The other day
I mentioned on this blog that I was sadly unable to attend the eighth edition of the Wrecking Ball political cabaret featuring new playlets by
Tara Beagan, Boonaa Mohammed, Matt MacFadzean, Anand Rajaram
. I said if anyone wanted to file a blog report, I'd put it up here. Well, ask and ye shall receive. Here (lightly edited) is an hour-by-hour diary of how the WB comes together, written by Michael Wheeler, co-artistic director of
Praxis Theatre
. Over to him... JKN
Thanks for the chance to write a report on your blog, Kelly. We are always talking about the benefits of cross-posting over on Theatre is Territory (the Praxis blog) - looks like I finally made the big time.
Yesterday, I ended up unexpectedly bearing witness to every aspect of Wrecking Ball 8, when it became my job to drop off some AV equipment for a satirical Department of Culture announcement early in the morning. I have recorded what transpired from my perspective below.
9am: Leave for Theatre Passe Muraille with both my Mac and my girlfriend's PC laptop, as it is uncertain what types of cords and adaptors are available to go with the video projector we have borrowed to project the image of our mock Department of Culture Senate [explanation here]. Given the use of a projector, director Ross Manson has sent jpegs of The Wrecking Ball logo and an image for playwright Tara Beagan's piece, ANATOMY of an INDIAN, that will also be projected.
10am: Manson arrives first. He leaves me to discover how AV stuff will work while he creates a massive crinkled brown square of wrapping paper that hangs at the back of the stage. AV stuff fails for a while. (Macs actually require different adaptors for different models, and a the PC laptop wins a rare victory.) Manson hands me a CD with 38 more images to be projected in ANATOMY of an INDIAN, that director Weyni Mengesha just sent him. I am officially not dropping off equipment, but running AV for he day.
11am: Director Ruth Madoc-Jones and playwright [and newly minted director] Michael Healey arrive. The major concern is that although everyone is happy with the material, it is all “direct address” - there are no good old-fashioned scenes between characters. Also, none of the material deals with the recent war in Gaza – featured prominently in the graphic of the invite. Healey decides to write a scene about two young Palestinian males, one of whom is about to throw his grandfather's rock at Netanyahu. Healey leaves to write this script.
Noon: Madoc-Jones and Manson discuss casting options for this new piece. They decide casting based on ethnicity is not necessary, especially given the material in Anand Rajaram's piece - part lecture, part storytelling - urging the industry with a rare combination of humour and gravitas to move beyond strictly race-based casting. Over the next four hours a number of answering machines are left messages. Eventually, actors Richard Lee and James Cade are confirmed for the piece. Lights are focused and microphones set up simultaneously with this.
1pm: Lunch and discussion of priorities for afternoon tech. Different variations of lighting and video projections against the crinkled brown paper hanging against the back balcony are discussed. I am impressed and remark that it “looks like the Rocky Mountains from an airplane”. Technical elements are also set up for Boonaa Mohammed and Anand Rajaram's performances whose pieces have demands basic enough to establish without them.
2pm: Tech of ANATOMY of an INDIAN with actors Lorne Cardinal and Richard Allan Campbell. It turns out several charts need to be referred to in the context of the performance. Manson turns them into jpegs, which are transferred to the PC laptop. I now have 44 cues. The final montage of images of artists asserting they are “some” of the people who take issue with a certain paper's style guide's instructions on the use of the word "Indian" is set to music. I have a poor sense of rhythm and have to practice changing the image to the beat.
4pm: Tech for actor and playwright Matthew MacFadzean's Obamada. The piece centres around MacFadzean playing Olivia Chow as she celebrates becoming Prime Minister, riffing off Obama's language, but substituting enthusiasm for the lack of political engagement in Canada. Manson adds another image to the projections that he grabs off the Government of Canada website and bluetooths me. Michael Healey has now finished his new play about Palestinian rock throwers, called Fish Fuck. He confirms that he will kick off Wrecking Ball 8 in dramatic fashion.
5pm: Madoc-Jones establishes the tech for the series of poems by Harold Pinter that are read throughout the evening. Paul Thompson, Sarah Dodd, Sean Dixon and Keira Loughran are among the eight artists who read Pinter's work. The final event of the evening is also established: actor Cara Ricketts reading Derek Walcott's poem for Barack Obama, Forty Acres.
6pm: Actors James Cade and Richard Lee get a total of 1.5 run-throughs of Fish Fuck while their lighting state is established.
6:30pm: Dinner and reviewing cues. Ball co-organisers David Jansen and Andrew Soren arrive with programs and sundry materials.
7pm: Wrecking Ball hosts meet to establish who will speak when about what in the interludes. Actors, playwrights and directors circulate nervously. Passe Muraille staff sets up bars on both levels of the theatre
7:30pm: The house is open.
8pm: The place is packed. Manson asks me what time it is. I tell him 8pm. He says, “Good. I just put Healey off stage and told him he won't see me again until it starts.”
8:05pm: Healey enters the stage naked. O Canada plays. The first half is a blur as I try to stay on top of my cues. Department of Culture announcement of activists and artists being appointed to the senate goes over pretty well. The satirical nature of giving your friends and allies honorary mock-patronage positions is not lost on this crowd.
9pm: Halftime.
9:15pm: The second half is electric. Beagan's piece takes major risks overtly speaking aloud other epithets totally off-limits in Western society and asking us to fit “Indian” among them. The audience clamors to be part of the photo taken from the stage of people who find the word “Indian” objectionable, putting them in direct opposition to a certain paper's style guide. I count myself amongst the “some” from the booth. Boonaa Mohammed raps in a pool of light, laying down social critique with grace and bite. Cade and Lee perform admirably in the play they learned about several hours ago. Forty Acres finishing the evening seems to emphasize the massive influence that Obama's election has had on our political zeitgeist, both positive (that he won) and negative (what we have in Canada right now).
10:30pm: Drink beer.
11:30pm: Take TTC.
Midnight: Sleep in bed.
