| Mark Lawes founded Theatre Junction 14 years ago with a desire to bring the great contemporary theatre of the world to Calgary. Now, with the triumphant purchase and renovation of The Grand into a contemporary performance space, and the announcement of their 2006-7 season, Lawes and Theatre Junction have set their feet in a new direction.
"This is our first full season in the new space," says Lawes. "We wanted to start down a new path of how we create theatre and performance. It will be an international season of contemporary performance, anchored by our resident company of artists."
The company is a visionary concept of the coming together of a variety of performance elements, which will (during its residency) produce original performance works under the Theatre Junction banner.
"I don’t like to use words like ‘interdisciplinary,’" says Lawes. "The Grand is a culture house, and theatre has always been about many different elements of performance brought together. But, usually, artists get together and collaborate around a common point of reference – often they know each other, and get together to excavate their common interests. That’s not true of this group. This group of artists doesn’t necessarily have anything in common at the outset – they will need to sit down and create together in a different way than the norm."
As a goal, this one is lofty, given that Alberta’s culture scene enjoys nothing like the support from its municipal and provincial governments that Montreal and Quebec see. And yet, Theatre Junction’s goals are set in a context of artistic growth within Calgary that was unheard of 14 years ago.
"This is the beginning of something amazing for us," Lawes says. "Since our grand opening in The Grand, there have been people wishing for a return of the old Theatre Junction, but I think that space is being filled by other companies now. We want to take our audience on this adventure with us."
The adventure will begin, in the vein of adventurous intemperance, with Die Wilde Nacht (The Untamed Night), about the nightclubs of 1920s Berlin. "We’re looking to reinvent the concept of fundraising events and create something absolutely wild and amazing," says Lawes.
The resident company of artists will be performing their inaugural piece, Show #1, which Lawes describes as "showcasing and introducing the group to the public, and examining themes of archeology, stripping away layers, revealing ourselves and how we relate to this space and time."
Lest we despair of access to challenging, contemporary international performances within the season, audiences will be treated to Daniel Brooks’s renowned play Insomnia. "Brooks is one of the most internationally renowned and contemporary Anglo-Canadian playwrights today," says Lawes. "Insomnia is a sexy, thoughtful multimedia performance."
Also slated is The Old Trout Puppet Workshop’s Famous Puppet Death Scenes, which was a popular show when it debuted this spring. "The very fact that The Old Trouts have found a way to make a living as puppeteers in this cynical world was reason enough to want to bring them into The Grand," says Lawes. "Audiences always come away from their shows amazed that a puppet could make them feel such emotion and passion. They have taken a beautiful old art form and have made it contemporary, relevant and always funny."
But undoubtedly the highlight of the season is the Canadian première of French dancer and choreographer Phillipe Decouflé’s piece Solo: The Doubt Within Me, co-presented with Dancers’ Studio West. Decouflé is perhaps best known internationally for having choreographed the edgy and challenging 1992 Olympic Games opening ceremonies in Barcelona.
"This is such a coup for us," says Lawes. "Phillipe is a major international choreographer. Normally in North America, his work would appear in New York, Toronto and Montreal. For this performance, he’s coming here first, and then going to New York. This is a man who can play the Palais Garnier in Paris and fill it for two weeks. This sort of opportunity for a Calgary audience is so exciting."
And what does Lawes think will be the audience response to Theatre Junction’s courageous and challenging leap? He remains confident that Calgary’s increasing size and increasingly cosmopolitan outlook is equal to the challenge.
"Developing the audience is obviously a building process," he says. "But it irritates me when people talk about artists and audiences as being these two wildly different groups of people. There’s a young, vital population in this town, and they want adventure in their lives." |
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