I have had the fortune of working with The Old Trout Puppet Workshop for the past 4 weeks on their show The Tooth Fairy which opened last week at the Vertigo Theatre Y-Stage.  I have had so much fun working in this collaborative setting.  It has challenged my ideas on how movement can be utilized and interpreted in many ways on stage.  Pete Balkwill, our director on this process, as well as an original member of the OPW, refers to this on stage movement as the “ballet” of the show.  You begin to move and sense the other puppeteers, as well as the puppets, on stage with you the same way you would being a core member in any ballet company.  Their is a constant dance on stage.  It’s a sort of epic adagio exercise.

I began working on this project while simultaneously opening Lhasa: Land of the Gods, which was my first ever aerial theatre performance.  The performance was an exploration of integrating circus aerial with live music, theatre and dance.  It was a resounding success as well as an incredible learning opportunity.  It was the first time I had really created and produced my own show.  I’m looking forward to having the chance to use circus aerials in my work again in the future, although I’m not sure I will use the same performance structure.  Sometimes, simplicity is best…  I would like to thank everyone who came out to support the show, as well as FFWD and the Calgary Herald for helping me get the word out.

Because things have been so busy I just finished putting together the video from SaB’s 3rd workshop on Puppets.  You can check out the video on our workshop page or by following the link bellow.  Thank you to everyone who attended the workshop.  Your creative energies were a gift to be around.

Léda

#3 Swallow-a-Bicycle Workshop Series: Puppet Theater

i am still processing what happened. i supposed i will be processing it for a long time.

one of the great things about theatre, certainly one of the reasons i love it, is the immediacy of it. The performance one witnesses can only exist then and there in that moment in time with that group of people watching. Every show exists unto itself. That is probably one of the reasons i am so attracted to found space theatre, it becomes that much more immediate, especially if the show is tailored to and inspired by the place in which it occurs.

when Swallow-a-Bicycle does found space theatre we invade that space. We make it our own, live and breathe it. With the seafood market in the east village for our show i-Robot Theatre it was no different. In fact the first weekend in the space Mark and I slept over in the space to really get to know it and have it inspire and shape the material we were bringing in.

For the next three and half weeks 7 performers, a writer, a stage manager, assistant stage manager, a designer/technician and myself put blood, sweat and tears into making i-Robot Theatre. The show was 90 minutes, taking place over 12,000 square feet including 4 major areas plus smaller office spaces. The show includes traditional theatre, movement, talking appliances and one hell of a puppet. For the last week i barely slept driven by fear and the desire to make it achieve the potential we collectively conceived.

then preview. then preview. then preview. then preview. then preview.

we got a call about 7 hours before preview telling us the space was unusable because of the fire system thingy. they were more specific but that will have to do for this. the point is the building would not and will not be safe for a large public group to be in. it is heartbreaking news and the timing is the one thing that i will probably not fully understand.

What needs to be stated here is that there is no bad guy.. The only real fault was perhaps in rushing the whole process. however I cannot stress enough how this came about from the desire to make something very good and special occur. Both CADA and CMLC were dedicated to giving artists both a working and performance space. Their intentions were good and they worked incredibly hard to make it happen. Ultimately this will also be a loss for CMLC, CADA and many artists in Calgary.

However right now the loss is most painfully felt by the members of i-Robot Theatre.  The group sacrificed so much and worked their asses off to get the behemoth of a show ready. To lose the show is a lot like breaking up with someone you love: at first there is an immediate rush of freedom but very soon you realize you are losing something special and beautiful that you will never have again. I know that i-Robot Theatre will happen. I know it will be better, we will trim the fat, push the themes, and the condense ideas further. We will use the time to refocus and take stock of what we can do to make the show better. However it will never be that show again, the one in the seafood market. As i mentioned it is like losing someone you love, and for me the healing process in that takes awhile. it is a day to day.

to the cast, crew and creative ensemble of i-robot theatre, i love you all

The show ‘Woman in Black’ just closed at Vertigo Theatre. I mention it because I was assistant director to Kelly Reay (also the artistic director of Sage Theatre). That may seem like a strange project for me to work on but it actually really is not. I am including my Assistant Director notes here that explains why i chose to work on the project. It was a really wonderful project and everyone who worked on it and everyone at Vertigo was really open, welcoming and generous.

Assistant Director Notes – Woman in Black
by Charles Netto

On first glance it may seem strange that I am assistant directing Woman in Black at Vertigo Mystery Theatre. After all as the co-artistic director of theatre company Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre, a company dedicated to innovative and often inter-disciplinary new work, I have found myself creating and directing theatre in many diverse locations such as art galleries, boiler rooms, bars and church basements.

However while the locations may seem strange and the content I create may be different than a lot of traditional theatre, it is still theatre that I am dedicated to and passionate about. The fundamentals of what I am doing, working with actors, designers, and writers to tell stories does not change. Therefore I am incredibly honoured to have this mentorship oppourtunity at Vertigo Mystery Theatre to expand and hone my directing skills.

