catching up...

The manic nature of this winter-spring has caused a full halt on my blog. Not for lack of things to write about, but rather for lack of time for sleep, much less writing.

Since we last saw our intrepid explorer, she has kept herself busy.

My collaboration with selardi for Tonight at Eight O'Clock was a resounding success; we sold out (over sold in fact...shhh!!) and had around 70 audience members experience the piece, what one of our volunteers described as "confused transcendence". It was truly an experiment, and in many ways, our goal of pushing the envelope of what audiences in Winnipeg will attend was a huge success. In fact, I think we under-estimated the audience's willingness to play along, and could have offered more. I'm continuing to think about this experiment in the dialectic relationship between audience and performer, art and viewer as I am creating and refining my ideas on the subject.

The next major project was as Assistant Director for Clever Little Lies at MTC; an entirely different experience, working with (extremely) professional actors on a new "straight" play. For many this may seem like a departure from my usual interests, however the play dove in head first in to some of the ideas that rest at the very core of all my work; the relationship between our reality and our expectations, and what we do to cope with that gap. In the contemporary world, we have been sold lifestyles and ideas about ourselves, and crafted images, and this play was yet another outlet to investigate how this can be damaging to our relationships. It was a fantastic experience working under Steven Schipper, and I had so many opportunities to learn how to drive the car, so to speak, in what a fellow local performer described as "NASA". Truly the MTC MainStage has all the big toys, and the freedom to create in this milieu was unparalleled.

Also, a version of the dissertation paper I wrote for my final work Approaching Antigone at RADA has been published by the Humanities Education Research Association! You can see it here. After all the yammering on this blog about Antigone, I'm sure you'll enjoy (or at least feel resolution). More to come on that project as I intend to resurface work on it in late 2015.

What now? Well I've got a few projects on the go. First up is the next instalment of my experiments with the audience performer relationship -- popART: Project Vapour. This takes a different form than the previous, returning to an installation style work that although does not fit the traditional definition of theatre (EG having a story and actors) I do believe is highly theatrical. The theatrical experience, however, is played out for the viewers of the piece.

Come see for yourselves if you like -- June 14 in the alley behind Artspace (Arthur Street, Exchange district, Winnipeg). More details here. 

Will share more in the coming weeks about the new play I'm directing for the Fringe, as well as a very large scale adaptation project I'm working on. Hint: I have spent a lot of time recently reading about Plantagenet Kings.

UPCOMING: Special Reserve - A Wine & Words Launch Event -- Nov 19 @ ACI, presented by Theatre By The River

I'm very excited to share with you information about my first directing project with the company since joining Theatre By The River earlier this year. For those unfamiliar, the annual TBTR fundraiser is Wine & Words - a night of new writing read dramatically by local actors and celebrities. The Spring event this year had so many fantastic submissions that we've held on to what we're calling our "Special Reserve" and holding a smaller, more intimate event this month as a launch to the 2015 season including the Spring Wine & Words, as well as some other upcoming projects.

There are many performers to be excited about! Virgin 103's Pamela Roz, Winnipeg Free Press writer Bartley Kives, Singer/Songwriter Süss, as well as local performers such as Justin Otto (Armstrong's War - MTC Warehouse), Ellen Peterson (The Small Things - PTE), and the TBTR company who have just wrapped Cock & Bull in rep are joined by a host of others.

Prior to joining the TBTR fold, my own writing has been featured (in the 2013 event) and in the Spring 2014 event I was honoured to read a poem by Christine Fellowes. I'm very excited to get to lead this event this time around!

Please join us for a unique and informal night of words, wine, and music.

Tickets are $15 and available at www.theatrebytheriver.com 

One Director's Perspective...

Between the dissertation, the move, resuming the day job and new projects here at home, I have been rather neglectful of the blog. That said, I have done a little guest-blogging for Sarasvati in the lead-up to Fem Fest (for which I am directing).

Check out my piece, "One Director's Perspective" on their blog here:
http://sarasvatitransforms.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/one-directors-perspective-on-directing-new-writing/#more-1188

Reflections in Latin - Ludus Danielis @ King's College London

I spoke briefly about this project in the fall, but in the swarm of work that has occurred since December, haven't spoken much since. This project, based in a long-term relationship RADA has had with King's College London, is an opportunity for MA Text & Performance students to direct a production populated by MA Latin students at King's. Outside of the play selection, the date, the location, and the necessity not to cut any of the latin text, the directors are given free reign on how to proceed.

Our play was Ludus Danielis - the story of Daniel - the c.1140 Beauvais play, in Medieval Latin and French. The location: the beautiful King's College Chapel inside the Strand Campus. So far, so good. Three of us from the MA T&P volunteered, and agreed to work together to co-direct the piece. This worked remarkably well, as each of us had the chance to jump in on areas where we were most interested or expert, allowing the overall production to have a very lively feel; a major accomplishment with an 800 year old play in a language very few speak or understand.

Our decision was to approach the story as a fairy tale of sorts; The student actors began as their "normal" selves, coming in as if they, too, were going to see the production. From here, we had 2 magical stagehand/ushers and a musician who weaved them into a magical land, wherein they took on the characters of the Beauvais play, and the play began. With limited cast, we opted to use puppets to populate chorus parts such as nobles or satraps, which traditionally would have been performed by larger choruses. This worked extremely well, adding a slight comic element to the piece. Now, adding comedy to a 12th century liturgical drama might seem odd, however our dramaturgical research uncovered evidence that these plays would have been fun and not purely serious; the role of early liturgical dramatic pieces was to engage the parish in the bible stories in a way that would be fun and exciting, particularly given that few would have understood Latin - much like our present-day audience. Another feature we added was music; a leitmotif was created for each character, which played as they began or ended an important speech or moment. This was in reference to the musical nature of these plays (many would have been fully or partially sung) and also to help the audience follow along with the story.

Overall, the production was a success. Our performers had a fabulous time, and reports from audience members was that the production was highly enjoyable. I look forward to this sort of unusual challenge again.

Photos: Ludus Danielis, directed by Kendra Jones, Cristina Cugliandro and Maria Kivinen
Design by Liv Wright

focus

While last term the focus with Tom was on really clearly presenting the text (as in the words), our focus with Andrew this term is more on the ideas, the themes, the sense that comes out of the play, and how to get that on its feet. Working with Genet, particularly in an English rational theatre tradition, there are certain problems when presented with a text that is so clearly visceral. The words are important, but just as important are the physical acts, the representation.

Today our scene presentations were interesting; with selected scenes from The Blacks and The Balcony, what emerged was a very clear sense of the difficulty of this work. One thing that stood out regardless of directorial choices was the ability to clearly understand the spoken words. There were scenes in which I felt that the director had paid too much attention to staging and emotions, and not enough to simply understanding the text, and understanding the modulations genet provides in his script. This is something that I want to try to balance when I approach directing a scene.

I am really interested in how to do this now; the idea of presenting an aboriginal "the blacks" in Canada really fascinates me. There would obviously need to be some adjustments to appropriate the text, but the ideas, the fear and violence the blacks feel in the play seems a strong parallel to what I have seen in Canada. Something to continue to consider.