- One Little Goat Theatre Company
-
"Toronto's enterprising One Little Goat Theatre Company"[1] is North America’s only theatre company devoted to modern and contemporary “poetic theatre.”[2][3] Founded by poet, playwright and director Adam Seelig in New York in 2002, and based in Toronto since 2005, the company is distinguished by its highly interpretive, provocative approach to international plays. The company takes its name from the ancient Aramaic folk song (Chad Gadya) that traditionally concludes the Passover Seder.
Contents
Poetic Theatre
Producing, developing, defining and redefining “poetic theatre” has been One Little Goat’s mandate since the company’s inception.[4] While the term is open to interpretation, One Little Goat’s Artistic Director, Adam Seelig, outlines key elements of the company’s aesthetic in an essay for the Capilano Review entitled “EMERGENSEE: GET HEAD OUT OF ASS: ‘Charactor’ and Poetic Theatre”.[5] These elements include "charactor" (Seelig’s term for combining an actor’s onstage persona with their offstage nature), the "prism/gap" (between actor and audience), and ambiguity. The essay also traces the influences of Sophocles, Zeami, Luigi Pirandello, Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett, Thomas Bernhard and others on One Little Goat’s dramatic approach.
“Poetic theatre attempts to find clarity through ambiguity. It’s not verse theatre or prose theatre or journalistic theatre. It’s theatre that treats the text as a score [...] and treats the gap between actor and audience not as an obstacle to bypass, but as a medium through which multiple meanings can emerge. There’s a difference between shining a light directly into the audience’s eyes, and having it pass through a prism.”[6]
One Little Goat’s “definition of ‘poetic theatre’ is a work in progress” and the company’s artistry is practical before it is theoretical: “doing the plays comes first; theory and definition follow.”[7]
Production History
Ritter, Dene, Voss, New York Premiere, 23 September - 10 October 2010, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (Opening production of La MaMa's 49th season, the last one under the artistic leadership of founder Ellen Stewart)
By Thomas Bernhard, Directed by Adam Seelig, Translated from the German by Kenneth Northcott and Peter Jansen[8]
With Shannon Perreault, Maev Beaty and Jordan Pettle
Sets & Costumes, Jackie Chau; Lighting Design, Kate McKay; Stage Manager, Sandi Becker; Music, Ludwig van Beethoven
Overview: In Ritter, Dene, Voss (named for the three actors - Ilse Ritter,[9] Kirsten Dene[10] and Gert Voss[11] - who premiered the original 1986 production in German), Thomas Bernhard explores sexual repression and sibling rivalry with characteristic tenacity and wit. The play involves two sisters – both actresses – and their attempts at reintegrating their volatile brother into their home. The brother, a tormented genius (loosely based on last century’s great, idiosyncratic philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein), has just returned from a mental health institute, complicating the dynamics between the three siblings.Talking Masks (Oedipussy), World Premiere, 13–28 November 2009, Walmer Centre Theatre, Toronto
Written and Directed by Adam Seelig
With Richard Harte, Jane Miller, Andrew Moodie, Cathy Murphy
Sets & Costumes, Jackie Chau; Lighting Design, Laird MacDonald; Projections, Jason J Brown; Sound Design, Christopher Stanton; Stage Manager, Wendy Lee; Production Assistant, Ruthie Pytka-Jones
Overview: Talking Masks (Oedipussy) involves a son, two mothers and an absent father who, in exploring the intertwined fates of their family, fuse two of the world’s most enduring myths: the tragedy of Oedipus, and the harrowing tale of half-brothers Isaac and Ishmael. What unfolds is a wild progression of rapid-fire interactions that expose as much as they mask about the “charactors”.
Publication: Talking Masks is published by BookThug (Toronto 2009).[12]
Someone is Going to Come, English Canadian Premiere, 13–29 March 2009, Walmer Centre Theatre, Toronto
By Jon Fosse, Directed by Adam Seelig, Translated from the Norwegian by Harry Lane and Adam Seelig
With Michael Blake, Dwight McFee, Stacie Steadman
Sets & Costumes, Jackie Chau; Lighting Design, Kate McKay; Stage Manager, Wendy Lee; Music, Ludwig van Beethoven
Overview: Jon Fosse's provocative and primal three-person play involving sexual jealousy is featured in a new English translation by University of Guelph Professor Harry Lane, and One Little Goat’s Artistic Director, Adam Seelig. Someone is Going to Come involves a man and a woman who move to an old, run-down house in the middle of nowhere in order to be alone together. From the beginning, however, they grow anxious that “someone is going to come”. And sure enough, someone does come, someone whose presence unleashes hidden jealousies that threaten to shatter the couple’s relationship. This all unfolds through Fosse’s distinctively austere lyricism.
Ritter, Dene, Voss, US Premiere, 6–8 December 2007, Trap Door Theatre, Chicago
Antigone : Insurgency, World Premiere, 9–25 November 2007, Walmer Centre Theatre, Toronto
Written and Directed by Adam Seelig
With Richard Harte, Earl Pastko, Cara Ricketts
Sets & Costumes, Jackie Chau; Lighting Design, Kate McKay; Sound Design, Kathy Zaborsky; Stage Manager, Liz Air
Overview Antigone : Insurgency presents a provocative, post-9/11 reworking of Sophocles' masterpiece from the fifth-century BC. Drawing intriguing parallels between the original Greek tragedy and current global politics, the production explores the socio-political repercussions of combating insurgency.
Ritter, Dene, Voss, English Language World Premiere, 17 November - 3 December 2006, Alchemy Theatre, Toronto
Radio Plays by Yehuda Amichai, English Language World Premieres, 2003–2006, various venues including the 92nd Street Y and Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, Miles Nadal JCC in Toronto, and in a podcast for Poetry Magazine[13]References
- ^ New York Times, 1 October 2010
- ^ "He, She and the Man make for a Seussian tale," Globe and Mail, 16 March 2009
- ^ "Play about national security, civil rights raises questions," Canadian Jewish News, 8 Nov 2007
- ^ One Little Goat Theatre Company website
- ^ Capilano Review, “Poets Theatre” issue, Spring 2010
- ^ nytheatre interview with Adam Seelig
- ^ George Hunka interviews Adam Seelig
- ^ Histrionics: Three Plays, Thomas Bernhard (University of Chicago Press, 1990)
- ^ Ilse Ritter on Wikipedia Deutsch
- ^ Kirsten Dene on Wikipedia Deutsch
- ^ Gert Voss on Wikipedia Deutsch
- ^ Talking Masks: Oedipussy (BookThug, Toronto, 2009)
- ^ "Killing Him: A Radio Play," Poetry Magazine publication and podcast, summer 2008
External links
- One Little Goat Theatre Company official website
Categories:- Culture of Toronto
- Theatre companies in Ontario
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
