Erika Iserhoff Dreams Big

Erika Iserhoff as Mary Richards Lipan

Tonight is opening night for Chocolate Woman Dreams the Milky Way. Hours before, Erika Iserhoff, Dora Award-winning co-set designer weighs in on her experiences as part of the artistic team. Playing until Feb 3rd. Advanced tickets: www.nativeearth.ca

 

Tell me about the amazing development involved with this project?

Please note that I’m just touching the tip of the iceberg in regards to the artistic research and development process of the collective’s work on Chocolate Woman Dreams the Milkway by Monique Mojica.

Going to Panama was certainly an amazing experience, one that will continue to influence my work as an artist & designer. I am thankful for having been included in this research phase of the theatre project. We covered so much ground while in Panama City & Guna Yala.

Guna Yala is comprised of large rainforest areas and little coral reef islands. This was also a time when Monique was meeting family members for the first time and retuning to Guna Yala, her Mother’s family place of origin.

I met Monique and Achu in Panama City, who where there a week before me and had travelled to Guna Yala and back. Everywhere we went the Guna people were so welcoming and willing to share their culture with us.

We travelled to the islands via the rainforest road, the only road that goes to Guna Yala from Panama City. We stayed in a cultural retreat with a group of Guna artists from various artistic disciplines. We stayed at the camp for 3 days and much of our conversations were centered on the exchange of artistic processes, Guna art, cultural stories, and history. The artist retreat is located on controlled borders between Guna Yala and Panama by the forest rangers. The Kuna people control there own borders and monitor who goes in and out of their homelands. The Kuna people are known to be fierce warriors and have always stood up for their beliefs, rights and lands. It was during the early 20^th century where the Guna people led a revolution  against the Panamanian government, and as a result Guna territory was re-established and cultural practices maintained.

After our stay in the rainforest we continued on the journey to the islands. We travelled around many of the islands in traditional boats. As we moved from island to island, we took every opportunity to learn from cultural keepers, mola artists, and community members. The Guna people continue to live extremely connected to the land and sea. Being there you feel a sense of timelessness, disconnection from the hyper-modern world, and connection to the land. One also feels a sense of vulnerability to the elements because the islands are at sea level.

Has your research on textiles changed the way you view your own craftmanship?

Mola’s are created by the women and two-spirit people in the community. Not just any person can take up the art of mola making. It would take a lifetime to learn and perfect. This is the kind of practice is inherited from the family, and passed down from generation to generation beginning at a young age.  This is what makes it Traditional Guna Art.

Molas are quite complex; images found on them are a reflection of Guna life and beliefs presented in abstract forms. Molas are still worn by women and continue to be used in ceremony. More recently they are created for tourism and the collectors market. The process of making a Mola involves a lot of time and expertise. It combines many layers of trade cloth, and a cut away process is used to form the designs, then the layers are sewn into place revealing layers of cloth with contrasting colours and forms. In the western quilting community, this process is referred to as a reverse appliqué technique.

Now when I see a Mola, I see the people and culture behind it. Mola makers are true artist and are responsible for the transmission and continuation of the art form within their community. The mola artists we met have shown me that artistic work involves a commitment to your community, to your practice, and perseverance no matter how long it will take to complete. And continually creating work eventually leads to the development of good craftsmanship.

What is involved with making a show like this? What is your process as designer?

The development of Chocolate Woman Dreams the Milky has been a long process. The project has involved many artists and people from diverse backgrounds. For this piece, Monique has taken the process of creating a mola to create a Kuna theatrical framework, and this is used as the foundation to develop this work. The stories being told are presented in layers like a mola, and the stories are then abstracted, this process of abstraction is also used in mola making and is for the purpose of cultural protection. The process of mola making is also closely related to story weaving; the process of combining many stories and then weaving/assembling together to create a form. Monique grew up with the story weaving process, since she is from the Spiderwoman Theatre family. They gave name and birthed this form of indigenous theatre that breaks the western theatre paradigm.

