A Season at East 15
After a season at East 15, I can only say it was the right thing to do. It’s hard to top things like the knowledge gained simply by standing on the Globe Theatre (Ohh that’s what they were talking about!), the opportunity to see large theatre in a variety of forms from The Tricycle Theatre to The National and The Young Vic or the innovative touring national and international companies in action. Or master classes with artists Artists like Lucy Bailey (English National Opera), Michael Pennington (Royal Shakespeare Company), Mike Alfreds (Shared Experience) and Robin Soans (Talking to Terrorists).
After four years on the road exploring the diverse practices in the Canadian landscape, East 15 has been a the chance to put it all into perspective while using these experiences as a launch pad to further develop past practices and explore new possibilities in the work. The 2013 modules included Adaptation, Artistic Director and Physical Theatre with each providing new insight, new understandings and opening to push my practice to places it hasn’t gone before.
Contemporary British Theatre
Contemporary British Theatre lead by Anthony Clark (former Artistic Director of The Hamstead Theatre and a leader in British new play development). In a roller coaster ride from the 1980’s to the present, we studied the works of Caryl Churchill, David Hare, Alan Ayckbourn, Harold Pinter, Mark Ravenhill, Jim Cartwright, Martin Crimp, Moira Buffini, debbie tucker green, Sarah Kane and Jez Butterworth.
Guest speakers and workshop leaders included Chris Campbell on New Play Development (Royal Court Literary Manager), Aleks Sierz (Theatre Critic and author of In Yer Face Drama), David Jackson on Active Analysis (Russian Stanislavsky System) and Director Simon Usher (RSC) on approaching new plays.
The module provided the opportunity to compare and contrast not only the contemporary UK works with contemporary Canadian works, but also the new play development practices and the ecologies that allow the work. The module finished with scene presentations of drawn from contemporary British plays with the East 15 third year BA Acting students. I tackled Robin Soan’s 2005 Verbatim piece Talking to Terrorists.
Physical Theatre Module
Lead by Robin Guiver (Warhorse) and Heriberto Montalban from LISPA was an intensive in Lecoq, Physical and Movement Theatre Performance (including Laban and Viewpoints), Mask, Puppetry, Choral Work and Devising. Master classes were led by some of the UK’s exciting independent theatre devisers including Will Pinchin and Dorie Kinnear from Grafted Cede (The Odyssey), Allel Nedjari from Gecko Theatre (The Arab and the Jew) and Jennifer Pearcy-Edwards, Infectious Theatre.
This was an opportunity to not only revisit my past physical theatre training under Moni Yakim (Circle in the Square, Head of Movement at Julliard) with fresh eyes, but the opportunity to dive into new ideas and further the physical practice in my work. This was a rich and wonderful module and a great way to end the year. My final project included a biobox (Thanks you Theatre Replacement!), physical audience interaction and open space technology in performance in a living gallery.
Adaptation Module
This was the opportunity to strengthen both my dramaturgy base and delve deeper into the worlds of adaptation and new play development and creation. The final projects teamed up with the MFA International Actors providing to be a perfect opportunity to tackle multi-lingual and multi-disciplinary work. In a devised piece, I and my actors explored the relationship between direct human communication and texting using viewpoints, clown and a modern dance to a reading of GUAN SUI of The Book of Songs.
The Artistic Director Module
Led by Anthony Clark (Hampstead Theatre) this unique module was a very interesting door into the UK and International theatre ecologies. Building on the my own past experience in theatre production and my 2011/2012 Three Company, Three Provinces, Three Mandates AD Mentorship, this was the chance to compare to current Canadian models with its British counterparts. Funding, management, development and governance were discussed extensively along with explorations of both small and large scale production, development models from other nations, marketing, touring and multiple season budgets. The final project was a three year business plan and budget based on one of my favorite venues in Vancouver.
As is true of any artistic undertaking, one of the most exciting and beneficial elements of this MFA is the artists you get to work with. Here, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with artists from across the globe, from the UK, Iran, Hong Kong, Romania, Brazil, South Korea, etc. with each bringing unique backgrounds, practices and ideas to the table. It continues to be an eye opening and gratifying adventure.
