The Quota
What is the Quota?
The Quota is an evolving community arts project exploring issues surrounding immigration that centres first voice experiences of immigration. It takes various forms depending on who is involved at each phase of the project, from audio, to video, to live performance, to written word, with the ultimate final vision being an interactive musical theatre piece.
The name comes from the concept of immigration quotas and the dehumanising nature of the immigration application process.
Who?
The project was conceived by Ross and Arkady Unger, both of who are immigrants in Canada and Australia. Since then the project has involves several collaborators including Theatre Du Poulet's Roland Au And Carmen Lee.
How to get involved
Please send us an email! We are always excited to invite others to join the project and share their stories.
Shadow Show 2018
In this phase of the project we created an art-installation/performance that features shadow puppets and audience interactivity. As audiences enter they are invited to fill out a fake immigration form we created while exploring the question of “what makes a ‘good’ immigrant?” and “what are reasonable questions to judge an applicant on?”. The completed forms are exhibited for future audiences. Other elements include performative segments created through exploring the themes of “waiting”, “cultural differences”, “belonging”, “what we leave behind”.
This is archival footage of a workshop presentation that was done in Halifax Nova Scotia on sunday 15th of April 2018.
The interactive elements of sushi bingo and filling out immigration forms is not included in this video.