Ventures/ and Adventures

The last blog entry was en route back to Halifax. Before that the last day documented was Thursday when we preformed at Huckie’s amazing loft apartment.

The following day, Friday, we had time to ourselves to see the city. I spent the day writing the blog entry on the Huckie performance and stumbling around looking for the home of a favorite company of mine gob squad, which was close to rosa-luzemberg platz, while others shopped near the 'zo' and laid on beaches.

That night we attended the gallery opening of Garry (Kennedy) and Cathy’s new exhibit called ‘Northend’ at the Emerson Gallery. Cathy’s half of the installation was a collection of show posters she has gathered from the Northend in Halifax, while Garry had painted the adjacent room in a pattern derived from an eBay add for two new war metals.

I was struck by Cathy’s piece and the experience of encountering a piece of Halifax, literally, in a foreign place. What is the importance of making ones work about their own backyard?

Saturday the group moved into the gallery space whose name I forget in the area I can’t remember, but it was the venue discussed in the ‘air Berlin’ blog entry. See earlier posts, including the comment boxes for more reference. This was, of course, after the stellar game of pick up soccer Amy, Steph and I played with Flo and his friends at their old highschool where he met Garry.

This gallery space exists in a large villa, and takes its particular claim to fame as the spot where Yoko Ono does her work- one of her art managers is the owner of the space. A guy whose demeanor was not the most welcoming to us.

As we have learned from other spaces, we tried to make use of the uniqueness of the location. The vast height of the ceilings aided the poetry in ‘people and the stones’, and the dense décor in the lobby really made the Mary Clifton ballad feel like a Victorian hotel. Again we made use of the exterior garden space and moved the audience through the gallery.

Most of the conversation we had working up to the show was about how to order the scenes. The discovery we made the night before at Huckie’s suggested that we find a way to bring the game of pulling numbers into the performances. However the method of how to adapt this idea was anything but obvious. Recreating the exact format would have been too difficult and suddenly there were too many variations up for consideration, which all appeared as compromises to the original game idea. So, the idea was dropped and the logic of moving the audience according to the placement of scenes seemed to make the most sense with the time we had to work with. But perhaps this is where the development of the show is evolving…


Sunday, we moved into the theatre space, theatre forum, in Keuzberg. This space is a black box theatre space in the midst of a multicultural melting pot. A traditional black box theatre, it has theatrical lighting instruments, and a small rake for audience seating up to about 60. This area where the theatre is located is a ‘destination of choice for young people and the latest place for everyone to be’, according to my research.

During the morning of preparation, we made the choice to fit the scenes on the stage, and construct a production modeled on the traditional uses of the theatre- a stark contrast to the environmental staging that we had been doing in the galleries.

Similar to our earlier processes, we looked to the space for architecture. We decided to treat the lighting design that was hung in the theatre like we would the architecture of a space. We placed the scenes like we would have when we looked at doorways or corridors and always trying to fit the scenes that were well suited to the way the lights shaped the space.

The construction of the scene list for the performance was determined by Pip, our stage manager. She ordered the scenes according to how they flowed most naturally from lighting cue to lighting cue. A process of ordering the scenes that is not unlike the natural movement of spectators through the space.

We attempted to disrupt the formal presentation of the show by returning to work lights between scenes, and inviting dialogue with the audience. We discussed the importance of our play as a collection of scenes form 11 different writers, facts about Keith Jr, and near the end took any questions from the audience. When the time allotted for conversation was up, Pip dinged a bell signifying the start of the scene.

The difference of this kind of performance at the end of our tour was experienced diversely amongst the group. These experiences are going to be documented in the final blog postings from the group, which will be posted in the next couple of days.

After the performance rapped Sunday, we collected our things, had a final couple of beers with Garry’s friends Mario and Flo (the show groupie) at a tapas bar, then called it a night so that we could prepare for our early flight the next morning.

And so that brings us up to date.

But that’s not quite the end of the blog. In addition to various pics that will be going up, like I mentioned just a few lines above, expect some final thoughts from the members of the group.

If you are just finding the blog now, look back through the archives. Plus, I am always adding pics to old posts. And, keep the comments coming…