The second annual BC Youth Poetry Slam championship, Hullabaloo, is coming to Vancouver April 10-14!
The creation of RC Weslowski and Chris Gilpin of Vancouver Poetry House, Hullabaloo brings young slam poets from across the province together to compete on stage. Not a fan of regular poetry readings? Don’t worry– slam poetry was actually conceived as the answer to the boring poetry recital.
As we covered in the last post, there are few rules to slam poems (no props, no music, nothing over three minutes) and winners are selected by randomly-chosen audience members. That ensures each event will be unpredictable, exciting and nothing like the last. Don’t miss it!
The Teams:
15 teams from around the province will be competing- one of which will be formed April 9th in the Last Chance Slam Cafe Deux Soleils, as youth ages 14-19 who are not yet registered for Hullabaloo will compete for a spot on the Wild Card Team.
Tim Rolls: Hi! I’m Tim Rolls, a passionate designer, instructor at Vancouver Film School, and founder of Art Not Ads. We’re a collective that works to make public space beautiful through installations and community projects.
SM: What is Captures about?
TR: Captures is about giving Mount Pleasant residents a chance to tell stories about their community through photographs. Each participant becomes a thread in a visual tapestry that shows the diversity of the neighbourhood. The exhibit allows visitors to create their own stories as they connect with the photos, and we hope it helps paint a better picture of what the community is about.
SM: How did the idea form between the three of you? Have you done other work together in the past?
TR: After hearing about the Neighbourhood Small Grants program, I started researching communities, how they’re defined, and what really makes one. It seemed everyone had their own response, so it became the perfect subject to explore for the project. I went to college with Celia, and we’ve worked on one major project called Solstice, for the Illuminate Yaletown festival in 2011. I had worked with Matt in a studio capacity before, and when I told him about the project, he was eager to help in any way he could. All three of us had our own strengths that contributed to making this happen, and it was great to see it unfold that way.
SM: How did you fund the project?
TR: Our initial grant was through the Vancouver Foundation’s Neighbourhood small grants program. As the project evolved and grew, we got a print sponsor to help with the growing final production costs. They fell through at the last minute, so we turned to crowd funding through Indiegogo to make the project happen. The response was phenomenal, everyone was very supportive, we even had local blogs and publications helping to get the word out. We raised over $2100 in about 2 weeks, surpassing our goal.
SM: How did you come up with the idea of a scavenger hunt?
TR: We wanted to give participants a starting point, to get them thinking about the things that make their community great. Even for myself if worked well, because the list would stick in my subconscious, and I’d see something while walking around and think “OH, that’s perfect!” I think that’s the fun part, like urban treasure hunting.
SM: Any that didn’t make the exhibition that stood out in some way?
TR: We tried not to filter the images, these are other people’s ideas, and it was important not to censor them. There were a couple that we had to take out, due to being really low quality and hard to make out. I was definitely surprised by the number of bicycle photos… this community really loves their bikes!
SM: What’s your favourite thing about Mount Pleasant?
TR: My secret spot, the climbing tree. It’s this enormous, beautiful old conifer on top of a hill. It looks normal from far away, but you can pull the branches apart and inside is a clearing where the branches are all worn smooth from years of climbing. About halfway up is a net installed like a hammock, where you can lay and see all of downtown and the whole north shore. It’s pretty magical.
SM: What’s your hope for the future of Captures?
TR: Captures grew so much from our initial concept, which was based around distributing disposable cameras to a small group of residents. It would be great to take it even further, maybe featuring entire cities. With the internet and digital photography being so ubiquitous, I’d love to see where we can go with it.
SM: What are some of your other favourite public art projects in Vancouver?
TR: I really love the work Alex Beim and his crew at Tangible Interaction are doing. They’re great guys, too. They did a temporary installation during the Olympics called “Seed of Truce” that allowed participants to write their thoughts on a “seed” that contained an LED light. The seeds were shot up into the air and fluttered down into a net, where they collected and grew as more people contributed. Like a modern wishing well of good intentions.
