In true Festival of Words fashion, the dramatic performance this year once again offered a new and refreshing take for Festival patrons interested in the experience of theatre.
The Festival of Words was lucky enough to share a selection of short theatrical plays from the annual Short Cuts Festival in Saskatoon to the screens of Festival viewers, which also restructured into a virtual format back in May.
Short Cuts, a festival formed out of short 10-minute theatre pieces, rose to the challenge of adapting this year and artistic director Yvette Nolan was pleased to bring four of the pieces that debuted earlier this year to the Festival of Words virtual stage.
“We really wanted to show a variety,” said Nolan. “All of the pieces, in spite of the fact that we chose them last summer before we knew about the pandemic, it was shocking how much they spoke to the time we were in, so it was easy to chose [which to feature].”
The Land Acknowledgement piece, featuring performer Danny Knight, was written by Nolan herself, and was interspersed between the other three performances featured — “Rerouting” by Danica Tempel, featuring performers Johanna Arnot, Lisa Bayliss, Lenore Claire Herrem and Alan Long; “No. 7” by Jalisa Gonie, featuring Arnot and Miki Wolf; and “The Yard with the Old Plow” by Shanda Stefanson, featuring Bayliss, Knight, and Long.
“It's brave, but playwriting is always brave. All of these stories are looking at the human heart and exploring what makes us the way we are. I think theatre is brave, and that’s our job as theatre artists, is to be brave,” said Nolan.
Shared by the Hardly Art Theatre company, all of the pieces were filmed and put together at a distance, meaning that a plethora of new skills was needed to complete each piece — including wireless mics and earbuds, green screens, and new staging methods.
Nolan shared some of the challenges that the directors, performers, and technicians faced, especially the way the online format changed how the actors approached their performances.
“We got to play with toys that we usually don’t get to play with, in the theatre, but there’s nothing for the breath,” said Nolan. “Pauses that we take in theatre, to think or make a choice, they don’t quite work online [and] that was a huge adjustment to make. . . It’s all a bit Shakespearean, you just have to keep riding the words because pauses don’t work.”
The question of whether the pandemic-induced shift to virtual theatre will change the overall scene naturally arose, and Nolan felt as though while the essence of theatre will likely remain unchanged, the conversation of accessibility is certainly underway.
“I’m still grieving the loss of theatre, the being in the room with other people,” she said. “But it occurs to me that one of the things we may be able to do in the future, [we] may be able to do a hybrid where we do a show live with an audience that is smaller than our usual packed, standing-room-only full house, and also broadcast the live show at the same time [to] people who cannot be in the room.”
Overall, Nolan was happy to be able to share the short productions with audiences outside of Saskatoon, for the first year ever.
For more details about the Short Cuts Festival and the productions featured this past May, visit here.
The Festival of Words continues until July 19, with a full schedule of events available here.
Stay tuned for coverage of the festival as it progresses through the coming week.
