April Fools! Here's how it went: a night of performance art work in progress
Works in progress, improvisation, and discussion over food and drink. The audience was warm, as was the attic studio theatre at Alumnae Theatre! I was so glad to have created an opportunity for artists to get to work on something meaningful and productive.
The night began with a group improvisation. All the performers involved in the night were up for the challenge. Never having performed together as a group before may have been a foolish thing to do, but hey, it was the name of the night and it was lovely! 12 performers of various backgrounds, music, dance and theatre. We had fun, we came together, we appreciated the arts. That’s what the night was about. And I have to thank the audience for bringing their warm energy and curiosity!
Robyn Breen performed a solo, a new choreographic idea that made me awe at her control as a mover and had me giggling with her wacky 90’s style. I am pleased to hear that she will be continuing on with the piece we may get to see this piece again, I can’t wait to see where it goes!
Hayley Ryerson, a beautiful fiddler serenaded us with some of her lively compositions. Hayley plays with Kitchen Orkestra and I will be keeping my eye out for more opportunities to hear them play!
Lester Trips (Theatre) created something that was talked about all night it seems! I think I’ll leave it at that as I’d hate to give anything away! I’ll leave you with a picture, nothing more.
Colleen Snell worked with an artist I was so glad to have met through this process, Madeline Wright. Her performance of the solo created by Colleen was stunning as she moved through improvisational states with complex subtext which lead the audience to a place of intense attention and curiosity.
The whole night was originally a plan for me to share my own work, that I did, but also I found such enjoyment in creating the time and space for others to have a platform to share, and to bring together artists from different genres. This stemmed from the fact that the solo I desired to share once more, “Seeing the Beautiful Choice and Chaos” involves live music played by 4 musicians. And so I had the joy of sharing this piece once more and the joy of seeing audiences reflect and become filled with emotion at close proximity to me, and to share the space and time with an eager audience is always so rewarding. THANK you Audience! I also got to share a work in progress of my own with dancers Justine Comfort and Oriah Wiersma. The duet was a joy to work on, as are many processes that involved artists who want so much to dance and create! When you put two bodies together in space you start to see their differences, this work in progress made me think about how we can never really see through the eyes of another person, the young never see the world quite like the elderly… a country mouse will never really see the city mouse’s view. I’m not speaking of empathy, but the simple fact that we are all different people, and even though you might have a 30 year relationship with someone, there will always be some mystery behind the eyes…
THANK YOU to everyone who made this night a success!
Our Donors/sponsors: Our Volunteers And These amazing PPL Lost Craft Brewery Kristen Innes Stambolic Michael Ahn Mystic Muffin Tia Kushniruk Colleen Snell Loblaws Amanda MacLennan Robyn Breen Susan Wright Federico Brujas Omer Yukseker