SM: Do you think Vancouver is No Fun City or is it a good home for creative people and communities?
TR: I moved here from Edmonton about 3 years ago, and it was definitely the creative communities and energy that drew me here. There is also a very money-driven, business oriented side to the city, but whatever you’re into artistically, there’s a community for it here if you look for it. Toss in the mountains and ocean for great energy and inspiration, and you have an amazing place for creative people to live.
Check out Captures, now exhibiting on the corner of Kingsway and E Broadway, across from Our Town!
To follow the work of Art Not Ads and get involved in their next project, find them on Twitter & Facebook
Vancouver’s favourite storytelling night returns on Thursday, March 29th, with an evening of stories about border crossing. With our upcoming Issue 9 themed around geographic borders and identity boundaries, well, we’re pretty excited to hear what they have to say.
Rain City Chronicles has been enthralling audiences since December 1st, 2009, when their first show was staged at Little Mountain Gallery. Featuring speakers from all walks of life sharing five-minute stories loosely organized around the theme and punctuated by musical performances, the nights are entertaining for their unpredictability, honesty and intimacy. Rain City Chronicles is the creation of two ladies, Lizzy Karp and Karen Pinchin, who impressively orchestrate a flawless, uniquely entertaining event every two months, wrangling new storytellers and winning larger audiences each time.
This coming Thursday promises to be spectacular as usual, with musical performances from The Ruffled Feathers and Christopher Smith. Storytellers are yet to be announced, but the mystery is part of the fun. Bring your friends or come alone and make some new ones- but don’t miss it!
Rain City Chronicles: Crossing Borders Thursday, March 29th, 2012 The Western Front (303 East 8 Avenue)
6:30 PM Tickets
There are a few simple rules to slam poems, in case you were wondering: no props, no costumes, no musical instruments, and nothing over three minutes. Beyond that, anything goes. “Someone could do a haiku, or a hip-hop piece, a rant, a lyrical love poem, or a mix of comedy and poetry,” says RC Weslowski, founder of the Vancouver Youth Slam and c0-creator of Hullabaloo. “By definition, there isn’t really a type of poem called a slam poem.”
So what distinguishes a slam poem from the garden variety? Apparently, it’s not about the poet so much as the audience. Weslowski is wary of laying down any definitions (“there’s a bit of an argument between the poetry slam circles”), but tells me, “What the poetry slam does is encourage poets to engage with the audience. At the Youth Slam we have poets getting up and talking about the teachers’ strike- they are talking about stuff that’s relevant to an audience, and relevant to their audience, the youth of today. You’re not just dong it for yourself, you’re trying to avoid being self-indulgent and appealing to your own tastes, you’re attempting to make a connection with the audience.”
A little history of the slam poem.
The origin of slam poetry dates back to the 1980s, when American poet Marc Smith realised how bad poetry readings could be. “He was going to readings and poets were just getting up and reading into their papers, and not paying attention to the audience,” says Weslowski, “And they were boring the people who were there.” He devised a different method that would keep the audience interested and provide a new challenge for the poets.
A poetry slam revolutionizes not only the poetry reading, but the universal competition metric of a scoring system. Instead of experts or trained individuals, the judges are five audience members, picked at random. They get cards with scores from 0 to 10 (10 remains the highest score) and vote for their favourites based on whatever criteria they decide matters, be it style or content.
“Everybody acknowledges that it is a gimmick, and it’s entirely arbitrary, because the next night there’s five different judges and the poem that won the night before won’t win. That’s why we encourage people to experience in style, in writing and performance, and not to talk it too seriously. Only take seriously working on your skills as a writer and performer,” explains Weslowski.
Hullabaloo and the Vancouver Youth Slam
Weslowski has been mentoring young poets for years, including as the founder of the Youth Poetry Slam (A Vancouver Poetry House project), now in its fifth year. The Poetry Slam convenes every fourth Monday at Cafe Deux Soleil for a slam. He also works with Wordplay, another Vancouver Poetry House program, that sends poets into schools to do poetry workshops with students and introduce them to slam poetry.
