Coins, Bodies and Swords. F***ers and Circles...

The past week of the Live-In has been quite an eclectic run of events, for sure.

Pam Calabrese MacLean trekked up from her home in Antigonish on Sunday evening with three lovely actresses to share her new play Toss about a mother and daughter dealing with secret revelations of their family and the consequences that their actions, both past and present, may have on their future. Pam has been working on the piece for some time and shared with the audience some of her philosophy towards writing and writing plays in particular, and we had a very interactive audience feedback discussion afterwards.

Monday night saw The Living Room cleared out of furniture and filled with moving bodies as Kim Parkhill led a much appreciated physical theatre workshop. Drawing from recent study in Latvia with Sergey Ostrenko, Kim led a group of mostly local actors in a series of exercises and activities to develop body self-awareness and group dynamic, and explored the static medium of visual artworks by inhabiting their form and appropriating the gestures within.

Long-time DaPoPo associate Steve Cloutier brought his first draft of the first act of his new play They That Take The Sword to the Live-In Tuesday evening, with a lively reading and spirited discussion of dramatic form and contemporary Canadian politics afterwards.

Thursday evening was a double-bill of New Grudge From Ancient Mutiny by Ira Henderson, a hilarious satiric romp of four characters thrust together through circumstance, boredom and iambic pentameter. Although Ira could not attend (he's currently studying at film school in Vancouver) some thoughtful discussion afterwards of the intentions and form of the piece were noted and forwarded his way for further development.

Rounding off Thursday evening was a short glimpse at a new work by Andrea Dymond, a two-hander entitled Shannon/Joanna. Although only a preliminary draft of the first act, Andrea had the audience hooked with her sparse and sensitive portrayal of 4 characters slotted to be played by two actresses, and her innovative pursuit of a circular narrative form.

So that's what you may have missed this past week at the Live-In! There are still workshops and readings coming up, not to mention the fast-approaching opening of When Did You Last See My Mother? So come out and live it up at the Live-In!

UPCOMING EVENTS

!!TONIGHT!!

FRIDAY November 13th 6-10pm

Workshop Making Video Live: Constructing Play in Mediated Landscapes. Lead by Dustin Harvey (Artistic Director, Secret Theatre), the workshop will focus on a process of making performance with video. Participants will work collaboratively on a mini project based on the key ideas of public engagement, mediated space, and contemporary urban living.

SATURDAY November 14th 7pm

Play-reading Drinking Song by Amanda Jernigan. A poetic (re)creation of one stormbound night, and through it, of the shared history of a family of players joined and divided by wine and song.

MONDAY November 16th

Play-reading Paint On Windows by Kristi Anderson.Sunshine Cleaners laundromat and three eclectic characters; Keelin the wide-eyed country kid in the big city, Simon the painter who sees art through meth crystals, and Fiona the eccentric lady of the laundromat determined to solve all life's problems with stain remover.Paint on Windows is a rapid one-woman exhibition of character and physicality.

TUESDAY November 17th

Workshop Introduction to Mask and Neutral Mask led by Courtney Siebring. Shape has meaning, and in this workshop students learn just how our bodies are constantly telling stories. They will expand their physical vocabulary as they tune into their body's instincts, push past their own idiosyncrasies, and examine the actor's most basic tool. This workshop presents the art of mask performance from neutral mask to character mask. Students will learn the proper protocol for handling and donning a mask, the connection of the mask to the body, and the technical aspects of mask performance. Much is "unmasked" for the actor in this workshop such as an awareness of personal physical habits and inroads into character development.

Upcoming Events

Remember all Play-readings and Workshops are offered by donation, so come check some of this out!

TONIGHT November 10th 7pm

Play-reading They That Take The Sword by Steve Cloutier. Four characters thrust together after being detained by airport security are forced to confront their deepest and most sacredly held beliefs as their darkest secrets are revealed.

THURSDAY November 12th 7pm !!DOUBLE-BILL!!

Play-reading New Grudge From Ancient Mutiny by Ira Henderson. Dramatis Personae. Leo: A Fucker; Mark: A Moderator; Tim: A Conservative; Clare: A Person on a Ledge. Hating everything. Moving on. and a fumble.

AND

Joanna/Shannon by Andrea Dymond. Two women's journeys as they struggle to recover from the traumatic loss of a key person in each of their lives, in one case, a best friend and the other, a daughter.

