Top Five of 2008

After yesterday's post I thought it only fair that I list my top five of 2008, but then I couldn't limit myself to just five because they were all so different, though I did refrain from including anything I worked on (becuase that wouldn't be fair!).

So here are the SIX shows I saw that deepened my appreciation for theatre in 2008, and what it was about each of them that stuck out:

Corteo (Cirque du Soliel)
My first ever Cirque show. The decadence on stage for only a moment of time. Spectacle to the greatest degree, and yet not hollow entertainment. I was so enthralled with what was going on that I couldn't applaud each act, for fear of missing a part of the next. It gave me a new appreciation for the possibility of what theatre is capable of with large budgets & new ways of storytelling.

Jake's Gift (Juno Productions & The Cultch)
The opposite end of the spectrum from Cirque: just a bench and a table on an otherwise empty stage. But the characters! Julia Mackey has created such a lovely pair of characters whose lives are woven together with such care. I sat in my seat with tears streaming down my face. To have characters that one can invest in so deeply is a marvelous thing.

The Tempest (Bard on the Beach)
What a feast for the senses. With a stunning cast, Meg Rowe's first attempt at directing was lovely. She had fantastic material to work with, but the decision to make Trinculo & Stephano women was richly funny. The Shakespearean language is always so rich, but this production really came alive for me.

Unity: 1918 (Theatre at UBC)
I've already raved a bit about this show here, but what I loved about it was the way it used design to help tell the story. With what appeared to be a very simplistic set, beautiful images were created that were individually poetic, but within the greater story they were stunning. It wasn't the strongestly acted student show I saw this year, but it had very strong direction.

No Exit (Electric Company & Virtual Stage)
One of the most unique uses of space & technology I have seen in theatre. Locking the actors in a small room and allowing the audience to watch them voyeristically on huge screens gave a whole new sense of the Hell that Sartre was intending.

The Space Between (Circa)
A cross between dance & theatre, this movement in this show made me re-examine the beauty of the human body. There was no set, just a blank stage, but the images that the performers created through their movements were strong & evokative.

This list certainly reflects my bias towards shows with strong images, but it also leans towards the fact that I love theatre that does what only theatre can do (something I picked up from some wise friends). The thing about all of these shows, despite their differences in budget, cast size, plot, theme, etc was that I left the theatre each time, feeling like my soul had been refilled. As though I had just discovered something new. And remembered that ultimately, theatre is about the relationship between the audience and the performers & we are each changed by what we collectively experience.

Feed the Lake

Back in early September, my friend Angela wrote a blog post following her attendance at Bard's production of The Tempest. In it she talks about learning that there is no point in jealousy becuase when one artist succeeds we all end up winning. She said:

The problem is, I have a degree in directing and I've been doing it for a long time but I don't know that I could create a work this accomplished. So for part of the performance I was torn between admiration and dejection - "wow this is really good/wow that's really depressing" -something like that... But when a truly gifted artist creates a work for others to share, we get the present. My life was enriched by the production I saw tonight and as a result, my work will be enriched.

It was a sentiment she echoed after she and I attended Unity: 1918 a couple of weeks back.

But further in the post she talks about an image that appears in Madeline L'Engle's Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art (which is, by the way, one of my top arts reads, regardless of faith orientation. L'Engle was the talented writer behind A Wrinkle in Time.). She discusses an analogy drawn by Jean Rhys in which art is a lake and the artists of the world are various sizes of rivers, streams, & trickles.

She quotes Rhys as saying

"I don't matter. The lake matters. You must keep feeding the lake."

I love that image. The idea that all of art is this giant lake (actually I'd like to jump in and bathe in it - let it soak into my soul!), and that regardless of the size of our contribute we must continue to feed the lake.

Often, as a Stage Manager, I forget that I am also responsible for feeding the lake. I want to leave that role to the directors, actors & designers whose work is so clearly art. But creating a space in which it is possible for those artists to produce (and even better: to thrive!) is an art all its own, and I need to remember that when I get down about my role in the process.

Feed. The. Lake.

