{"id":25708,"date":"2017-09-08T03:48:28","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T10:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=25708"},"modified":"2017-09-05T16:03:16","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T23:03:16","slug":"what-does-future-hold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2017\/09\/08\/what-does-future-hold\/","title":{"rendered":"What does future hold?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jewish community member mia amir is the dramaturg of Wypsa<\/i>, which is at the Fringe Festival until Sept. 16.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

While the plot of Wyspa <\/i>may bring to mind William Golding\u2019s Lord of the Flies<\/i>, the book was not a direct inspiration for this work, co-writer and director Julia Siedlanowska told the Independent<\/i>.<\/p>\n

The creation of the play, which opened at the Vancouver Fringe Festival Sept. 7, began with the reading and discussion of an original story written by Siedlanowska and Kanon Hewitt.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team includes five collaborators between the ages of 11 and 16,\u201d said Siedlanowska. \u201cThey have all been involved directly in the creation of this piece through world-building, research, writing text, improvisation, creating soundscapes, costumes and props. They are all also performing in the piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

Siedlanowska and Kanon\u2019s story \u201ctells the tale of a walled-in community that has sustained itself through oil extraction for centuries,\u201d Siedlanowska explained. \u201cWhen fires start raging within the walls, the mothers of the community make the decision to send their children away through the only opening to the outside world \u2013 an opening to the ocean.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter days of drifting, they finally arrive on an island. Here, they must decide whether they will live by the rigid rules of their old society or create their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe separated the experience into three worlds,\u201d she continued. \u201cThe home world, the world of the boat and the world of the island. From there, we collectively decided the specific circumstances of each of these, including what rules apply in the home world and the island world. The youth created their own characters and decided on each of their relationships to each other. Text and movement were all generated by the collaborators, with myself and Kanon making decisions about the show structure with the help of our dramaturg mia amir. There are some improvisational aspects \u2013 much of the show takes place within an improvised structure with scenes changing depending on the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The end result came from research of instances in which children were removed from their homes during the Second World War, said Siedlanowska, \u201cincluding Japan after the Tokyo bombings and the Kindertransport of Jewish children in Europe, as well as the Sixties Scoop in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne piece of literature that I did directly mention in the initial phases of brainstorming was the story of King Matt the First, written by Polish-Jewish playwright Janusz Korczak. Korczak ran an orphanage in Second World War Poland. He was a pedagogue, writer and children\u2019s rights activist. The orphanage was called Our House, and the children living there published their own newspaper and held their own court when conflicts arose among them. King Matt the First was about a child who becomes king, and what might happen if children were rulers.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the idea of the story first arose, she said, \u201cfrom questions around the rise in domestic violence in Alberta as a result of the economic downturn and job loss in the oil and gas industry. This violence is predominantly towards women.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis then led to questions around how raising youth within rigid gender identities might enforce these patterns of violence. Instead of writing what we think youth might have to say about these themes, we decided to ask directly. In relation to climate change, we also wanted to ask the question, how do we \u2013 as an adult audience \u2013 react to dialogue around the climate crisis when those who will inherit the planet stand directly in front of us?\u201d<\/p>\n

Wyspa is being presented as part of Generation Hot, a mentorship initiative of the Only Animal and the Fringe Festival, which presents the work of seven writer-directors between the ages of 17 and 24. This year\u2019s program is called Waterborne. \u201cEach participant has found a personal response to a chosen site on Granville Island and the theme of water,\u201d explains the press release. \u201cTwo programs of these short works will run in rep during the 2017 Vancouver Fringe Festival\u2026. Wyspa<\/i> is paired with Citlali: A Fantastic Tale About Water<\/i> by a Mexican Poet by Brenda Mu\u00f1oz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wyspa<\/i> runs Sept. 8, 10, 13-14 and 16, 8 p.m., at Ron Basford Park on Granville Island. For tickets ($12) and the full Fringe schedule, visit vancouverfringe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jewish community member mia amir is the dramaturg of Wypsa, which is at the Fringe Festival until Sept. 16. While the plot of Wyspa may bring to mind William Golding\u2019s Lord of the Flies, the book was not a direct inspiration for this work, co-writer and director Julia Siedlanowska told the Independent. The creation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[3057,1242,7367,6208,7366],"class_list":["post-25708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-domestic-violence","tag-fringe-festival","tag-julia-siedlanowska","tag-theatre","tag-wyspa"],"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\/25708","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=25708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}