It was a difficult project to process at certain times in the development stages. In the play, Monique and Gloria play a combination of different characters. The challenge was how does the designer represent all these characters in one costume. There was little time for quick changes for both actors since they never leave the stage. One also needs to work with the set and lighting designers so that all the design elements work together and that the designs are aligned with the process put in place and with Kuna beliefs and cosmology.



 

CAFE DAUGHTER launched!

Cafe Daughter by Kenneth T. Williams, a Gwaandak Theatre Production and Native Earth presentation at the Aki Studio Theatre is up and running, through to Sunday, January 20.

Director Yvette Nolan on Linda Leon's set.

Actor PJ Prudat at the feast, with Nolan and "Loud Lady" and masterful marketer  

Catherine Hernandez in back

Opening Night, with the Honourable Senator Dr. Lillian Eva Quan Dyck in attendance with the Honourable Dr.  Carolyn Bennett, P.C. M.P. speaking with Gwaandak Theatre Board President and Cafe Daughter Apprentice Actor Melaina Sheldon.

PJ Prudat, Senator Quan Dyck (the inspiration for Cafe Daughter), 

playwright Kenneth T. Williams and director Yvette Nolan

Opening Night hosted a bright and warm group of family and icons.
Thanks all, for coming, and thanks to those who have already booked tickets.
 Call 1-800-204-0855 to book your tickets NOW!

of displacement

Wednesday night we hosted a wonderful evening of performance in our Aki Studio Theatre. Unearthing So(u)los was a collection of three works in progress exploring themes of decolonization with an eye to building bridges. Each piece was unique, immersive, thoughtful, and beautiful. In the spirit of development an informal talk back was held at the end of the night by the artists: nishaahuja, Victoria Mata and Rehana Tejpar.

In this talk back an important question was asked by an audience member. They were interested to know how the decision to perform in Daniels Spectrum, a shiny new beacon of the Regent Park redevelopment, could have been made considering the themes within their pieces and their own relationship with communities of displaced people. The question didn’t go unanswered: nisha stated that they considered ‘Daniels Spectrum’ the name on the outside of the building and spoke to her relationship with Native Earth. Victoria referenced the lack of affordable performance space in the city where one could put on such a showcase. In the end it was clear that the question had spurred a conversation, and that the conversation was not over.

nisha working on a Keith Barker play at Weesageechak 24. Photo by Scott Benesiinaabandan

Native Earth recognizes the responsibility that goes hand in hand with managing any venue. We acknowledge that this venue in particular comes with a deeper need to connect with our community and the community of Regent Park. Frankly, this excites and invigorates us. We often speak together about decolonizing the process of creation in theatre, and taking down ruling hierarchical systems in our work. Now we get to really do that, make our own rules, and invite others to do the same.

So, let’s chat.

-          Rae

“Unearthing” was a presentation of three solo works in progress including “Un-settling” by nisha ahuja, “Arterias” by Victoria Mata and “Love Flows Down” by Rehana Tejpar

nisha ahuja will be performing with “The Besetting of Reena Virk”  with the Subtle Vigilance Collective on Dec 1^st at 8 PM and Dec 2^nd at 2 PM in the Aki Studio Theatre. 

A Song For Tomorrow

(l to r) Jeff Yung and Jasmine Chen. Photograph by Gein Wong.

An honouring of our parents’ journeys. An affirmation of hard choices. An elegy that’s told in reverse time. New Harlem Productions partnered with Eventual Ashes to stage Christina Wong’s play, A Song For Tomorrow, at Theatre Passe Muraille for the 2012 SummerWorks Festival.

The pride I feel at producing this moving script is made all the more satisfying because the play was supported by NEPA through OAC’s Creator’s Reserve program and developed with dramaturge Philip Adams (another NEPA stalwart). The team is rounded out by NEPA favourites including a starkly suggestive set by Jackie Chau, striking lighting by David DeGrow and the superior wrangling skills of production manager, Rae Powell.

I can’t hardly wait for you all to see some elegant performances by Jasmine Chen and Jeff Yung, who have been working it out in rehearsal space generously provided by Obsidian Theatre but have also been sighted in character at the T&T night market.

