|
|
Nightswimming is devoted to advancing the field
of play development and dramaturgy in Canada.
Nightswimming accomplishes
its goals primarily through the creation of new works, and through
our unique Pure Research program. We believe in promoting intelligent,
rigourous conversation and debate about the theatre and IDEAS is
a home for just that: ideas, articles, notions, reports and other
valuable documents about our work and the work of others we believe
are furthering theatre in Canada. Please feel free to submit any
articles or information; if we think that it contributes to our
conversation about the theatre, we may add it to our page.
.............................................................................................
Nightswimming
and Process
by Brian Quirt
Nightswimming initiates projects by asking
an artist to propose an idea that they feel – either because
of its form or content or even cast size – they would not
be able to pursue without this commission. In other words, we want
them to work on the piece that they never thought they would be
able to create.
For example, in 1997, we asked Jason Sherman what he’d most
like to write. He soon responded that he’d heard an historian
named Phil Jenkins read from his award-winning book An Acre
of Time. Jason thought the material – a history of
one acre of land in downtown Ottawa – had dramatic potential.
Nightswimming purchased an option on the book, commissioned Jason
to write a play inspired by it, and established a developmental
path for the project which best suited Jason’s attack on the
material.
Once a project has been determined, we commmission the artist (playwright,
choreographer or composer) and design a long-term process by which
the work will be developed. We put money in the writers’ hands
up front, in commissions ranging from $2,000 to $5,000. These fees
are for a first draft only; subsequent drafts and workshops receive
additional fees.
As they create, they have access to Brian
and Naomi for conversation, research, encouragement, advice and,
if they wish, deadlines. When the time is right we schedule a reading
or a workshop. Our workshops are designed to discover as much as
possible about the world of the new play and to explore its particular
approach to theatre. The goal of every workshop is to give us a
greater understanding of the writers’ intentions and a growing
ability to realize those intentions theatrically.
Our goal at all times is to inspire the writer to write. That can
take many forms, from a simple reading of a new draft to—for
instance—taking Jason to Ottawa for a week to begin his work
on An Acre of Time.
A specific theatrical question or series of questions motivates
each workshop process. In the case of The Whirlpool, the issue was
how much of the story could be told through movement. In Lake
Nora Arms it is how to tell the story of a place without
a central character to focus on. With Beauty it
is the desire to explore an abstract idea such as beauty. These
questions are our guide to creating the process.
In order to develop a distinctive visual approach for our work,
we seek out designers who can provide a theatrical environment that
can play a variety of metaphorical roles as well as support the
required theatrical action. Our shows often use a bare stage in
which the design focus is on colour and light. I prefer spaces with
few objects and props; spaces in which light is an active participant
in the storytelling. Designers Dany Lyne (Through the Eyes
and The Whirlpool) and Julie Fox (An Acre
of Time in Ottawa), for example, attended the workshops
as we explored how space could tell part of the story. Their production
designs were directly inspired by the staging developed in the workshops,
and their presence in the workshops was often very valuable to the
development of the script.
Nightswimming offers me a forum to explore specific theatrical ideas
and forms. I am attracted to non-naturalistic plays that work with
poetic text . I am interested in stories about history and the social
and emotional relationship of the past to the present. I am fascinated
by the theatrical possibilities of landscape as a mirror for our
fears and desires. Poetry, history, and landscape: through these
tools we explore our responses to the physical world, and how it
colours our emotional lives and our political beliefs. History focuses
on the collision between people and their society; it is played
out in the landscape; it is recorded as myth, legend and poetry.
I am interested in the process of adaptation: novels, poems and
non-fiction all have theatrical potential. Adaptation puts the act
of theatrical creation at the core of our work: how is this story
told in theatrical terms? What can the theatre do that no other
form can do? Explorations in movement, music and design have naturally
followed our forays into adaptation and have led to many of our
most exciting discoveries.
We are committed to acting on our artists’ behalf, promoting
their work nationally to theatres across Canada. We do this because
Nightswimming does not produce the work we develop. We prefer to
place all of our expertise at the service of the writers and the
development of their play. But all plays are designed to be performed
and we spend a great deal of time and effort seeking out theatre
companies who can become partners with Nightswimming in the development
and eventual production of our projects.
These partners join us in funding workshops and offering our projects
exposure through public readings. For example, Buddies in Bad Times
Theatre assisted with the development of The Whirlpool
by including me in its Ante Chamber Playwrights Unit and offering
the work two public readings. The Canadian Stage Company and the
World Stage Festival then joined with Nightswimming to present it
in a staged reading which led directly to the Tarragon production.
The Theatre Centre is a long-time supporter of Nightswimming and
contributed to our 1999 workshop of Lake Nora Arms.
The Great Canadian Theatre Company was a developmental partner prior
to committing to produce An Acre of Time. The National
Arts Centre has funded part of the workshop process for The
Frozen Deep.
Our producing partners—GCTC, the Tarragon and Theatre Passe
Muraille (which produced my play The Death of General Wolfe
in January 1999 following three years of development by Nightswimming)—provide
our projects with high profile productions. They have been extremely
supportive in extending our developmental process by funding additional
workshops and by having the faith to allow us to continue to work
in our own way. They benefit from a thoroughly developed play which
arrives at their theatre with a committed creative team; Nightswimming
benefits from their production resources and their ability to present
and market new works.
By focusing solely on developmental activities, Nightswimming is
able to work on projects which may appear impossible to producing
companies. Large cast plays are often immediately dismissed by companies
for the natural reason that they simply will never have the resources
to produce them. Since Nightswimming does not have to consider the
producing requirements of the shows we work on, large casts are
no impediment. I have pursued work on large cast shows—City
of Wine (cast of 19); The Frozen Deep
(cast of 10)—because I know that they are important works
to their respective authors and that if Nightswimming can bring
them to a production-ready state, they will be much more likely
to be considered by producing theatres.
Back
to top ^
.............................................................................................
Links of Interest
Literary
Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA)
Canadian
Association for Theatre Research (CATR)
Playwrights
Development Centres of Canada
Playwrights
Guild of Canada
Professional Association
of Canadian Theatres
Playwrights
Atlantic Resource Centre
Playwrights
Workshop Montreal
Julia
Sasso dances
Back
to top ^
|
|
