A. Gaboury

dossier: Alex Eddington for YARN and the WIND DOWN FESTIVAL

Alex Eddington and I have known each other for a good number of years now, a number so good I can’t even recall it without looking into my CV (and, looking into my CV tells me the number is 4). Alex and I met during a staged reading in what was apparently the year 2009. The staged reading was for a small festival and was a rather unfortunate experience ~ a bit too long, a bit too uninspired, a bit too much palpable not caring in the air. I think Alex and I gravitated towards each other because we needed something to help get us through this thing. Also, we could talk about writing. And we still do.

This dossier is big, as it’s about two things at once: Alex’s new Fringe show YARN and his mini-cabaret-like-festival WIND DOWN. And I’m happy to bring Alex to this site!

dossier #14:

Who are we talking with?

Alex Eddington: According to my bio I’m a composer, musician, writer and actor… but I might change that last one to “storyteller”. I’m also a music teacher, arts administrator, and bird enthusiast.

But you didn’t ask “WHAT DOES HE DO with whom we are talking?” As for WHO: maybe ask me again in a few years. That’s a messy thing. Rather than try to solve it I’ve convinced myself that that’s a messy question for everyone. And that messy is good.

What drew you down this path? (to theatre, to music, to Fringing, to wherever the hell you are in life)

I’m not sure which path I’m on, but I have a nervous inkling that I’m straddling three paths at once: music, theatre, and teaching. I’m hanging onto the hope that these paths will converge, or at least run parallel.

I used to be on only one path… with some side-trails. I was a semi-professional trombonist, then focussed on composing music and now I’m still a professional composer – including now a lot of music for young performers.

I actually got into theatre writing/performance because of Fringe. I entered the 2005 Edmonton Fringe on a dare with a bizarre “musicological comedy” in which I played a demented accordion-wielding prof in a third-rate university music program. The rest, somehow, is history.

Teaching is even more recent. I had an opportunity to teach middle school band in an independent school for a year, decided that I loved it, took my B.Ed., and am now doing as much arts education work as I can.

I’m always trying to pull all these threads together. Some helpful genres: opera, composition and drama workshops, shows like Yarn with a bunch of live music in them…

What is your earliest memory of realizing, yep, this is what I’m going to do with my life?

Probably watching my parents and their friends rehearsing and performing in the Kew Beach Couple’s Club Show every February. That was an amateur variety show that ran for 60 years: chorus, dancers, skits – all the songs from the great musicals – all the puns and character tropes of Vaudeville. And sometimes some absolutely inspired themes and scripts holding it all together. It was amazing how much time and love everyone put into these shows. I would hang around backstage (my Dad was sometimes the Stage Manager) and it was so thrilling.

What I learned: songs and jokes are for everyone to love and pass on; anyone can put on a show; something magic happens on a stage when there is an audience watching.

So I dabbled in theatrics at church and high school. But somehow I didn’t make my own theatre until I was 25.

Why YARN?

It’s a true story that I’ve been trying to write for ten years, since the story actually happened. In 2003 I was traveling in Europe and the UK, and needed a job, and got a “chambermaid” position in a little hotel on the Isle of Mull, Scotland. I lived there for 5.5 months – April to October. I lived two miles from a 90-person village, and all I had to get around on was my bicycle. It was beautiful place, but the loneliness got to me. I became quite superstitious, convinced (partly) that Good Luck and Bad Luck were fighting over me. I like to say that I went to the island to find myself, but lost my mind instead. Temporarily.

I’ve been sharing the stories of that summer since 2006, when I toured my first original Fringe show: Wool. That show made me some performer fans, but I never felt that it got to the root of what happened to me on the Isle of Mull. I’ve been doing workshops and drafts of these stories ever since. Seven years after Wool, Yarn comes out of having had more time to digest the events and craft a script with an arc about how the human mind (well, mine at least) tells itself stories to survive loneliness and the unknown. It’s also a funnier show now. But Yarn is so much more refined than Wool. In another seven years I will write another version of the show, called Sweater.

What kind of atmosphere do you intend to set up, or can someone expect from YARN?

I want people to feel at times like the show is really casual – off-the-cuff storytelling, with the stories being remembered just for them. Of course that’s a bit of an illusion – the asides are written in, and I tend to memorize scripts accurately, but I have tried to be much looser about this one. Yarn is written in a thinking-aloud style, and I also use music casually, flowing through everything. I deliberately chose instruments that I’m not an expert on (ukulele, baritone horn, dumbek…). I’m on stage when people come in (in Toronto the audience can come in an hour before the show if they’d like!), practicing my instruments and being in whatever mood I’m actually in. I’m not an expert who performs his thing and ignores you, I’m a guy with an unusual story and we’re in the room together; you have to trust and like me for this story to resonate with you. In Toronto I chose a room that we can’t forget we’re in: the Majlis Art Garden is sheltered (you won’t get rained on) but semi-outdoors, so there will be evening breezes, bedding birds, and the change of sunlight over the course of the show.

