PTC has worked with some of Vancouver’s most risk-taking theatre makers.
Our Company Collaborations begin with a conversation with the lead artist, and culminate in the larger conversations with audiences. From early research through remounts, our dramaturgs Kathleen Flaherty and Heidi Taylor are key collaborators, developing new practices to support new theatrical visions.
Alice in Glitterland
Alice in Glitterland is an immersive promenade into a dance-theatre wonderland, a nightclub playground with silky vintage score pulsing throughout this free-flow sandbox brought to life by twelve vibrant performers and an extravagant site-specific design. Wander through the labyrinthine halls and backrooms, swim through the ball pit and witness a roaming dance performance that invites you into the heightened reality of Glitterland. All audience members will be given a mask to wear at all times that indicates their preferred level of engagement. Roses of the White court may be welcomed into gentle embrace, or lead away to a private rendezvous. Roses of the Red court shall be given gentle space and left to enjoy in observation. Audience members will journey on a self-lead adventure, at a maximum ratio of 7 audience members per 1 performer, and with all performers offering multiple unique side stories or encounters, everyone will have an individualized experience every night. This show takes inspiration from large-scale immersive productions such as Sleep No More, Then She Fell, and The Grand Paradise. The script was developed to include over 40 interviews with people living with various neurodivergent lived experiences, exploring loving and living with mental illness. This conceptual work informed the narrative pathos needed to develop 93 distinct scenes telling twelve standalone character journeys that are multiplied by intersection and connection. With Alice in Glitterland we hope to create accessible, intimate, experiential theatre that is also a beautiful spectacle from every vantage point.
PTC and rice & beans theatre have declared a company collaboration for 2018-19 or more as Derek Chan and Pedro Chamale develop their newest projects. Derek and Pedro will continue to work with each other dramaturgically in addition to each writing his own work. Heidi and Kathleen will provide dramaturgical and process design consultation and assistance in developing a structured company creation practice for rice & beans.
Why, indeed, did the chicken cross the road? Chicken Girl’s titular character embarks on a surreal adventure to uncover the mystery surrounding the disappearance of her Uncle Chan. A homesick intergalactic rock star struggles to reconcile with their estranged family. An anxiety-ridden submariner recruits an anthropomorphic cat to settle an old score. Intertwining multilingual dialogue, flamboyant rock numbers, and idiosyncratic marine trivia, three magical worlds collide in front of our eyes as we contemplate the ideas of home, cultural identity, and existence.
Chicken Girl premiered May 24 – June 7, 2019 at the Annex in Vancouver.
PTC and rice & beans theatre have declared a company collaboration for 2018-19 or more as Derek Chan and Pedro Chamale develop their newest projects. Derek and Pedro will continue to work with each other dramaturgically in addition to each writing his own work. Heidi and Kathleen will provide dramaturgical and process design consultation and assistance in developing a structured company creation practice for rice & beans.
Where does our food come from? Who grows it? Who is nourished by it?
Words and music bring temporary foreign farm workers centre stage – the unseen people who plant, tend, and harvest. The song lyrics will be sourced from non-musical text sources: the Temporary Foreign Worker program, The Metcalf report on migrant workers, legal text and news articles about migrant workers.
Share food and stories in a family-friendly event that reveals the links in Canada’s food chain.
Made in Canada had a reading at the Heart of the City Festival at DTES Neighbourhood House on November 3, 2018, and will premiere at the Annex Theatre, Vancouver, in 2020.
This full-length performance will take place around and inside the tabletop fish tank. A single performer (Robert) assembles a landscape within the tank. At one point water slowly starts filling it and the rest of the performance is a play of cause and effect as various materials react to the rising water level and the performer continues the task of building the scene in the face of the precarious circumstances. Some objects float, others sink, some dissolve and disappear, there may be a chain reaction, or maybe something’s trapped. It is an epic record of civilizations and historic events masquerading as a cheap party trick. The work will be scary, humorous, and a precise choreography. Lighting and sound both focus and expand the scenes. The materials that are chosen, text, and the larger reference sources are to be discovered. Robert is interested in exploring themes of transparency, submergence, inevitability, and human hubris when it comes to our interactions with our environment.
PTC is engaged in helping Robert and his collaborators shape a narrative with or without words that will tell a story yet to be determined. For us, it’s an opportunity to work with an artist whose non-linear imagistic approach to theatre-making demands a new vocabulary from Dramaturg Kathleen Flaherty. The first stage is to find out what happens to a lot of different objects and materials when you subject them to a watery environment. And what happens to the water?
Macromatter takes things seriously, but not too. Under this moniker, multidisciplinary maker and insatiable tinkerer Robert Leveroos creates scenographically driven work incorporating live art, animation, and handmade objects. Macromatter aims to strike imaginations and skew perceptions by exploring worlds where weight is given to the minute, the understated, and overlooked to uncover something recognizably human. With a flexible collective of interdisciplinary artists, Macromatter creates original performances and collaborates in processes that encourage curiosity, discovery, and play.
