Magnetic North – It’s a Big Deal!
Family-Friendly, Definitely not Family Friendly,
Modern Shakespeare and more!
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Last night, seeing the crowd waiting to go inside the Dunn
Theatre to see Broken Sex Doll, it finally hit me: the Magnetic North
Theatre Festival is a BIG deal!
It’s Canada’s only national theatre festival. It’s also
Canada’s and possibly the world’s only travelling theatre festival. Productions,
representing some of the country’s bet contemporary theatre, from Vancouver,
Edmonton, Toronto, Windsor NS, and other cross-country communities are, for the
next week, gracing Halifax/Darmouth stages…and dance halls…and elevators!?!
If you are in Halifax or can get here for
at least a few hours between now and June 29, DO IT! Check out Magnetic
North’s list of productions here.
As part of our ongoing coverage, Monday we’ll share impressions of Broken Sex Doll. But don’t wait
for our review. Get your tickets to it or any of the shows that pique your
interest, before they sell out. There are also FREE Magnetic Encounter
Events to check out.
Today, we present interviews with:
~ Jim Morrow, director of Stella,
Queen of the Snow, an adaptation of the whimsical book by children’s
writer and illustrator Marie-Louise Gay (suitable for young audiences).
~ Philip McKee, director of Lear, a modern portrayal
Shakespeare’s play, stripped down “to a distilled and vital adaptation.”
Stella, Queen of the Snow
Directed by Jim Morrow
Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia
When and why did
you first become interested in theatre?
JM: When I was a freshman at Acadia University, my new
friends Bill Carr, Bruce Tubbe, and others, encouraged me to audition for a
school play. I think it was Hamlet. I resisted because I thought I was a there
to study Phys-Ed but after much insisting, I relented and soon changed majors
from sports to theatre. After graduating from Acadia, I began touring as a
professional performer with those same people as part of the Mermaid Theatre
ensemble. I had no idea, in the early days, that theatre would become my life’s
work but am very happy and thankful that it has.
Are they the same
reasons that you continue to be involved today?
JM: I remain involved today because I have the best job in
the world. I get to make plays for little children and watch their faces light
up each time they enter the theatre to see their favourite storybook characters
crawl, or fly, or hop to life onstage. When they come to see one of our
productions, with their schoolmates or family members, they are often visiting
the theatre for the very first time. Our responsibility is to ensure that their
theatre experience is truly a memorable one.
What are the
challenges of the vocation?
JM: There are many challenges facing professionals in our
industry, the most significant of which is the instability caused mainly by lack
of resources and inadequate investment. It’s difficult for many theatre artists
to find enough sustainable employment to make even a modest living in their
chosen field. It’s tremendously rewarding when you are working but equally sad
when you are creatively idle. I’m very fortunate to have carved out a niche for
myself and I have enormous respect for others who have chosen to attempt to do
the same but, anyone who enters the vocation should do so with eyes wide open.
The rewards are great and the pitfalls many.
What are the
rewards?
JM: Obviously the greatest reward is having the privilege
to exercise personal creativity and sometimes get paid for it. However, given
that theatre is not a solitary discipline but one that depends on a shared
enterprise between many creative individuals working together to achieve a common
goal, being a part of an extraordinary community is in itself one of the best
rewards.
Is your creative
process more 'inspirational' or 'perspirational'?
 |
| Jim Morrow, artistic director at Mermaid Theatre of NS |
JM: I have to say both – in equal proportions. Ideas are obviously
a necessary part of any creative process, but, if you lack personal discipline
and a commitment to working hard, likely your ideas will never materialize into
something of which you can be truly proud. I love to come up with ideas and
stretch my creative capacity but I also get a thrill out of the chase, and for
me the chase is the process that defines the end result, a result that,
hopefully, others will appreciate.
What inspired you
to put together Stella, Queen of the Snow?
JM: Stella, Queen of the Snow is an elegantly written and
beautifully illustrated book by one of Canada’s best-known authors for
children. Marie-Louise Gay, who lives in Montreal, has created many books
filled with delightful characters and placed them in scenes and situations that
will be very familiar to many Canadian children, especially those who have
spent time in the country. Her writing evokes a wistful affection for a past
where children’s fun included time outside the house and into nature where
freedom to explore was encouraged. I like the book, Stella, Queen of the Snow
because it reminds me of my childhood and what it was like growing up in
Central Newfoundland. I also was inspired to choose the book because Stella is
a very strong female character who, while on the one hand is confident,
impetuous, and full of fun, on the other shows loving tenderness and patience
towards her younger, and much more thoughtful, and cautious, brother Sam.