A few years ago, he and fellow Vancouver Poetry House member Chris Gilpin were watching Chicago high school poetry-slam competition documentary Louder Than a Bomb and decided to emulate it in Vancouver. The result was Hullabaloo, a competition inviting teams from around BC to compete in Vancouver and as a by-product building a provincial community of young poets. Impressive for any new arts venture, the first year was a success, which Weslowski attributes partly to the “critical mass of interest” generated by the Vancouver Youth Slam and Wordplay.
What does Weslowski hope the competitors, from Grades 9-12 around the province, will get out of the experience? “They’ll be encouraged to continue their writing. To know they have lots of peers within the province who are into the same thing that they are. If you’re into poetry and writing and books, you can often feel alone and isolated, like a big geek. And maybe you are a big geek, but then you come to this event and find out that there are other geeks just like you out there, and they’re totally into poetry as well.
“I hope they’ll keep on writing and be inspired by the other poets, the featured performers. And they’ll know that if they chose to, this is something they could keep on doing. This is something they could do with their lives.”
And what of the slam poetry neophyte who attends Hullabaloo- what can they hope to get out of it? “They’ll get to see that the kids of today are able to speak for themselves. They’re smart and articulate and they know what’s on their minds. They don’t need interpreters to speak for them. The audience can get inspired and feel a sense of pride about kids. It’s great. That’s kind of what we’re in it for—all the mushy reasons.”
Sounds pretty good to us!
Check back at the end of March for full details about Hullabaloo 2012, or for info and advance tickets to the semi-finals and finals now, visit their website!
Don’t worry, children! Nana is back with guidance for all your problems and worries. And if that doesn’t help, there’s always liquor.
On to the questions!
My boyfriend skipped Valentine’s Day altogether. He thinks it’s a made-up holiday designed to sell people things, which might be true, but is it so wrong to expect him to show some sign of love on a holiday dedicated to showing signs of love? I feel resentful.
well darling, first i must ask, does he show “signs of love” the rest of the year? is it chocolates and flowers that makes you feel loved? i mean really, there are so many reasons to feel resentful in this life, don’t let this one be one of them. now if he doesn’t give you the chocolates and flowers that you love on your birthday, then i would worry and look elsewhere for love!
if valentine day is that important to you and not to him, cover yourself in chocolate and makehim eat it all off… pooff, no more resentment! I am in a new relationship with someone who was initially more into kink than I was. I am admittedly vanilla. As we’ve been trying more things (bondage, ropes, spanking etc) it’s becoming more obvious that I am REALLY into kink—there are somethings I’d like to try, but I don’t think she’d be into. Advice?
mmmm, admittedly vanilla… really? already tried bondage, spanking, ropes…. i want to know what the “etc” were.
darling, though i would love to radicalize vanilla, you probably never were, “vanilla.” i’d say you were at least neopolitan. just enjoy all the kinky sex you are having in your new relationship, and please darlings, be safe, it’s all fun and games until someone loses something somewhere dangerous, or loses an eye. and by the way, you might be underestimating your new mate, why would they not want to do some other new things with you, to you? everything tells me you will be pleasantly surprised! ENJOY!
I am one of those unfortunate people who moved across the country for their significant other. Now that we’ve broken up I feel like crap because all of our friends were mutual (as in his). Should I give up my job/flat etc and just move home?
oh sweet soul, shit happens as they say in english… firstly i am sorry and hope that you do what is best for your emotional and
physical health. however, what we do in these situations can go a long way in this life. we can either make lemonades out of lemons, or make everyone’s (especially our own) lives as complicated and painful as possible.
so, how crucial is your job to your future and present? is your flat a rental? is the breakup is final? depending on your answers, you might want to try a third place, not home, not across the country, but a third place where you can make your own friends and break old patterns instead of hearts.
you will be happy again, choose wisely, this will change your life forever! good luck darling.
