For the first time in a collaborated effort, the Port Theatre will hold a fundraiser to benefit three of Nanaimo’s premier professional arts companies.
“I think this has been a bit of an unusual project,” said the theatre’s executive director, David Warburton. “As far as I’m aware … I don’t think anything quite like this has been done before.”
Fall Connections will see performances by TheatreOne, Crimson Coast Dance Society and the Vancouver Island Symphony. Warburton said that, thanks to a Canadian Heritage grant for re-engaging audiences obtained this August, ticket sale proceeds for the event will be split among the three companies.
Starting off the evening event will be a TheatreOne act that was written and performed by one of the company’s last season’s participants in the Emerging Voices program.
The Ties That Bind, written and performed by Yvette Menard, is a one-person show that tells the story of choices – when we’re happy with them, when we’re not, and when we make them for others over ourselves.
“[It’s] a really beautiful, successful, lovely, intimate piece,” said Jonathan Greenway, artistic director for TheatreOne, adding that the company had been looking for an opportunity to take one of their Emerging Voices pieces to the next level.
Greenway said that Menard, a playwright from the Campbell River-Comox area, really takes the time to connect with the audience around the story of Martha, the main character who has gone through life diligently making choices to benefit others and less for herself.
“This is her talking though, not just the justification, but also the realities of life… And then she’s finally taking this big leap to do something for herself,” he said. “It will be interesting to see it on the big stage.”
Next up, Crimson Coast Dance Society will stage the first public presentation of A Song of Years, as choreographed by the late Tedd Robinson and performed by Genevieve Johnson and Crimson Coast artistic director Holly Bright.
“This piece asked us to let go of dance technique and dance as anything other than being human and moving through the world. And in this case, being witnessed as we do that,” Bright said.
Johnson and Bright had just completed the choreography with Robinson and begun working on the score with Charles Quevillon, the composer, when they found out the choreographer had died.
“[Tedd] was a choreographer and dance artist while he was also a Buddhist monk. This brought a whole new level of depth and spirituality to his work and a sense of balance. He often integrated, in his choreography, the act of balancing. And that act will bring the dancer right into the present,” she said. “You can’t quote-unquote ‘perform’ when you’re trying to balance an egg on a stick or a stick on your head.”
She said part of the nature of Robinson’s work was to weave his “questions about life” and “real-time tasks” that keep dancers present while also moving through the choreographed pathway he had set up.
“For me, we can look at our lives as a song. And the piece is about life cycle – it is about the fragility of beginnings, as well as endings, and balance. It’s about how we wrap and protect ourselves and how we reveal ourselves, all toward acknowledging the cycle of life.”
The fundraiser will conclude with a sextet of musicians from the Vancouver Island Symphony, as conducted by the interim artistic director Calvin Dyck.
Dyck said he promises the program will be entertaining as it includes some favourites such as the well-known folkloric piece Czárdás by the Italian composer Vittorio Monti; Gabriel’s Oboe, the main theme for the 1986 film The Mission, by the Italian composer Ennio Morricone; the theme from Downton Abbey; a medley of top hits from the Swedish musical group ABBA; and Libertango by South American composer by Astor Piazzolla. The conductor said he will also perform the solo Hot Canary, and that there “might even be a colourful hat in the mix.”
“I played [Hot Canary] before and people have asked ‘how did you get those bird sounds?’… It uses something called the harmonic on the violin to create these really high whistling pitches that seriously sound like bird calls.”
In curating the program, Dyck said he was not only looking for variety that would appeal to a wide audience, but pieces that were shorter.
“There’s a real mix of styles and eras represented,” he said. “Different pieces speak to different individuals – we’re all unique.”
Besides providing funds to benefit the three companies, the Port Theatre’s executive director said he hopes the event will also provide the opportunity for audience members who may only be familiar with one company to become fans and patrons of the others as well.
“I think people would be missing out if they don’t come to see the show,” Warburton said.
More information on Fall Connections, which takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16, can be found online at www.porttheatre.com.
READ MORE: Port Theatre announces its next executive director
mandy.moraes@nanaimobulletin.com
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