{"id":13948,"date":"2015-08-21T00:08:46","date_gmt":"2015-08-21T07:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=13948"},"modified":"2015-08-19T10:28:08","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T17:28:08","slug":"at-home-anywhere-in-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/08\/21\/at-home-anywhere-in-world\/","title":{"rendered":"At home anywhere in world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playwright, cyclist and world traveler Ira Cooper. Among his many endeavors has been teaching English in China. (photo from Ira Cooper)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI lust to travel, to see places, to meet people and do theatre,\u201d said Ira Cooper.<\/p>\n

In everything he does, he forges his own path; he is not one for conforming to the rules. Even his professional definition is sprouting in all directions. He is an actor and a playwright, an educator and a world traveler, a poet and a filmmaker. In the few years since he graduated from the University of British Columbia theatre program, he has worked with children at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, taught English in China, worked as an actor in the Czech Republic, produced films and written plays.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been writing for a long time, poems and short stories,\u201d he said in an interview with the Jewish Independent<\/em>. \u201cI never tried to publish anything. If you do, everyone could see who you are.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen, after university, I worked as an actor for the Nelson Historical Theatre Society. In 2007, we produced a play about Charlie Chaplin, and there was a gap in the play. The director asked me if I could write a scene for it, and I agreed. It was produced and well received.\u201d<\/p>\n

His latest play, Sid: The Handsome Bum<\/em>, a one-woman show about homelessness in Vancouver, was written and first performed in 2014. The play will be part of this year\u2019s Victoria Fringe Festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to show that homelessness is not general, it\u2019s personal,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cWe listen to Sid because she is in a show. Would we listen to her otherwise?… I was privileged growing up, but not everyone is. I talked to homeless people in downtown, wanted to figure out who they are. My mom taught me that there is no \u2018us\u2019 and \u2018them.\u2019 It\u2019s all \u2018us.\u2019 One of the problems homeless people face is that nobody is listening to them. They want to talk, and I listened. There is a community there, like everywhere else. There is beauty there, not just ugliness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The play germinated in his head for several years. In 2014, Cooper and two friends, both UBC graduates, Joanna Rannelli and Hilary Fillier, organized a new theatre company \u2013 Spec Theatre \u2013 to produce the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted this theatre to be for a non-theatre audience. Everybody should be able to enjoy a theatre, but not everybody can afford expensive venues. A theatre could perform anywhere: in a bedroom, in a garden, in non-theatre spaces. Our theatre is accessible to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, theatre is a tough way to generate an income, he acknowledged. \u201cOur theatre is a labor of love. It\u2019s fulfilling. It\u2019s somewhere between a hobby and a profession. I\u2019d say, I have a relationship with theatre, not a career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Spec Theatre, the play was a collaborative effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe traded ideas,\u201d Cooper explained. \u201cI would receive feedback from Joanna and Hilary and rewrite. In the beginning, I planned it for a male actor, but later that changed. Joanna is playing the title role, which includes five different characters. We hired the director, Kayla Doerksen, and first performed the show in 2014, in the Little Mountain Studio. It\u2019s a small space, 45 seats, but it was sold out most nights.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, Spec is remounting the play for a bigger audience at the Victoria Fringe. \u201cI don\u2019t know anyone there,\u201d Cooper confided. \u201cIt\u2019s terrifying. Here, in Vancouver, many friends came to the show, but there, we have to promote.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also have to do all the other jobs a play requires besides acting and directing: lighting, stage management, producing and so on. As in any relationship, in Cooper\u2019s relationship with theatre, no job is too small, and collaboration is extremely important.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wanted to collaborate with passionate people on our own projects, not jump into the industry at the entry level and work my way to the top.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s interests are broad, and he doesn\u2019t confine himself to one area of the arts. In the last few years, he also has created several short films, taught English in China, and traveled by bicycle to Mexico and through Europe.<\/p>\n

His enthusiasm for cycling is comparatively recent. \u201cIt happened around 2010,\u201d he said. \u201cMy mom and I talked, and she said that I was smart but not very physical. I wanted to be physical, too, and I thought biking would be right for me. I did some research and joined a group bicycle trip from Amsterdam to Istanbul. But I had to prepare for such a long trip, so I biked from Vancouver to Mexico. It took about two months. I stopped where I wanted, talked to people. It was all about exploration, not the destination.\u201d<\/p>\n

His next long bicycle trip will happen in a couple of years \u2013 he will be going to Beijing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m planning parts of the trip now,\u201d he said. \u201cI will bike from Vancouver to Newfoundland, and from there to Argentina. Then, I\u2019ll take a ship to South Africa and, from there, travel north on my bike, through Africa and the Middle East, tentatively Russia, to China. I started a special website and blog for the trip, and I want my readers to suggest where I should go next. It will be an interactive trip.\u201d (His bicycle trip website is pedaleachmile.com.)<\/p>\n

Cooper is also planning to stop and work along the way. One of his more definitive plans is to teach English in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a stigma attached to traveling through Africa or Muslim countries,\u201d he said, \u201cand, in part, that\u2019s what my trip is about: removing the stigmas from people, cultures and places. The same about homelessness \u2013 I wanted to remove the stigma. They are just people, like everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sid: The Handsome Bum<\/em> will be performed Aug. 29 to Sept. 5 in Victoria. For more information, visit spectheatre.wordpress.com.<\/a><\/p>\n

Olga Livshin<\/strong> is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Playwright, cyclist and world traveler Ira Cooper. Among his many endeavors has been teaching English in China. (photo from Ira Cooper) \u201cI lust to travel, to see places, to meet people and do theatre,\u201d said Ira Cooper. In everything he does, he forges his own path; he is not one for conforming to the rules. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[4311,4308,2636,4305,4307,4310,4309,4306],"class_list":["post-13948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-cycling","tag-hilary-fillier","tag-homeless","tag-ira-cooper","tag-joanna-rannelli","tag-kayla-doerksen","tag-spec-theatre","tag-victoria-fringe"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}