The One That Got Away
May 28-31 & June 2, 2007 - JCCGY Swimming PoolTickets: 604-257-5111 (on sale April 12)
The One That Got Away
An Underwater Play by Kendra Fanconi, created with Electric Company Theatre. Produced by Electric Company & The Only Animal in partnership with the Norman Rothstein Theatre & Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. Directed by Kim Collier. Stage Managed by Jan Hodgson
“The One that Got Away will certainly leave you damp around the eyes. But before you cry, this life-affi rming folktale will make you laugh out loud and reel you right into its shimmering oasis of theatrical delights.” 
— Alexandra Gill, The Globe and Mail
The watery stage of The One that Got Away, creates the shifting, transformative world of the afterlife where surreal underwater choreography, floating set pieces and the haunting songs of his Russian homeland bubble up from Victor’s memory.
The original production premiered in Vancouver at the 2002 Chutzpah! and received four Jessie Awards including Best Production.
May 28 - 31 & June 2, 2007
JCCGY Swimming Pool, 950 West 41st Ave.
Tickets: 604-257-5111 (on sale April 12)
Also, look for The One That Got Away at Magnetic North Theatre Festival
Soloway Jewish Community Centre, Ottawa June 9 - 14, 2007
Director: Kim Collier*
Stage Manager: Jan Hodgson*
TD: Derek Mack
Set: Yvan Morissette
Lighting Designer: Itai Erdal
Costume Designer: Kirsten McGhie & Marina Szijarto
Music Director: Wendy B. Stuart
Sound Designer / Musician: Bessie Wapp
Additional composition & lyrics: David Hudgins
Props Designer: Marianne Otterstrom
Production Assistant: Erin Harris
Lighting Operator: Stanley Ma
Publicist: Lancaster Communications
Builder: Keith Smith
Run Swim Crew Vancouver: Lindsey Angell, Megan Gray, Ella Simon
Producing & Touring Manager: Cindy Reid
Actors: Ryan Beil*, Nita Bowerman, Courtenay Dobbie*, Kendra Fanconi, Nicola Lipman*, Eric Rhys Miller*, Richard Newman*, Tracey Power, Kerry Sandomirsky
*Courtesy of Canadian Actors Equity Association
INPUT
We've been invited to The Best of INPUT, March 23 - 25, 2007.
INPUT (International Public TV Screening Conference) is the most significant event for worldwide supporters of public television. In 2006, Public TV Service of Taiwan (PTS) took the challenge and organized the first ever INPUT in Asia and welcomed 1401 participants from 49 different countries worldwide in Taipei, which is a major successful breakthrough both for INPUT and for PTS.
BRILLIANT!
Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla hit the road after a lovely time in Burnaby at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. With an all new (and not so new) cast, and a crew of 5, Brilliant! successfully completed our first one night stand tour of theatre performing 12 shows in 10 venues over 16 days from Markham, Ontario to Moncton, New Brunswick - over 3,300 people saw the show! At Centre in the Square, Kitchener, patrons had a chance to leave through a marked door and the results:
- 80 % selected Make Me Think
- 17.1 % selected Moved Me
- 2.9 % selected Left No Impression
Thank you Ian & his amazing staff at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, Jan, Adrian, Stephen, Mara, Leah, Tim, Shawn, Donald, Anthony, Kirsten, Keith & Erin - way to rock'n'roll!!
HIVE
Three nights of intimate and eclectic theatre that will be remembered for many a year by the lucky few who managed to get tickets to HIVE. Together with our compatriots at Boca del Lupo, Felix Culpa, Leaky Heaven, Neworld, Radix, The Chop, Rumble, Theatre Replacement, SKAM, The Only Animal and Theatre Conspiracy, we took The Chapel (a former funeral home on the downtown eastside) and transformed it into an interlocking, overflowing and chaotic hive where audiences had to jostle, barter or simply be singled out from the mob to get into a show. The performances, which emerged from within crevices, dumpsters, peepholes and behind curtains and borrowed flats were certainly what made this event so unique and memorable, but more importantly was the impulse that started the HIVE: the spirit of collaboration, cross-pollination, of uniting forces to do something greater than the sum of the parts and build something that celebrates the notion of community and all the potential it holds.