I also feel like this show is never done. I’m going to keep working on it over the next years. And when each performance ends, I like to hang out and talk to people. So after performances of Yarn I’m inviting the audience to stay to chat – and then to stay for guest acts each night at 9:00pm: a sub-festival I’m calling the WindDown Festival of intimate performance.

You’ve done the Canadian Fringe circuit a couple times in the past. What do you look forward to the most when touring a new show to a new city?

1) Seeing old friends who I only see randomly when we happen to be performing in the same Fringe festival. Sometimes I don’t see people for years because we live in different cities and the touring schedules don’t line up. That’s the nature of the lottery-drawn Fringes. 2) Meeting new friends: performers, audience, Fringe volunteers and staffers. 3) Seeing about 100 shows a summer.

What is your favourite memory from a past Fringe circuit show?

My 2010 tour of Tired Clichés (a new production of a TJ Dawe script) was gruelling: I was in Bring-Your-Own-Venues in Winnipeg and Edmonton so I was performing almost every day of the festival. The most memorable day of that tour happened in Winnipeg. I had a day off and was seeing a bunch of shows. Here is the sequence of events:

1) Saw Commencement, a solo show about a high school shooting massacre. Wept aloud (this doesn’t usually happen to me).

2) Had a beer at the King’s Head. Actually, a beer and a half because my director Laura Anne Harris couldn’t finish hers in the 15 minutes that we had to drink it.

3) Ran back to the SAME venue, sat in virtually the SAME seat.

4) Saw The Screw You Review – a raucous, button-pushing and very funny improvised comedy show starring an extremely cranky old man. Laughed until I literally fell out of my seat.

5) At one point in The Screw You Review, they MADE AN IN-JOKE about Commencement, the show I’d wept at earlier.

I’ve never felt so emotionally open. It was better than a sweat lodge.

Describe YARN in three adjectives, a phrase, or with sound.

The sound of one sheep clapping.

Do you have anything else you’d like to share? Photos, videos, links, posters, stories, wishes?

VIDEO: Currently there is one stop-motion teaser trailer for Yarn. The plan is to make more and post them to my Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ePVhNJ0LrXk

LINK: Here is Yarn info central: http://www.alexeddington.com/alexeddingtoncom/yarn.html

POSTER: (I’m super-proud of my DIY marketing stylez)

WISHES: That people will come to the show and it starts a conversation. With me or with whomever.

What is the WIND DOWN FESTIVAL?

I have rented a really cool site-specific venue for my Toronto Fringe run of Yarn. Majlis Art Garden is precisely 1/2 rose garden and 1/2 theatre. It’s sheltered (you won’t get rained on) but evening breezes and birds will come through the garden. It’s an intimate performance space where the audience is outdoors (sort of) but is an acoustically contained space. So I decided to host guest acts every night in this lovely space, where I could try out something I’ve wanted to do for years.

I’ve been dreaming of an outdoor performance festival without amplicifaction (or with as little as possible). Small audience, contained space. I enjoy amplified music/sound, and it has its place of course, but I feel like amplification increases the distance between performers and their audience. I want to bring them closer together. The venue and festival are proudly low-tech and that is part of the ambiance of the events.

It’s a multidisciplinary festival. 10 nights, different acts every night: music, words, comedy, dance, puppetry, clown… and TWO nights devoted to Fringe performers who will share acts and get interviewed quirkily by me – plus special guest performers.

Performers are paid from the door proceeds – the audience pays $10 (cash only) for each event – so everyone is being so generous to perform without a financial guarantee.

WindDown is a collaboration with Tricia Postle who owns the Majlis space.

Another festival DURING Fringe? Are you insane?

Yes, I am.

The WindDown Festival is a sub-festival: not part of Toronto Fringe, but running concurrently. Fringe staff told me that this is a totally new thing – they were interested in it, but I have to be careful to separate the two festivals. I’m publicizing WindDown at the same time as Yarn, and hoping that people come for both, once they’ve made the (teeny-weeny) journey to the Majlis Art Garden. And then I hope that people will come back for multiple WindDown shows!

It can be hard to get word out about a new festival, so we made the decision to run it as a kind of add-on to my Fringe run.

