Fredericton’s Rabbit-town to be revitalized On Stage
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| Source: Rabbit-town.com |
In
the fall of 2012, Lisa Anne Ross of Solo Chicken Productions
began a community arts project called Animating Rabbit-town. The project
explores The West Platt neighbourhood in Fredericton that was known as
Rabbit-town during the 20s, 30s and 40s. Ross quickly discovered how vibrant
and intriguing the working class hub’s history was; and what originally was set
out to be a one-year long endeavour, blossomed into a multi-year, multi-faceted,
collaboration with local organizations, schools, artists and community members.
The project will culminate in a theatrical production (June 5-7). We caught up with
Ross to find out about the play (and their fundraising campaign
to pay the participating artists and technicians) and what else has been going
on with Animating Rabbit-town.
When we caught up with you last summer, the Rabbit-town community arts project was
thriving with research and collecting stories, a historic public walking tour
and art workshops and activities for local Connaught Street Elementary
School students. What's been going on since?
LAR: After the
conclusion of the walking tour in the summer of 2013 we were propelled into
planning for our Rabbit-town Christmas Concert. The catalyst for the Christmas
Concert came from one of my many afternoon tea sessions with former Rabbit-town
resident Mrs. Glenna Robinson. Glenna is the sister of the well known Maritime
musician and radio personality, Aubrey Hanson and spins the most charming tales
about the Rabbit-town community. She often talks about how music was central to
their family and how they sang and played together morning, noon and
night. Glenna sings in the well known local seniors’ choir, The Stepping Stone
Singers, and so I cooked up the scheme of asking the Stepping Stones Singers
and the Connaught Street School Elementary Choir to hold a concert singing
songs of the Rabbit-town era as well as classic Christmas music. The concert
was held at the beautiful St. Dunstan’s Cathedral and featured the voices of 80
seniors and 80 elementary students all conducted by the vivacious Verna
Hayward. Sarah Christie worked tirelessly at Connaught Street and conducted the
elementary students. The result was transcendent! The concert was
attended by over 600 people and we took goodwill donations at the door and
collected money both for the Rabbit-town Project and for Chrysalis House.
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| Public historic walking tour of Rabbit-town (summer 2013) |
What has been a Rabbit-town
highlight for you in the last year?
LAR: For me one of the incredible benefits of working on a long term
community arts project like this is the development of unusual friendships. I
have had the opportunity to connect in a meaningful way to both seniors and
youth in our community and to work alongside them as we create together. The
group of youth that I worked with at Connaught Street were so filled with
energy and commitment and so I asked them to do a ‘cameo’ during our Christmas
Concert. They all sang Aubrey Hanson’s theme song, “Sunny Side of Life” with
Glenna in a heartwarming rendition. I love running into these spirited
young people all over the community and getting Rabbit-town high-fives.
Another amazing aspect of this
project is the incredible contributions that various people have made to the
project. Local artist David Brewer
has hand-carved and hand set the type for two of our event posters including
the Christmas Concert and the upcoming show. Getting to know him and to have
him offer his artistry to us is amazing and speaks to the power of community
arts to connect! Verna Hayward, after conducting our Christmas Concert, joined
on as Music Director for the upcoming show. Her incredible skill and vast
knowledge of music, not to mention her very fiery spirit, has been a joy to
work with. She even convinces her daughter to join our gang. All of these
new artistic relationships and collaborations are the backbone of this type of
work for me.
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| Verna Hayward conducting the Stepping Stones
& Connaught Street Elementary School choirs in the Rabbit-town Christmas Concert |
Tell us about how Rabbit-town the play came about?
