Context matters. A gesture means one thing here and now and another thing entirely there and then.[1] My choices happen in a context – a relationship to history and influence. I don’t have to acknowledge the context or even admit it’s existence to myself – but it’s there all the same. Others, with their own contexts, will perceive them.
The same is true for influences. We all have them and our work reflects that. We can work in opposition or adulation or both. This is true whether or not we know it, whether or not we know who influenced our influencers. This can be paralyzing, but it can also be liberating and empowering.
Understanding the relationships between current practices and the past is important. For me (and that will be the starting place for this seminar) understanding the relationships between the New York downtown scene and Grotowski reveals meaning and possibility. Drawing lines between Video Cabaret and Joan Littlewood and Brecht tells me something about who I am as an artist. Reflecting on all these connections in their specific times and situations inspires me to see my time and place clearly and be able to best respond.
In talking to theatre and dance makers over the past few years, I’ve expressed and heard a desire to share and learn more about contexts and influence. Specifically, Jordan Tannahill at Videofag and I got to talking about a seminar series where we’d read some articles, listen to podcasts and watch some video and make some connections between lines of thought in contemporary theatre and contemporary living.
Also, I’m a bit of theatre nerd when you get down to it and what’s the good of having all these books and links if I don’t get to share them?
Context Seminar: (non-Main)Streams of thought.
A mangled journey through influence and Western theatre — Centuries 20 and 21. Led by Jacob Zimmer of Small Wooden Shoe with a couple guest spots.
Funny to be writing this as Morris Panych and Kelly Nestruck argue over what kind of context is important to a production. Panych’s dishonest question “How can we address this paradox of a thing being both now and then[…]?” is, despite himself, a great question – especially for a festival like Shaw.
How much discussion of “Why this play now?” happens in the meeting rooms or the rehearsal halls of the festival? And what are the contexts and influences discussed? ↩
In 2005, unbeknownst to almost everyone, theatre and dance artists Ame Henderson, Chad Dembski, and Jacob Zimmer spent a summer at Hub 14 making a “play”. Six years later, after more than a dozen shows and national and international tours, they return to spend another August at Hub 14.
Perhaps in a Hundred Years is a tender science fiction story about three friends stuck in outer space, waiting for the future to arrive. Despite an almost overwhelming pessimism for the long term future, which many of us share, Perhaps in a Hundred Years endeavors to keep it upbeat, or at least tenderly, militantly, hopeful.
A reading of Birgit Schreyer Duarte and Jacob Zimmer’s new translation of Life of Galileo at the Festival of Ideas and Creation presented last week by Canadian Stage.
by Leora Morris
I don’t think the text is the only thing that will make the public reading of Life of Galileo on Sunday night clear, funny, and moving. It’s also the spirit of the project, the impetus for the coming together. In the past week I have witnessed the preparation of a remarkable cast, meeting with the dual focus of reading this new translation of Life of Galileo and thanking a fellow artist.
Part of the impetus for the event was to hear Tracy Wright, a pioneer in the Canadian independent theatre scene, read the character of Galileo among an all-star cast of friends and colleagues. This has shifted slightly in the last few days: Tracy is currently recovering from surgery and so the reading is now in thanks to her. We are aiming to Skype the live performance to her.
A thank you in the form of a Brecht play.
I enjoy this concept because – although we celebrate and thank people all the time with awards ceremonies, money, booze, love poetry, pictures, and song dedications – we don’t often gift people with theatre. A staged reading feels somehow more fitting as a “thank you” than a full production: it is both an incredibly high-calibre professional performance AND a reminder of why it is happening in the first place.
My favourite moment of our read through recently at Canadian Stage was in the middle of Scene 6, when Daniel MacIvor (as Cardinal Barberini) poked Fiona Highet (as Galileo Galilei) in the side and they broke out into laughter. What a treat to see both the characters at work and the old friends at play underneath them. In fact, that is where the thank you is located, in watching all these actors (many of whom Tracy has inspired) take pleasure in each other and the script.
I suspect this layering works because readings permit a certain amount of personal style that isn’t necessarily valued in a fully staged production (when I prefer to watch a person be subsumed by their character, no trace of them in sight). Brecht would have liked it too, I think.
Join Small Wooden Shoe, and a huge cast of performers in giving thanks to Tracy Wright at Convocation Hall at University of Toronto on Sunday May 30th at 7pm. All proceeds from this evening of community theatre by professionals goes to The Actors’ Fund of Canada. Details here.
Leora Morris is Associate Producer on the project.
Last year's Unconference was held at Canadian Stage. This year it's at Dancemakers. Photo by Amanda Lynne Ballard.
Last year Praxis covered how The Unconference Was Unbelievably Well Attended. Well it’s that un-time of year again, so dust off the part of your brain that lets you meet and communicate with new people and get down to Dancemakers this weekend.
This year Small Wooden Shoe presents the Unconference on Saturday April 24 @ Dancemakers and the Centre for Creation – and the rest of the 3rd floor of the Case Goods Warehouse. Hosted by Misha Glouberman. The webpage for the event is here. New this year: Create your own login to participate in online discussion groups during and after the conference. (Or don’t – it’s an unconference – no one is the boss of you!)
Registration and coffee starts at 9:15 am. The event starts at 10am (being early is great!) Lunch will be around 12:30/1 and it will be done by 6 with social time after. Pre-registration is $10 and can be done by calling 416-367-1800 or emailing bradley@dancemakers.org
“After the years and years of weaker and waterier imitations, we now find ourselves rejecting the very notion of a holy stage. It is not the fault of the holy that it has become a middle-class weapon to keep the children good.”
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