11. Creating in a time of COVID

"A Shot in the Dark" table read over Zoom. Top Row (L to R): Ally Keilhauer, Peter Kuling, Oren Bowes. Bottom Row (L to R): Graeme McClelland, Samantha Majoros, Thomas Smith. CREDIT: PETER KULING

Creating in a time of COVID

A look at the creative projects conceived during the pandemic with the help of U of G funding

TAYLOR PACE

Over summer 2020, the University of Guelph announced they would be offering up to $5,000 in funding for faculty members to lead creative projects related to the current pandemic.

The school’s ensuing research initiative, titled “Creating in a Time of Coronavirus,” saw the creation of seven vastly different projects across multiple disciplines. Here is a look at three.

A SHOT IN THE DARK

“A Shot in the Dark” is a theatre ensemble radio play led by Peter Kuling, assistant professor in the school of English and theatre studies, and a group of theatre students. The hour-long play was created as a pilot episode for an original sci-fi detective radio drama series. Inspired by our current pandemic, the play takes place in 1918 during the Spanish Flu. A spaceship is sent into space with film noir era detectives as they search for a new way to end the pandemic. The ship lands on Pluto, and the three survivors must solve mysteries with aliens to find a cure for the pandemic and bring it back to Earth.

The play was written by Kuling and seven theatre ensemble students, fourth-year students who were required to create a final theatrical project as part of their program.

“Their project was shut down because of COVID-19, so we never got to perform in March,” Kuling said.

All of the students are voice actors in the play, along with around 20 guest actors from across Ontario. They spent about six weeks writing the play, and have been recording on Zoom since after Labour Day.

Kuling says they applied for funding “with the idea that we would all record from our separate homes with microphones, and create sound booths out of everything from cardboard and cartons to curtains and towels.”

One of the ways they needed to adapt was by building their own recording setups, which Sam Majoros, one of the student writers and voice actors who plays the detective, did.

“I have this huge, old TV box that is duct taped together, and I put it around my computer with a giant quilt over top, which just makes it nice and sound-proofed. So I crawl in and out of that for recording sessions,” she said.

In addition to being paid for their time, the students were also gaining valuable real-world experience.

“It’s been really cool and a really good way to network our students with other professionals that I know from the industry,” Kuling said.

“I can't tell you the smiles I see from the people that I worked with in the winter term last year who never got to perform, because we're performing and having so much fun creating sound effects and creating voices.”

Kuling says he hopes the play takes off enough for them to write more episodes in the future.

The play will be free to listen, available on the U of G website when it’s released.

ODDITI(M)ES

Another pandemic-inspired project was the puppet show created by assistant professor in the school of English and theatre studies Troy Hourie and a group of colleagues and students, titled “ODDITI(m)ES - A Tragic Comedy in Pandemic Times.”

The show took a comedic approach to the frustrations the pandemic has caused, and was derived from personal experiences and those shared over social media.

Hourie said that the kind of puppetry he does naturally lends itself to tragic comedy. Hourie and colleagues Andrew Gaboury and Colleen Snell modelled the play after the tradition of Dom Roberto, a traditional form of Portuguese puppetry.

“Basically, it’s a look at our everyday lives and this absurd situation that we’re all living in now in pandemic times,” he said.

There are three puppets in the show: a baker, a gardener, and a barber. The show depicts their experiences and reactions as the pandemic regulations continue to change, eventually moving back into Phase 2.

The show had two days of live audiences in August, with about 20 people sitting in a socially-distanced space outside. One of these shows was recorded and is available to view for free on Hourie’s website.

“It was about looking at how difficult all our circumstances are, but finding the humour in it that we can laugh at,” he said.

CONNECTING GENERATIONS THROUGH JOURNALLING

Concerned with the isolation among certain groups, assistant professor in the history department Kim Martin worked with students to develop a series of journals to connect generations.

They sent out 200 journals to seniors in long term care and children from low-income and single-parent households, along with prompts to fill the blank pages with artwork related to the pandemic.

Prompts included things like “draw your life before COVID” and “get all of your frustrations out on this page!”

The journals were filled out in August and collected, with many of them sent to their “partners,” meaning a child would receive a book from a senior, and a senior

a book from a child. They are also being displayed on the Art Apart website for public viewing.

They initially planned on having a call for submissions aimed at those populations, but thought it might be more exciting if they exchanged art between seniors and children.

Martin said that they wanted to focus on these groups because they were each heavily impacted by the pandemic.

Seeing each unique perspective about life reinforced the idea that everyone has a story. Everyone has daily struggles and triumphs, and we all have something to share, whether that be words of wisdom or a beautiful piece of artwork. — Sophia Lago, U of G student

“I think that both groups were pretty isolated,” she said, adding that “kids usually have a million things to do, so not only were they isolated, they were limited as to what they were able to do in terms of creative activities.”

Both groups needed activities to keep them busy and connect with others, without being in the same physical space.

Sophia Lago, one of the students involved in the project, said that working on “Connecting Generations” helped her to connect with others during the pandemic and develop transferable skills.

“Scanning the journals to upload to the website was also a really great experience. It was inspiring to see a glimpse into someone’s life and their outlook on the global pandemic.

“Seeing each unique perspective about life reinforced the idea that everyone has a story. Everyone has daily struggles and triumphs, and we all have something to share, whether that be words of wisdom or a beautiful piece of artwork,” Lago said.

HELD MAGAZINE

The literary journal Held Magazine was conceived through the initiative’s funding as well.

Professor Catherine Bush, director of the MFA in creative writing at Guelph, led a team of creative writing MFA students in developing the first issue of the multi-disciplinary, digital journal.

The journal prompted artists and writers to respond to the pan-

demic and consider how we connect and interact with one another.

Bush said that an MFA student had approached her about creating a literary journal earlier in the year, and, although many similar programs across the country do, their program has never had one before.

The journal was created by the second-year MFA students, who then reached out to incoming first-year students to join in.

The journal is non-hierarchical and required no prior experience to contribute, said Evren Sezgin, first-year MFA student and contributor to Held.

“This issue was about revolt and renewal, how we are in this collective traumatic experience with COVID. And so it was really about bringing together marginalised voices and marginalised stories within the time of COVID. And really making sure that we were giving space for them to be heard,” Sezgin said.

Another unique concept about the journal is that it is focused on collaborative efforts, each piece ideally worked on by multiple people.

To connect with people who hadn’t necessarily written in MFA programs, people outside the U of G were also encouraged to submit pieces. This included local artists, but also those across Canada and around the world. One of the team members is even based in Uganda, and was able to connect them with writers there.

Another first-year MFA student and contributor, Anna LeePopham, said they really wanted “to connect with folks in places where there are fewer publication opportunities.”

They needed at least 70 per cent of public contributors to come from specific marginalized communities: racialized communities, those living with a disability, two-spirit, and LGBTQ+. They managed to have all the contributors belong to at least one of those communities.

They are hopeful that it will be an ongoing project and are currently fundraising for the second issue.

You can read the journal at

heldmagazine.com.