What can audiences
here expect to experience?
JM: Audiences will see a show that has everything you would
expect in a Mermaid production including a beautiful story, fun characters,
lots of puppets, strong visual elements including projections, and exquisite
music composed by Mermaid’s sound designer, Steven Naylor.
What are your
thoughts on the current state of theatre in Canada?
JM: As articulated before, there are fairly significant
challenges facing the industry but it has always been this way and in spite of
these obstacles, our industry continues to grow and diversify. Despite
inadequate investment, young people are enrolling in theatre programs in
increasing numbers and small independent theatre companies are popping up all
over the country. Thankfully, young theatre artists are completely shifting the
conventional play creation paradigm and challenging traditional practices and
conventions by exploring new ways to express their ideas on stage. No longer is
it true that a play has to begin solely from the written word and performed by
trained actors. What is emerging from this collective curiosity is an ecology
that is forward thinking, full of exploration, and not afraid to take risks
regardless, whether their efforts are supported or not. As in any community, it
is the risk taker and innovator who shows others the way and this is certainly
true in our community. We need to encourage our innovators by supporting their
practices and investing in their creativity. This is an exciting time to be working
in the theatre industry in Canada and I feel that the future is bright.
What can we be
doing better?
JM: We need to grow audiences and encourage a greater exchange
between the general public and the narrative that is acted out on our stages. To
help achieve this we should begin by encouraging more access to the arts, and
integration of arts practices, in education by providing opportunity, and the
resources necessary, for young people to explore their creativity throughout
their education in a meaningful and comprehensive way. Not only will this engagement
make better students and better people, it will also foster a greater
appreciation for the arts as a necessary component of a truly healthy
community.
What's next on your
creative agenda?
JM: I’m very much looking
forward to presenting our newest play at the Stages and Magnetic North
Festivals in Dartmouth. The first performance will be this play’s world
premiere. I am curious about the reaction audiences will have as they are
transported back into wintertime, now that the weather is just beginning to
finally get warm again. I will also be listening carefully to reactions and
apply the knowledge to the remounted version of this show that begins rehearsing
in September for a six-month North American tour.
Mermaid is now a truly
international company and much of our time is spent negotiating the details of
tours to countries around the world. We have just recently returned from
extended visits to central Canada, the United States, South Korea, and the
Kingdom of Bahrain and will be heading back to Central Canada, the US,
Singapore, China, and my home province of Newfoundland in the fall. We continue
to teach puppetry workshops to young people and provide intensive training and
mentorships to professionals through programs offered in our Institute of
Puppetry Arts and our Theatre Loft, and organize a full slate of performances
at our 400-seat theatre as part of the MIPAC (Mermaid Imperial Performing Arts
Centre) series. I’m pleased to say that we will also be touring our very
popular curriculum-based, immersive theatre production called Code Green to
schools in Nova Scotia in the fall. This production is designed to introduce
young students to the important issue of species at risk.
Stella, Queen of the Snow
June 21: 2:00pm
June
22: 12:00pm
Alderney Landing Theatre
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| Clare Coulter in LEAR. Image: Guntar Kravis |
Lear
Directed by Philip McKee
Featuring Clare Coulter
When and why did you first become
interested in theatre?
PM: I was taken to the
theatre as a young person by my
mother. She got a subscription to the Tarragon Theatre so that she could take
me to theatre. This continued when I was a teenager. I saw a production of Endgame by Samuel Beckett directed by Daniel
Brooks at the Tarragon Theatre, and I felt very moved by this play.
At around the same time I saw a
production of The Designated Mourner starring Clare Coulter, and I found it
equally compelling. In Grade 9, in high school, I acted in a play. I continued
to act in plays throughout high school. Somebody once said to me, being shy is
about not knowing what to say. When you are acting in a play the experience of
shyness is different because you already know what to say.
I studied Psychology at McGill
University with the intention of becoming a therapist. By the end of my degree
I was less interested in this, and having directed a show (Endgame by Samuel
Beckett) at the McGill Little Theatre, I
thought that I could be good at it in a way that I couldn’t be good at acting.
I returned to Toronto and produced and directed four shows before attending The National Theatre School of Canada to do
their directing program.
I like theatre because it is a
creative event, for spectators and makers, that is fundamentally relational.
