Nous voir nous UK Translation Workshop

Sunday May 19, 2013
BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective
Nous voir nous Translation Workshop
by Guillaume Corbeil
Translated by Jack Paterson
Workshop artists: Roman Blomme, Owen Clark, Ming Hudson & Courtney Larkin

About the Play:
Cinq personnages se présentent aux spectateurs et font le spectacle de leur existence à la manière des sites Internet de réseautage. Scène aprèsscène, ils façonnent leurs identités différemment et cherchent à prouver l’unicité de leur moi.

Five characters reveal their lives and relationships though a series of social networking websites. Scene after scene, they shape and reshape their identities, seeking to prove their own uniqueness.

About the Playwright: Guillaume Corbeil
En 2008, Guillaume Corbeil présente un recueil de nouvelles intitulé L’art dela fugue (éditions L’Instant Même) ; il a été en lice pour les prix du Gouverneur général et a reçu le prix Adrienne-Choquette. Son premier roman, Pleurer comme dans les films, est paru chez Leméac en septembre 2009. Il a aussi signé une biographie du metteur en scène André Brassard. En 2011, il terminait une formation en écriture dramatique à l’École nationale de théâtre du Canada. Depuis, pour la scène il a signé les textes Le Mécanicien, Tu iras la chercher et Nous voir nous, présenté par le PàP sous le titre Cinq visages pour Camille Brunelle.

In 2008, Guillaume Corbeil presents a collection of stories entitled L’art dela fugue (éditions L’Instant Même); He has been shortlisted for the Governor General’s award and was awarded the Prix Adrienne-Choquette. In September 2009, his first novel, Pleurer comme dans les films, was published by Leméac. He has also written a biography of Director André Brassard. In 2011, he finished training in playwriting at the national theatre school of the Canada. Since, for the scene he written sevral plays including Le Mécanicien, Tu iras la chercher et Nous voir nous, presented by PàP under the title Cinq visages pour Camille Brunelle.

About BoucheWHACKED!
Définition – Le Petit Larousse:
un défrichage de nouveau territoire théâtral basé dans la langue, région de la bouche.

English Translation:
breaking new theatrical ground and uncovering new territory in the tongue/language area.

BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective is a Vancouver based artistic collective made up of working theatre professionals dedicated to the development, production and presentation of multi language works, cross disciplinary arts and works in translation. With a specific focus on cross pollination between Francophone and Anglophone works, through translation, BoucheWHACKED! showcases the daring contemporary works of both artistic populations to local audiences and brings awareness to the thriving talent that exists in two communities separated by distance, language and culture.  Production include the instillation of the West Coast English language premiere The List, The Ta Gueule Staged Reading Series: Howl Red by Etienne Lepage, Porcupine by David Paquet & Rearview by Gilles Poulin-Denis.

www.BoucheWHACKED.com

Come Get BoucheWHACKED! (Vancouver)

BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective and The rEvolver Arts Festival presents:
THE TA GUEULE STAGED READING SERIES
Contemporary Francophone Plays in Translation

rEvolver Arts Festival, The Cultch ● 1895 Venables St.
Pay What You Can at the Door

Saturday, May 18^th, 4:30pm – The Culture Lab
PORCUPINE (PORC-ÉPIC)
By David Paquet
Translated by Maurine Labonté
Staged by Rachel Peake*

Featuring Josette Jorge, Jesse Matyn*, France Perras*, Michael Rinaldi*‏, Stacie Steadman* and Jonathan Winsby*

On her birthday, Cassandra wants to be beautiful, funny and popular. So begins a desperate hunt for party guests, from the staff at the corner store to strangers on the street. Humour and poetry combine in as people clash and make love in this 2010 Governor General Award winning play. Step one – Balloons.

*Appears courtesy of Canadian Actors Equity

Saturday, May 18^th, 6:30pm – The Wine Bar
ENCOUNTER/ RENCONTRE: DAVID PAQUET
Meet the new generation of francophone writers

David Paquet won a Governor General Award with his first play, Porc-épic. After productions in Mexico and Europe, it made an acclaimed appearance at L’Espace Go in Montreal in 2010. The same year, Paquet’s play for adolescents, 2 h 14 AM/FM, winner of the Le théâtre jeune publique et la relève competition, was presented at Maison Théâtre directed by Claude Poissant. David Paquet is interested in stories, whether they are told through slam, storytelling or poetry. He is a graduate in playwriting from the National Theatre School.

Sunday, May 19^th, 4:30pm – The Culture Lab
REARVIEW
Written and translated by Gilles Poulin-Denis
Staged by Heidi Taylor

Featuring Dave Mott

A hard-hitting “road-play” by Vancouver playwright Gilles Poulin-Denis. Guy is on the road and on the run. But what is he running from? A petty crime? Ghosts? His own life? This Governor General Award nominee is a fascinating and lyrical journey into the night.

