Day One & Two in Flashbacks

Eric, Garry, Kim, Annie, Holly, Aaron, Ali, Sophie: Pre cross-Atlantic trek

This will be a brief, pictorial catch-up for the past few days, which includes:
Fresh-faced, eager and mildly freaked out with anticipation at the Halifax airport because our flight to Montreal kept getting delayed. But in the end, we went with plenty of time to catch the Montreal to Frankfurt flight...
Which was relatively painless, with personal movie screens and two *ahem* meals...
Which led to Frankfurt where things got slightly less glamorous as our final one-hour flight dangled so tantalizingly close, yet kept getting inexplicably delayed... and delayed... and delayed. Crash and burn for most of us. Holly, Sophie & Ali caught up on journals and scrapbooks, there was some sort of food from some random kiosk and much somnolence!
...Finally three hours late, we got on the plane and were SO grateful to be met at the Berlin airport by Garry's friends Chris and Til who chauffered us, and our considerable amount of baggage, around and around and around to Garr's mum's flat, to the loft and to Flo's and back to the loft where Garry and I picked up the Academy plus Annie for the first U-Bahn trek...
... whereupon the self-serve ticket kiosk refused to accept my credit cards in payment and I had to borrow back some Euros from previously distributed per diems to get the tickets. bah!
BUT when we arrived back at Ann's, there was cheese and bread and yummy rice and baked chicken dinner and ice cream and a final acknowledgement that we had indeed arrived... albeit a little baked ourselves.
Flo saved the day on the return U-Bahn trip by getting our week-long passes on his debit card (he has beeb repaid, god love 'im) and the three groups in their various accommodations settled in for some much delayed rest!

Tuesday morgen... I did necessary things like banking and buying a cell phone for Academy to have on hand for local connectedness/emergency contact... the lofters had a long sleep in. The eight of us convened at the loft for a reconnaissance mission of the neighborhood. Simply walking along the street turning right from the loft's building front, we discovered grocery stores, bakeries, internet cafes, döner shops, other restaurants and cafes, odds and ends stores, photocopy places... the highlights: first döner experience for the Academy... two thumbs up all around... and a stop in at Theaterforum Kreuzberg where everyone had a chance to view the space where "Four Actors" and "Apocalypse" will be staged in a few nights.

A call from the Embassy. Gabrielle will not be able to meet Garry tomorrow as planned after all, but they are coming to see the showson Friday night. Whee!

Grocery shopping for the lofties, followed by a rehearsal for the Potsdam cafe and a deliecious pasta dinner whipped up by Holly, Garry and Eric. I think a few other helpers here and there but the kitchen is tiny so practically speaking, three at a time.

And now... sleep. Work tomorrow for both groups on their respective shows. The old four have to rethink staging for the new space, converting from a thrust stage to proscenium arch plus a plethora of lighting options... Academy to determine the ending and smooth out transitions for their show. Good work, good times.... alles is gut.

Flight Day

I'm lying in bed, the possibilities of today are exciting. Today we fly. today we have wings. 

I have been meaning to blog since monday but  the packing and seeing friends before I leave have gotten in  the way. as we prepare, beatrice starts to solidify for me. Everyday she seems more real, more three dimensional. Last night I saw Zuppa's Poor Boy, currently playing at the Neptune Theatre. It gave me a sense of what collective creation can do, I feel very inspired and I'm excited to get to work in our Lofty loft in Berlin. 

Food, last minute packing, flights.

Today is going to be a good day.

The (Real) Berlin Project

20.2., 21.02. and 22.02.

four actors in search of a nation/

apocalypse 2009

Theaterforum Kreuzberg (tfk)

Eisenbahnstr. 21

20 Uhr

26.02., 27.02, 3.03 - 5.03.

the canada project

FEZ-Berlin

An der Wuhlheide 197

9:30-13:00 Uhr

28.02.

café dapopo

museum FLUXUS+

Schiffbauergasse 4f, Potsdam

ab 19 Uhr

Today was the last Academy creation day in the space at Kempt Road. Phlis McGregor from CBC Radio came along to interview Holly, Aaron, Ali & Sophie and record some of their rehearsal. The interview will probably air some time next week, so have a listen!

The T-shirts Sophie designed were distributed. Thank you to Sarah and Kirk at Advanced Screen Printing on Strawberry Hill for working with us and producing some awesome shirts!

Tomorrow... we fly. Today, we pack.

Can I put the fog in my carry-on?

Today was the world's most unexpected, well-timed snow day.

I took advantage of the day off and organized my packing. There's a satisfaction that comes with condensing your life into a purple suitcase. Looking around my room, I wonder why I have anything else.

