From FUSE
“To dream the impossible dream…” sings Don Quixote in the musical Man of La Mancha. In Skydive, opening at Theatre Calgary this October, the “impossible dream” becomes reality when two actors, one a quadriplegic, are made to fly.
Calgarians caught a sneak peek of the show at FUSE ’08, Theatre Calgary’s new-play development initiative. Featuring James Sanders of Vancouver’s Realwheels theatre company, the action takes place “in that split second of crisis when life flashes before [the characters’] eyes.”
Realwheels is dedicated to “engaging artists with disabilities to create, develop and produce high-octane shows” using a “non-issue-based approach to the representation of disability.”
Skydive tells the story of two brothers as they’re plummeting towards Earth and are trying to “untangle the threads of their dysfunctional relationship and long abandoned dreams.”
“Bob Frazer [who appeared in the initial production] and I committed to do a play that spoke nothing about physicality,” says Sanders. “We read every Canadian play published for two performers, and all of them had some link that wouldn’t honour our values.”
So, Frazer and Sanders teamed up with Governor General’s Award-winning playwright Kevin Kerr and started brainstorming. “Bob came up with the idea of, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could fall from the sky?’” laughs Sanders.
To simulate the skydive, special contraptions are used. Each machine consists of a long pole on a cantilever, with an operator on one end and the actor on the other. Choreographer Sven Johannson created the machines 20 years ago to free dancers from gravity. The show features some stunning aerial choreography.
“The way it’s revealed I’m in a wheelchair comes as a surprise. I’ve acted the whole show without the audience knowing I have a disability,” says Sanders. “First, we are presenting art of the highest calibre. Tucked away, there is a nice subliminal message: people with disabilities do great things, but it doesn’t define who they are by what they do.”
Beyond Eden is the second play, a musical that will undergo a workshop at FUSE. Written by Bruce Ruddell, Beyond Eden is based upon a true story. In the 1950s, a group of anthropologists travelled to the Queen Charlotte Islands to save the rotting totem poles of the Haida Gwaii. They moved them to Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology, where they remain today. “Should we be taking artifacts out of a community for preservation? What’s better, preservation at all costs, or letting them go back to the land?” says Theatre Calgary artistic director Dennis Garnhum. “I’m torn. I’ve seen the poles at the museum and am struggling with it, too. The play tries to be open-minded, though it leans toward a warning. It says, ‘Be careful. Every choice you make has repercussions.’”
Garnhum describes the music in the show as “folk rock.” John Mann, of Spirit of the West, will participate in the reading. “If we choose to produce it, it will be gigantic. I want people to come out and give their feedback and let me know if they think, ‘Yes, get behind that one.’”
The final play at FUSE is Conni Massing’s adaptation of W.O. Mitchell’s western classic, Jake and the Kid. “It’s wonderful to tap into peoples’ experiences and memories of W.O., and it’s also terrifying at the same time, because people have certain expectations,” says Massing.
Mitchell’s Jake and the Kid is a collection of short stories set in the 1940s and ’50s, many of them having originally aired on CBC Radio. “Jake will trot out tall tales to the kid explaining how the world works, which may or may not get him into trouble,” says Massing. “The essence of those stories is always something very important that teaches kids about human nature.
“I’ve taken about five of the stories and have woven them together into one,” she adds. “I’ve added a lot of material to fill in the gaps and make the structure work. But, as long as I try to speak in the voice of W.O. and maintain the tone of his material I'll remain true to him.”