"Hive blew my mind." - Colin Thomas, Georgia Straight
Electric Company Recharges Brilliant!
Electric Company’s hit play about visionary inventor Nikola Tesla, returns in time for the sesquicentennial of the electrical wizard’s birth. Tesla (born in 1856) is the central character in the collective’s five-time Jessie Award winning play Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla, a play that explores themes of obsession, the creative impulse, and isolation. The story chronicles the rise and fall of the prolific inventor who believed in a world united by his creation of free wirelessly transmitted energy and a world-wide communication network.
Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla is on the road this fall, touring to Burnaby, Ontario & New Brunswick from October 4 – 29, 2006.
- October 4 – 7, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, Burnaby, BC
- October 12, Markham Theatre for the Performing Arts, ON
- October 13, Stockey Centre, Parry Sound, ON
- October 15, Brampton Performing Arts Centre, ON
- October 17, Centre in the Square, Kitchener, ON
- October 18, Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts, ON
- October 19, Centre for the Arts, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON
- October 20, Gryphon Theatre, Barrie, ON
- October 23, Imperial Theatre, Saint John, NB
- October 24, (student matinee) Imperial Theatre, Saint John, NB
- October 25, The Playhouse, Fredericton, NB
- October 26, (student matinee) The Playhouse, Fredericton, NB
- October 28, Capitol Theatre, Moncton, NB
HIVE: a progress lab initiative
November 5 – 12, 2006 with performances are November 9 – 11, please stay tuned for more information
The Score
Kim Collier visited Taipei to represent the Electric Company Theatre at the INPUT 2006 festival.
The Score DVD is now available for sale! To purchase, contact Screen Siren Pictures.
NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Electric Company Theatre Society will hold its annual AGM on
Wednesday, October 4, 2006 @ 7 pm
at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts 6450 Deer Lake Avenue, Deer Lake Park Burnaby, BC V5G 2J3 Parking on site
Wine & Cheese will be served Memberships $5
Welcome to Electric Company Theatre’s 10th season!
Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla
Brilliant! is heading to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, March 21 - April 1, 2006!
Studies in Motion
Studies in Motion: the Hauntings of Eadweard Muybridge, a new Electric Company creation by Kevin Kerr, is a co-production with Theatre at UBC & the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. It successfully premiered at the Frederic Wood Theatre, Vancouver, BC from January 17 – 29, 2006.
Box office / ticket info at the National Arts Centre
Studies in Motion Companion (PDF format - 2.5 Mb)
Studies in Motion official website
The Score
The Score, Electric Company's award-winning stage play is now a film! It will appear on CBC television January 12, 2006.
Find out more: thescorethemovie.com.
High (Voltage) Tea
Here are photos from the launch of our first collective publication: Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla (Brindle & Glass Publishing).
Local theatre critics were invited to stage a reading of the hit play on April 17th, 2005 at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. Their performance was then criticized by Electric Company's members. Tea and crumpets were served. Big thank you to our special guests Peter Birnie, Jo Ledingham & Jerry Wasserman.
Annual General Meeting
Wednesday, September 7, 2005
from 6:30 – 7:30 pm at the Alliance for Arts & Culture
Suite 100 – 938 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC
Wine & Cheese will be served
Memberships $5
For more information & to rsvp, please call 604-253-4222
Parking is available after 6 pm on Howe Street! (bring change)
Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla
US Premiere: June 1 – 26, 2005
San Jose Stage Company
Brilliant! has been published
Please join your friends at Vancouver's Electric Company Theatre as we turn the tables of convention, and serve tea and crumpets on them, with the launching of our first collective publication: Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla (Brindle & Glass Publishing).
Local theatre critics have been invited to stage a reading of the hit play on April 17th at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre. Their performance will then be criticized by Electric Company's members.
It's all in good fun, and for a worthy cause. Besides the reading of Brilliant!, the afternoon's events will include high tea.