Mies Julie

Inspired by the by the diverse artists, aesthetics and forms of theatre production I have discovered over four seasons traveling and working across the Canadian landscape from Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and back to Vancouver I recently went back to school.

With a personal focus on world and international theatre practices, this new journey has lead to London and the Directing MFA at Joanne Litlewood’s East 15.  There is a fantastic element that the city of London and the school share and it is that of diversity.  In class we are working with artists from Iran, Greece, Brazil, Hong Kong, South Korea and the list goes on.  In the theatre it is almost a constant PuSH Festival, with Shakespeare’s Globe hosting Shakespeare productions from Georgia and South Africa to The Barbican presenting an range of International artists.

In the spirit of “if you see a good show then tell people about it”, and in a world where theatre is returning to the horse and cart except this time it’s an airplane, I’m telling you about it…

MIES JULIE
Written and Directed by Yael Farber
Based on Miss Julie by August Strindberg
Music and Sound Design by Daniel and Matthew Pencer­­
Set and Lighting Design by Patrick Curtis
Featuring Hilda Cronje, Bongile Mantsai, Thoko Ntshinga, and Tandiwe Nofirst Lungisa

Assembly and Riverside Studios present the Baxter Theatre Centre at the University of Cape Town in association with the South African State Theatre

Playing at Riverside Studios, London

Every now and then you see a show that reminds you of not only how powerful theatre can be but what it can be. For me, these include Marry Zimmerman’s Metamorphosis (Looking Glass Theatre, NYC), Amarillo by Teatro Linea de Sombra (Mexico @ PuSH Festival) and Yellow Moon (Theatre de la Manufacture, Montreal) and now Mies Julie.

This is a visceral updating of Strindberg’s Miss Julie, adapted to contemporary struggles of South Africa. The play starts with the question of ownership of land and through that addressing the deep emotional issues that affect the country such as class, gender, race and colonial history.  Set in a smoldering kitchen of a remote estate 18 years after the end of apartheid, a deadly attraction spirals out of control between John, a favorite black farm laborer, and Julie, his “master’s” daughter.

Over a single night, as the farm laborers celebrate Freedom Day outside, John and Julie are locked struggle for power, sexuality, and land inside.  Described in the synopsis as haunting, violent, intimate and heartbreaking, the play is all of these things -it is also sexy.  The two main characters are locked in a dance of desire and passion using all they can to hurt, wound and destroy each other.  Desperate to leave the land they were raised on together and start anew and desperate to individually hold on to what is theirs by right.  When they mate on the kitchen table, it is like wild animals.

What made the show so effective is the combination of emotional and political risk in both the acting and the writing.  The adaptation, using Strindberg’s play as a loose spine, could have been treated as kitchen sink naturalism, (indeed the director’s script could be approached this way) but instead it was a multi-disciplinary approach embracing the theatrical potential of ritual.  Framed by an ancestor stalking the stage, dance, symbolism, metaphor and imagery with all make strong impacts as both characters viewpoints are brought with equally compelling weight.

The contrast between live natural tribal instruments and throat singing and the technical created music (also done live from the stage on a laptop) heightened the experience.  The use of opposites was consistent through the piece; a naturalistic text with a heightened set (a table, a stool, a stove and tree breaking through the floor); the actors’ performances were raw, risky and unclean then contained with very specific movement and dance elements.  All these conflict’s reflecting the main conflict of the theme and the conflicts of South Africa.  The main strength was how well all the elements came together – used when necessary and not when not.

Although the show wasn’t absolutely perfects as it could have lost about 5 to 10 minutes as the passions became a bit repetitive towards the end, it was about as close as you can get and one hell of a ride.

Shakespeare and Stage Combat

One of the challenges in many of Shakespeare’s plays, especially the histories, is the fighting.  Too often, in any play, it will be going on smoothly until a fight moment ranging from a slap to a duel to full on war sequences and the play stops – the fight is enacted – and then the play resumes.  This interrupts the narrative and as a result is jars both the audience and players within.

This is for a number of reasons, among them are the facts that a fight on stage are invariable false no matter how well choreographed due to actor safety and the theory that the  audience will be pulled out of a too real fight and worry about the actors rather than the characters, the knowledge of the audience that is isn’t real and, more practically, the short amount of time usually scheduled for fight design.

For an audience that is used to the hyper real or fantasy fights of video games, movies and television this is a difficulty – we cannot present the same degree of shock, danger or fantasy.  Many solutions have been attempted from various actors charging into the wings to highly stylised dance numbers.  In my own work, I have substituted stylized movement (Julius Caesar) and gone the complete opposite way with martial arts and combat knife fights based on the Roman short sword in both individual and mass war scenes (Titus Andronicus and Coriolanus).

Both proved effective when kept to a minimum and allowing the individual highlights to shine on key story elements.  Also in all three pieces the language on the combat was there all ready and the language of the fights had been incorporates in non-fight sequences (Julius Caesar was done with red cloth and the cloth had been passed around to each conspirator as they joined the conspiracy, it later became the dagger to kill Caesar, the blood from his wounds passed out by Anthony, etc.).

