Funny man, Devon Lougheed, and storyteller extraordinaire, Lizzy Karp, have joined forces to bring you Hush Hush City – an online literary soap opera composed by eight anonymous improvisers and writers.
Save for Lougheed and Karp, no one, not even the contributors themselves, knows the identities behind each character. The contributors are assigned roles and the context of a hotel, in which all the characters live, and they post as little or as often as they like, incorporating the occasional twist thrown at them from the creators and the readers.
The literary experiment starts January 1st and runs until January 31st, after which time, there will be a launch party and the identities of the contributors will be revealed. We can’t wait!
Sad Mag: Who are the two of you?
Lizzy Karp: When not fronting Vancouver’s favourite indie-band Beekeeper, Devon Lougheed is a funny-man, thinker, writer, runner and lover of rock music (especially from the ’90s). I’m Lizzy Karp and I love stories – my involvement in Rain City Chronicles, the Vancouver Book Club and the radio show Feels Like Home are several ways I help to share them.
SM: How did you meet?
Devon Lougheed: We have lots of mutual friends, but had our first good chat at the Vancouver Is Awesome book club. We talked about how we each used to do lots of writing, but lost a supportive group of fellow writers after moving.
SM: What is Hush Hush City?
LK: Our tagline is an online, collectively-generated, anonymous, improvised writing experiment. But in practice it’s another way to connect this city’s ever-growing creative community.
SM: Is it set in Vancouver?
DL: In a way, this is up to our contributors. The official line is that Hush Hush City is not Vancouver, although other seasons have, admittedly, borrowed heavily on its neighbourhoods and geography. It’s only natural, I suppose! You’ll have to read and see!
SM: Why anonymous?
LK: Anonymity not only prevents writers from being biased or giving in to standard forms they are known for already, but it adds another layer of mystery. We hope while following Hush Hush City readers and writers will be asking themselves what Vancouverites are behind their favourite characters.
SM: What are you hoping for readers and contributors to take away from this project?
DL: For the contributors: a unique experience that challenges writers to be improvisers and improvisers to be writers. For the readers: that feeling that you get about ten minutes after drinking a triple espresso, but before the jitters set in. Oh and a little bit of fame would be nice, for all involved.
SM: What’s the end result going to be?
LK: We have no idea… and that is part of the magic! At the end we will be celebrating with writers and followers of Hush Hush City, and we’ve already got Season 4 in the works.
SM: I hear you two are good collaborators! What else are you working on together?
DL: Lizzy and I are training together for the Vancouver Marathon! 3:45, baby!
SM: What do you like best about working with each other?
LK: We share a very similar combination of creativity, inventiveness and excitement – and our American entrepreneurial genes ensure that we see the project through. It’s also been really exciting to see so many different groups of people become involved in a project together – it’s like facilitating a creative orgy without any of the messy cleanup or awkward mornings after.
SM: What do you like least about working with each other?
DL: Little known fact: Lizzy can’t do ANY work unless “Unbreak My Heart” by Toni Braxton is playing quietly in the background. I suspect she doesn’t really like my tendency to show up to meetings in spandex, but she’s been relatively nice about it.
Check out Hush Hush City, starting January 1st!