MFA Research Paper: Electric Company by Electric Company Theatre

D E L L â&#x20AC;&#x2122; A R T E I N T E R N A T I O N A L S C H O O L O F P H Y S IC A L T H E A T R E MFA R ES E A R C H P A P ER :

T HE E LECTRIC C OMPANY Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

by Kate Braidwood August 20, 2007

TABLE

CONTENTS

I. CREATING A CHARGE: INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION THE COLLECTIVE MEETING AT STUDIO 58 THE COMPANY’S INCEPTION AND FIRST PIECE

1 2 4 4

II. COMPLEX CONDUCTIVITY: THE ENSEMBLE MODEL

THE EVOLUTION OF ENSEMBLE MODEL FOUR NEW WORKS THE PRESENT AND BEYOND PROCESS

7 8 9 10

III. SOLAR POWERED: THE ARTISTRY

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY THE PHYSICAL IN THEIR THEATRE SITE SPECIFIC THEATRE THE ELECTRIC COMPANY IN VANCOUVER

12 14 15 16

IV. AC SIGNALS: PRODUCTION HISTORY

BRILLIANT! THE BLINDING ENLIGHTENMENT OF NIKOLA TESLA THE WAKE THE SCORE DONA FLOR AND HER TWO HUSBANDS FLOP THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY THE FALL PALACE GRAND STUDIES IN MOTION: THE HAUNTINGS OF EADWARD MUYBRIDGE OTHER PROJECTS

18 18 19 20 21 22 22 23 24 25

V. CONVENTIONAL CURRENTS: BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION

ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT OVER THE YEARS BUSINESS MODEL FINANCES: FUNDING AND FUNDRAISING COLLABORATION COMMUNITY

26 29 30 31 32

VI. ELECTRIC POTENTIAL: CONCLUSION

VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

I. C RE A TING A C H ARGE : INTRODUCTION

Ask any theatre-goer in Vancouver, Canada about the Electric Company and you will probably get an answer like ‘Oh yes – they’re the ones who did that piece in the swimming pool!’ or ‘I loved that one in the abandoned factory with the aerial sex scene in the flying bed!’. For the past ten years, the collective of four – Kim Collier, Kevin Kerr, David Hudgins, and Jonathon Young – have been creating original ensemble based theatre renowned for its physical and visual imagery, its unique use of space and often site-specific locations, and have proven to be both an innovative and alternative presence in the city of Vancouver. Like a true ensemble company, that which they create is a product of the chemistry of the company members; their talents and skills combined produce work that is uniquely distinctive of The Electric Company. Their mission: Be advised: High voltage. Wrapped in layers of visual and physical imagery, our plays, at their core, speak to audiences of an accelerated culture at an exhilarating rate. Nontraditional staging. Takes. New routes. The immediacy of our very live theatre captures the contemporary imagination with stories that are fresh, raw, and relevant. Our stories grow out of issues, themes, or narratives that appear on our collective radar and are fed through a process of intensive research and aesthetic critique. We tune in to stories of personal and social transformation. We are excited by the role of technology in people’s lives; how the impulse of invention continues to flow against the resistance to change. We strive to create theatre that is life-affirming, inspiring and provocative, and to promote theatre as an educative, cultural, and by all means fun, experience. With a fresh approach to the use of space in our storytelling we transform venue into narrative. Challenging the established conventions of creating theatre and watching theatre, the Electric Company constantly experiments with its own formulae. We believe in

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

theatre that is accessible: financially and thematically. Audiences are always at the forefront of our work. - www.electriccompanytheatre.com They met as students training at Studio 58, Vancouver’s only conservatory-style theatre training program and soon after graduating mounted their first production Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla for the 1996 Fringe Festival. The piece garnered critical acclaim and served as ignition for the company’s work to come.

T HE C OLLEC TIVE Kim Collier Kim Collier is a writer, actor, director and producer. She began her theatre training at the University of Victoria in 1983 for acting and stage management, continued her training at the Mime Unlimited School in Toronto in physical theatre, and graduated from the Studio 58 program in 1994. While the company is a collective and each member is an actor in its various productions, they have also fallen into other natural roles akin to their talents. Kim’s talents lie in leadership, as co-artistic director until very recently, but also often as director of many of the company’s productions. She is also one of the fiscal heroes of the company, with the gift of financial management. Kevin Kerr Kevin Kerr is a playwright, actor and director. He earned his BA in Theatre at the University of British Columbia and completed two-thirds of the program at Studio 58 before moving to the Yukon for two years to work at the Dawson City Museum, coordinating a program of historical theatre. Besides performing with the company,

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

Kevinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strongest talents lie in playwrighting, as well as design. Along with Kim, he also sports financial management skills, which were essential particularly in the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s early years. David Hudgins Hudgins, now billed as a resident artist of the Electric Company, is a playwright, actor, director, producer, teacher, songwriter, sound designer and video designer. He studied English at McGill University, Montreal and went on to earn his PTP Diploma in Education from Simon Fraser University. In 1991 he was co-creator of the Mount Royal Shakespeare Company, a site-specific Shakespearean festival in Montreal and from there went on to train at Studio 58. His skills in sound and video have been instrumental to the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trademark design work. Jonathon Young Jonathon Young is an actor, writer and designer. His major training took place at Studio 58 and since then has worked primarily as an actor, both with the Electric Company and on many other projects in theatre, film and television. His skills as a writer and designer have developed over the years of working with the Electric Company, but is particularly strong as a performer.

