air, we imagined this moment where we stand now.

—Yvette Nolan

For this issue of the Canadian Theatre Review, gifted Toronto artist Mick Agustin has adapted/updated/rebooted/implicated a number of our original Hoodrats into a contemporary scene. These sketches are a glimpse of that vision coming together.

Original concept that the illustration is based on.

Photo by Leon Aureus

First initial layout (scrapped).

Illustration by Mick Agustin

Placement roughs.

Illustration by Mick Agustin

Finished lines.

Illustration by Mick Agustin