I dreamt of converting European prices last night. Take the price; add half of it plus a few more dollars...
As I upload some choice cd's onto my iPod for the trip, I have a faint realization that the music I choose will become inextricably linked with Berlin in my mind.

To rewind for a moment, the Ross Creek experience was wonderful. The shared meals were colorful, energizing and German. Thanks to Kim for all the food she shared with us.

I was in Halifax yesterday and found myself trying to absorb everything before leaving for three weeks. I haven't seen the city so foggy in a long time. I'll miss being by the ocean.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your two day call.

DaPoPo in P/review

After working intensely on both shows last week – Apocalypse 2009, in particular – at Ross Creek, during our only truly luxurious rehearsal situation since the 3-day PARC workshop last December, our p/reviews kicked off last night. 

Two shows, an open space/dance floor, four actors, a few neighbours, strangers, friends in the audience. 

 

"What is, after all, the essence of theatre? The dressing room...?"

(The new Menz Bar includes a dressing room for DaPoPo, which doubles, magically, as a coat check.) 

Last night, we donned our red T-shirts and toques for Four Actors in Search of a Nation, DaPoPo's inaugural script, a good four years after its initial creation.  

The two-year (with intervals) labyrinthine creation process for Apocalypse 2009 brought us back to the beginning: the excitement of creation. 

Weather in Berlin

For the next five days in Berlin: Highs of zero, lows of -2 to -4. Light snow, light snow showers each day.

Pack your boots!

Tonight we start three nights of public previews of "Four Actors" and "Apocalypse." We've been working so hard, when we can get the time to work and we're anxious to have some feedback from audiences. Last night I dreamed I was in the Labyrinth. But not as myself... as Pasiphae.

Ross Creek 4x6

Ross Creek 2

A beautiful day in a field of sun-winter, pink-tinged sky lightening to full morning. We gather. We stretch. We roll on the floor. We make sound. And then there is oatmeal. We fortify. We work. Academy in one room; us in the other. In November, they had never worked together. This weekend, they solidify as a self-directed collective.

We fortify again. A commune of chopping, chatting, eating, sharing.
We go on a field trip further up Ross Creek Road. The Academy show is set at the beach. This trip is an exploration for their senses. Research. We flounder through thigh-high snow drifts, teeter from rock to rock of the stony expanse. The ocean reclaims a lake of snowmelt pooling and glistening to the shore. Four young people at the water's edge. The ocean drops off the horizon to the vastness of the world beyond. Slate, blue, beckoning edible enigmatic world hanging off of the edge of what the eye can see and beyond what the mind can imagine.

Monster-van refuses to go backwards up the hill. Wheels spinning, we lose traction and slip in the wrong direction. Spirits determined, using the tools and resources we have... we just do it. Bit by bit, sometimes gaining and losing in the same go, but together a sum total of success. And relief.

We work. We fortify again. We work more. We lose traction, we slip. We gain and lose. But together... heading in the right direction.

Ross Creek 1

Two hours out of the city a string of little towns leading off the highway. Windsor gives way to Port Williams which leads to Canning, with a pit stop at deGraaf's for snacks. Aaron (recently moved from Ottawa) has not seen much of Nova Scotia 'til this moonlit, blue-white snowswept introduction. Up the mountain - as mountainous as one gets in the Valley - we turn right, which is wrong, way but happily encounter a lookoff and enjoy the unexpected hazy vista of twinkling house lights stretched out below, the glitterati of our night.

Garry, at the Centre hours before, stands in the driveway as we roll up. Did he have a Jedi-like sense we would be arriving? He shows us around the centre. The doors to the rehearsal hall open. Precious. The the gift of space. Open space to move, create, discover. Empty but for the potential we bring.

And the kitchen too. Bags of groceries shuttled in from the back of monster-van* - bags full of potential meals, conversations to be had, work to be shared. A cornucopia of plenty. Richness for a Poor Theatre.

The Academy investigates nooks and crannies, art in situ, tries the musical instruments. We meet MacKenzie and Natalie, two artists also working in residence. On Saturday, they will take a day off and we will have the run of the whole place. On Sunday, I will walk in a work-induced stupor from the rehearsal hall to kitchen. I will see MacKenzie again and he is like a stranger: an alien in a bubble world of enesemble intensity.

But Friday night is still with us, excitement carrying us through our foray into unknown bedrooms, negotiating space sharing, selecting spots, conversations and laughter together and then, finally perchance to sleep, to toss or turn, to dream of the next day.

*thank you Thrifty Car Rental for giving us a break on monster-van, and to our donors for ultimately making it possible for us to pay for it!