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

M EE TING

S T U DIO 5 8

The four members met during their training at Studio 58 where they found in each other a mutual attraction to “physical spectacle, adventurous narrative, technology and visual art” (www.electriccompany.com). David Hudgins describes how these four kindred spirits also found each other during the late nights: “I think part of the reason we’re a company is because we would always stay late at school. Everyone else would go home and it’d be two in the morning and we’re still working on stuff. So it was like this like this late night club. We’re the workaholics” (Wong). After their graduation from Studio 58 in 1994, Collier describes how they deliberated over forming a company: “Kevin and I had talked about starting a company for about a year. We had been thinking about: where, when, what might be a good place and eventually we realised that the ideal situation would never arise and we better just bite the bullet, grab the bull by the horns and get going” (Wong).

T HE C OMP AN Y ’ S I NCEP TION

AND

F IRS T P IECE

So development began on their first piece, Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla, which would arguably become their most popular and successful production to date. Brilliant! recounts the life of Nikola Tesla, the inventor of alternating current. Their website describes some of the imagery from the show: The story is told with playfully eclectic staging: A song and tap-dance routine depicts a fierce battle between Tesla and Thomas Edison. A silent film is performed live on stage, which details Tesla’s descent into madness in his desert laboratory. And the biggest crowd pleaser is an inflated sphere five feet in diameter which is used in an array of acrobatic feats as it comes to symbolize Tesla’s extraordinary visions and dreams. - www.electriccompany.com

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

The show could be described as the quintessential Electric Company piece, as it included many characteristics typical of their work: a narrative historical in nature and dealing with science, a major emphasis on imagery and physicality, and technology playing a heavy role in design. An actor in the piece and fellow Studio 58 graduate, Andy Thompson also describes how their training at Studio 58 influenced their work: It’s interesting that all the elements we took for granted in the program we ended up showcasing in the play,’ he says. “In third term you have tap-dance training and we have a tap-dancing battle between Thomas Edison and Tesla that’s been going over really well. The studio really encourages exploration and to make the most of what you have. We really had that instilled in us. - Armstrong, C1 Brilliant! premiered at the 1996 Canadian Fringe Festival and was both a critical and popular success. Glynis Leyshon, Artistic Director of the Vancouver Playhouse, recalls a couple of early works created by the Electric Company: I was really excited by what I saw -- the use of imagery, the movement, the unexpected flashes of humour, the skill of the performers. But I guess what set it apart was that they were all students from Studio 58. You could sense that you were seeing people explore from same creative base. There was a coherence. It was like seeing early Robert Lepage and his contemporaries. When people know each other well, they trigger each other in very interesting and delicious ways. Rather than it just being a terrific show, this was actually a company. - Gill, R5 Brilliant! indeed served to forge this collective into a company, rather simply a one time Fringe hit. For three years the success of this piece kept the company afloat, with remounts at the Roundhouse Performance Space in Vancouver (March ’98) and again at Calgary’s High Performance Rodeo hosted by One Yellow Rabbit in Edmonton (’99). The piece was recognized at the 1998 Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards1 with five awards, including Outstanding Production in the small theatre category. In the meantime, the development of their second piece, The Wake, had begun, and the Vancouver 1

annual awards ceremony for professional theatre produced in Vancouver

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

Playhouse had also offered a yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mentorship to the young company, which included rehearsal space when available, access to props and costumes and a small grant for their next production.

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

II. C OMPLE X C ONDUC TIVIT Y : ENSEMBLE MODEL T HE E VO L U TION

E N SE M B LE M ODEL

It is difficult to neatly compartmentalize the Electric Company’s ensemble model, because as Jonathon Young describes it, it is “Totally organic - it has been a very organic evolution, and it’s always changing.” In an interview when the company was still quite young he also described the nature of their collective: “We are a true collective in that all of us are involved in the writing, set design and acting of our production. Each of us has talents that the others are lacking. We work and communicate well together but there is a balance of strengths and weaknesses within the group” (The Voice). In the beginning, David Hudgins and Kevin Kerr sat more in the literary camp, David with a degree in English Literature and Kevin a naturally good writer; while Young and Collier more often generated material physically (Young). And while each member of the collective has their strengths and puts them to good use, part of their mandate also encourages artists to step outside of their traditional skills sets and into other roles, and so over the years the skills and talents of each member have broadened and blurred. For example, Jon has grown as a writer and Kim has emerged very much as a director. Young describes how the development of their first production, Brilliant! was a truly collective approach but that by their second production, The Wake, with Kim and Kevin directing, Kevin as lead writer and David as set designer, the group had begun to develop a “little hierarchy – a flexible hierarchy.” This flexible hierarchy has shifted and mutated from project to project, including The Score (2000) followed by Dona Flor and her two Husbands (2001) and Flop (2002), and in 2002 the company announced their 7

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

‘Four New Works’ plan, an experiment in a more codified approach to ensemble model and project development.

F O UR N E W W OR K S In the November 2002 issue of their newsletter the company announced a new model for play creation: …each member will spearhead a new project in development. Each of the four new works will be lead by its creator through the early stages of research, development, and writing. When the piece has begun to ripen it will be further enhanced by the collective process, which will carry it through workshops and into production… - Electroscope, Nov. 2002 By having one member act as artistic leader on each project, the idea was to allow for a longer development period for each piece, since an issue for the members up to that point was “the feeling of rushing to production and not having the time to refine and hone a given piece before putting it before the public” (AGR’03, 2-3). The hope was to also expedite the earlier part of the development process during which they found that the collective approach of ‘every-decision-by-committee’ could hinder and slow things down rather than help. Finally, singular artistic leadership would also hopefully “provide the individual members of the company the chance for artistic development and the satisfaction of completely realizing their creative impulses” (AGR‘03, 3) while at the same time, maintaining the strength and style of the collective by having them step in later in the process. The ‘Four New Works’ plan ultimately resulted in three new works: The Fall (2003) led by Collier, The Palace Grand (2004) led by Young, and Studies in Motion: the Hauntings of Eadward Muybridge (2006) by Kerr. The hockey rock-opera that Hudgins

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

intended on leading never saw its way to fruition, since the scale of the project came into conflict with the heavy demands his coming into the position as Associate Director of Studio 58. As planned, there were other works that were developed simultaneously during the Four New Works time period: The One That Got Away (2002), and ongoing tours of Brilliant!.