I really have no idea how this will go. But what a fun risk. And while I’m mostly behind the scenes, I’ll get to do some things I don’t normally get to do: interviewing performers in Open Stage nights, performing in clown. My biggest joy though is to bring all these performers and audience into this incredible little urban art garden which I feel is one of Toronto’s best-kept secrets.

We might run WindDown again as a separate thing, next summer…??

What can we expect from the WIND DOWN FESTIVAL?

The headline act is Amy Thiessen, a singer-songwriter with an absolutely lovely voice (and great guitar chops) who is coming all the way from Calgary to perform for us on two different nights. On July 11 she’s doing a solo show; on July 12 she’ll be hosting a songwriter’s circle with a couple of Toronto-based performers.

Other highlights:

– “Nightfall for Fools” (July 8) is a clown/mask/mime show with 12 performers, led by Helen Donnelly as Mildred the Maid.

– Therevox: a concert of eclectic music for soprano and THEREMIN (July 9).

– The Comedy/Storytelling night (July 13) hosted by Paul Hutcheson has an amazing lineup including stand-up comedian Nile Séguin.

And then there is a night of dance (and performance poetry), a puppetry night, the Array Session Players (improvised music) and those two Fringe open stage nights – including a really fabulous comedy juggler named Aji on July 10.

Do you have anything you’d like to share with us? Photos, videos, links, posters, stories, wishes?

Here is WindDown info central: http://www.alexeddington.com/alexeddingtoncom/the-winddown-festival.html

There are also Facebook events for each WindDown show.

WISHES: That people will take a risk and see a show or two.

Here is a picture of WindDown headline act Amy Thiessen!

130 Tales

Today, I am digging around the old files on my computer (a strange expression, or combination of words, as the file dates back to 2009 yet I’ve only had this computer since last summer, so they were never really old to this computer and every time I open them they become new, or, at least, recent) to unearth a project I started when I started using twitter in order to make the service a bit more interesting for me.

130 Tales became a way to challenge myself as a writer to write a full story, the beginning of a longer story, or a complete image in a single tweet.

My limitations were thus:

Each tale had to be no more than 130 characters,
It had to include the hashtag #130tales at the end,
And I had to write 130 tales in 130 days.

My challenge began on November 4^th, 2009. Meaning, one hundred and thirty days later, my projected end date was going to be March 11^th, 2010. The idea was to write one tale a day. Not too tough. But I never really set that idea in stone. I allowed myself to write a couple each day, and then take a break for the few days following. For a while there, leading up to March, it was looking like my projection was nothing more than a fantasy; I had fallen too far behind and the ensuing pile-up never seemed to be clearing. As March hit, I thought it was hopeless; my experiment would fail and I would fall into utter self-loathing. But some inspiring words from my then-girlfriend in the last few days of the project lifted my spirits, and I began posting upwards of 10 a day. When March 11^th rolled around, I was proud to be able to cross out “Projected” and write “Actual” with the following exclamation: “And it’s complete! March 11^th baby!”

As I tweeted these tales to the world wide web, I kept this file not just to track how far along I was but to compile them in one central location with the idea that I could turn to them at any moment, choose a number and begin something anew.

I always intended for other people to read them. I know not all of them are perfect, and some of them simply don’t work, but that isn’t what this is about. This is about just writing something and then moving on to the next one. This is about struggling against the constraints of 130 characters. This is about not having time to think. As the project burst forward one month at a time, I started imagining these tales as tools for myself and other writers. I decided to keep some tales poetically vague, so if anyone was ever facing the demon of Writer’s Block, they could look at one of these and let their mind beat it back. I tried to write others as a possible story’s beginning, or catch line. Why not find one and continue writing after it ends? It might take you someplace you enjoy. You might meet people you never would have otherwise.

Who knows?

I certainly didn’t, and still feel like I don’t.

And here I am again, rifling through this document, unwilling to just let it stagnate. My plan now, in keeping with the theme, is to post 10 of these each week for the next 13 weeks. They will show up here, on the blog, as individual posts but I’ll also make a Page for them in the left link column where you can find every one posted to date. Let’s hope I don’t fall behind and let these posts pile up over the next 13 weeks. You’d think a person would learn over time, but you’d also be amazed at how surprising people can be…

So go ahead, I implore you to come along with me on this journey of 2009-writer-Andrew and if any of them inspire you, please, use it to produce something wonderful. If none of them inspire you, don’t tell me; I don’t need to know that. Come on, don’t be a troll.

And if the very idea of 130 Tales in inspiring to you, use it! Challenge yourself. You won’t regret it.