I just started dating a girl who I really like. About a week ago I met some of her best friends for the first time, and one of them is a girl I had previously had really hot, no-strings-attached sex with . It was awkward because we pretended not to know each other, rather than explain our connection. Now what? Do I admit that we do in fact know each other, and tell my girlfriend how? Or do I keep silent and hope the other girl does too?
that’s a good one. it is interesting that you both pretended not to know eachother… mmm… why the mystery unless you are afraid of something or someone’s reaction. fear is never a good thing in my book, unless it enhances your present sex life with your girlfriend. if your sex life and relationship is respectful and realistic, you will already know what tramps you’ve been in your pasts and move on!
i would say tell your girlfriend about the hot sex you had with one of her friends, before someone else does… because one thing about women sweetheart, WE TALK, and that can be more dangerous and complicating then not telling. of course, then have the hottest, strings-and-ropes-attached sex with her… good luck!
Carmen Mathes is a writer, artist, and UBC PhD candidate who took time out of her busy schedule to chat with Sad Mag about her contributions to the upcoming Issue 9, plagerizing Jack London, and the best gymnastics video on YouTube. Read on!
Sad Mag: Who are you?
Carmen Mathes: I am an academic and a romantic, who is spending the next six months in the South of Germany reading poetry.
SM: What are you writing for Issue 9? CM: I’m interviewing two twins who, having grown up together and then settled at opposite ends of the country (Vancouver and Montreal), are both breaking into the Canadian fashion scene. Although they are going about “making it” in extremely different ways, both possess panache, style and sophisticated cosmopolitanism.
SM: What is the first piece of writing you were proud of? CM: I wrote a short story in grade three that was a rip-off of Jack London’s White Fang. The teacher read it aloud to the class and my cheeks were definitely flushed with pride the whole time.
SM: Favourite Vancouver authors? CM: Gillian Wigmore (although she’s based in Prince George) and Rachel Rose are two of my favourite Vancouver poets. I brought Gillian’s collection Soft Geography with me to Germany, and it’s currently living bedside.
SM: Favourite place in Vancouver to read and write? CM: Upstairs at Trilussa pizzeria on Main Street. Go say hi to Alessandro and he’ll make you a breakfast pizza with nutella, strawberries and parmigiano-reggiano.
SM: Best bookstore? CM: The miniature Pulp Fiction on West Broadway
SM: Current favourite YouTube video? CM: This 1979 recording of Russian gymnast Natalia Shaposhnikova’s bar routine, which I found on the wonderful Rick McCharles’s website GymnasticsCoaching.com.
SM: Favourite annual Vancouver event? CM: Eastside Culture Crawl!
SM: Where are you as you answer these questions? CM: Die Vogelhaus Café und Kaufhaus. I’m sitting on a cushion in a little space between the regular tables and the window. I’m at street level, looking out onto the Münzgasse in die Altstadt of Konstanz.
SM: Last album you listened to? CM: “The Goat Rodeo Sessions” from Yo Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile.
SM: What are you most excited about right now? CM: This new word I’ve just learned—Möglichkeit—which means “possibility” in German. That is how my life currently feels: filled with possibilities.
Everyone loves gingers! We love them so much we fear that they are going extinct, even though that is a baseless rumour. Fortunately, there are plenty of redheads in Vancouver, and they are all coming to Ginga Ninjas!!
Ginga Ninjas is first and foremost a celebration of gingers, featuring the Greff Band, the Isotopes (with redheaded guests!), and the Dead Voices. It’s also a celebration of ninjas, who are also cool. Come for the music, stay for the ninja photobooth by Christine McAvoy and St Patrick’s Day shenanigans!
Details:
GINGA NINJAS
St Patrick’s Day!
17 March 2012
The Cobalt (917 Main)
Doors at 8PM, Show at 9PM
$8 at the door (gingers get in free!) RSVP on Facebook
Project Runway is great and all, but wouldn’t you like the chance to see a crazy fashion competition and subsequent fashion show live? Of course you would, you’re not a soulless robot! Costumes, cocktails and a merciless panel of judges are three of the finest pleasures in life, and you can have them all on March 9th at Walt Street Fashion Design Competition.