T HE P RE SEN T

A ND

B E Y OND

The company, having just recently come to the end of their ‘Four New Works’ plan with Studies in Motion as the final installment, faces the decision of how their ensemble model will continue to operate. They are opting for a shift towards a single artistic director, whose tasks would lie mostly in administrative work and whose job would be to act as guardian of the company’s vision more so than provider of that vision (Young). Those who are currently called co-artistic directors would then be called associate artists, freeing up the company members to access that chemistry that has been the source of some of their best work (Young). They have very recently made a proposal to the Canadian Council for the Arts for a grant that would allow the company to designate and fund a specific time period in the year where all company members would come together for the express purpose of project development (not production). This would be a time when no members of the company would be involved in outside work, but are solely devoted to Electric Company project development; experimentation, development of pre-existing work, and structured development of upcoming programmed work. The idea is also to separate the artistic director’s wage funding from this development time, which has not been the case in the past. Young is realistic about this new plan:

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

…that may work for a couple of years, and then we may be reassessing it again, going hmmm…you know, the person who is AD is needing to get out…or the workload’s too much, or the company is not working this way – we need to get back – God knows what will happen. So I think it’s just about constant assessment. Constant open assessment. - Young

P ROCESS The process of development for the Electric Company’s work is as amorphous as the evolution of their ensemble model. There are, however, some steps in the process that remain the same throughout. A collective burn for a project is a fundamental place to start from for the company, which can be a tricky requirement; four people may not always be excited about the same idea. But as Young describes, much of the company’s work has been propelled by opportunity: “So often the company has been driven by opportunity, which has arrived and created a spark. We’ve very much built the company on this sort of ability to be decisive and responsive, and if you look back, so many of the shows have come out of that” (Young). The company’s unique style and approach has drawn certain opportunities to them, including being offered up a warehouse owned by the University of British Columbia as location for a piece (The Wake) and being approached by a Vancouver geneticist to do a commissioned piece about the world of genetics (The Score). These opportunities have actually developed into a kind of snowball effect, which Jonathon Young describes as both a blessing and a curse: “And definitely we suffered from that snowballing effect. At times it’s been a wild ride and fantastic but I think in terms of feeling like lack of control, like you’re riding some kind of uncontrollable force – which you can’t really complain about too much – but when other life is trying to happen - relationships or family. And because our projects are almost always very difficult to do.”

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

The next step in a project’s development is research and design. Because much of their work is often based in both scientific and historical realities, research is an integral part of their process. The company often very much works from image, initially, and early design development in lighting, set, costume, choreography, sound and video is also often explored before writing begins. Design and writing are often inextricable in the company’s work. Writing is often a collective process in the group, at least to begin with. One process used is that individual members would write scenes and bring them back to the group, at which point everything would be given an opportunity and then worked on by another member of the group (Stanners 8). When it comes to crunch time, most often the writing reins are handed over to Kevin Kerr for the sake of efficiency and moving forward (Young). Young describes how the ensemble tries to develop the spine of the story early on in the process, so that during writing and rehearsal there is always that foundation to return to – a kind of collective impulse that serves as compass for the project (Young). Building the spine of the story also often leads to the nature of the project’s process, he says. For other projects – The Fall, for instance – writing has taken place much more on their feet than around a table, with improvisation as an important generator of text. The process for every project has been slightly different, both in development and rehearsal.

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

III. S OL AR P O WERED : THE ARTISTRY

The Electric Company is well known for its use of strong physical and visual imagery in their work – it is indeed, part of their mandate. Other company trademarks are that their stories are often placed in an historical context, and their use of space is quite innovative, often doing site-specific work. Kevin Kerr describes how in the end, it’s all about telling a good story: “I think this is something that drives us all: telling a good story, and a good story for us is a story that takes you places in a way you haven’t gotten there before. Different routes. I think that’s why the visual element’s so strong, and I think, why we go for the basis in reality, too” (Wong).

D E SIGN

AND

T ECHNOLOGY

Design and technology feature prominently in the company’s work, both on a practical and a thematic level. This interest in mediated performance has existed since the inception of their company – Jonathon Young describes how David and Kevin were naturally computer savvy from the get-go, and how Kim has always been compelled to create spectacle, or event-based theatre: “Kim has always had a real drive to produce events, where people come together and are part of an event, and I think that our theatre could be loosely described as event based in that there are elements of spectacle which have been often held in equal esteem, or given equal value to the script.” Marrying theatre and technology, which can be regarded as two very different species, is an ongoing and engaging struggle for the company: Sometimes one collapses the other, and quite often, I think, they’re struggling. And then suddenly there’s a moment of just perfect synchronization and then it 12

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

goes off again. I find often that our plays are like that – they’re problematic in that way. They’re not always successful at that integration but sometimes there’s a great playfulness between the two. - Young A drive for the company is to always keep the experience of the audience in mind while they create their work. For this reason – their desire to create surprise and theatrical magic for their audience – they continue to explore the amalgamation of theatre and technology (Young). Throughout the years, the Electric Company has been heralded for its skills in design and innovative use of space and technology, but has also been criticized that at times it comes at the expense of story. Sometimes the overwhelming desire to create surprise in their audience takes over the story itself: No matter what it does to the story line, we have to find a way to get that idea in and it does often come down to a desire for that kind of experience – for something to occur in the production that is just the last thing that an audience member would have expected, or bigger than they would have expected. - Young It’s certainly something that the company is well aware of. Young attributes it to a sometimes faulty desire to be clever, as well as a desire to please everyone by providing enough entertainment plus complexity and metaphor to satisfy all (Young). He considers The Fall as one of the most successful processes in regards to narrative and design supporting each other rather than detracting. Kim set certain limitations on the process, and they were on their feet in the space, improvising and writing new material every day, rather than at a computer or around a table. The practical use of technology in their work is mirrored thematically. The company’s mission describes their collective interest to explore this theme: “We are excited by the role of technology in people’s lives; how the impulse of invention continues to flow against the resistance to change” (www.electriccompanytheatre.com).