To address the very valid concern that a fight sequence may rob the import a descriptive passage, like such as in Richard the Third, a potential solution lies in the using the movement to launch the actor into their text rather than replace it.  Wither stylised or not, the movement should move with the text in a dance.  Move inspires text inspires move etc.  There should be a tension between the two that however it is played out is unbroken.

The fights are part of the whole not separate movement dropped in.  Violence on stage, like any other form of choreographed movement should be reflective of the piece and move with it.  The violence of the sword is always present, however it is not revealed until the sword is drawn causing a tension.  The fight design is as integral as the lights, set and costumes to creating the world we are living in and I would argue that the fight choreographer should be involved in the creation process outside the actual fights as much as possible.

Stage violence is also a way to shed light on a character and a situation (for great examples see the fight in Rob Roy between Liam Neisson and Tim Roth or Bidget Jones’ Diary between Hugh Grant and Colin Firth).  How a person dances is just as informative to their character as to what books are in their bookshelves – the same is true with fights.

Additionally, in the unique real but non-real environment of the stage, this is an opportunity to address the experience of combat rather than simply a flashy fight.  Veterans have described the sensation of timespace speeding up or slowing down, extra sharp focus or clarity on specifics and the reverse in blurred and unclear events.   These perspectives and the rhythms inspired by them can further our presentation in given circumstance and character.

By approaching stage fighting poetically, with a combination of movement and combat, we can engage the audience’s imagination, inspire actors within the scenes and further our understanding of the environments we are imagining and the character that inhabit them.

 

 

Nuit Blanche – A beautiful short film

A beautiful short film I found on the net while avoiding work.

Nuit Blanche by Arev Manoukian
Nuit Blanche explores a fleeting moment between two strangers, revealing their brief connection in a hyper real fantasy. All for a kiss!

A Making Of Video:

IMBd

Shakespeare and Modern Dress

In my own practice with Shakespeare, I originally embraced modern dress.  This was done for several reasons including budget.

Firstly as actual “original practice”, Shakespeare’s actors wore modern dress – they happened to be Elizabethan.  Shakespeare’s theatre was written for his modern audience.  Julius Caesar and Titus Andronicus where presented as a Rome much like modern Elizabethan and Jacobean London complete with reference to modern technology like cannons.  This was easily recognisable to his audience.

The second reason was audience clarity.  In order to give the audience a direct and immediate connection or recognition to the characters, we strived to present them in a recognizable way.  How would Julius Caesar and Brutus dress or behave in our world.  Who would they be if we looked around us?

The third reason was artistic.  If these plays are immortal, we have to prove it each time out.  By modernising the wardrobe and settings, we are in a position to directly challenge the belief of Shakespeare for all ages and through this challenge find the truths he has embedded in the text.

One has to be careful in modern dress.  There is a potential for limiting the play rather than supporting it.  A prime example is the recent Timon of Athens at the National Theatre.  Timon’s descent was wonderfully modern with him living homeless under a bridge (and a great performance!).  The poet, painter, merchant and Apemantus were based strongly on modern British celebrities.  Rather than helping lift the piece to us, however, this choice limited the scope.  The characters became to close to Stephen Fry and J K Rowling thus taking us out of the play to our now, rather than deepening our understanding of it.   The idea of Apemantus as an aging rocker is a good one and was extremly well played by the artist, but may have been more successful had it not been so precise to an individual in popular culture thereby allowing the character to exist to the plays needs him to, rather how our society needs him to, and allowing the audience make up their own minds.

In my own work, we had similar discussions around Julius Caesar done shortly after President Bush’s election and just before a provicial election.  Through modern dress and power suits we were able to respond to the modern world and explore the similarities the play and us.  Shakespeare’s Rome however is not my Ottawa or Victoria or my neighbours Washington.  They have similarities but also differences.  Putting Caesar in cowboy boots would have brought up the question of “how can the sky rain fire” in Washington rather than allowing the sky to rain fire in ancient Rome and allow the play to progress.

The worlds created in Shakespeare’s plays are not our own.  They have many similarities but also many differences.  In order to allow the difference such ritual murder in Titus Andronicus or the existence of fairies in a Midsummer Night’s Dream, an approach could be “this is similar to…” rather than “ This is…”.

Stella Adler on Theatre

“The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation. The theatre is a spiritual and social X-ray of its time. The theatre was created to tell people the truth about life and the social situation.”
- Stella Adler

Peter Brook on Hamlet

The Stage is a magic circle

“The stage is a magic circle where only the most real things happen, a neutral territory outside the jurisdiction of Fate where stars may be crossed with impunity. A truer and more real place does not exist in all the universe.”
―    P.S. Baber,    Cassie Draws the Universe

Be brave

Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You cannot get there by bus, only by hard work, risking and by not quite knowing what you are doing. What you will discover will be wonderful; yourself.   
Alan Alda