The Art Institute of Vancouver is hosting this no-sew design competition and fashion show. According to the press release, Walt Street is a “fusion of classic Disney characters with icons of popular culture,” including a tantalizing-sounding Lady Gaga/WALL-E combination.
Key words in the press release included: homemade glue paste; cat suits; polka dots; capes; and blue hair. Sounds like the most amazing fashion show ever to us.
Friday, March 9th Vinyl Retro Lounge (455 Abbott) Doors @ 8PM, Show @ 9PM Tickets $10** More info on Facebook
**available at the door or in front of the AIV Art Gallery from 12:30PM to 1:30, March 2nd-8th
Rachel Aberle and Adrian Glynn McMorran, by David Cooper
In 1974, Leonard Cohen was asked why his album New Skin for the Old Ceremony was a failure in North America and the U.K. but a success in Europe. “Maybe it’s because they can’t understand my lyrics,” he replied. Both Cohen’s self-deprecating wit and the achingly sad poetry of his lyrics are on display in Tracy Power’s play Chelsea Hotel, which is at Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova St) until March 3. Chelsea Hotel adds inventive dance pieces and impressionistic storytelling to Leonard Cohen’s classic songs, often totally revamping their musical arrangements so fresh associations are created. The young cast scampers around a set made of paper filled with discarded poetry drafts, while adeptly switching off on an astounding variety of instruments. Adrian Glynn McMorran stars as the Writer, who acts out romantic regret and creative struggle and sings beautifully. His solo turn, a wrenching rendition of Tonight Will Be Fine, is a show highlight.
Theatregoers familiar with Cohen’s work will hear new and often faster paced versions of his songs, such as a sexy cabaret-infused I’m Your Man and an ironic hard-rocking take on American Idol favorite Hallelujah. The cast’s voices are very, well, different from Cohen’s self-admitted limited range. Neophytes to Cohen will find Chelsea Hotel an excellent introduction to Canada’s unofficial Poet Laureate. And any audience should relish the opportunity to appreciate the depth and beauty of Cohen’s catalogue.
Rachel Aberle is a cast standout, playing a Sister of Mercy – a combination nun, nurse, and muse – with playfulness and intelligence. Sadmag spoke to Rachel Aberle about Leonard Cohen’s current caché, wanting to be a muse, and the state of the theater scene in Vancouver.
Sad Mag: How familiar were you with Cohen’s work before you started Chelsea Hotel? how did your relationship to his work evolve as you were doing the play?
Rachel Aberle: To be honest, I wasn’t super familiar with Cohen prior to this summer when I started to do some research for the auditions. I was familiar with Hallelujah, as I guess pretty much everyone in North America is – but to be honest, the version I was familiar with first was the Jeff Buckley version – which I loved. I remember when I finally heard a recording of Cohen singing Hallelujah thinking, “This is awful! This guy can’t sing!” This was several years ago, in my late teens. The cast is all within about 10 years of each other in age, and we all talked about how Cohen’s voice was something that put us off when we were younger, that it’s something we’ve grown to appreciate as we’ve grown into adulthood. Can’t remember who, but one of the cast said at a talk-back that “Cohen’s not for kids,” and I think there’s something to that.
Through working on the show I’ve come to appreciate him so much, not only in terms of music, but in terms of incredible poetry. I’ve always been a pretty lyrics driven listener, and for that you can’t get much better than Cohen. He was a poet before he was a songwriter, and it shows.
SM: Yeah, i think that’s one of the great things in the show. You can appreciate the lyrics as a captive audience
?RA: that’s great to hear. It’s been a really interesting process to connect such poetic language to some kind of playable acting
SM: Were there any Leonard Cohen songs that you wish had been used in the play, or that you rehearsed and didn’t use?