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

It is no marketing ploy to appeal to a modern audience, but rather a genuine interest that is reflected in much of their work.

T HE P H Y SIC AL

T HEIR T HE A T RE

The fact that note is taken that the work created by the Electric Company is ‘very physical’ may be more a reflection of other work going on in Vancouver, but regardless, note is indeed taken. Like their interest in design and technology, they also have an inherent interest in physical theatre. Their training at Studio 58 wasn’t specifically geared towards that type of training, but Kim’s earlier training at the Mime Unlimited School in Toronto and her own interest in physical theatre proved to be a major influence on the company, particularly in the early years. Jonathon Young describes how, particularly early on, he and Kim would tend to generate work physically rather than textually. And as Kim has emerged very much as a director, her exploration of the physical has permeated the company’s work deeply. The nature of their design and staging choices – often made early on in the process – also influences the degree of physicality in their work; it would be hard not to be creating physical theatre when staging a sex scene on a flying bed, for example. And however they garnered the skills, be it training, experience, or plain good genes, the four actors are often praised in reviews of company work for their physical expertise.

S ITE -S PECIFIC T HE A T RE

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

Recent and coming works by the Electric Company…have striven to incorporate their unusual sites as a character in itself, allowing the physical contours and hazards of the landscape, building or room to shape the stories, scene by scene. - Gill One of the reasons that the Electric Company has become known as an ‘alternative’ theatre company is their use of alternative spaces for their work. At least four of their major productions have been utterly tied to the locations in which they were produced, all non-traditional theatre spaces: The Wake was a roving outdoor piece that took place in Vancouver’s historic district of Granville Island; Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands played in two venues, with the audience led via Carnival-style parade for the second act to a tavern transformed into a casino and brothel; The One That Got Away unfolded in a swimming pool; The Fall in an abandoned factory. The company is not so much interested in tossing a narrative into a groovy space, but rather the members are intensely interested in how space deeply and directly affects that narrative, even character. Jonathon Young refers to it as ‘design dramaturgy’: “how does the design affect the show, or how can a spatial or structural concept totally inform narrative” (Young). This collective interest in how space affects performance is indeed a common source of enthusiasm and curiosity that first brought the members of the company together (Young) and remains a trademark of their work.

T HE E L EC T RIC C OMP AN Y

V ANCO U V ER

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

In a 2002 Georgia Straight2 article on the topic of the Vancouver theatre scene, Bob Allen, one of four English Theatre officers with the Canada Council is quoted as describing the scene from 1983 to the mid-nineties as “Inordinately depressing. It was all the same people, there was very little movement, almost no coverage by the media and no audience” (qtd. in Gill, R5). Since the mid-nineties, however, he believes to have seen a significant change in Vancouver theatre, namely the rise of “interdisciplinary work based in physical theatre” (Gill, R5), not exclusively but most definitely including The Electric Company. A number of young companies were on the rise, offering Vancouver audiences something different from what the older, more established companies were producing. The company members themselves were aware that their unique approach to theatre making was stirring the pot in the Vancouver theatre community. Kerr describes how he spoke to many audience members directly at their production of The Wake, presented in an industrial warehouse, who would say that they never go to the theatre: “These new companies are reaching different audiences beyond the traditional indie theatre kind of audience…They’re excited that we’re breaking away from the regular conventions of a night at the theatre” (qtd. in McLaughlin, B2). A milestone for the Electric Company was collecting five of the top awards at the 1996 Jessie Richardson Awards for their first show Brilliant!, making their presence as a theatrical force undeniable. And while these new companies inevitably encouraged competition within the Vancouver theatre scene, a more collaborative community seemed to develop as well (McLaughlin, B2). Larger companies like the Vancouver Playhouse

a free weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, Canada; popular for its alternative and progressive editorial slant

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

and The Arts Club Theatre opened their doors to collaborative relationships with smaller companies, and many of the smaller companies developed a collaborative marketing strategy called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;See Sevenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, a discount program for theatre-goers who wished to see multiple shows by various independent companies. Companies like the Electric Company have given Vancouver a sense of theatrical identity that seemed to be lacking beforehand. Now that they have ripened in age slightly the initial flurry of revolutionary excitement may have subsided but the company is still very much alive and thriving, which speaks to the applicability of their work beyond being a young flavour of the month.

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

IV. AC S IGNALS : PRODUCTION HISTORY B R I LL IA N T ! T H E B L I N D I N G E N L I G H T E NM E N T (19 9 6 +)

N IKOLA T E S LA

Their first and most frequently played piece first premiered at the 1996 Fringe Festival. It has over the years been redeveloped and re-cast, published, and toured throughout Canada, including the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, as well as to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the San Jose Stage Company. Brilliant! examines the life story of Nikola Tesla, the inventor of alternating current, and explores the themes of both the dazzling and threatening nature of the development of new technology.