—

130 Tales

# 1 – 10

“Why does a cat open its mouth as it dies?” Her life a puzzle, cryptic since I was born, how could her last words be different?
We passed two girls, blurred in whispers. “Do you think we should tell them?” I turned and their eyes vanished. Tell them? Us?
As the register closed Scot felt a long, wisp-like tug in the middle of his chest. Though the store was real he’d never remember it.
Out of my head! Flee!
Lying amongst dandelions, red against yellow and white and green, she’d offer them to the winds in return for his gentle voice.
He’s returned from the trip, his face hard, unshaven. As he looks through the mirror to his briefcase a smile carves through stone.
The lamp flickers. A blur rustles the grass. “Now we are three.”
In another time they could have been sisters. Their movements precisely synchronized, conjoined. They would have lived forever.
A yellow ponytail. A foreign cafe, sun-bathed and film-grained. She takes a deep breath as a milky work of art warms her fingers.
Diligent, grabbing stomach, chest, neck. Always neck. She kneads, every night; it’s her only job and she always shows up. Always.

announcing…

Today I am writing with exciting news indeed: in a month’s time, my next original piece of theatre and very first attempt at writing, producing and performing a one-person show, totem., will be premiering at the Hamilton Fringe! For its tenth season, the Hamilton Fringe has decided to expand into a few art galleries across the city, and I’m proud to have totem. be part of this inaugural addition to an already bustling festival.

This is my first full piece of new writing in a little over a year. It began its life as the product of an exercise in Steady State Theatre’s bi-weekly writer’s circle and an excerpt from it made its premiere at Theatre Caravel’s Sea Change. I’ve now teamed up with friend and colleague Kallee Lins, a director / dancer / academic, to take my words from page to mind and body. I’m really curious to see how it goes!

I’ve attached the press release below so you can learn a bit more about it. And check back often for updates!

Cheers!

—

For Immediate Release: June 17^th, 2013

Media Contact: Andrew Gaboury

Phone: 647-404-2994

https://afieldofcrowns.wordpress.com

a field of crowns debuts its premier production, “totem.” at the 2013 Hamilton Fringe Festival’s Gallery Mini-Series

a field of crowns is excited to bring its debut performance to the Hamilton Fringe Festival’s inaugural Gallery Mini-Series. totem. draws inspiration from the tempestuous active-narration inherent in stream-of-conscious writing, as well as the lyricality of spoken-word poetry. In the endeavor of theatricality, writer/performer Andrew Gaboury and director Kallee Lins have embraced physical theatre and dance to help punctuate the world of the piece and emotional journey therein.

a field of crowns is the brand of Toronto-based theatre artist Andrew Gaboury. totem. marks the first step of taking a field of crowns from a screen-name and website to a producing theatre company. totem. is a collaboration between performer/playwright Andrew Gaboury (who recently appeared as Giles in The Mousetrap at the Lower Ossington Theatre, and will appear as Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing at the 2013 Toronto Fringe) and director Kallee Lins (who will be pursuing her PhD on “the body in performance as a means of theorizing the socio-political world” this fall at York University). Andrew and Kallee are artists interested in working in cross-disciplinary platforms; Andrew working mainly in lyrical wordplay and physical movement and Kallee focused on the possibilities of performance art and dance. Together, they are both excited by the animation of space and presenting performance in non-traditional venues.

totem. is an exploration of one man’s emotional, mental landscape as he confronts his crumbling relationship and is presented with a surreal manifestation of his ideals. It plays at the James North Studio Gallery from July 19^th– 21^st.

totem.

at the Hamilton Fringe Festival Gallery Mini-Series

Written and Performed by Andrew Gaboury

Directed by Kallee Lins

James North Studio – 328 James Street North, Hamilton ON

Friday, July 19^th – 7:30pm

Friday, July 19^th – 9:00pm

Saturday, July 20^th – 4:30pm

Saturday, July 20^th – 7:45pm

Saturday, July 20^th – 9:15pm

Sunday, July 21^st – 3:45pm

Sunday, July 21^st – 5:15pm

Sunday, July 21^st – 8:30pm

Tickets: $8.00 (with a $4.00 Fringe Backer button required)

For Advance Online Tickets: www.hamiltonfringe.ca/tickets

Approximately 20 minutes

LATECOMERS WILL NOT BE ADMITTED

dossier: Coyote Collective for ICARUS DANCES WITH THE SUN

Today’s dossier is an exciting one. The folks of Coyote Collective have such a vigour and passion for generating work that I can’t really say anything to add to the following dossier. The only thing I know is I’ve spent much time with Max Tepper, who is an unbelievably encouraging fellow, and some time with Susannah, Blue, Garett and Eric at various events and parties and you can see, just by looking at them, just by talking with them, that they have that spark behind their eyes.

