Post mortem

Posted by DCA Theater on October 1, 2009 in July-December 2009 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Striding Lion Interarts Workshop

by Karen Louis, co-director

Ah, DCA, parting is such sweet sorrow…

Striding Lion InterArts Workshop thanks you from the very bottom of our hearts for this month of free space, and the opportunity to come together to develop new work for this upcoming season!

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The big shebang

Posted by DCA Theater on September 29, 2009 in July-December 2009 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Striding Lion Interarts Workshop

by Karen Louis, co-director

Well, here it is! The big shebang! The fruit of a months labor in incubation! The juggle of scripts, pieces and play are in order and ready to go! 

We are waiting, and we have plans…big plans…

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Final week

Posted by DCA Theater on September 24, 2009 in July-December 2009 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Striding Lion Interarts Workshop

by Karen Louis, Pioneers co-director

During our final full week of the INCUBATOR series, we lions have collected images and ideas from our environment, written our personal perspectives gleaned from observation and layered with experience, structured bits and pieces of performance and songs, and have come to the place where we are facing the final showcase with anticipation and excitement and the empty stage.

There is something exciting and daunting about walking into a theatre, as a performer, and greeting the space in which you are about to texture.  This is the blank canvas, and the work has been done to prepare to fill it.  The initial sight can bring a quick twinge in the stomach, a jump in the chest, and a moment to center and breathe.

There is also something about walking into a space and finding tables full of wigs, props and costumes.

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Leave

Posted by DCA Theater on September 21, 2009 in July-December 2009 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Striding Lion Interarts Workshop

by Karen Louis, Pioneers co-director

When confronted with the change of circumstance, evidence and intent, true pioneers do not stop in order to move forward-they shift, adapt, contort and begin again in order to discover the familiar in the expanse of the future.  They bring with them the essentials of traditions, process, tools and each other.  So have we in our workshop of Directional Shifts, an introduction to our upcoming Night Roars Live Art series.  Our audience of third graders are now adults, some of our players have changed, the landscape has evolved into another challenge to conquer and understand in the quest explore, adapt, communicate and extend.

First item of business?  Leave.  Leave the space in order to explore what lays outside.  This is a variation of a mapping exercise I was given as a Interdisciplinary Arts grad student at Columbia College Chicago.  I sent the crew on their own journey to survey the atmosphere and forage a path based on a few simple rules:

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Omens and definitions

Posted by DCA Theater on September 17, 2009 in July-December 2009 Season, INCUBATOR Series: Striding Lion Interarts Workshop

by Karen Louis, Pioneers co-director

As we round out our second week in the INCUBATOR series, it is official!  We have created a script and a framework production for a brand-spanking new youth production to bring into our Illinois Arts Council residencies!  Be sure to come and check it out at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, September 29th in the Studio Theater!

The process to get there has been fast and furious, and not without a potential broken toe, an unintentional tradition/superstition that seems to mark each and every Striding Lion production.  The process of breaking toes, in relation to Striding Lion, has become an indicator that all will end up well when we get this show up on its feet (har, har).  Performance and superstition go hand in hand, seeking signs and direction that lead as a beacon towards hope and success.  Some companies look to a disaster-laden final dress to indicate a wonderful opening night.  Costumers accidentally prick a finger, and smudge a seam in superstition.  Certain Scottish plays are not spoken onstage, believed to be cursed, and if the Scottish play IS spoken, well, there is a whole host of rituals that are performed to right the wrong of speaking the name.

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