T H E W AK E (G RA N V I L LE I S LA N D , 19 9 9 ) Their second piece was a massive undertaking: a roving site-specific piece in Vancouverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s historical district of Granville Island. There was a concentrated effort from the company to develop the narrative based very much on the landscape, and it tells the story of three generations of a family living on the island while thematically â&#x20AC;&#x153;the island becomes a metaphor for the burying of history and the ensuing loss of identity in a city

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

obsessed with progress, commerce, and its place in contemporary culture” (www.electriccompanytheatre.com). The piece moved through eleven venues and included choreographed rowboats and a sex scene as a tennis match, and the response was overall incredibly positive. There were criticisms when it came to story and clarity, but were most often forgiven for what was universally regarded as a magical experience. “Up to her knees in the water, her white dress billowing liquidly about her, Lamentina sings a song of mourning for her drowned husband. The garage by Performance Works becomes a cacophonous factory as actors beat its pipes and roll huge wooden spools across its floor and the play’s storytellers hang from swings beneath the bird netting, skylights and pigeon feathers. These visual riches go on and on. You’ll be amazed at how often you’re amazed.” - Thomas, 62

T H E S CORE (W AT ER F RO N T T H EATRE , 20 0 0) The Electric Company was approached by Dr. Michael Hayden of Vancouver’s Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics to create a piece that would explore the social and ethical implications of human gene research, and he opened up his genetics lab to the company to do research for what would become The Score. The Score tells the story of Dr. Magnusson, a geneticist at the helm of a small but groundbreaking laboratory, which is racing towards a crucial discovery. But the clock is also ticking on the geneticist herself, who is forced to confront her own genetic history and the possibility of a devastating disease that threatens her career, her lab, and her life. - www.electriccompanytheatre.com While the visuals for this piece were compelling and the energy with which it was produced and executed lively, it became their most criticised piece of their three so far. Reviews generally commented that the writing was disjointed and confusing, and that the

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

combination of humour and the piece’s weighty topic were often at odds with one another rather than complimentary. The Score was also produced as a film in partnership with Screen Siren Pictures Inc., which premiered at the Vancouver Film Festival in 2006. Producing the film lay slightly outside of their mandate and monopolized creative resources for a good year, but was nonetheless an incredible experience for the company. Since its release it has played at various film festivals around the world.

“Two lab mice…muse in rhyming couplets on the unseen forces making their lives so miserable. Geneticists burst into song and spin lab chairs on their heads like helicopters, while dancers pirouette in the studio above. Magnusson engages in a heated debate with one of her cells.., which pops up, clad in goggles and a wet suit, to remind her that her chances to procreate are dwindling.” - Dafoe

H U S B A N D S (2 0 0 1, V A N CO U V ER E A S T C E N TR E )

D ONA F LOR C U L T U RAL

AND

H ER T WO

A piece based on the novel by Jorge Amada, Dona Flor was created in partnership with the Vancouver Playhouse “to cocreate a large-scale multidisciplinary work, combining elements of traditional theatre narrative with Brazilian music, dance, and carnival ‘spectacle’ ” (AGR’00). A huge source of funding for this project came from their winning of the Alcan Performing Arts Award, a cash award of $50,000 – the largest of its kind in Canada. This piece took place in two venues; the Vancouver East Cultural Centre and then traveled by Carnival-

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

esque parade to a tavern transformed into a casino and brothel. It tells the story of a young widow who remarries and is torn between the ghost of her first husband and the reality of her second.

F LOP (2 0 0 2, V A N CO U V ER E A S T C U LT U RAL C E N TRE ) The inspiration for Flop came from the desire to explore the theme of failure. It was also the first piece since Brilliant! that the four core members would be sole collaborators; writing, directing and acting. Flop follows the story of a woman called the Client who wishes to build a flying house and commissions an architecture firm to do so. Once again their creativity in staging, design and physicality won many people over, but they were also criticised for an ambiguous and slightly slow story with a lack of clear conflict.

“The quartet fashions gorgeous pictures on stage that flash by like a slide show. A chase scene switches directions with Collier crawling across the girder in one direction, mirrored by Young, hanging by all fours, passing below in the other direction.” - Carlson, B8

T H E O N E T H AT G OT A WAY (2 0 0 2, V A N CO U V ER ’ S J E W I S H C OMM U N I T Y C E N TR E ) A co-production with Vancouver playwright and performer Kendra Fanconi, The One That Got Away (written by Fanconi) is the story of a girl who follows her grandfather through his death in pursuit of her heart, which he replaced with a fish 21

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

moments before passing. This was a new step in the artistic evolution for the company in working with another theatre artist with script and location already in place. This location was the swimming pool at the Vancouver Jewish Community Centre, and the piece was met with overall critical and popular success, including the winning of Best Production at the 2002 Jessie Richardson Awards. It was just recently remounted at the same location in May of 2007 and then toured to the Magnetic North Festival3 in June.

T H E F ALL (2 0 0 3, T H E F A C TORY – F I N N I N G

S I TE,

UBC)

“Two brothers compete for the affection of the workers and for control of their deceased father's business. But when a mysterious woman answers a job posting, their rivalry escalates until it reaches deadly proportions” (www.electriccompanytheatre.com). This is the plot of the company’s site-specific ‘industrial horror’ piece that took place in an abandoned warehouse owned by the University of British Columbia. This piece was received incredibly well by the general audience and critics alike and won six Jessie Richardson Awards. The company was not criticised as they had been in the past for weak writing, and their use of this unique space seemed to astonish all who saw it. Video

Canada’s national annual festival of contemporary Canadian theatre in English

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

projection, over-head cranes, vehicles, and a swinging bed for an aerial sex scene were some of the elements of this piece that awed its audience.

