News

lightbulbheart childhood, creativity, fancy cat, writing

Our Story is Joy (FancyCat Process Post)

This week was Trans Awareness Week and Trans Remembrance Day (20 NOV). In honor of Trans people everywhere, both living and remembered, here’s a little taste of the joy of Fancy Cat. The chorus of “Our Story is Joy” was shared with audiences in Toronto during Porch View Dances by members of TRANScendARTS.

ZAZA: Well, Fancy, who do you think you’ll be today?

FANCY: (singing “Our Story is Joy”)
Whether I’m on a stage
Or soaring through space
Or digging for T-Rex in the ground
I’ll be just right
And I’ll be enough
And I will see light all around

And I’ll make the world such a beautiful place
I’ll make a mark no one can erase
Whoever I am, Whoever I’ll be
My story is joy and I will be free

The clothes that I wear
And the path that I choose
Are things that are all up to me
I will see color
And I will see peace
And I will see people like me

And we’ll make the world such a beautiful place
We’ll make a mark no one can erase
Whoever we are, whoever we’ll be
Our story is joy and we will be free

Everyone dances. End of Play.

lightbulbheart childhood, collaboration, creativity, Easybake, writing

Update: “there’s an easybake oven where my heart should be”

Brown butcher paper with a marker drawing of an Easy Bake Oven. A sticky note heart with an arrow through it is at the top right of the image.

I’m writing on the EasyBake project again! I’m so thankful to my 2018 Summer Sisters (Emily Hill, Danielle Chelles, Cheryl Chamblee, Sharon Eisner, and Jessica Flemming) for giving me such good material to jump off with. There are several new scenes that slotted easily into the existing text, things that have gone out with the bathwater, and a gnarly little bugger about the Challenger explosion, 9/11, and a child playing soccer in Gaza that is just too sad to fit anywhere. I guess I’ll just have to keep writing to find a home for it, because I know it belongs here within the theme of lost play.

Writing is bringing me joy these days. What brings you joy? What’s your Easybake?

lightbulbheart childhood, collaboration, creativity, fancy cat, performance, writing

Porch View Dances Meets Fancy Cat

Porch View Dances is a site-specific celebration of dance put on by Kaeja every summer in Toronto for the past 13 years. I’m thrilled to say that Sid Ryan-Eilers and Raphael Roter (Fancy Cat collaborators extraordinaire) are respectively choreographing and composing for one of the pieces this year! “Joy is a Home With Many Rooms” will be performed by three young dancers and their caregivers and features the chorus of one of Fancy Cat’s songs (Our Story is Joy). It was such a delight to sit in (via Zoom) on a rehearsal and hear these transcendent performers singing one of our songs!

Porch View Dances will be performed on:

  • July 17, 2024 @ 7pm
  • July 18, 2024 @ 7pm
  • July 19, 2024 @ 7pm
  • July 20, 2024 @ 7pm
  • July 21, 2024 @ 2pm

Performances are Pay What You Can. FAQ and other details available on Kaeja’s Porch View Dances page.

We’ll make the world such a beautiful place
We’ll make a mark no one can erase
Whoever we are
Whoever we’ll be
Our story is joy
And we will be free!