(Edited by SMLois, Dec. 3, 11:15pm)

15 Questions with Lois

Date & place of birth:

May 2, 1986; Vernon, BC

Lives now in:

Vancouver, BC

Education:

BA from Trinity Western University with a double major in Theatre & Communications, and a certificate in Media Studies.

If you hadn’t become a stage manager, what might you have done professionally?

I've changed my mind about my career goals many times: the first plan was to do PR in the music industry, but I think that if I were not stage managing, I'd probably go back to school and get my masters in television studies and end up as a professor.

Favourite plays:

Metamorphoses (Mary Zimmerman), Esspresso (Lucia Frangione), Proof (David Auburn), Jake's Gift (Julia Mackey), The Mistakes Madeline Made (Elizabeth Meriwether)

Favourite TV shows (currently airing):

Pushing Daisies (ABC), Dexter (Showtime), How I Met Your Mother (CBS)

Favourite TV shows (no longer airing):

Veronica Mars (UPN/CW), Arrested Development (Fox), Wonderfalls (Fox), Six Feet Under (HBO), Slings & Arrows (Movie Channel/The Movie Network), Joan of Arcadia (CBS) & Dead Like Me (Showtime)

What was the last thing you saw on stage that had a big impact on you?

The last thing I saw on stage that had a big impact on me was UBC's production of Unity: 1918 a couple of week's ago. It is an award winning script (and with good reason!), but this production was so visibly stunning. The image of a spinning lantern dangling from the ceiling, a wounded soldier returning on a train (done with the actor standing on a chair on a revolve while a train track was flown in from the ceiling), a giant bonfire and revival meeting behind a cyc, a room full of dead bodies, a scene done entirely in the dark. Each image had the potential to fail hugely, but rather than fail, they inspired.

And the first?

The first play I ever saw was a local production of Annie when I was about six which sort of set up for me the fact that theatre was out there, but the first play that really had an impact on me was the Art's Club's 2001 presentation of Axis Theatre's Flying Blind. My high school was very arts focused and each semester the theatre teacher would take approximately 60 kids on a trip to either Vancouver, Calgary or Edmonton to see mulitple productions and learn about the education opportunities in each city. The 2001 Vancouver trip was my first of three, and it was a very eye opening five days in regards to what theatre is capable of. We saw Elizabeth Rex at the Stanley, The Edible Woman at the Playhouse, some terrible musical review at the Gateway, & Flying Blind. What stuck out for me about Flying Blind was it's use of design to help shape the world. I've never been an actor - though I can recognize and appreciate good acting - but I've always been impressed by strong visual elements. I remember after the play going out for pizza with the rest of the people on the trip and discussing the show. I was one of only two students who enjoyed it (along with the two escorts). Everyone else "didn't get it" or thought that it was too abstract. I didn't care whether or not I "got" it - I just wanted to do that - create a world similar to our own, yet not our own that causes people to converse.

Favourite books:

Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeline L'Engle, the PostSecret books by Frank Warren, & Life After God by Douglas Coupland

Favourite after-show haunts:

Anywhere near Pacific Theatre that still has it's kitchen open when the show gets out: lately that's been either Earls, Cactus Club, or Cafe Barney. We used to always go to Ouisi's but the service there has gotten atrocious and the kitchen has been closing much earlier (besides, who really wants to eat alligator all the time?)

What do you expect to be doing in five years?

I've told myself that if in five years I am bored or burnt out from Stage Managing I will go back to school and do my masters in television studies after all.

What are the personal things that you do in your life simply because they make you happy?

Spend a whole day on the couch watching old TV episodes on DVD even though I've seen them 10+ times, try to laugh as much as possible, take photographs whenever I'm having fun so that I can look at them later and smile.

What would you advice would you give the government to secure the future of Canadian theatre?

I would advise the government that first and foremost, "Ordinary Canadians" really do care about the arts, I would advise reversing the millions of dollars in cuts to arts funding, I would advise the leaders to go take in some of the local theatre - independent, ground-breaking work so that they get a glimpse of the magic being created in their own backyards.

Last but certainly not least, what are you working on, now?

Jesus, My Boy is running at Pacific Theatre until Dec. 27 and I've already begun prep for Holy Mo, which begins rehearsals mid-January.