It Could Still Happen (ICSH) is a collective of experimental theatre artists who create visceral live-performance experiences in alternative spaces.
Based in Tkarón:to/Toronto, ICSH’s work is led by playwright and artistic producer Jill Connell. ICSH’s associate artists are Sascha Cole, Ishan Davé, Molly Flood, Philip Nozuka, and Tedi Tafel. It Could Still Happen films are made by Connell, Davé, and Nozuka.
ICSH creates new texts for performance that innovate form and structure. We conduct long-term development processes. Each project is an opportunity to further explore process and articulate our values for creation as a collective.
In rehearsal we conduct a daily physical practice of listening and following impulse. We find parameters and systems for articulating text and story so this physical practice can become the groundwork for performance.
We work with film, music, and the architecture of the space. We host events in industrial, non-theatre spaces and work outside of traditional producing models. We work with the energy between the ensemble, and the energy between the ensemble and the witness.
Works
THE SUPINE COBBLER (a contemporary clinical abortion in the spirit of a Western) was our first independent production. It premièred in Toronto in September 2015 at Clay & Paper Theatre’s industrial space at 35 Strachan Avenue (now demolished).
HROSES: OUTRAGE À LA RAISON (a bilingual love tragedy) was our second independent production. It premièred in February/March 2017 in Montréal at the historic steel factory Les Ateliers Jean Brillant and in Toronto at the historic Waterworks building at 505 Richmond Street West (now demolished).
ICSH’s festival productions include SINCE SANTINO XXX (Rhubarb Festival 2014, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre) and THE TALL BUILDING (SummerWorks 2015, Contra Guys Award for Best Performance Text).
Jill Connell
Artistic Producer
Jill Connell is a theatre maker based in Tkarón:to/Toronto, and founder and artistic producer of It Could Still Happen. She grew up as a dancer and a writer and her current work is influenced by both. Her plays have been produced in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Montréal, and Fredericton. For ICSH she has written, directed and co-produced The Supine Cobbler, HROSES: Outrage à la raison, and The Tall Building. Recent and frequent collaborators include Georgina Beaty, Sascha Cole, Ishan Davé, Molly Flood, Susanna Fournier, Chala Hunter, Frédéric Lemay, Philip Nozuka, Matthew Pencer, Tedi Tafel, Katie Swift, and Holger Schoorl. Jill currently holds a Chalmers Arts Fellowship for a research proposal that explores text, the body, and the witness in process and performance.
ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
It Could Still Happen
SASCHA COLE is a performer / producer and a Creative Producer at The Theatre Centre.
ISHAN DAVÉ is an actor and also a food experimenter / artist / writer and production designer.
MOLLY FLOOD is an actor / director / musician and creator of the film doc series Middle Child.
PHILIP NOZUKA is a performer / video artist / musician currently exploring relationships between the internet and live performance.
TEDI TAFEL is a choreographer / teacher and creator of the site-specific performance series Crying in Public.
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“The Supine Cobbler is an intelligent and worthwhile political drama that picks your brain. Connell continually takes sharp turns with the piece and tests her audience, seeing if they can keep up. I challenge you. And I guarantee this: the show is like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”
– Veronica Appia, Theatre Reader
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“Up at 4:30 a.m. thinking about the show. So unbelievably good. I wish more theatre were like this. It was the best thing I’ve seen in ages. Bravo. Bravo.”
– Adam Lazarus
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“I have never seen such beauty, such rawness on any stage in Toronto.”
– Brendan McMurtry Howlett
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“The genius of Jill Connell’s soft and fierce world completely transformed me… The entire production is incredible.”
– Amy Keating
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“Il reste tout de même de HROSES une douce étrangeté. Les jeux d’illogismes, quoiqu’ils ne semblent pas toujours maîtrisés, font emprunter au spectacle des sentiers théâtraux bien séduisants.”
– Chloé Gagné Dion, Le Devoir
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“Consistently one of the most inventive playwrights in the country, Jill Connell’s work frequently uses alternative frameworks to reveal something vital in our collective, real-world psyche.”
-Vue Weekly