“Most of the tableaux before us are enormous creations with many discreet parts, as when the working women act in synchronized motion and chant a strange song while the crane shifts across the “stage” to present Betsy with her standard issue Standard Parts uniform…We swivel 90 degrees to our left to take in some small scenes (with equally sharp choreography) at those lockers, and then 90 degrees again to face the back, where a series of office cubicles are used at one point to engage the principles in hilarious dovetailed dances of nastiness.” - Birnie, C5

P A LA C E G RA N D (2 0 0 4, V A N CO U V ER E A S T C U L T URA L C E N TR E ) This, their second piece in their ‘Four New Works’ series was a one-man show both written and performed by Jonathon Young. In 1898, a mysterious Tracker with an anonymous commission hunts a man missing in the Canadian Arctic expanse north of the last bastion of civilization. His subject has apparently gone mad, suffering from cacoethes scribendi—the incurable passion for writing. Darkly comic, poetic, and stylistically inventive, The Palace Grand is a vaudevillian investigation into the unmapped wilderness of creation and imagination. - www.electriccompanytheatre.com The piece was nominated for nine Jessie Richardson Awards and won three, and the response was overall very positive. There was some criticism for clarity in writing, but Young’s performance as well as the set design was highly praised. The piece will be remounted in 2008 for Vancouver’s PuSH International Performing

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

Arts Festival.

“…it’s a series of shadowboxes that the lithe and limber Young crawls between. He inches from his cramped “cabin” to a centre “stage” area along an airshaft sized corridor; he pops us in another space to fiddle with a tape recorder; and, in the most charming sequence, falls asleep and his cartoon dreams appear above his head in little cutouts of their own.” - Campbell, 16

S T U D I E S I N M OTIO N : T HE H A U N T I N G S (20 0 6, F RED D Y W OO D T H EATR E UBC)

E A D WAR D M U Y B RI D G E

Kevin Kerr took the lead on this piece, the third in their ‘Four New Works’ series. Studies in Motion is inspired by the life and work of 19th century photographer Eadweard Muybridge whose work in instantaneous photography and exhaustive studies in animal and human locomotion would foretell the invention of the cinema. The play, a physically and visually explosive spectacle, explores themes of memory, identity, and the quest for meaning at the beginning of our culture's obsession with the image. - www.electriccompanytheatre.com Produced in partnership with Theatre at UBC and the PuSH International Performing Arts Festival, Studies in Motion was coined a ‘visual opera’ by the company and was indeed lauded as an incredible technical achievement, but some of the old criticisms regarding writing came back to haunt them with this piece. The company attributes this mostly to the scope of the piece being at odds with the time for process and development; it was a huge undertaking on several levels and time became their enemy. Nonetheless, it was no failure and despite criticisms was still an overall popular success, and the company plans to keep it in their repertoire for future remounts.

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

“Consider the staging of the fatal shot. Behind Muybridge, a whole chorus of arms raises pistols, and when the shot is fired, the bodies attached to those arms explode into freezeframe images of reeling response. It’s agonizing: actor Andrew Wheeler makes you ache with Muybridge’s pain. It’s hilarious: just before shooting, the cuckolded husband says, “I have a message for you from my wife”; staggering from the impact of the bullet, Larkyns, the seducer, perks up to say, “She said that, did she? You’re sure you’re not just paraphrasing or something?” - Thomas

O T H ER P ROJ E C T S Besides their mainstage productions, the Electric Company has taken part in other projects, such as Theatre Under the Gun, a 24-hour playwrighting bonanza, and HIVE, a collaborative project with other independent theatre companies in Vancouver (see ‘Collaboration’ section). In 2003 they were also commissioned by a private-sector company called Historical Xperiences to develop theatrical content for Storeum, “a live, multi-media attraction that explores British Columbia’s history over a seventy-minute processional journey underground Vancouver’s Gastown Neighbourhood” (AGR’04) designed to be a permanent installment. This was a massive project for the company, who spent months researching and developing material on BC history and developing design ideas, after which Kim Collier carried on as project director, coordinating over fifty actors in the various large indoor sets. It was a struggle to meet the opening deadline in June of 2004 with huge technical demands and a short time in which to meet them. It was a positive but exhausting and not completely satisfying experience for the company:

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

It was hard to finish the contract unsatisfied, but we knew we had worked to our full potential within the given challenges. This ultimate lack of control became the centre of our own debates on how Electric Company would approach such a project in the future. Storyeum has taught us what essential elements must be in place if and when we embark on this kind of privately owned venture again. - AGRâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;05

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

V. C ONV ENTIONA L C U RREN TS : BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION

If there is any brutal reality waiting to slap an eager emerging theatre artist in the face, it is the call for skills in the art of management, finance and administration. Running a theatre company requires dedicated and talented artistry, but it also requires those skills necessary in running a business. Like many emerging artists, this was a reality that the Electric Company members were not completely prepared for, and over the years they have worked to balance the two worlds while curbing artistic burnout.

A DMINIST R A TION

AND

M AN AG E MENT O V ER

T HE

Y E AR S

Jonathon Young describes how particularly in the early years they were lucky to have Kim and Kevin for their business skills, “whose combined talents are direction and leadership and a remarkable ability to state clearly goals and ideas, and then also they’re both excellent at financial management” (Young). Similar to the chemistry of their artistic talents, management and administration in the company’s early years relied very much on their collective organizational and business skills, and of course a constant negotiation of each other’s schedules. The learning curve was steep: through resource sharing, continual advice from other professionals in the field and just plain old experience, the first fours years were a hands on training ground for all four members. These hours spent on administration work were entirely volunteer, and it became clear that this was something that could not sustain itself. About four years in, the company began to really look at restructuring and longrange planning. In 1999 the company was offered a residency with the Vancouver East

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

Cultural Centre, which included a donated office space, resources and added infrastructure. This was a major stepping stone for the company’s organization and management practices. In their 2000/01 season the company began to pay wages for administrative work done by company members and somewhat unsuccessfully experimented with the hiring of a part-time office assistant. It became clear that they needed someone who could be fully integrated into the general operations of the company and they began to seriously plan for the hiring of a general manager (AGR’01). After one unsuccessful attempt at a general manager, Cynthia Reid was hired in 2002, who would remain their producing manager until July of 2007. This was another major stepping stone for the company, as Cynthia was to become an integral force as the managerial leader of the company. A list in their 2004 Annual General Report describes her impact in those first two years: • • • • • • •

actively networked nationally and internationally developed creative relationships with marketing agencies advanced its presence on the internet created a new database for membership and direct mail campaigns produced Electroscope, the company’s seasonal publication increased its membership and established or further developed relationships with a host of the most relevant presenters and producers in the country.

