Aplombusrhombus is an award-winning Ottawa-based physical theatre collective, founded in 2015 by Mitchel Rose and Madeleine Hall on a shared commitment to fearlessly tackling the complexities of humanity through the joyful naiveté of clown in visually striking, meticulously polished, and highly accessible original works. Using clown as a vehicle for exploration, Aplombusrhombus juxtapose human suffering with moments of joy and levity, resulting in pieces that resonate from their emotional centres as well as their polished exteriors.
Their debut creation, Cardinal, a clown show about Alzheimer’s disease, won the 2016 Ottawa Fringe Emerging Artist Award. 2017′s Ethel was named Best Show and Best New Work by critics and won festival awards for Outstanding Production and Outstanding New Work. Since then, the two have collaborated with artists from a number of disciplines across Ottawa on theatre, video and recording projects.
Mitchel rose - Co-Artistic Director, Core Artist
Mitchel Rose is an award-winning theatre creator, director and performer based in Ottawa, Canada. He trained at the University of Ottawa and the Ottawa Theatre School before flying off to study at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France. Since then, he has performed and created work across Europe and Canada, including The Nose in Ireland with Bruiser Theatre Company and Hunger at the Brighton Fringe with his company The Ice Cream Van. Mitchel was co-creator and director of Aplombusrhombus' inaugural production Cardinal; co-winning the 2016 Ottawa Fringe Emerging Artist Award. When not working in the theatre, Mitchel can be found slinging local brews at The Hintonburg Public House or rolling around in the grass looking for bugs with his niece and nephews.
madeleine hall - Co-Artistic Director, core artist
Madeleine Hall is an Ottawa-based theatre creator, writer, and performer. Her original creations and co-creations have incorporated both physical and text vocabularies, and have been mounted at festivals across Canada, including national Fringe festivals and Ottawa’s undercurrents, Fresh Meat, subDevision, and Theatre 4.669’s Summer Lab. Her full-length solo project Ethel premiered at the 2017 Ottawa Fringe, where it received festival awards for Outstanding New Work and Outstanding Overall Production, as well as Prix Rideau Award nominations for Outstanding New Creation and Outstanding Emerging Artist. Most recently, she received a Prix Rideau Award nomination in Oustanding Female Performance for her role in Sylvia at The Gladstone and was Assistant Director for Odyssey Theatre’s The Bonds of Interest. Her teaching experience includes facilitating workshops and courses in theatre creation and performance at the University of Ottawa, The Ottawa School of Theatre, Canterbury High School, and The Ottawa School of Speech & Drama. She holds a BA from McGill University, and furthered her training at The Ottawa Theatre School and L’École Philippe Gaulier.
Maryse Malazdrewicz Fernandes - core artist
Maryse is an actor, writer, and theatre artist based in Ottawa. Since her training at the National Theatre School of Canada's acting programme in Montreal, she has built an eclectic resume in both independent and professional theatre. Favourite roles include Jam (girls!girls!girls! - Cart Before the Horse), Clarice (The Servant of Two Masters - Odyssey Theatre), Svetlana Gouzenko (The Gouzenko Affair - CsArt / Cellar Door Project), Colombina (The Bonds of Interest - Odyssey Theatre), and Suzanne Malherbe (Heartlines - Tactics 2019). Her solo clown piece, Happy to Be Here, exploring the psyche of those caught in the circus-like mental health system was featured at Fresh Meat 7 and was remounted at the 2019 undercurrents Festival Industry Showcase. Specifically through the form of physical theatre and clown, her work focuses on the connection between the performer and audience member to encourage vulnerability, thought, and dialogue around stigmatized topics and underrepresented experiences.