Casting Light is a celebration and exploration of the incredible work and dedication of One Yellow Rabbit and Denise Clarke.  Wading through the numerous photos and ephemera in the OYR archives lead to curiosity about a dancer that was also a director and creative force.  While researching images- certain elements jumped out and surprised me with a personal connection, developing a visual narrative.  The imagery and text elements in this artwork are all drawn by hand and include references to: Sign Language, Kawasaki Exit, and Tears Of A Dinosaur. 

This project highlights the uniting processes that performance theatre and printmakers share: experimentation, technique, precision through repetition, and more...  Distilling visual elements into this poster put me in touch with how extraordinary the original work is– resulting in a new artwork built on a foundation of creativity.

Visual elements: Text from Arvo Pärt’s Miserere/Psalm 51, Clarke casting light (Sign Language); Paper crane (Kawasaki Exit); Toy dinosaurs (Tears Of A Dinosaur).

Inspired by the DIY aesthetic of the punk and No wave movement that emerged in the late  1970s and early-to-mid 1980s, this poster celebrates the raw energy and rebellious spirt of the  early years of the High Performance Rodeo. Using cut and paste techniques, graphic  storytelling, and sharp contrasting elements, the design is a visual ode to the boundary pushing ethos of the innovative theatre and punk music. 

“When thinking about rodeos and cowboys I often think about bandanas as an accessory and as a print on fabric. I wanted to make my own pattern with inspiration from some visually interesting shows that drew my eye. Each layer is based on one show and shows props or costume elements that made it distinct and wacky. The first outer layer is Mump and Smoot as they have performed many shows at HPR. The design is based on some of their props from Exit, Cracked and Flux.

The second layer is Rat Academy where I tried to show the two rats themselves and some of their props from a mousetrap to magic 8 ball. The inner layer is Nevermore - The Imaginary Life and Death of Edgar Allen Poe with his shirt design and big shapes used in the costumes inspired by the border design and the raven’s mask and claw is shown in the middle. Along with OYR’s Logo and the text in the middle splitting up the bandana.”

Upon being presented with the topic of theatre, my first reaction always is thinking of Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire, a novel and also most importantly for me, the 1994 movie, a forever favourite. Ways into the story, a coven of Parisian vampires enact theatre shows to lure their unsuspecting victims and spectators into a marvellous night of bloody delirium. 

In a dissonant future where machines have finally asserted their dominance, humans disappear, goblins take their rightful place as masters of entertainment, and in so, they choose to reenact some of their favourite plays hoping to appease their vampiric goblin overlord. These being some of One Yellow Rabbit's earliest shows as well as some recent. In goblinistic fashion, they pay homage to an array of performances that High Performance Rodeo has graced its audience with since 1986 to present.

I probably became aware of the High Performance Rodeo when I was studying at what was then ACAD—I was in design/illustration and considered a lot of “performance art” to be pretentious and self-serious. HPR, however, was exactly the type of art I liked: clever, dark, DIY/punk, and funny.

These qualities are at their most visible in the shows featuring puppetry: something about making inanimate objects move—while taking an art form associated with children and making it very much not for children—typifies what drew me to the festival all those years ago.

For the design, I channeled the Old Trout Puppet Workshop’s visual archive, Ronnie Burkett, and the work of Peter Moller—whose designs and posters helped shape the festival’s visual identity from the very beginning (well before Photoshop). As such, care was taken to work almost exclusively analogue, with most elements inked by hand. Printing on chipboard is also a callback to those early days when money was limited and being creative with materials was just as important as artistic ambition—an aesthetic that became something of a calling card for both Moller and the Trouts (the Trouts’ business cards are still printed on chipboard)!

This print is a celebration of the Big Secret Theatre, created with rubbings taken from various surfaces within the theatre itself. Drawing from the imagery of geological diagrams, the illustration explores the way that the unique architecture of the theatre has shaped performances over the years and the layers of history it contains. 

I still listen to my In Klezskavania soundtrack. When I heard about the opportunity to work with Alberta Print Makers and One Yellow Rabbit, I—like a rabbit—jumped at the chance. We were given access to the archives for inspiration, where I discovered old posters, photographs, and costumes that informed my design.

The resulting poster depicts a theatre just before the curtain rises, with an audience eagerly waiting for the show to begin. I tried to include as many characters from the past 40 years as possible, tucking them into the seats. I hope you enjoy searching for your favourites hidden among the crowd.

Daze (2026) is a seven layer silkscreen print utilizing digital and photographic textures of the One Yellow Rabbit’s Big Secret Theatre. Inspired by High Performance Rodeo's poster archives, it utilizes bold, simple, and striking visuals. The decorative shapes along the side are a reference to the Dream Machine, a production resurrected for the High Performance Rodeo’s 40th anniversary, self described as “evocative,” “hypnotic,” and “boundary-bending.” Within this production, the titular Dream Machine is spoken of as an apparition - something with its own spirit to be worshipped and reverend. This atmosphere influenced a high contrast and moody poster toying with ideas of light and performance.

The central rabbit mascot is depicted through hand shadow-puppets for this reason, needing only light to perform. Shadow puppets are simple, a consolidated production within everyday life such as how the Dream Machine was conceived with the intention of it being a household object, normative. Simplifying performance, aesthetics, and posters to its core in order to easily embed it in the everyday provides enrichment and weaves creativity into your life as a right rather than a luxury. 

Sunlight filtering through the trees that dances and shimmers like a kaleidoscope, became the inspiration for the Dream Machine theatrical production. This fleeting yet radiant imagery reflects the power of vision, collaboration, and shared imagination that are essential to the High Performance Rodeo’s ability to flourish for the last forty years. The interplay of light and movement suggests both curiosity and possibility, mirroring the spirit of creative risk taking. That same energy informs the poster I created and speaks to the necessity of visionaries and disruptors. Those who can see a dream clearly, reinterpret it in unexpected ways, and inspire others to believe in carrying that vision forward together.