This also allowed the artistic directors to step back from their administrative duties (to various degrees) and dedicate more of their time to the creative work of the company. Nonetheless, maintaining a sustainable environment for creation has remained a continuous struggle; almost every annual report issued by the company has referred to the ongoing problem of ‘artistic burnout’.

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

The company just recently used a Flying Squad Program grant offered through the Canada Council to bring in Stephen Schroeder, the Managing Producer from Calgary’s One Yellow Rabbit Theatre, to work with them on strategizing for the future. This was a way for the company to sit down and set things down, like clarifying the artistic mission, examining the company’s organizational and artistic structure, and analyzing their resources. Jonathon Young describes how it was incredibly useful in terms of taking a realistic look at where the company is really at: “The things get articulated and written down and you can look at it. And regardless of what we’ve been thinking about the company, this is actually what it is, or where it is, or where we’ve been going – regardless of what we thought, there it is.”

B U SINESS M ODEL The Electric Company is a not-for-profit producing theatre company with a staff and a board of directors. Besides the four core members, the staff currently includes a producing manager, a stage manager, an associate designer and a financial manager. The board supports the company by way of fundraising, financial strategy planning and assessing, the discussion and approval of artistic programming, promotion, communication and outreach. Board development remains a challenge for the company, simply because both the board members and company members are extremely dedicated to and immersed in their own work at hand, but it is a goal for the company to continue to develop and strengthen their board (AGR’05).

F INANCES : F UNDING

AND

F UNDR AISING

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

Despite the fact that they are “producing in one of the least artistically hospitable climates in Canada” (AGR’01) the Electric Company relies very heavily on outside funding sources to sustain itself, including: “the Canada Council, the City of Vancouver, the province of BC, numerous foundations, individual donors and other public and private funding sources” (AGR’05). They also rely of course on fundraising and plain old ingenuity and creativity when it comes to garnering resources. The company conducts yearly member/donor drives, and have gone out of their way to creatively acknowledge donors. In 1999 the four company members climbed the Grouse Grind, a famous and grueling mountain hike in Vancouver and “proclaimed to the gods the names” of their donors (AGR’99). Their annual newsletter ‘Electroscope’ also credits donors of different categories, from “Static Cling” ($20-$49) to “Solar Flare” ($5,000+). This newsletter also serves as a major marketing and communication tool with their audience. They also hold many fundraising events such as galas, auctions – even an underwater rave - to increase funding as well as promotion, but they can be risky ventures, as oftentimes “the time and energy put towards the campaign far outweigh the actual funds that are raised” (AGR’04). Creating work with partners has also been a huge advantage to the company. Several of their productions have been sponsored or co-produced, perhaps most famously The Score, heavily funded by The Human Genome Organization, and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, a co-production with the Vancouver Playhouse. This particular project was also funded by their winning of an incredibly substantial award: the Alcan Performing Arts Award, a cash award of $50,000 for the creation of a new project. They have also created two pieces with the University of British Columbia; The Fall in a

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

university owned and unused warehouse, and Studies in Motion at the U.B.C. Freddy Wood theatre, also co-produced with the PuSH International Performing Arts Festival. These kinds of partnerships are not only creatively exciting, but their practical advantages can be many: funding, space, resources and manpower. Over the years they have been able to increase the salaries of the artistic staff, however there is still not enough to provide the members of the Electric Company with living wages, and they still must rely on outside gigs to fill out their yearly income. Sufficient payment to their artists is an important and ongoing struggle for the company.

C OLL A B OR A T ION We are active members of the theatre community having affiliations with several companies both large and small as well as multiple arts organizations. We are leaders in promoting the face of independent theatre in Vancouver. - www.electriccompanytheatre.com As part of their ‘objectives and activities’ the Electric Company has since its inception strived to create relationships with other artists, theatre companies and arts organizations in Vancouver. One of the strongest of these initiatives was launched in 2003, called Progress Lab: The current season was launched with an extremely positive new initiative that we hope will become an annual event. Joining forces with some of the most dynamic and innovative collective and creation-based companies, we created a week-long resource sharing and development workshop. The doors into each organization’s creative process were thrown wide open and we had the opportunity to explore each others creative practices, methodologies, and philosophies in a focused, constructive, and supportive environment. - AGR‘03 The lab featured presentations, discussions and notable guest speakers, and the response was that of overwhelming enthusiasm and a strong sense of “community and collective momentum” (AGR’03). It has since been held in 2004 and most recently in 2006, in

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

which eleven independent theatre companies took part. A new initiative was born out of this most recent lab, called HIVE, a project in which all eleven companies would produce side-by-side in one venue the following season. It was an incredibly unique project, designed to reach out to new audiences, expose audiences to the work of all the companies, as well as try to break and expand the definition of theatre in the minds of those who could squeeze in (or those who read about it): The performances, which emerged from within crevices, dumpsters, peepholes and behind curtains and borrowed flats were certainly what made this event so unique and memorable, but more importantly was the impulse that started the HIVE: the spirit of collaboration, cross-pollination, of uniting forces to do something greater than the sum of the parts and build something that celebrates the notion of community and all the potential it holds. - www.electriccompanytheatre.com It was an incredibly successful event, both critically and popularly. The company has also taken part in a collaborative marketing initiative that was launched in 1998 called ‘See Seven’, a program that offers a discount on a season’s pass to see seven shows by various independent theatre companies in Vancouver. The idea is to promote exposure of the smaller companies in Vancouver as well as foster a sense of community between them.

