One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre Report to the Community 2014/2015 Community the to Report Robust cultural landscapes nurture vibrant societies. Through high-calibre work in the performing arts across the wide range of projects we undertake each season, One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre (OYR) harnesses the bold, adventurous spirit of our Calgary community to enrich the place we live. Our mission is to create and present vital, surprising performance experiences that engage and reward our audience. We believe it is through this kind of artistic To realize this vision work – work that arouses curiosity, ignites we are commited to… passion, stimulates imagination and challenges expectation – that individuals 6WhW^ab[`YS`VbdaVgU[`YfZW are inspired and communities fourish. work of the One Yellow Rabbit Performance Ensemble By extension, we believe that the rigor and love that feeds the work we put forward 7VgUSf[`YS`V_W`fad[`Y`Wi translates to a community that values and established artists through connection, compassion, and strives programs like the Summer to nourish its people – a society that is Lab Intensive and the galvanized by challenge and energized by beautifulyoungartists initiative possibility. BdaVgU[`YS`VbdWeW`f[`YfZW High Performance Rodeo, Calgary’s International Festival of the Arts 5W^WTdSf[`YfZWegbbadfaXagd community partners through special events like Wine Stage and unique events in the Big Secret Theatre Our Mission Cover photo credit: Kelly Hofer Kelly credit: photo Cover Photo Credit: Kelly Hofer The work of One Yellow Rabbit Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre is entrenched in helped One Yellow Rabbit throughout Performance Ensemble Staf deeply rooted values of respect, dignity, this year. We look forward to the 30th integrity and compassion. These values installment of the High Performance Blake Brooker Ann Connors have guided the organization and formed Rodeo (how is that for resiliency!) and to Artistic Director Managing Director (OYR) our decisions around all that we do for our gathering of old friends and new friends. 6W`[eW5^Sd]W Managing Producer (HPR) Noree Claerhout community and those values have, in turn, See you all in 2016. Associate Artist Marketing Associate provided the highest end result for One Andy Curtis Michelle Kennedy 4dWƔ6SZ^ Yellow Rabbit and all our stakeholders – Ann Connors Executive Assistant Our Board, Our Staf, Our Ensemble, Our Managing Director 2014 – 2015 Board of Directors <aeZgS6S^^WVa``W Public and Private Partners, Our Patrons Associate Producer and Our Calgary Community. Blake Brooker Executive <aZ`6g`` Artistic Director Colin Logiss Resource Development The 2014/15 season presented a number of Chair Amanda Germain losses for One Yellow Rabbit. The sudden Peter Kufeldt Bookkeeper and tragic deaths of two of our founding Vice-Chair Todd Hawkwood _W_TWdeD[UZSdV?U6aiW^^S`V?[UZSW^ Nadine Krenosky Publicist Green have lef crater sized holes in our Michael Treasurer Paul Moss Green ZWSdfeS`V[`agdZa_W 6Web[fWfZWeW Richard Greg Forrest Production Management (HPR) McDowell tragedies the support of our community Secretary Nicole Olson Grant-Sutie has strengthened our resiliency and Cameron Webster Technical Director reminded us of the importance of what we Past Chair Bradley Walker do; this support is helping us re-imagine Marketing Director (HPR) what the future will look like. Directors Ralph Christofersen This Report to Community provides ?a`S^W[6S^^_S`` BSVVk<a6Sh[e an overview of another tremendously James Laycraf successful season for One Yellow Rabbit: Our latest addition to the Canadian canon: Honorary What The Thunder Said, the 2014 Summer Blake Brooker Lab Intensive, beautifulyoungartists – our 6W`[eW5^Sd]W new emerging artists platform – and of course the annual High Performance Ex-Ofcio Rodeo – our month long gathering of art, Ann Connors art makers and audiences. Associate Councillor Evan Woolley Welcome Capitalizing on the momentum of the it is a virtuosic return to the roots of “OYR [has] taught not only the Calgary theatre practitioners but theatre success of the 28th High Performance the company’s mandate of presenting audiences to be open to the novel and to Rodeo, the One Yellow Rabbit Ensemble authentic, stimulating stories through choose the unexpected.” dove into a season of potent and the convergence of physical movement – Shelley Youngblut, Avenue Magazine courageous new creation work in 2014. and musicality. What The Thunder Said has a special resonance, as it was the Beginning with the continued last production by the OYR Ensemble development and production of wag – an faXWSfgdWfZWiad]aXEag`V6We[Y`Wd original one-woman show writen and D[UZSdV?U6aiW^^iZabSeeWVSiSk performed by Associate Artist and core [`@ahW_TWdS`V5a3df[ef[U6[dWUfad 7`eW_T^W_W_TWd6W`[eW5^Sd]W´S`V Michael Green, who passed away in concluding with the staggeringly beautiful, February. world premiere production of What The Thunder Said, 2014/2015 was a season with Some highlights of other projects our busy deep roots in ideas of love, loss, beauty and Rabbits took on this season include the