Kismet (right now)

A snapshot into how we are thinking about the play right now:

Kismet is experiential from inception to performance. It seeks to discuss/expose/explore our culture’s relationship to kismet (fate & destiny) and it’s consequences. Ultimately it strives to find the heart of course & direction in the human experience. It is created through a story-collecting process that will see the three performers travel across the country with the sole agenda to connect with people over the curation of stories surrounding kismet. Armed with only a VIA Rail pass, a backpack and a deadline to return to the rehearsal room, the creators offer themselves up to fate to lead the way. One part whimsical, one part scary and one part profound, the journey clearly reflects subject matter.

It is often synchronicitous, unexplainable moments that we hold onto, stories that we tell back to ourselves again and again, making up the touchstones of our lives. They can be signposts or turning points. It is where will butts up against life. In terms of connecting to vital events in stranger’s lives, we feel that speaking to people about instances of kismet will act as a shortcut to the essential. The structure for the performance will be intimately tied to the idea of kismet and the people met along the way. A clear goal is to use the strengths and particulars (that is to say the ‘liveness’) of theatre performance to support the theme. There will be live testing of fate, audience moving through different spaces in the theatre and interaction within the space. The field findings with all their tragedy & mystery act as the anchor for the piece’s content which blends the verbatim text with a critique of our culture’s obsession with manifest destiny, questions around the existence of faith and fate in a historical and political context.

An essential part of the creation and development plan is for the 3 actors/creators to travel across the country making personal connections and collecting stories about instances of fate, destiny and unexplained intervention from various Canadians. So we’ll travel relying on kismet & synchronicity (and a little personal charm) to lead the way. That is to say, there is no travel agenda. The only parameters are that each performer/story-collector will depart from Vancouver on May 1st, 2008 and must arrive in Toronto on June 1st, 2008. We may begin together but may split apart, if destiny calls…

Ways we make plays

I’m always reminded when talking to other artists who create theatre from scratch (or other art forms for that matter) of much similarity there is in the way that we generate material, even though the end results are so radically different. Sometime people’s processes can seem totally mysterious and out of reach but as I work with more people, and learn from more processes I see how many elements reoccur. For me the main difference often lies in endurance and where the focus goes and to what elements. So the processes (and works created) end up looking radically different in the end but the parts that compose the process are similar.

I’ve recently had the chance to work with Rachel Chavkin (who artistic directs the TEAM in New York). At lot of her material generating work has been adapted from stuff she’s learnt from Anne Bogart and she cites Forced Entertainment out of the UK as a huge inspiration for her as well. When working with her she ran long improvisations that could last up to 2 hours, transcribing as we went along, garnering up the usable bits and sloughing off the excess. Now, often just the mention of the word can make my blood run cold but here I was reminded of how useful improvisations could be and given the right parameters how they could actually be totally invigorating. When I think about it, some of the best bits of writing that I’ve created with Emelia have come out of structured improvisations. There was always the safely of a very clear character or characters but I think we ought to move beyond that and I look forward to using some of what I’ve recently experienced with improvisation towards the source material in our spring rehearsal period for Kismet.

The Elections

During these last elections I was so impressed with the solidarity and effect of the arts community, in no small part because of the Department of Culture. I was lucky enough to be in Toronto the night of the packed Town Hall at the Theatre Centre where information was disseminated and discussed on how we could all be active in keeping Harper out of a majority government. The strategies were tangible and active. In the following weeks it was hard for me to gage how much of an effect that the Department of Culture’s actions were having on the public. Obviously I was tuned to hearing about the cuts to art and culture and wondered how much people were hearing about it outside of the arts sector.

A few days after Thanksgiving I was speaking to my mother. She and my dad live in rural Eastern Ontario in a community that has long voted Conservative (she and dad often vote Conservative too). A lot of my relatives were at this dinner, mostly farmers and mechanics who have traditionally voted Conservative as well. Apparently my dad stood up, gave thanks for all he had to give thanks for and ended with, “And please everyone, go out and vote and whatever you do, don’t vote Conservative”. I was floored when I heard this. Later I asked him about it and he was just appalled at what was happening with the cuts and cited The Department of Culture as a source of a lot of the information that he’s gotten.