It’s all pulled together by director Gein Wong, whose work we’ve seen recently in Intent City at Mayworks, and will see again when she co-directs the premiere of her own play, Hiding Words (For You), at Enwave in the fall. Check it all the way out!

- Donna-Michelle St. Bernard 

Sat. August 11, 2:00 PM
Thurs. August 16, 7:00 PM
Sun. August 19, 11:30 AM

Sun. August 12, 7:00 PM
Fri. August 17, 2:00 PM

Mon. August 13, 9:30 PM
Sat. August 18, 4:30 PM

For tickets click here.

Tawaw

Tawaw.  It means welcome in Cree, and I have picked up quite a bit of Cree out here in Saskatchewan, over the course of a nine-month residency at the Saskatoon Public Library.  (I used to feel bad that I had more te reo Māori than my own language, Anishinaabemowin, but one of my elders told me to learn the language wherever I was, it all helps).  And I did feel truly welcomed to this community of readers and writers and learners.

From September to the end of May, I had over 170 appointments with more than sixty individual writers in my office at the Library. I saw poets, fiction writers, science fiction writers, playwrights, non-fiction writers, memoirists, first time writers and published authors.  On the days I was not available to the community, I was writing. In my nine months, I wrote an adaptation of The Birds (Aristophanes, not Hitchcock) and several papers about Aboriginal theatre in Canada, which magically transform themselves into chapters in this book about Native theatre. I have spoken about Turtle Gals’ work – The Only Good Indian, The Scrubbing Project, The Triple Truth – about Marie Clements’ Tombs of the Vanishing Indian, The Unnatural and Accidental Women – about Daniel David Moses’ Almighty Voice and His Wife and Brebeuf’s Ghost, about Melanie J Murrays’ A Very Polite Genocide and Native Earth’s Death of a Chief.

I also had occasion to go into classrooms and hospitals and other community spaces to talk about the power of putting the words in the right order.  In a school library, I learned the word tawaw, from a small group of students. 

Photo of Yvette Nolan courtesy of Saskatoon Public Library

The teacher-librarian had assembled grade 6’s and 7’s to hear me talk about being the Writer in Residence, and to encourage literacy.  “A special class will be joining us,” the teacher librarian explained, “called Tawaw.”   The boys of Tawaw have, for whatever reason, not succeeded in the mainstream, and Tawaw was built to support them, to give them tools to achieve.

I had prepared a writing exercise, very simple. Introduce yourself, but in the third person. Tell us something about yourself, in the third person. Tell us something about your dreams – what are you going to be when you grow up. All in the third person.

The students wrote for ten minutes or so, and then we shared.  “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, please allow me to introduce Alicia!  Alicia loves Justin Bieber, and she is going to be a veterinarian when she grows up!”  Wildly thunderous applause. That kind of thing.  I kept returning to the Tawaw table to see if one of the boys would share. Uh uh. No way.

When most of the class had shared their introductions and ambitions, some fanciful, some prosaic, I was starting to wrap up the class, and one of the boys from the Tawaw group raised his hand.  “I’ll go.”

He stood up and read his words.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to Clifton. Clifton is a good friend to his sister Savannah and his best friend Clayton. Clifton is going to be a stonemason, and a hockey player, and a husband and a father. “

He read straight to me, and behind me I could feel his teachers swelling with joy and pride and hope.  I breathed to keep the tears from appearing. Clifton (the student I am calling Clifton) had imagined himself into an adult, into a trade, into healthy relationships. Into a future. He had put the words together and put the idea they expressed into the air.  From his lips to the Creator’s ear.

Tawaw. Welcome, Come in. There’s room.

- Yvette Nolan 

Saying goodbye to King Lear: The dream is over but the memories will never die

Prior to the start of rehearsals for King Lear at the NAC, I found myself downplaying the adjectives; “revolutionary”, “ground-breaking” even “historical”. I am tired of being the mandate, the spectacle on display. And besides, it really wasn’t a first. There have been all-Aboriginal Shakespeare productions. Well, 1 or 2 maybe…over the last 100 years.

