Nightwood written by Caridad Svitch, directed produced and choreographed by
Eryn Dace Trudell in company with Christopher Sawchyn : Tall and Broad.
transition music: REA'S OBSESSION
pre show music: LOVE and HATE by Ok
transition music: REA'S OBSESSION
live accompaniment: LEYLA TSHONGO
Presented by Buddies in Bad Times Theatre at the 23rd Annual Rhubarb!Festival of
experimental theatre.
Our choreographic offering to, Nightwood brings forth a dark and beautiful, gender
labyrinth. This, continuously altering state of consciousness, journey's the sexual and
spiritual world linking Olokun (Christopher Sawchyn) , Olosa (Eleonore Prokop) and
Yamaya(Laryssa Yanchak). Weaving the erotic with the violent, this path of awareness
mingles elemental landscape with animal instinct and evokes a sense of looking from
inside the body outward
Biographies
Eleneore Prokop is co-director of Riverheart Company (with Micheal Quinsey)
with whom she has written, adapted, produced, choreographed, composed and
performed since 1988. She is also a poet, an avid wilderness canoeist, a Taekwondo student and
mother to beautiful daughters Kaya and Misha.
Christopher Sawchyn is a very physical actor. Past dance theatre projects
include: "Shakster" (Sound Image Theatre), "Raging Dreams" (Theatre Gargantua), "Mourning of Queens"
(Physical Feast) at Buddies. Other Buddies shows: "Members only", "The Martha Stewart Projects", and "Monsieur
DEon is a woman". Most recently seen as Thorin in Mike Kennard's "The Hobbit" at the Globe.
Christopher has been co-creator and actor with Canadia dell'Arte for numerous seasons.
Caridad Svitch's plays include "Anyplace But Here" and "Alchemy of Desire/Dead Man's Blues"
(Northern Light Theatre, Alberta). Books in print "Frederico Grcia Lorca: Impossible
Theatre" (Smith & Kraus), "Out of the Fringe" (TCG). Her most recent collaboration was with
ATC/UK. She is a member of New Dramatists.
Laryssa Yanchak's stage credits include: "Alice", "Arden of Feversham"
(Rapier Wit), "Turandot", "Princess T", "Mephistopheles", "Dr. Faustus" (Graduate Centre
for Drama, UofT), title role in "Romeo and Juliet" (Tempest Theatre), "Hide and Seek-
a game of human spirit" with Famous People Players.
Leyla Tshongo, bringing her civilized nature to her savage beats. First
collaboration with Eryn Dace Trudell Summerworks '98, as percussionist, in My Private
Venus. Meantime launching her own music project "0k" as songwriter and vocalist. For fun, bass player and back up
singer for Atlantic/143 recording artist Yve Adam, opening up for the likes of K.D. Lang, Wild Strawberry and
stuff like that.
Artistic Statement about Nightwood from Eryn Dace Trudell on behalf of
the company: Tall and Broad
The most important thing, to me, is the creative process. That is where I
spend most of my time and where I feel freedom. When I invite people into rehearsals,
I invite people who will talk with me in a criticallanguage, who will dance with me
into unknown worlds or who will observe my dance in a non-judgmental and supportive way. When a work reaches the stage, I no longer have control
of who sees it and how. I become afraid. At rhubarb, we have a merging of the creative
process with high production values and with a paying audience. We welcome you.
I'd like to tell you a bit about the studio part. Since directing a play is
an unusual role for me, I have tried to be humble in the process. The goal for me
was to approach the work no differently than I would when choreographing a dance.
Our total number of rehearsal hours was 43 before going to stage. Of those 43
hours more than half were dedicated to warm-up: reconnecting the body with
the mind, preparing into awareness and readiness to be a conductor of impulses
and responses, to eliminate ego.
When I choreograph a dance, I rarely know what the dance is about. I begin,
by going into the space to find the dance. By assuming we know nothing about
the play as it is written, by not knowing the playwright at all, we allow the words
to do us.
It wasn't until the end that we, I, thought I knew what the play was about.
For me the play is about death. Death by violation. Sexuality, in our world plays a
large part in death, small or large. When I speak of death, I am simultaneously speaking
of rebirth. All of the characters in this play are Goddesses. But all parts could be
played by any gender actor. They are all, all sexes. That is not to say, these actors
are replaceable. They allowed everything to happen. They opened the door to the imaginings.
I hope that we are successful in clearing a path for you to travel with us: ocean depths,
still waters, deep forests, open fields: otherworlds inside and outside.
While working on Nightwood, I have been reading two books from which I have abstracted
some inspiring words:
From Art Objects:
Art is intimacy, lover?s talk, and yet it is a public declaration.p 71
The dream quality, which is a poetic quality, is not vague.p75
by Jeanette Winterson
From The Pagan Book of Living and Dying:
All growth arises from death. p3
Our disconnection from the cycles of birth, death, decay, and regeneration
runs through every aspect of our society. We have forgotten the connection
between decay and fertility....
...Our landfills are overflowing and toxic waste sites dot the land, because
we behave as if death and decay were anomalies instead of integral parts of
every activity.p5
by Starhawk
