ARTISTS SPACE

Alanna Mitchell

About The Artist

Alanna Mitchell is a journalist, author and playwright based in Toronto. With direction and dramaturgy by theatre artistic directors Franco Boni and Ravi Jain, she turned her non-fiction book Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis into an award-winning one-person play that she has performed all over the world over the past dozen years.

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Upcoming Event

The Evolution of the Ocean: A Journey in Maps

Toronto, Ontario

Her project, The Evolution of the Ocean: A Journey in Maps, is a key part of the process to create a new play for children aged 8 to 12 about what the ocean is telling us.

In collaboration with artistic director Franco Boni (Toronto), the lighting and installation artist Melissa Joakim (Toronto), artistic directors Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes of Why Not Theatre (Toronto), The Ontario Science Centre, The Theatre Centre (Toronto) and marine ecosystem modeller Lee de Mora of Plymouth Marine Labs (Plymouth, England), Alanna is researching global maps over the millennia. Ancient maps show the ocean as something “other.” A border to the unknown. A place to find food. A surface to travel. Modern maps, like those produced at Plymouth Marine Labs, show us just how much power the ocean has over the fate of life on the planet— and how dramatically humans are changing it through climate heating. They also prophesy a grim future if modern trends persist.

In June, to honour World Ocean Day, interactive workshops will be hosted at The Ontario Science Centre’s Harbourfront Kidspark site to explore with children and their parents what they see in the maps and what they think the ocean is saying. Our findings at the workshops will inform the play.