Their most recent production, ICARUS DANCES WITH THE SUN will make it’s premiere THIS SUNDAY, June 16th as part of Clay and Paper Theatre’s Annual Dufferin-Grove Park event DAY OF DELIGHT! Outdoor theatre! Beautiful weather! A park! Coyote-pelt-masks! Check it out!

Ahem. Here is dossier #13:

Who are we talking with?

Susannah Mackay, Blue Bigwood-Mallin, Max Tepper, Eric Welch, and Garett Oliver. The young pups of Coyote Collective!

What drew you down the path to physical theatre?

Susannah – Art has always been a huge part of my life; I was dancing and painting before I could read or write! I suppose I was drawn down this specific path because of the complexity and wholeness of theatre as an experience. There is also something intoxicating and mysterious about theatre; it is so all encompassing and tangible in the moment and then -POOF!- its gone once the house lights come back up. I think this nebulous quality is what has always drawn me into theatre and continues to do

Blue – I think the way someone gets drawn into any artistic form is seeing a piece of art or an aspect of that type of work and having their perceptions moved because of it. I found myself on the physical-creation side of theatre as I was drawn to many other artists that worked this way. I was also drawn into their forms and modes of expression and from there began to work on directing, writing and acting as a way to test out these various modes.

What is your earliest memory of realizing, yep, this is what I’m going to do with my life?

Blue – I first became interested in acting when I was around 8 or 9 years old and saw the Jim Carrey movie “Me, Myself and Irene”. The images of him fighting himself and being ridiculous made me think “I want to be able to do that”, to have the ability to make people laugh was very important to me as a child and after seeing the movie I got involved with the island group Shadowland and scored my first major role as a paper-maché fish.

Max – I completely relate with Blue in wanting to make people laugh being the biggest contributor to my desire to perform. My parents used to joke with the other parents when I was growning up. They would go on about whose child would grow up to be a doctor or a lawyer, and my parents would always say: “Yeah… Max is probably going to do stand-up and smoke cigarettes.”

How did Coyote Collective come to be?

Susannah – Despite being current Artistic Director, I didn’t found the company! I’m told it was conceived after a few too many drinks at the TPM Backspace bar and a shortlist of favourite collaborators. However, I can say we have remained together because all of us have a love of essential, simplistic work and dark, comedic honesty. I think each member has a perspective that is, to be frank, a little cracked, a little strange, and a little wild at heart.

Why ICARUS DANCES WITH THE SUN?

Max – Blue had been working on this Icarus character for about a year now. A stiff accountant that secretly yearns to fly and dance. Icarus has seen two prior incarnations. The first was during Blue’s undergraduate thesis show for Creative Ensemble at York University, and the second was at a fantastic performance workshop hub called New Art Night run by the fine folks over at Living room Theatre. So for the summer we wanted to bring Icarus back and put him into a story that could allow us to work with new languages of gestures, and also keep us focussed on creating work that all audiences of all ages, and of all languages can understand.

What kind of atmosphere do you intend to set up, or can someone expect from ICARUS DANCES WITH THE SUN?

Max – Super-fun, dopey-love, let’s-be-kids-again atmosphere.

What is your favourite memory from a past Coyote Collective show?

Garett – When we first started, and our lights didn’t work, we were all tired from doing other shows, and we didn’t know if we would be ready in time. A member of the Excalibur press showed up to give us our first article. Made me realize that we were being noticed, and people were interested in what we were doing.

Eric – The moment in my life that will be etched in my brain until the end of time came about during the run of “Like A Generation” It was a matinee show and my parents and siblings were all coming that afternoon to see it. There is this one scene in LAG where my character literally has sex with his television. No matter how hard you work to justify this moment in terms of its necessity to the narrative, or the audience experience, when you have to get down and do it with your family that knows you so intimately well right there, well, it’s downright awkward. Working with Coyote has given me the rare opportunity to have sex with a television right in front of my family. It was a thing. It happened.

Describe ICARUS DANCES WITH THE SUN in three adjectives, a phrase, or with sound.

Eric – It is the cure for what ails you

Garett – A show of comedy understood universally.

Max – The sound your shoulders make when you relax them after a long day’s work.

Do you have anything else you’d like to share? Photos, videos, links, posters, stories, wishes?

Check out our website for more updates on the company – coyotecollective.wordpress.com

Also a big thanks to Clay & Paper Theatre for having our work put on in their Day of Delight Festival! It’s been such a pleasure working with them!

Come see the whole she-bang on Sunday, June 16th and join Coyote Collective as their premiere Icarus Dances with the Sun!