FRIDAY November 13th 6-10pm

Workshop Making Video Live: Constructing Play in Mediated Landscapes. Lead by Dustin Harvey (Artistic Director, Secret Theatre), the workshop will focus on a process of making performance with video. Participants will work collaboratively on a mini project based on the key ideas of public engagement, mediated space, and contemporary urban living.

SATURDAY November 14th 7pm

Play-reading Drinking Song by Amanda Jernigan. A poetic (re)creation of one stormbound night, and through it, of the shared history of a family of players joined and divided by wine and song.

Taxes, Electrical Theory, Writing and Not-So-Ancient Greek Myths

The Live-In's first skill-share workshop went off very smoothly Monday evening, with Sher Clain sharing some of her self-employment wisdom and experience from numerous self-employed business experiences with local theatre artists. Attendees learned what it means to be self-employed in the eyes of the government, and specifically what to do about that when tax season rolls around. Check back to this blog for a summary of tax tips for theatre artists from this workshop to be uploaded soon, as well as some links to useful tax advice websites.

Evan Brown spent Tuesday afternoon enlightening us to some of the seemingly mysterious aspects to technical theatre, providing a simple and effective approach to technical troubleshooting and problem solving. He also provided some much appreciated practical advice about how to most effectively work with other technicians, directors and producers while working on a project, all with his signature sense of humour - which made for an entertaining as well as educational skill-share.

Our play-reading series got off to a great start Tuesday evening with Emily Forrest's play Writing (a working title.). Kyle Gillis, Daniel Gervais, Ambyr Dunn and Steven Bourque read this piece, with direction by Jodey Reeves. Writing is about a troubled young woman Della who is simultaneously dealing with the death of her father and ex-lover, while trying to not screw things up with her new bartender (boy)friend. An interesting twist is introduced by the presence of the ghosts of her father and ex, who can see Della as she struggles with bouts of depression and alcoholism, but can only communicate to her via affecting the music played around her.

The play-readings continued Wednesday night, with a presentation of Hyperions' Wake by Steven Bourque. Mary Fay Coady, Asaf Rashid and Andrew Chandler (who graciously stepped in at the last minute to fill in for an actor came down with the flu) all performed this contemporary re-imagining of Friedrich Holderlin's classical piece of prose Hyperion with great sensitivity. A very useful contextual and audience feedback session ensued, and all seemed pleased with an entertaining and thought-provoking evening of critical peer evaluation discussion.

Stay tuned for more updates as The Live-In continues throughout November!

Opening Gala an Eclectic Success!

Our Sunday night Opening Gala was an excellent evening of eclectic entertainment, delicious foodstuffs and some killer Perseophone's Poms (that is to say, a giant pot of pomegranate seeds soaked in whiskey by one of the producers.)

For those of you who couldn't make it, here is the fun time you missed!

Courtney Siebring opened the evening with an energetic mask performance which managed to be both hilarious and touching in a shocking sort of way. She embodied a TV personality hosting a cooking show that taught us how to serve our frenemies allergy snacks. Pam Calabrese MacLean entertained us with some of her poetry, and despite her admonition that she doesn't have a sense of humour, had the entire room chuckling and even gaffawing. Then Keelin Jack, Andrew Chandler and Kim Parkhill presented an excerpted stage-reading from Drinking Song, a new play by Amanda Jernigan which is undergoing a workshop with DaPoPo artists as part of the Live-In this weekend. Drinking Song and will be presented as part of the play-reading series next Saturday, November 14th. Trevor Poole wrapped up the first set of performances with a typically mysterious and magical example of his amazing powers of mind-reading and dry wit.

We took a well-deserved break to refresh our snack plates and wine glasses, before gearing up for the second round of performances, which began with a lovely and thoughtful poetry recitation by the aforementioned Amanda Jernigan. Amanda is a poet and writer who has a long association working with DaPoPo. Her partner, photographer John Haney, was kind enough to bring some of his photography to hang on the walls and give the space a true living-room feel. The room was then graced with a lecture by the learned and charming Professor Doctor Krepp, who was a little confused and thought he was attending a "Love-In" rather than The "Live-In" but who nevertheless guided us all in a very safe and non-explicit manner a little closer to our own, personal "sexual bliss." After that, Iain Soder and Sher Clain played a teaser scene from When Did You Last See My Mother? which opens on November 18th. The the evening was rounded off with a final poetry reading by long-time DaPoPo associate Dr. Steven Cloutier, who entertained and provoked thought with his poetry about Marxism, capital punishment and dancing naked.

All in all, a casually grand affair that was the perfect kick-off to The Live-In! Thanks to everyone who came out, and who helped contribute to the thoroughly enjoyable evening!