Mariko Tamaki

performance

Collaborations:

TOA: Created in 2002, TOA is the unrepentant invention of Mariko Tamaki and Lindy Zucker, two ner-do-wells who met as theatre crew at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. With a mandate of public mischief and unapologetic abandon, TOA have, in the past, created a slew of crazy inventions for public display

Beginning with The Crapper (Summerworks, 2003) and The Telephone (Hysteria, 2003), TOA eventually moved into full fledged theatre with their production of A vs. B (Rhubarb, 2003).
The Corporate Wet Nurse Association: Founded in 1999, The Corporate Wet Nurse Association consisted of Mariko Tamaki and fellow secretarial activist Lisa Ayuso (aka CBC's The Clockwatcher). The Corporate Wet Nurse Association created zines, peformed in various Toronto cabarets (including Buddies In Bad Times Theatre's Strange Sisters) and created one documentary on IKEA shelf assembly, "Shelf Life," which aired on cbc's www.120seconds.com. TCWNA is currently informally retired but still keeping an eye out for our secretarial sisters in arms.
Pretty Porky and Pissed Off: Pretty Porky and Pissed Off was a fat activist/performance troupe founded in 1997 with Allyson Mitchell and Ruby Rowan. In the eight years of the troupe's history, performers in PPPO included: Abi Slone, Tracy Tidgwell, Joanne Huffa, Lisa Ayuso, Zoe Whittall. A force of large and in charge women to be reckoned with, even when we were covered in cake we were bad ass, PPPO brought shows with titles like "Move it Fatty," "Wide Side Story," and "Big Judy" to appreciative audiences in Canada and the US. Although the troupe has since disbanded, most of it's members continue to fight the good fight, enjoying the odd guest lecture and dance routine when time permits.

Solo Works:

Delusions Of Grandeur

By Mariko Tamaki
Rhubarb Festival, 2002
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

Starring:
Mariko Tamaki as Leiko
Lisa Ayuso as Barbara Walters
Marg Tamaki as Mom

Directed by Clinton Walker
Video work by Allyson Mitchell

An artist, an ego, her dream and her mother. A quasi-fictional investigation into the social and genetic origins of one woman's delusions of fame.

"Skim"

By Mariko Tamaki
Grondswell Festival, 2005
Nightwood Theatre

Starring:
Julie Tamiko-Manning as Skim Takota
Directed by Kelly Thornton

Skim Takota is many different things. To her mother she's ridiculous. To her best friend she's a freak (more and more everyday). To the popular girls at school she's invisible. And considering all the stuff that's going on at school, teen suicide and melodrama, maybe that's not so surprising. Except then there's Ms. Archer, who sees Skim in the shadows, liberally applying too much eye makeup, full of possibility.

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