resilience. continuing development of Making Treaty 7, Crystal Pite’s upcoming production of Wag , a ‘comedy of tragic proportions,’ Betrofenheit, choreographing for the Shaw journeyed east in the spring, appearing as Festival and working with the vivacious part of the lineup of the Magnetic North Theatre Replacement in Vancouver. Theatre Festival in Halifax (June 2014) and was later reprised for a successful run at the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver (October 2014) where this poignant, powerful blend of dance and storytelling was warmly embraced by audiences and critics alike. From May 2014 the Ensemble was joined by collaborator Peter Hinton to devise a theatrical presentation of T.S. Elliot’s famous 20th century poem, The Waste Land. This brutal and beautiful new piece of theatre would become What The Thunder Said, directed by Co-Artistic 6[dWUfad4^S]W4daa]WdbdW_[Wd[`YSf the 29th High Performance Rodeo in January 2015. Performed as a triptych, Photo Credit: Michael Tan OYR Ensemble Activities Activities Ensemble OYR Photo Credit: Trudie Lee As national leaders in the feld of theatre In order to foster ongoing relationships “I am challenged, inspired and creation, mentorship and artist training with the emerging talent on the Calgary exhausted. My body, my imagination and my creative thinking powers have are core components of One Yellow theatre scene, OYR has launched a been tested, examined, and celebrated. Rabbit’s artistic mission. dynamic mentorship initiative called It is research and development that beautifulyoungartists. This season, every artist working in Canadian theatre should put into practice to The Summer Lab Intensive – which g`VWdfZWV[dWUf[a`aX6W`[eW5^Sd]W revitalize their craf. Our Theatre annually engages artist practitioners from this exceptional ensemble presented would be beter for it. A national around the globe – is a program of national Radioheaded 2: A Listening Party to Watch meeting place for upping our artistic game. This is serious work for playful repute devised and run by OYR Associate as part of the 2014 Sled Island Festival. people. It is THE laboratory of our art 3df[ef6W`[eW5^Sd]W FZW>ST[eSfZdWW This compelling and electric production form.” week master class in performance creation in partnership with a popular Calgary – Peter Hinton O.C. 30 years of techniques, enhancing performance skills, music festival resulted in an absolutely professional theatre experience and stimulating artistic imagination led by unique performance experience for seasoned arts professionals OYR beautifulyoungartists company members, 5a3df[ef[U6[dWUfad4^S]W4daa]Wd as well as connecting new audiences with renowned visual artist Chris Cran, the work of OYR and its artists. and other guest instructors. Last July, the Rabbits invited 13 established and “To be at the Summer Lab in OYR is emerging artists to participate in an like upgrading the operating system of immersive workshop process that would my creational computer and reseting culminate in a series of unique devised my physical capabilities” solo-creation performance pieces. The – Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez Crus, program blends rigorous discipline with 40 years of professional experience extensive personal exploration, with an aim to motivate, initiate, and transform participants’ creative practice. “The beauty of One Yellow Rabbit’s Summer Lab is the permission it gives artists to explore, transform, learn, and This summer – as we approach the Lab’s create without fear.” 20th edition – some exciting program – Megan Carty redesigns are already in the works: Under the guidance of OYR Ensemble members and leading theatre practitioners, the newly re-imagined Summer Lab Intensive will ofer participating artists an even more engaged and comprehensive training opportunity. Educational and Mentorship Programs Mentorship and Educational Photo Credit: Michael Tan At the heart of One Yellow Rabbit’s The 29th Annual High programming season is the High Performance Rodeo included: BWdXad_S`UWDaVWa 6WV[USfWVfadWSUZ[`Y out and captivating audiences from all Firehall Arts Centre’s eclectic cabaret, Chelsea Hotel: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, walks of life, the Rodeo is internationally a co-presentation with Theatre Calgary renowned as fertile ground for Internationally acclaimed Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company in UNTITLED progressive, wild and powerfully inventive FEMINIST SHOW, a co-presentation performances. i[fZFZWSfdW<g`Uf[a`9D3@6 Perennial Rodeo favourites Mump & Smoot in Anything with Knooma, a What began as a punk-rock oriented, co-presentation with Alberta Theatre Projects grassroots showcase of performance One Yellow Rabbit’s own, What The art has matured into one of the largest Thunder Said – An illumination of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land - with special guest festivals of its kind in the country. artist Peter Hinton Throughout its 30-year history, the Rodeo 2014 Polaris Music Prize winner, Tanya Tagaq in concert with the classic silent flm has kept pace with the quickening pulse of Nanook Of The North.