{"id":21884,"date":"2016-11-11T00:52:45","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T08:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=21884"},"modified":"2016-11-11T10:25:58","modified_gmt":"2016-11-11T18:25:58","slug":"we-are-all-connected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/11\/11\/we-are-all-connected\/","title":{"rendered":"We are all connected"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kerry Sandomirsky as Alice, centre. In Long Division<\/em>, the way in which Alice\u2019s son reacts to bullying \u201cconnects all the characters in the play, and it makes my character deeply question herself,\u201d explains Sandomirsky. (photo by David Cooper)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Math, movement, images, text, music and more combine in Peter Dickinson\u2019s Long Division<\/em>, which will see its premi\u00e8re at Gateway Theatre Nov. 17-26.<\/p>\n

Dickinson is a professor at Simon Fraser University and the director of SFU\u2019s Institute for Performance Studies. Long Division<\/em> is his third play, and it features seven characters. Jewish community member Kerry Sandomirsky plays Alice.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlice is the single mother of a brilliant math student who is bullied,\u201d Sandomirsky told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cHe responds by making a shocking choice. This event connects all the characters in the play, and it makes my character deeply question herself. What could she have possibly done differently?\u201d<\/p>\n

Directed by Richard Wolfe and produced by Pi Theatre, Long Division<\/em> is \u201cabout the mathematics of human connection.\u201d The characters, explains the synopsis, \u201care linked by a sequence of ultimately tragic events, but there is more to the pattern than first appears. The three male and four female characters use number theory, geometry and logic to trace their connection to each other and to the moment that changed their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about what challenges the script posed for her, Sandomirsky, said, \u201cWell, have you ever tried to explain Pascal\u2019s Wager using contemporary dance? Or Fibonacci numbers? Or Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s cat? We\u2019re dealing with mathematical concepts as metaphors for human stories. So, the first task is to learn the math!\u201d<\/p>\n

And to how much of the math could she relate?<\/p>\n

\u201cZero,\u201d she said. \u201cThank God my son has a math tutor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only is there the math to master, but the movement. For that, the cast also had help.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarlier today,\u201d wrote Dickinson in his Oct. 20 blog, \u201cthe choreographer of Long Division<\/em>, Lesley Telford, invited me to drop by the studio at Arts Umbrella on Granville Island, where she was working \u2026 with seven amazingly talented dancers \u2026 and they have each taken on a character in the play, drawing from the text \u2026 to improvise and develop individual gesture phrases that may or may not eventually get set in some related form on our corresponding actors when we begin rehearsals next week\u2026. I was amazed at how bang-on their instincts were in terms of energy and tempo and line, as well as things like muscularity vs. flow, repetition, different levels and directional facings, and so on. I was also pleased to note that I could also read each character in the movement without reading the movement itself as telegraphing too obviously this or that character\u2019s psychology or profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

Projection art also helps \u201creveal aspects of the characters\u2019 inner lives,\u201d according to the play description. On Oct. 29, Dickinson blogged that it was \u201cuseful to have Jamie [Nesbitt] at the table yesterday for our final beat-by-beat read-through of the text, as he asked a lot of tough dramaturgical questions about what exactly was going on in different sections, and how video might support them in some instances, or conceivably work against them in others. Combined with the cast\u2019s similarly probing questions from the rest of the week, the rigorous text analysis has really forced me to justify my choices, and to explain their relevance to the overall structure of the play and the respective inner worlds of each of the characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing Alice motivated Sandomirsky to read Sue Klebold\u2019s book A Mother\u2019s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy<\/em>. \u201cHer son was one of the Columbine shooters,\u201d explained Sandomirsky. \u201cShe experienced a firestorm of hatred. For example, when her family was sent food by her neighbors, her lawyer insisted she throw it out in case it was poisoned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the third play in a row where I play the mother of a tormented teenage boy. And this is definitely the first one that prescribes algebra as the way to get through life.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, Sandomirsky was quick to note, \u201cLong Division<\/em> is a workout for the mind \u2013 without sacrificing heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets for Long Division<\/em> ($29) can be purchased from 604-270-1812 or gatewaytheatre.com\/longdivision<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kerry Sandomirsky as Alice, centre. In Long Division, the way in which Alice\u2019s son reacts to bullying \u201cconnects all the characters in the play, and it makes my character deeply question herself,\u201d explains Sandomirsky. (photo by David Cooper) Math, movement, images, text, music and more combine in Peter Dickinson\u2019s Long Division, which will see its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[4217,1997],"class_list":["post-21884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-bullying","tag-mental-health"],"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\/21884","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=21884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}