at Array Space

The Toronto Improvisers Orchestra (TIO) celebrates Canadian poet and author Gwendolyn MacEwen with a performance of her verse- plays for radio “Terror and Erebus” and “Tesla”, with members of the TIO, a score for Tesla by composer Eugene Martynec and actors Rod Campbell and Randi Helmers.

Eugene Martynec ~ laptop Rod Campbell ~ voice, trumpet Bill Gilliam ~ piano Ambrose Pottie ~ percussion, devices Ryan Kinney ~ classical guitar Michael Lynn ~ bass Diane Roblin ~ keyboards, piano Hooley McLaughlin ~ banjo Arnd Jurgensen ~ saz, guitar David Story ~ keyboards, percussion David Sait ~ guzheng Colin James Gibson ~ electric guitar

Gwendolyn MacEwen is a Canadian poet and novelist born in Toronto in 1941. She wrote twelve books of poetry, two novels, two collections of short fiction, a travel book, drama for radio and theatre, translations and children’s fiction. Among the many awards she received were two Governor General Awards for poetry. She died in 1987.

Permission to use her material has been kindly provided by her estate.

Tesla is MacEwen’s play about Nikola Tesla 1856-1943. It was Tesla’s invention of the polyphase alternating current system that was directly responsible for harnessing the power of Niagara Falls. He launched our modern era of Electricity, Radio and Robots.

Terror and Erebus are the two ships from the ill-fated 1845 British Royal Navy Franklin Expedition, recently discovered south of King William Island in the Canadian Arctic. Inuit knowledge was central to their discovery. MacEwen’s play tells of their three years lost in the Arctic described as “being an account of the search by Rasmussen for the remains of the Franklin expedition”.