Please indulge our fancies, as we smash champagne on the paperback prows of our fine fresh fleet, and call it a launch!!!
And a big thank you to our special guests Peter Birnie, Jo Ledingham & Jerry Wasserman
2004 - 2005
Welcome to the Electric Company’s ninth season!
Highlights from last season:
- The Palace Grand, world premiere at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre as part of their 30th anniversary season. See the new photos.
- The Score, once a work of theatre now becomes a screenplay!
- Wrote & directed the original version of Storyeum for Historical Xperiences, Gastown, June 2004
Activities this season:
- June 2004, we headed next door to Edmonton, Alberta with Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nicola Tesla for the second annual Magnetic North Theatre Festival
- The Score, in preproduction with Screen Siren Pictures Inc: shooting begins on November 1
- Studies in Motion: The Hauntings of Eadweard Muybridge in development with Theatre at UBC
- Publishing Brilliant! The Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla with Brindle & Glass: get your signed copy soon!
- Producing Manager, Cindy Reid, will attend Capacoa Conference, Edmonton, & CINARS, Montreal, November 2004
The Palace Grand
World Premiere April 13 -17, 2004 at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre in their 30th Anniversary Season
The Palace Grand was a departure for the Company and yet we found ourselves in familiar terrain… Lost, uncertain, but driven to find a way through. Of course the same rules applied and we followed them out of each tangle but the going was rough. Kerr lead the way, Young held the map, Hudgins lugged the heavy equipment, Collier parachuted in, Reid like a beacon urged us onward. In a remote region we at last caught a glimpse of The Palace Grand, then beat a hasty retreat, arriving back just in time - weary, but triumphant. We brought back most of what was unearthed but there were some things dredged up that were best left behind. IN the end, the account we assembled was not half as strange as the original but we came close. One thing is certain – the entire expedition would have been lost were it not for those who worked so diligently to recreate it: John Webber, Jan Hodgson, Rick Holloway, Kirsten McGhie, Rory Gylander, Harry Vanderschee, and Marianne Otterstrom.
MAGNETIC NORTH – Brilliant! Goes to Edmonton
What an absolute delight. A chance to perform one of our most beloved works for the good people of Edmonton -- host to a fresh, new, national festival, teeming with professional artists and producers from across Canada! A chance to travel again with our beloved Cindy Reid, Adrian Muir and Jan Hodgson, to the nether regions of the earth. Thus our auspicious entrance into the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, which turned out very well indeed.
Night one. The friendly Edmontonians, including a fleet of incredible volunteers, meet us, greet us, and show us the town. These folks really made our stay wonderfully comfortable and productive. From our exciting opening night at the Citadel to the excellent hospitality of Catalyst and other theatres, we took pride in representing our region by celebrating our vision with the many we saw, and the many dedicated individuals we met.
On night two, a computer malfunction nearly turned the play Brilliant! to Rather Dark! when the theatre lighting failed to go on after a scenic blackout. It was at the precise moment when Tesla is supposed to enlighten the laboratory with a demonstration of his high-voltage power. Jonathon covered brilliantly, improvising lines as if Tesla were fumbling in the dark to find the right switch. Minutes later, when the house lights came on, revealing the stage AND AUDIENCE, Tesla walked straight downstage and welcomed everyone into his laboratory. “Mr. Tesla,” exclaimed Robert, played by Kevin, “I had no idea this would be a public display.” After many more minutes of this, followed by an impromptu intermission, the audience was thrilled to watch the original scene, fuelled by the amazement at the feat of improvising they had seen without knowing anything was amiss! That night we reinforced a long-held theory: audiences love to be voyeurs… and there’s nothing more exciting than a train wreck!
Nights three to seven: A seamless run of shows that consistently drew great houses. As in every other city we’ve done the show, we encountered engineers, Tesla-philes, and Serbian patrons who cheered out loud whenever Tesla swore in his native tongue.
We were proud to meet many of the great artists of Canada who have stimulated us with their words and performances, many who attended Brilliant! Being at Magnetic North allowed us to see several world-class productions of Canadian works which we shall cherish as some of our all time favourites.