The mechanism by which it works is just people relating to one another. The
Theatre has always felt like a space in which to work out
problems. Its capacity to create living, dynamic metaphors allows
one to look at life in new ways that reveal what has otherwise been taken for
granted.
Are they the same reasons that you
continue to be involved today?
PM: I make theatre today
because I am still trying to figure things out. It is space to try to talk to
yourself and others about how life is strange and sometimes beautiful and
pretty mysterious and absurd and difficult and fun.
 |
| Director Philip McKee |
What are the challenges of the
vocation?
PM: Scarcity. Not having
enough money to do what you want, in the theatre. Uncertainty. Confronting, and trying to respond positively, to theatre’s
marginalization as a relevant cultural medium.
What are the rewards?
PM: Getting to make things
with other people, and sharing those things with other people, and having
peoples’ incredibly generous support while you do it.
Is your creative process more
'inspirational' or 'perspirational'?
PM: It’s both. Someone in
the company has an idea, and then we have to try to figure out how we can try
it to see if it works or not.
What inspired Lear?
PM: LEAR is inspired by my
desire to work with Clare Coulter. We had collaborated on several projects,
having first met her as one of my mentors at NTS. I wanted to find another
project that we could collaborate on. The problem was that there are no roles
with any substance for woman who are passed middle age. So I decided ‘to hell
with it’ we will take on the big man role, and figure out what that means. The
show we have made has been the response to the challenges associated with
making this choice, as well as the response to the challenge of staging
Shakespeare at all in the 21st century. The material itself is from such a
fundamentally different time, the question we have always asked our selves is
‘how can this material be used to communicate with a contemporary audience?’,
especially with the poverty of resources available to independent theatre
makers.
We believe the story, archetypes and
implications of events in King Lear are relevant to an audience in the 21st
Century, but the question for us has been, how can we offer it to an audience in a way that feels relevant.
I applied to the HATCH residency at
Harbourfront Centre in 2011 and we did an initial workshop
and presentation before premiering
the work after further development at World Stage 2013 at Harbourfront Centre.
What can audiences here expect to
experience?
PM: An audience can expect
to experience a truly unique version of a potentially familiar play. The
audience will be surprised and challenged. Our approach to story telling is
formally experimental, but our intention in being formally innovative is to offer
the heart of the story to an audience. LEAR is contemporary theatre that is
finding new ways to foreground the humanity of the characters in this classic
story.
What are your thoughts on the
current state of theatre in Canada and what can we
be doing better?
PM: I think it is important
that young directors and theatre artists are given opportunities to work on classics in an experimental way. It
is very, very difficult to write a good play, and I often feel
the expectation is that every new piece of writing will work.
With classics you have something
that works, which allows the director to experiment with new forms, new ways of
communicating with an audience, with sound foundation of the story, characters,
themes and ideas of the classic text supporting them.
In Germany, for example, you will
very often see adaptations of classics as part of a theatre’s programming, but
not just in the big, more conservative theatres, but also in the most
avant-garde performance venues. The understanding is that these stories can be
invented in an infinite number of ways. The archetypes that are already
familiar to an audience offer language and understanding that is already shared
between the creators and spectators.
This tradition of adaptation keeps a
theatre community in touch with it’s history, while searching for ways to
continue to evolve in the present.
I think it would be great if more
directors were given the kind of opportunity that I have had, and were able to
work on classics in radical ways. In order for this to be possible, it has to
be understood that classical adaptations created by Canadian artists is
Canadian work. Too often I think the idea of “Canadian Work” is limited to a
play WRITTEN by a Canadian playwright.
PM: I have been developing
an adaptation of the Ancient Greek Tragedy THE ORESTEIA called BLOODY FAMILY at
The Theatre Centre since 2012, with actress Tanja Jacobs and Co-Director Rose
Plotek. After two years in the
Theatre Centre’s Residency Program we will be premiering the work in Toronto in
September.
There is a continuity between LEAR
and BLOODY FAMILY as well as adaptations of The Brother Karamazov (BROTHERS
Summerworks 2011), and La Voix Humaine (Zoofest 2009, MTL). The ambition to is try to take what
was is exciting and transgressive and universal in these classic texts
and make it uniquely accessible to modern audiences.
Lear
June 21: 2pm
June 21: 8pm
June 22: 4pm
June 23: 7pm
June 24: 7pm
Spatz Theatre at Citadel High School
www.magneticnorthfestival.ca/2014festival/lear