C OMM UNIT Y Another goal in the company’s ‘objectives and activities’ is to play a vital role in their community: We are also committed to providing opportunities for emerging artists to work in large projects with established artists. As well, we are dedicated to fostering the participation of youth in theatre through various outreach programs such as workshops, apprenticeships, mentorships, etc. - www.electriccompanytheatre.com

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

The company has brought many students and emerging artists to work on their productions as apprentices both on and offstage, as well as having taught workshops and classes in the community. They have acted as adjudicators at an annual youth playwriting competition at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre and have taken part in various panels and discussions throughout the years. In 2006 they also applied for a Vancouver Diversity Grant to create a mentorship position within the company to help train the Artistic Producer of the Realwheels Society, whose goal is to employ artists with disabilities to create and present theatrical works of high caliber (AGRâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;06).

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

VI. E LEC T RIC PO T EN TIAL : CONCLUSION

When it comes right down to it, there is no recipe or set of rules that the four members of the Electric Company set out to follow in order to create the work they do. It is quite simply that magical, alchemical, intangible chemistry of its members – four individuals whose combined talents, passions, skills, and hard work coalesce to create work that is unique to them. This is the bitter-sweet reality of ensemble work – it is rarely repeatable by others and once over, lives only in the memories of those who took part or who saw it. But that is also the idea, is it not? To create from the heart, for the heart, and for the moment. This is certainly true of the Electric Company. Ask any theatre company about where they’re at, and they’ll probably answer that they’re in a period of transition. The Electric Company is no different. They have very recently shifted its model to one Artistic Director (Jonathon Young, for this coming year), and its members seem to be diverging, somewhat, at least for the moment. David Hudgins is already playing more of a background role these days in the company, with his major commitment being his work as Associate Director of Studio 58. Kevin Kerr is temporarily moving to Edmonton where he will be taking up a two year term as playwright in residence at the University of Alberta, and Kim Collier will be taking a sabbatical from her role as co-artistic director to pursue other freelance projects. Work on the horizon for the company includes the remount of Palace Grand for next year’s PuSH International Performing Arts Festival, as well as a commissioned project with the Arts Club Theatre that will probably take place in 2009. When asked about the future of the company, Jonathon Young was refreshingly realistic. Another bitter-sweet reality of

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

ensemble companies is that they cannot be sustained forever. The work is so often very specific to those individuals that make up the company, and while it is tempting to try and maintain a lineage it can be a difficult task when the work is so unique. While he addressed long-term plans like the shifts in infrastructure, the Arts Club project and hopes to increase international touring, he also spoke to this ephemeral quality of theatremaking: “And we’ll see – maybe it will take its course, I mean all things do. It’s a bit of a mystery.”

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Armstrong, John. “Class Acts.” The Vancouver Sun. 5 October 1996: C1.

Birnie, Peter. “Electric Company’s hip production a treat.” Rev. of The Fall, by Electric Company. The Vancouver Sun. 15 April 2003.

Campbell, Leanne. “Palace Grand trip worth the acidic hour.” Rev. of Palace Grand, by Electric Company. Westender (Vancouver). 15-21 April 2004.

Dafoe, Chris. “Genetic Research? That’s Entertainment.” Rev. of The Score, by Electric Company. The Globe and Mail. 13 April 2000.

Electric Company. “Annual General Report 1999.” June. Electric Company. “Annual General Report 2000.” June. Electric Company. “Annual General Report 2000-2001.” Electric Company. “Annual General Report 2001-2002.” Electric Company. “Annual General Report 2002-2003.” 17 July 2003. Electric Company. “Annual General Report 2003-2004.” 27 May 2004. Electric Company. “Annual General Report 2004-2005.” April 2005. Electric Company. “Annual General Report 2005-2006.” April 2006.

Electric Company: Very Live Theatre. 2007. Electric Company. 9 August 2007. <http://www.electriccompanytheatre.com>

Gill, Alexandra. “Lotusland in the limelight.” Georgia Straight (Vancouver, BC) 15 June 2002: R5.

Gill, Alexandra. “The play location’s the thing.” Georgia Straight (Vancouver BC).

MFA Research Paper: The Electric Company Kate Braidwood

McLaughlin, Gord. “As the sun rises in the West…” National Post 19 November 2003: B1-B2.

Stanners, Rachel. “Research Presentation on: The Electric Company & Interview with Kim Collier.” October 2006.

“Theatre group is electric.” The Voice (Vancouver BC), 5 November 1998.

Wong, Adrienne. “Electric Company and Brilliant! at the 1996 Fringe.” Transmissions (Vancouver, BC) Fall 1997: Volume 1, Number 1.

Thomas, Colin. “Studies in Motion: the Hauntings of Eadward Muybridge.” Rev. of Studies in Motion: the Hauntings of Eadward Muybridge, by Electric Company. The Georgia Straight (Vancouver). 26 January 2006.

Thomas, Colin. “Wake up and Head Outside to The Wake.” Rev. of The Wake, by Electric Company. The Georgia Straight (Vancouver). 3-10 June 1999.

Young, Jonathon. Personal interview. 21 December 2006.