RA: Those decisions were made before I came on board. We did change and add some of the poetry used in the piece – just certain pieces getting moved around or shortened or changed to other things that Tracey felt told the story and got the audience on board faster and more effectively than what she had originally chosen. Because my knowledge of Cohen was admittedly pretty low before the show, and because we use so many songs (27 to be precise) there aren’t any that I wish were there that aren’t.
SM: Were the writer’s lines in between songs also snippets of cohen poetry?
RA: Yes. Every word spoken or sung in the show comes from Cohen.
?SM: OK, a couple more Cohen questions…Do you have a favorite song? Or a favorite line from his lyrics?
RA: I love Tonight Will Be Fine. I think the chorus speaks to something so profound and so honest about feelings that linger long after one might hope they would. More specifically the line “We swore to each other our love would surely last/You went right on loving, and I went on a fast/Now I am too thin and your love is too vast.” I feel like I’ve been on both ends of that statement – probably everyone has at some point. That feeling of regret, wishing you could feel things that you don’t, or that feelings you have could be matched, when they can’t.
I also think that Famous Blue Raincoat is one of the most beautifully heartbreaking songs I’ve ever heard. I’ve never listened to a song that made me sad so repeatedly.
SM: What do you think Leonard Cohen means to Canadians of your generation? How is it different from how he’s viewed by baby boomers?
?RA: To be honest, I don’t think Leonard Cohen means much to most of our generation, and I hope that changes. I wonder partly if it’s because so much of his music has been so widely covered by other artists, but I know for many people our age that I’ve talked to about this show, the most common response has been that they’re not that familiar with Leonard Cohen — which, prior to the show, was pretty much the case for me as well. I think a lot of people my age think of Cohen as someone that their parents listen to, that they weren’t that into when they were kids.
Hopefully it’s like a lot of music that’s just too mature for younger audiences, and people start to give it a listen now that they’re old enough to understand what the hell he’s talking about. I feel like it’s the kind of music people in their twenties should be listening to all the time. One of my friend’s fathers saw the show and said afterwards that he was tearing up through most of the first act because it brought back so many memories from his twenties. He said you don’t feel those incredible highs and lows forever. I think that’s probably what it means to a lot of people my parents’ age – it’s a reminder of the later years of their youth. His lyrics capture so perfectly what incredible love and incredible loss mean, but at a deeper level that anything you feel at adolescence. The love is vast because you’re old enough to feel like it actually means something real, and the loss is devastating, because it feels like a much deeper investment that’s come up dry.
SM: What instruments can you play? Did you have to learn any for the show?
?RA: Oh the instruments…
I played the cello regularly for about 11 years, but those years were between age 4 and 15… so a bit of it’s in the “riding a bike” camp, in that I learned so young that some of that knowledge will never go way, but I also had been out of practice for so long until about this time last year that my musicianship is definitely still a work in progress in my opinion.
I started playing the ukulele this summer for the fun of it. I played the piano in high school, and actually got to a pretty high level, but have been out of practice so long that it’s really crumbled back into a pretty rudimentary skill
And the bass guitar, which I play in the show – I had never touched until our workshops for the show in early December. Our first day of rehearsal Steve said, “Rachel, how do you feel about playing bass on [First We Take] Manhattan?” I said, “Well, I’m willing to try, but just so we’re all on the same page here, I’ve literally never even tried before.” Steve paused for a second and then said, “Oh yeah. I think you’ll be fine.” I leave that to the audience to judge. The more work I get in theatre, the more I’m starting to feel like half of the battle is deciding what you’re crazy enough to agree to try, and then dealing with the fallout of that agreement.
SM: Have you done much musical theatre before?
?RA: I’ve done a bit. I was one of those kids in high school that was really into musical theatre, and then I sort of drifted away from it when I went to university, and then to theatre school. I’d pretty much stopped thinking of myself as a musical theatre performer. Then in the last year all the shows I’ve wound up doing, while they haven’t all been full musicals, they have been full of music, and have required me to sing.