Don’t get me wrong. I know I was blessed to be in the show, to be playing not only Cordelia but also the Fool. Wow. Pinch. We are at the stage that August Schellenberg dreamed we would be, we have the talent to pull it off, several times over, so I thanked the grandmothers and grandfathers every day for the opportunity. But I resisted the hype.

I wanted the audience to come because the cast was in command of the language, the direction superb and the show beautifully lit, staged and costumed. I wanted it to be spectacular yet common, a show that could be in any given city, theatre season, year.

But that kind of luxury is reserved for a different type of production and the experience in King Lear reminded me that I am not that kind of actor. This was not just another show, another gig.

First there was an opportunity to work with one of the most generous actors I have met, August Schellenberg, not to mention how great it was to hang with his amazing wife Joan. (Please write that book Joan, I can’t wait to hear more stories!) There was the beautiful resonance of Billy and Tantoo’s Cree accents owning the text and Lorne Cardinal leading us in prayer circle. I witnessed the exponential growth of Jeremy Proulx as an actor, heard the spine-tingling voice of Meegwun Fairbrother night after night and wept each time Gordon White said, “My name is Edgar”. That was especially hard because I came on stage seconds later supposedly dead in the arms of Lear, hiding the small tear running down my cheek. 

 

I marveled at Kevin Loring’s eloquence with the text, had fun as the Fool playing off Monique’s Goneril (easily done from our years of working together as Turtle Gals) and tried my best to keep up with Ryan Cunningham in the King Lear push-up club. The hearts of Keith Barker and Craig Lauzon were so large they burst onto the stage, smilingly. Equally inspiring was the inclusion of the Four Nations Exchange with Suzanne Keeptwo at the helm. These dedicated, generous, community members filled the stage with their love and the King Lear FB page with pictures. The group included the Hendricks family (Keith, Theresa and their 2 beautiful girls), who exemplified what a family unit can be. (Jordyn, I will never forget our not-so-secret handshake).

Cast of King Lear - photograph by Fred Cattroll

These are the memories that make it difficult to say goodbye, evident as we stood in a circle on the stage prior to our last show. We filled the theatre with sage, prayers and tears. There were 51 one of us: Lear and his 50 followers. This was ground-breaking, revolutionary and historical, not because we can or can’t do Shakespeare, but because we worked as a community in a commercial venue, we brought our prayers and discussions about culture to Canada’s National stage, we reclaimed the territory by placing our footsteps in the halls of the NAC and most importantly because no one knows if this will happen again any time soon. 

- Jani Lauzon

Turtlesback

For a while now Native Earth had been talking about different ways to get our stories out. Meanwhile, Seneca College wanted to do some applied research through the Canada Interactive Fund through HeritageCanada. From the beginning it was a partnership in the true sense of the word.

Given the challenge of providing content that would challenge the Seneca researchers to come up with top-quality, innovative work we set out to build a portal that had several components:

·     A connection to our blog

·     A demonstration of our Made to Order theatre offerings

·     A computer game based on a creation story

·     A GPS app that would tell people a little about the history and culture of the land upon which they were standing.

As we approached the first meeting last spring Donna-Michelle St. Bernard and I figured that if Seneca agreed to do one or two of those things it would be great. Imagine our delight when the folks at Seneca agreed to do all four. Imagine our further delight when the folks at Heritage Canada agreed to fund all the activities!!! That meant we had to do it.

The path of working with the entire team from Seneca was a combination of education for all involved. We learned the complications of compositing an animated baby into video of a car that is supposed to be moving. They learned about the culture of the Aboriginal people in a way that was a far cry from the world of Walt Disney. We all learned the lessons of mutual respect and the bond that forms when people work on something important together.

The official launch of Turtlesback will be in the middle of next month (watch this space for the announcement). I will leave the official ‘thank yous’ for that occasion. But, I do need to take a moment to thank Donna-Michelle. The ideas that sprang from her fruitful imagination certainly provided the researchers and animators some wonderful material. As well, Laura Jo Gunter of Seneca College who had the vision to call Native Earth and had the vision to see the benefits this project would have for her students, her institution, Native Earth and our people across this Turtle Island.

-Jed DeCory