LAR: As a theatre artist it was always in the back of my mind to ‘make it a
play’. The end goal of the Animating Rabbit-town Project has always been to
produce a beautiful work about the community. Early on in the project I was
thrilled to have local playwright Ryan Griffith join the creative team and to
agree to co-write the production with me. Ryan runs the successful Next Folding
Theatre Company and has written and produced a number of ambitious and well
crafted pieces of theatre. He has a distinct voice as a playwright and has
brought a great deal to the artistic process. Robin C. Whittaker, who is a
drama professor at St. Thomas University and has been a key collaborator on the
project since its inception, is directing the piece. He brings his very sharp and
analytical mind and great attention to detail. He directed the first
incarnation of the scenes last year when his drama production students test
drove a few of our scenes and the results were wonderful. We have also been
blessed to have STU’s Chris Saad join us as the Technical Director. We cast the
production in early April and were really thrilled to find a talented group of
both emerging and professional performers to anchor the script and direction. The
final piece of the puzzle recently fell into place with Cheryl Lee-Christie (a
former DAL costume studies grad) joining us as the costume designer. We also
have a small contingent of the Stepping Stones Choir joining us for the show to
act as our live chorus. Amazing!
What will audience members be treated to during the June 5-7 production?
LAR: The show
takes place in the historic, restored Train Station on York Street that is now
of course our favourite place to buy Picaroon’s beer and wine, NB Liquor!
The show is going to be a bit of a romp down memory lane with our title
character of Aubrey Hanson wielding his guitar and sharing with audiences what
makes this little community so special: Family, friends and the all important
word, community. The show, through music of the time backed up by our incredible
choir, explores the depth of community ties all set against the backdrop of war
and industry. We explore some very factual history, such as the rise and fall
of the Chestnut Canoe Factory, but we also delve into the creation of some
historical fiction as we build up the narrative of the Rabbit-town circus.
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| Ian
Goff (playing Aubrey Hanson) and the choir rehearsing for Rabbit-town the play |
Can people still contribute
to the Rabbit-town fundraising campaign and what do the funds support?
LAR: YES! People can contribute to our fundraising campaign until Wednesday
June 4th. The funds are being used to provide our actors and technicians with a
modest wage. Although we weren’t able to pay industry standards we are
committed to paying our creative team as we believe that the creative economy
can provide sustainable long term economic benefits to our community as a
whole. A healthy economy has a diversity of work opportunities and in a
province that continually faces challenges in retaining our youth we hope to do
our part by providing them with meaningful employment! We are a registered
charity so anyone who donates will be provided with a tax receipt!
Visit https://www.giveffect.org/campaigns/272-raising-Rabbit-town to donate!
What else have you been up to with Solo Chicken
Productions?
LAR: This production will mark the final chapter in the Animating Rabbit-town
Project. After the dust settles the next big Solo Chicken project will be
remounting my solo show, Engorged. Solo chickens need to do some solo
work of course. I created this show in late 2012 and worked with performance
artist Jess Dobkin developing material and then
had choreographer and artist, Lesandra Dodson direct it. The show premiered in
New York City in the spring of last year at the Museum of Motherhood but I
haven’t performed it closer to home yet. It is a one woman cabaret about
motherhood that I am very excited to get back to.
Is there anything you would like to add?
LAR: Another amazing aspect of this
project has been the development of so many strong and mutually beneficial
partnerships. For instance the The Station/La Gare stepped forward to partner
with our production and offered us a very discounted rate to use the space. In
return they have the opportunity to have their beautifully renovated space used
to recreate the actual history of the station. It is always exciting when
communities can work together to link the past with the present and make that
loop meaningful and engaging. Another amazing partnership throughout this
project has been Theatre St. Thomas. They have provided us with access to
space, costumes, expertise and a connection to the broader arts community that
has been invaluable. In exchange we have provided St. Thomas University and TST
students with access to both exciting performance and employment opportunities.
It has truly been a win-win relationship. Other incredible partnerships have
included our relationship with Connaught Street Elementary School, The Stepping
Stones Choir, The Next Folding Theatre Company and ARC. The project has also
received some very crucial support from government and foundations including,
The City of Fredericton, The Government of NB, The Fredericton Community Foundation
and the Department of English Language and Literature at St. Thomas University.
