Things were so busy in the last few months of the Our Connections Residency, we barely had time to catch a breath. Time for a recap!
November saw us jump straight from Diwali celebrations into more Heart of the City Festival events!
We embarked on an ambitious new project!
Four sessions with DTES members to create a collaborative spoken word/shadow puppetry play about love, loss, gentrification and futurisms.
What started as some simple sketches with main characters Marvin Moneybags and Oppiana, the talking Oppenheimer Park crow:
Soon became a full fledged play with a cast of over 25 characters (whew!).
Each week, an incredible, intergenerational group of community members, students and others came together to brainstorm our plot, characters, dialogue and of course puppets!
We created backdrops for each scene while brainstorming the daily sounds and streetscapes of the DTES that could be added to the story!
Amidst some deep heart to hearts and sharing stories about living with the effects of gentrification in the DTES, we found lots of opportunity for laughter, experimental fun and creativity!
A Poh Poh, a Pivot Legal Defender, an ambulance and a limo! Character development in action!
We were blessed with the most magical group that gelled together right away and was oh so focused! 4 sessions in, including a rehearsal, and we were ready to debut our 20 minute play at the Heart of the City festival.
The play was a huge hit! Audience members participated throughout, cheered, clapped and sang along!
The play ended with a poem that had the audience joining in and a beautiful vision of a future DTES where forests have returned, DTES communities are thriving, gardens abound with children's laughter, a healing lodge sits next to UBC exchange and Carnegie Centre, Indigenous knowledge is at the centre of everything
The audience gave us a standing ovation and joined us in a dance around the Carnegie Theatre to end the night! So many requests came in after to remount the play and make it longer!
Dance party!