SM: What was it like growing up immersed in the theatre world? Did you always know you wanted to be an actor, or did you ever have phases of rebelling and wanting to go into business or something bourgeois like that?
RA: I had bouts of thinking that maybe I wanted to be a writer, and for a time even a lawyer – I don’t think they came from a place of rebellion however (and you couldn’t really call becoming a writer bourgeois). Growing up with a Dad who was in theatre taught me from a young age that it was a possibility – that the idea of trying to pursue a career in theatre (while maybe still insane) wasn’t impossible. People did it. Having that knowledge meant that I never went through the phase of thinking “Well, yeah, I want to be an actor, but nobody actually does that… so what am I going to do for real?”
?SM: And I bet a lot of your peers did go through that phase, right?
RA: Yeah – I mean when I think of the people I went to high school with who I did theatre with, I don’t think many of them are doing it any more. And to be fair, for some of them it was never something that they wanted to pursue after high school – but I do wonder how many more young people might consider going into theatre, or music, or any artistic field for that matter, if it dawned on them that it was a viable option.
SM: How do you feel about the current state of the theatre scene in Vancouver?
?RA: That is a tough question to answer. I guess what I would say is that I know for sure that I’ve been incredibly lucky with the opportunities that I’ve had, not only because opportunities are scant (and that’s true of theatre anywhere), but also because the projects I’ve gotten to work on have all been very fulfilling, and very different from each other, and have all involved incredible people. Of course I wish there was more funding – that should go without saying but unfortunately we need to keep saying it, and keep saying it, and then say it some more. And I wish I could figure out what would get the average Vancouverite more interested in seeing plays.
There is so much to do in this city. I get why on a sunny day people want to go to third beach, and I get why on a rainy day people are more interested in going up on a mountain where it’s snowing and riding boards and skis back down the mountain. What I wish for is a way to make people who are interested in those things also interested in sitting down and watching some fantastic storytelling. I would like to figure out a way to build the theatre into the recreational vocabulary of this city … I’m just not sure how.
SM: In Chelsea Hotel you play a muse. Have you ever been a muse? Or had a muse?
RA: (laughs) If I’ve ever been a muse, nobody told me. In terms of having a muse, I’ve definitely wrote some things based on or about people that have come in and out of my life – and I’ve definitely used relationships I’ve had with people as a way to connect with material I’ve worked on as an actor.
SM: Is it strange singing the same songs over and over again? Do you start making up your own versions of the songs?
?RA: It hasn’t seemed strange yet, and I think part of that is that the material is so rich that there are a lot of new things to find every day. I have an unfortunate habit of replacing words with other words completely subconsciously, and have definitely sang the words, “Suppose that he froze when the wind took his NOSE,” instead of, “CLOTHES” a few times in rehearsal, and once while rehearsing Take this Waltz I sang “I’ll bury my soul in a sandwich” rather than “bury my soul in a scrapbook.” But intentionally? No, I’m happy with the material so far
SM: (laughs) Sandwich!
RA: I know, I always think that if those were the lyrics it would mean that she dealt with the break up by eating her feelings.
?SM: It’s a good Freudian slip, something to sing when you are hungry.
?RA: Right?
SM: Right!
Chelsea Hotel
Firehall Arts Centre (280 East Cordova)
Now until March 3rd, 2012
$25 regular, $20 students and seniors Ticket info here
Ryeberg Curated Video is a Toronto event featuring writers discussing their favourite YouTube videos. In March, its first show ever is happening outside of Toronto– right here in Vancouver!
The line-up is great, with featured writers and web curators Charlie Demers (author of Vancouver Special); Miriam Towes (author of A Complicated Kindness); Michael Turner (author of Hard Core Logo); Stephen Osborne (publisher of Geist Magazine)
Don’t miss it!
Ryeberg Live Vancouver
The Waldorf (1489 E Hastings)
March 6th, 2012
Doors at 7PM, show at 8PM
$12 in advance, $10 at the door (includes a copy of Geist) Full details at Ryeberg.com