I have huge admiration for the work of director Kelly Reay. I love watching his shows. His use of space is masterful and the work is always clean, precise and engaging. It is therefore invaluable for me to be able to watch Kelly and the talented creative team of Woman in Black create a haunting ghost story here at Vertigo Mystery Thetare. It is exciting to watch them take the simplest of objects and create layers of tension and mystery, create an atmosphere that makes me shiver in my seat. There is something beautiful about creating stories with the simple objects we have around us. After all one of theatre’s gifts to us is the chance to engage our imaginations.

My sincerest thanks to Vertigo Mystery Theatre, Mark Bellamy and Kelly Reay for having me on board.

Apparently a reviewer was at the 10 minute play festival. That seems very strange to me but i suppose with the positive things he had to say i should not complain!

review is here:

http://www.pressplus1.com/theatre-reviews/10-minute-play-festival-ground-zero-theatre-calgary.html

it’s funny that mark and i thought we were mostly being silly but apparently we were “quietly heartbreaking”

This Weekend was everything that makes The High Performance Rodeo awesome.

With Freak Show, 10 Minute Play Festival and Woman in Black keeping me busy, I only really got to begin checking out the High Performance Rodeo this week. So this weekend i saw Pajama Men, White Cabin and Snowblower. It was a great weekend of art and community.

Pajama Men were hilarious as always, i swear i could watch those guys every day of my life and not get tired of them. every time i come out with my cheeks hurting from laughing.

Then there was white Cabin a truly HPR show. Russians doing crazy shit on stage. Their performance was extreme and dazzling, totally captivating. I have no clue what it was about. none. i am sure they do but i don’t, and to hazard a guess would be foolhardy. White Cabin is the kind of work the High Performance Rodeo is known for bringing in, work that will blow away, but also challenge, its audiences. It was a show that was engrossing and haunting laced with a feelings of danger and amazement.

Finally snowblower was just an awesome party with great djs and electronic music bands. It was wonderful to see so many people in downtown calgary just hanging out and dancing. It was a great collection of people and a ton of fun. DJs were super talented and there was a great sense of fun and community. I hope they are able to find money to continue and expand ‘snowblower’, i really feel it has the potential to Calgary’s nuit blanche.

The High Performance Rodeo was probably one of the reasons i ended up in Calgary, so it is great to be able  be a patron again and enjoy such a diverse and rocking weekend!

We are incredibly lucky and excited to be putting on a workshop with Pete Balkwill of the Old Trouts. We are going to spend the weekend working with Pete and learning not only about puppets but about his overall creative practice. Take a look at the info and if you can please join us!

So we did it. Added a third freak show tour in the glenbow and did the 10 minute play festival. Got little sleep and ran on adrenaline for a few days. Not only did we survive it we actually curated and produced some fantastic work that we are incredibly proud of.

Of course now that it’s over we will have way more time… right… of course…except for
Puppet Workshop in February
iRobot Rehearsals in February
Leda’s circus show in March
Party in April
iRobot rehearsals starting in april and 10 day run with ancillary events in May
also gotta write some grants and start thinking about next year soon too…

i used to have spare time on my hands, now i dream of warm beaches and white sand but would settle for a few days undisturbed in my basement with mass effect 2.

Thanks to Leda we are debuting some sweet new Swallow-a-Bicycle t-shirts tomorrow at Freak Show. They are awesome, they look really funky. They also contain the best typo ever.

The name Swallow-a-Bicycle comes from this arthur miller quote “A playwright lives in an occupied country. He’s the enemy. And if you can’t live like that, you don’t stay. It’s tough. He’s got to be able to take a whack, and he’s got to swallow bicycles and digest them.”

the quote is going on the tshirts, which is great. except it says “A playwright lives in an occupied country. He’s the enemy. And if you can’t live like that, you don’t stay. It’s tough. He’s whack, and he’s got to swallow bicycles and digest them.”

“He’s Whack”. best typo ever!

57 artists. a third sexy new tour in the glenbow effing museum. crazy killer clowns, wild cat tamers, accidental tourists, siamese triplets, mermaids, lesbian camping, outerspace babes. freak show launches again.

sleep is overrated.

sleep when you’re dead.

A few weekends ago I had the opportunity to participate in Swallow-a-Bicycles last workshop on Viewpoints, featuring the instruction of Rita Bozi.  Although it seems like so long ago now, I wanted to post some of my thoughts and experiences on the workshop.  I also strongly encourage others who have participated to comment as well.  It would be wonderful to have a dialogue on our observations of the work.

I felt as though the Viewpoints format allowed me the opportunity to express beyond my habits and shields.  However, more than the format that is Viewpoints, I felt that Rita’s direction that enabled me to notice what was making me limit myself, and encouraged me to move beyond those limits to a place of purpose and openness.  I feel as though in the workshop I saw moments of my potential as an artist, moments I haven’t seen in myself in quite some time.

The workshop also became more about relationships than movement.  Movement became the relationship.  And, in fact, this is always true.  In a relationship, like with movement we must communicate.  In order to communicate we must listen, receive and see.

I hope in the future I am able to infuse my own personal movement with these qualities.

To get a better sampling of the workshop visit our workshop page for a video montage of our final day.  Or, you can go to the youtube link posted bellow.

Swallow-a-Bicycle Workshop Series #2