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 – AED Heidi Taylor; the Dramaturg, Public Engagement, Davey Calderon; and Dramaturg, Creative Engagement, Joanna Garfinkel –are key collaborators, developing new practices to support new theatrical visions.
Two sisters, five friends, a lifetime of knowing each other. What happens when the people who know you better than yourself are the ones losing their livelihoods for the sake of your cause?
Peace Country follows five friends in a small BC town over the course of their friendship, through childhood to grad and all the way to the present. We see people who became friends because of circumstance but remained friends because of love. Peace Country is a new piece of theatre set in the Peace River Area of British Columbia. Inspired by the experience of playwright Pedro Chamale growing up in Chetwynd, BC, the play is an examination of intercultural friendship, the realities of northern living and how our northern communities can be vilified by Southern urban Canadian centres for simply trying to provide for one’s family. Peace Country is the result of Pedro’s love for the region that he grew up in and the concern for it as climate change affects the whole world, not just BC’s south coast.
deep co-creation, slow process & social handcraft
Mermaid Spring is a new work of interdisciplinary music theatre by Public Swoon, loosely inspired by Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida – a real-life natural attraction where since 1947, women have donned mermaid tails to perform underwater shows. Set between Weeki Wachee and a Gulf Island in the Coast Salish sea, the story follows professional mermaids and tourism workers hustling to hold on to their dream jobs in natural landscapes that are threatened by development.
Equal parts pleasure and panic, investigating Florida helps us ask: how is our enjoyment of a place complicit in its destruction?
Premiere: In view of the global pandemic, the ‘final’ show has been delayed until spring/summer 2022. In the meantime, Public Swoon is focusing on Social Handcraft and curating a series of short artist responses to their project, with a wide community of collaborators. Here’s a taste of what they’ve made so far.
Volunteer crafters working in our network and beyond are using crochet to create abstract, fantastic vegetation inspired by Weeki Wachee, Florida and our own bioregion – Pacific Northwest/Cascadia/Coast Salish territory. Whatever is shared will be used to create part of the stage environment of Mermaid Spring.
As much as a working and crafting collective, Public Swoon imagines Social Handcraft as a listening, reading and observation group, a place for people to find companionship and social connection – thought and feeling. They are using thrifted and salvaged yarn, and working with excellent sponsors like Baaad Anna’s to gather donations of second-hand yarn to share.
Right now, they want to offer crochet as a stress-relieving activity to keep us connected during distanced times. Their bigger vision is to respond to the global climate crisis by looking for alternative ways to produce creative projects. They want to help create solidarity between human labour and the labour of the environment. They see sustainability as a shared cause between art workers and land.
More about Social Handcraft here.
Get Involved at thepublicswoon.org
Resources Page
Yarn Matchmaking Quiz
Inspired by the ongoing pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and the Chinese government’s oppressive enforcement of the National Security Law in July 2020, Yellow Objects weaves together lifetimes of inter-generational trauma, historical helplessness, and persistent defiance.
“This play is a collection of what was, what has been, what is, and what could be. This play is a rally for the ones who are still risking their lives out there. This play is written in remembrance of those who cannot be there anymore. This play is a lament of families broken and loves lost. This play is a warning for anyone who would listen, and for those who would not,” says playwright and director Derek Chan. “Or, maybe, this play is just a feeble protest in face of inevitability. Whatever it is, I hope this play is not too late. Yesterday seems so long ago, and yet tomorrow is farther away still. GFHK, SDGM”
Part digital experience and part theatrical installation, yellow objects invites audiences to question our responsibility to future generations by stepping into a Hong Kong of two eras—2019 and 2050. Audiences can step into the world of yellow objects through the shoes of protagonists Sandra Wong and Uncle Chan. Before visiting the theatrical installation, audiences will take part in a series of short digital narrative adventures, available starting April 19. Then, starting May 11 at the Firehall Arts Centre’s courtyard, viewers can witness the rest of Sandra and Uncle Chan’s journey to Hong Kong from 2019 to 2050—with a trip to the Chinese underworld and beyond—culminating in a final act of political defiance against tyranny.
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?
Made in Canada: an agricultural podcast: Written and narrated by Pedro Chamale, this 10-episode audio series dissects the issues faced by the seasonal agricultural workers. You also get a behind-the-scenes look into the making of each song in the Made in Canada album with Pedro and composer Mishelle Cuttler. Click here for the Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts links.
A rice & beans theatre production
In collaboration with Playwrights Theatre Centre
Made in Canada had a reading at the Heart of the City Festival at DTES Neighbourhood House on November 3, 2018