We thank Mary Vingoe and Heather Redfern for their combined initiative to bring us east of the Rockies. Almost a decade after its debut, Brilliant! continues to stimulate neurons in brains across the country. Nay, across THE WORLD!!
From Liz Nicholls, Edmonton Journal:
Story of forgotten inventor crackles with energy
Brilliant! is:
…consistently playful and fun to watch… moving, too, to see
the tragic dimension of genius, how precarious it is, how isolating, how
close to madness, as Tesla comes up against the corporate infrastructure
of the young country and finds it unexpectedly immovable.
The Score on film
Suddenly we are making a film! It seems to have happened so fast!
Last year we began to date Screen Siren Pictures Inc and after a short and sweet courtship, we were invited to work with them to adapt our play The Score into a film version for CBC’s Opening Night.
After a crash course in Screen Writing by the amazing Sioux Browning we hauled our play off the shelf and breathed new artistic life into it for this completely different medium.
The question we are usually asked is – how much has it changed in the process. The answer is: a lot. Revisiting The Score has been a fantastic opportunity to build the existing conceptual ideas, narrative and characters to a stronger and more fulfilled story. It was clear early in the process that we did not want The Score to look like the stage play being recorded on film, but that we wanted to take full advantage of working in film creatively. It has been an extremely exciting opportunity to tell the story relying more on visual pictures and less on the spoken word. The project now moves through multiple locations, our favorite being the curling rink!
It has been an absolute pleasure to have been able to revisit our friends at the Centre for Molecular Medicine & Therapeutics (CMMT) lab. Dr. Michael Hayden, who heads the lab, originally commissioned the play in 1999. Once again, Dr. Joanne Fox and the researchers at CMMT helped us study up on the latest breakthroughs in the word of genetics, and being green as we are, we have studied up on film too, mostly through books.
So now we are in preproduction. And yes we are directing the film. And
you may be asking have we ever directed a film before? – No, well
then how about a short? – No. Picked up a video camera and made home
movies? – Not really. But Kim did go on set for four days and to watch
other people work, does that count?! But come to think of it, we had never
directed for stage before, until we were in production, so why not film
too?
With the remarkable blessings and support of the Screen Sirens shooting
will commence November 1 and the film should be completed in its entirety
by June 1, 2005. Audiences will be able to view The Score next
fall on CBC so please stay tuned! Lights, Camera – Action!!
In Development - Studies in Motion: the hauntings of Eadweard Muybridge
This season Electric Company teams up with Award-Winning Designer Robert Gardiner and Theatre at UBC for a series of physical and design-based workshops as we develop our latest play.
True to Electric Company form, we head into the secluded laboratory on that strange and stormy western promontory known as the University of British Columbia to explore the work of Eadweard Muybridge, the photographer that in his obsession to freeze time and capture the motion of the human body ended up creating the foundation of the motion picture.
And as Electric Company expands its practice into feature film this season, it’s more fascinating than ever to investigate the shadowy first frames of cinema.
The Story:
In 1885, in a compound at the University of Pennsylvania, surrounded by dozens of cameras, scores of nude models, domestic animals, and wild beasts, this famed photographer Eadweard Muybridge attempts to dissect time into fragments and expose a secret world within our gestures that until now has been hidden from our view.
On the surface, Muybridge appears simply as an artist obsessed with his work. But cracks are beginning to show and demons of jealousy, betrayal, and a past murder begin to invade the strange world of his motion studies.
The dead man that he gunned down, the young woman who died of grief, shame, and loneliness, and the baby that he abandoned are among the ghosts and memories that drive him to stop time and strip meaning from action.
The Workshop:
Starting with a sketch of the story, characters, and setting, we’ll begin exploring the action of the play through the design elements. Projections, lighting, sound, and music will be layered with actors, text, and gesture as we reconstruct the story from the found fragments of images and history.
Designer Robert Gardiner will attempt to push some of the limits of the current technology, and the process will make the design elements active players in the creation of the narrative.
Studies in Motion will premiere during the PuSh International Festival in 2006.