Feb. 03, 2010 - Issue #746: Spine
Identity upgrade
Spine explores the gap between the physical and the virtual worlds through disability and Second Life
When it came time for Kevin Kerr to fulfil his commission as Lee
Playwright in Residence at the University of Alberta this spring, he dusted
off an idea that had already been in the works for years with his friends at
RealWheels Theatre in Vancouver—James Sanders' theatre company, which
produces works encouraging understanding of the disability experience, had
already accepted a separate commission for this year's Cultural Olympiad in
Vancouver. The original pitch, Sanders describes, was for something
resembling a re-telling of the Frankenstein story.
But while fulfilling his residency at the U of A, Kerr hoped to team up again
with actor Bob Frazer, who performed in Kerr's Governor General Award-winning
play Unity (1918) in 2002, and actor/producer Sanders—all three had
also worked together on the aerial action-adventure play Skydive in
2007—it just looked like both timelines wouldn't jive. Plus, the
stipulation of Kerr's commission was that his resulting play would include
the graduating BFA Acting class of 2010, and had to be presented at the U of
A before the cast's graduation this spring.
"I knew I wouldn't be able to work both projects, and James said, 'Well, what
if the two projects were the same project?'" Kerr describes, adding that
Sanders, who became quadriplegic from a spinal cord injury in 1990, was the
one who really got the ball rolling for Spine—as he has a tendency to
do with most of his undertakings. "His fearlessness and his belief is what
got this institution on board with the idea," says Kerr. Enter Frazer and
Sanders as Studio Theatre's Distinguished Visiting Artists for
2010—Frazer this time as Director and Sanders joining the onstage
ensemble—and bada-boom: you've got Spine, which is scheduled to
premiere at the U of A before packing up all 12 BFA grads and shipping them
off to Vancouver to perform the show in conjunction with the Paralympic Games
later this month.
Now, Spine actually exists on two different planes of reality; much like our
modern existence is increasingly mediated through virtual networks of people
(or their consciences, if you like), Spine's story lies on stage and in the
bodies of actors, but is also told through the actors' avatars in a Second
Life simulation. (meaning: the corporeal BFA class will be there along with
Sanders onstage, but the audience will also experience them through various
technologies—don't worry, explanation on the multimedia to come
shortly.)
The basis of the story surrounds a collective group of artists, known as the
Precursors, who hit a roadblock in their creative process when one of their
cohort is injured. As Carmela (played by Carmela Sison) recovers from the
recent accident that has left her paraplegic, she meets peer counsellor James
(played by Sanders), who has suddenly lost his job. Meanwhile, a visitor from
Japan named Hokuto (Nikolai Witschl) arrives in Vancouver in search of links
to his Canadian past and meets the Precursors, whom he tries to help by
navigating them through a Second Life plotline.
Somewhere beyond the fray of the Precursors and their Second Life project,
there's a pair of researchers (Darren Paul and Sarah Sharkey) toying with
human experiments that attempt to bridge responses in the nervous system with
psychological and emotional cues. There's yet another character played by the
petite Karyn Mott, an avatar that oversees everything from the year 2152
named, cheekily enough, Lee Playwright (which does conveniently resemble a
Second Life-style moniker).
"Maybe it's what Kevin hopes he could be, a five-foot nothing, red-headed
pretty girl," laughs Frazer. "Essentially, the idea is that somewhere outside
the theatre, outside of our avatar lives, is someone controlling this entire
project: and that is the Lee Playwright. God." Collective chuckles aside,
it's this character that emphasizes the audience's role as avatars watching
the play, too.
The fun of creating the commission was that there were so many pre-given
variables to include, explains Kerr. "Producing independent theatre, it's
pretty rare that you can do a show with 13 actors onstage, so we looked at it
as a gift," he says. "A really great part of the process is knowing the group
of artists that are going to be onstage and wanting to capitalize on that.
They've been fantastic: they are fearless, talented, enthused and inspired
individuals. This [BFA] group has been noted through their journey in school
as an unusually cohesive group and have formed a very strong ensemble, and
that energy has really influenced and aided the project."
In essence, Spine explores the modern idea of identity, and the gap between
the physical body and who we actually are in a world mediated by virtuality.
The point of the show's query, the three collaborators insist, lends to a
theme that resembles the trials and tribulations that many people with
disabilities experience, as their physical bodies can often be mistaken for
who they are instead. This idea, Sanders notes, is summed up by a single line
in the show, when Carmela expresses her frustration in rehabilitation: "I
hate having this catheter in me so I don't wet my pants, I hate shitting
myself. And mostly, I hate how much I have to talk to the staff about pissing
and shitting myself."
"It's not so much what Carmela is going through physically in her body,"
explains Frazer. "It's more what she's going through mentally or emotionally:
'physically I shit and piss myself, big deal—it's the talking about it
that really bothers me.'"
"There's more than the bodily functions that's at stake when you go to
rehabilitation," adds Sanders. "You have to explain everything and you have
to talk about it and rationalize, and I can see how that frustrates Carmela,
and James relates to that because he's been there," he says, noting that
there's a lot of instances in Spine that ring close to home for him. "There
is a bit of personal risk in doing a character that is this close. When I
look at James the character and I look at my own life, there are a lot of
parallels, but the parallels have been fictionalized to provide a what-if.
What if my life took a different direction?" Truly: what if you got the
chance at your own Second Life?
Which leads us to the multimedia bit. Theatre traditionalists (and many a
reviewer) are notoriously reluctant to accept techno-integration onstage. The
Edmonton Sun's Colin McLean has gone on record saying, "I often approach
dramatic multimedia productions with unease. Too often enthusiastic directors
pile on the visuals, obliterating performers and overcoming subtlety." Even
arts and film editor Paul Blinov at our Vue offices expressed a similar
feeling: "If you're lucky, there's some interaction between the actors and
the media, but multimedia often tends to be dispensable, a quick trick that
sometimes feels lazier than it does innovative." (Both comments, it should be
noted, come from reviews of Theatre Network's Buddy last season, which went
on to receive city-wide accolades on how effectively the play used live video
to tell its story).
In Spine, projections and video are used to manifest the Second Life world,
while onstage sensors and actor-controlled Bluetooth devices are used to
conduct a soundscape.
"I mean really, what is multimedia?" quips Frazer. "They started out at one
point with candles onstage, and then they invented lightbulbs, and was that
met with reservations? Then they introduced phonographs—oh my God,
sound that's not live? It's just part of the process of growing as people as
technology grows, too. It's gone beyond candles on the stage."
It's the technologically mediated world, Sanders says, that often causes the
most visceral emotions in people on a daily basis. Think about how a simple
status update on Facebook can send one reeling, or an anonymous comment can
provoke uproar in an online community.
"My interest in the technology is to meet the demand of a more contemporary
audience, and to try and attract people into the theatre that wouldn't
normally go, because theatre is more traditional and it is something they're
not familiar with," says Sanders. "The way we've employed technology in this
show, some of it can be a little slick and sexy and some of it can enhance
the experience for the audience—just as that they might have similar
experiences with their computer, or with a film, or listening to music. I
have no problem with people that want to do traditional, straight-up theatre,
but what we're trying to do is provide an experience that people will enjoy
and that they will invest their emotions in." V
Thu, Feb 4 – Sat, Feb 13 (7:30 pm)
Spine
Written By Kevin Kerr
Featuring the U of A's Graduating BFA Acting Class
Timms Centre for the Arts (87 Ave & 111 St), $10 – $20
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