PRODUCING & TRANSLATION
BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective
Meanwhile back in Vancouver, BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective, led by Jessie Award winner France Perras and me, continued our dedication to bring contemporary francophone work in translation to the west coast audience with our second Ta Gueule Staged Reading Series.
Hosted by the rEvolver Festival and The Cultch, BoucheWHACKED! presented another successful series with some of Vancouver’s leading talent.
Prix Michel-Tremblay and the 2010 Governor General Award winner
PORCUPINE (PORC-ÉPIC)
By David Paquet and translated by Maurine Labonté
Directed by Rachel Peake
Featuring Josette Jorge, Jesse Martyn, France Perras, Michael Rinaldi, Stacie Steadman and Jonathan Winsby.
Humour, poetry and tragedy combined in Cassandra’s desperate hunt for party guests on her birthday.
Governor General Award nominee
REARVIEW
Written and translated by Gilles Poulin-Denis
Dramaturged and directed by Heidi Taylor (PTC)
Featuring David Mott
An exciting journey down a road without destination into the night and self.
We were thrilled to welcome playwright David Paquet all the way from Montreal for this English Language premiere.
Special Thanks to Ashby House B&B, Le Centre des Auteurs Dramatique, The Electric Company and The Progress Lab, PI Theatre, PTC, Theatre Conspiracy, UpintheAir Theatre, BC Arts Council and all the artists involved.
Translation
Back on the other side of the world, BoucheWHACKED! joined forces with East 15 on workshopping our first “in house” translation translated by yours truly.
Nous voir nous
By Guillaume Corbeil
Translated by Jack Paterson
In a blend of facebook, poetry and in-yer-face theatre, five characters present their lives and relationships through a series of social networking websites. Scene after scene, they shape and reshape their identities, seeking to prove their own uniqueness.
A special thanks to the artist who joined our two workshops: Roman Blomme, Vanessa Buckly, Owen Clark, Ming Hudson, Kate Hunter, Aslam Husain, Courtney Larkin, Lorena de za Parra and Sigmond Varga.
CREATION< DEVISING AND NEW PLAY DEVELOPMENT:
The Elephant and the Goldfish, you&i Theatre
October provided the opportunity to hit the rehearsal hall working as dramaturge/ director with Vancouver artists Ming Hudson and Kevin Kraussler in London.
The two week workshop was dedicated to creation and devising inspired by Paranoid Schizophrenia. Utilising physical theatre, improvisation, song, puppetry, sound tech. and verbatim text, we explored the illness, developed characters and the potential staging and play structure for the work in progress in an effort to understand the disease from the survivor’s, care giver’s and the disease itself’s perspectives.
A huge thanks to who contributed to the Indie-gogo Campaign and the East 15 Acting School for providing rehearsal space.
Research and Development: Storm Cloud
I was also privileged to join actor Guy Burges on a research and development period on his play Storm Cloud, tackling what it means to be multi-racial and British and the history of Immigration to the UK.
DRAMATURGY
Managing to straddle “the pond” and maintain a dedication to Canadian new works the last month has included dramaturgy for:
- Chose but Chose Wisely by Jeff Culbert
- The Folio by Kim Renolds
- Pain Waiting by Karl O’Brien
- Meat by Michael Charrois
- Intrusion by emerging Vancouver playwright Veronique West (winner of the Tarragon 20/20 Playwriting Competition – Way to go Vee!)
- Shine: A Burlesque Musical with Book by Sam Dulmage & Cass King and Lyrics and Music by John Woods and Cass King (The Wet Spots)
- Richard 3 by Thys Heydenrych (Free State, South Africa)
FILM MAKING
I also recently joined forces with the East 15 MA in Filmmaking. The last few months have also included dramaturgy and the lead role in Eric Chu’s Choices as a man grapples with a choice of money and love.
And my first foray into screen writing and film direction. I joined director Da Teng in co-writing and co-directing his short film Fly. The story of the friendship between a fatherless boy, a man who doesn’t like kids and a Supermen action figure. A huge thank you to Ted and cast and crew!