From June 11 to 16 there will be a wealth of professional development activities for theatre workers at this year's Magnetic North Theatre Festival. Please see the attached application forms for the Pitch Session and Touring Workshop.
Our annual Pitch Session takes place on Wednesday, June 16 at the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts. Eight projects will be chosen for presentation. Applications are due March 29, 2010.
Judy Harquail and Lendre Kearns are offering a two and half day intensive Touring Workshop. Limited to 30 participants; $100 including lunches. Deadline for applications: April 15, 2010.
For more information call Industry Series Producer Naomi Campbell at 416 703 5491 or email naomic@interlog.com.
Homage
Homage is a new play that will be featured at The Magnetic North Theatre Festival in Kitchener-Waterloo. Writer Anthony Black of 2b theatre shares what inspired himself and director Christian Barry to write this piece.
Homage is inspired by a true story.
In 2005, my wife, Ann-Marie Kerr, read a Globe and Mail article about an octogenarian sculptor named Haydn Davies, whose seminal work, a large scale sculpture inspired by Stonehenge and built out of laminated red Canadian Cedar, had been destroyed by the college that had commissioned it 30 years prior. After the fact, the college claimed that the sculpture had been deteriorating for years, and cited concerns over public safety as a rationale for destroying the work.
The themes of impermanence, the value and ownership of Public art, and the humbling effect of time attracted me to the material. My friend, collaborator, and director (and the other "b" in 2b theatre company), Christian Barry, and I visited with Haydn and his wife Eva Koller Davies on several occasions over the next few years. Haydn and Eva were both very generous with details about their life, excited about the project, and understanding of the need for dramatic license. Between these interviews, I wrote, Christian and I talked, we sought funding and partners to develop the piece, and picked a production date.
Not being a visual artist, I wanted to understand Haydn's aesthetic values and his artistic intent. The story for me was about many things, but at core, it seemed to be about trying to resist impermanence; I asked Haydn how long he'd truly expected Homage to last. After all, he'd built the thing out of wood. He said, "Well, a lot longer than that!" Though rooted in an understandable human emotion, I never found this answer satisfying. How long, do we expect our creations to last? As theatre makers, the answer to this question is almost laughable. Obviously the script may survive, but the event that is our art is essentially ephemeral in nature.
There was also much to be explored in the relationship between Public art and the Public. I transposed the location from a college to a fictional town, to suggest a microcosm of our society, with its diverse priorities (Art usually being low on the list). Our initial workshop was at the Stratford Festival and we used the footprint of their studio theatre (a thrust stage) as our playing space. The thrust gave us a number of things. It gave the audience multiple perspectives and felt like a more inclusive space, a more public space. We decided that a theatre-in-the-round staging would best serve the story and this became part of the fabric of not only the production, but was woven in subtle ways into the playscript itself.
We needed an unconventional set – something with monumental scale, but which provided an intimate audience experience. Something that would give form to the sculptural values talked about in the play, the interplay of form and void, the value of materials. Instead of a set designer, we opted to work with an architect, Peter Blackie, who designed a 14' foot high sculptural installation that encloses both audience and performers; that suggests a place of civic discourse, like a Roman Senate; that offers multiple perspectives; a harmonious composition that invites meditation.
On March 28, 2008, Haydn died, almost exactly one year before our production opened. This wasn’t entirely a surprise. Haydn's health had been poor. It was strange. Both Christian and I had begun a friendship with Haydn. I had looked forward to him seeing the premiere of the play with a mixture of hope and anxiety. But now, he wouldn't see it. The theme of impermanence rang loudly.
When we bought the material for the set, it stood in a stack five feet high, four feet wide, and fourteen feet long. I sent a photograph of the stack to Haydn's son, Trevor. Trevor replied, "I know exactly what my Dad's reaction would have been; ''It seems a shame to use it for a set, when you could build a great piece of monumental sculpture with it'."
I would like to think that we've done both.
Dates to Remember
March 24 | Full Festival Announcement - check website
March 29 | Pitch Application Deadline
April 15 | Deadline for Applications for Touring Workshop
June 9 – 19, 2010 | Magnetic North Theatre Festival in Kitchener-Waterloo
