{"id":27403,"date":"2018-01-12T03:59:22","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T11:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=27403"},"modified":"2018-01-10T17:26:34","modified_gmt":"2018-01-11T01:26:34","slug":"healing-after-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/01\/12\/healing-after-tragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Healing after tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mishelle Cuttler has the challenge of supervising the musical elements of The Events<\/em>, which features a different community choir every show. (photo from Pi Theatre)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2011, while he was out with his son, who was then 12 years old, writer David Greig read the news that Anders Breivik had killed 77 people in Norway \u2013 eight using a car bomb in Oslo, which also injured more than 200 other people, and then traveling to the island of Ut\u00f8ya to a summer camp for teens, where he shot and killed another 69 and injured more than 100.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son saw I was very affected and, because he was wondering why, I began to try and tell him what the news was and its implications,\u201d said Greif in an interview with BBC Writersroom. \u201cHe just kept repeating the question why? why? why? and I found the discussion quickly became very profound, about the nature of evil and whether it is ever possible to understand someone who shoots children for a political reason. I found trying to answer these questions became a compulsion I had to try and understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result was The Events<\/em>, which came into being when Greig met producer Ramin Gray at the Edinburgh Fringe. Gray had been having similar thoughts, said Greig. \u201cThat meeting made me know it had to be a play.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a play that has been staged around the world, and presenting it in Vancouver are Pi Theatre and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. After every performance, there will be a post-show discussion and, after the Jan. 17 preview, Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan, director of inter-religious studies at Vancouver School of Theology, will speak about various aspects of the play.<\/p>\n

While its initial questions came from the terrorist attack in Norway, The Events <\/em>centres on Claire, a priest who works and lives in her community, including leading a community choir. When The Boy attacks that choir, Claire survives the shooting, setting her on a quest similar to Greig\u2019s \u2013 and that of most of us, when such a horrific act is committed. She needs to know, why?<\/p>\n

There are only two actors in the production. In Vancouver, Luisa Jojic will play Claire, while Douglas Ennenberg will play six characters opposite her, including The Boy, a grief counselor, the shooter\u2019s father, a school friend of the shooter, Claire\u2019s lover, and various others to whom Claire speaks in her effort to find understanding. A unique aspect of this play is that the choir is \u201cplayed by\u201d real community choirs, who have practised the music (score by John Browne), sing some songs from their own repertoire, and have some lines to read, but are not given the script.<\/p>\n

Jewish community member Mishelle Cuttler has the challenge of being the musical supervisor and accompanist for the local show, which is directed by Richard Wolfe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing about The Events<\/em> is that the choirs are given ownership of the music,\u201d Cuttler told the Independent<\/em>. \u201cWe\u2019ve provided each choir director with the material they need to learn, and my job is to facilitate their integration into the show each night\u2026. I\u2019ll be visiting each choir during their regular rehearsals and hearing how they\u2019ve interpreted the music. I\u2019ll talk them through how they will fit into the play, but they don\u2019t ever see the full script. There will certainly be a lot of variables onstage each night, and that\u2019s what makes this piece so exciting. The singers will be witnessing the show for the first time along with the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the focus will be on the dialogue and music, without many other distractions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a very small amount of recorded sound in the show,\u201d said Cuttler, \u201cbut the majority of the aural experience will come from the singers, the actors and one upright piano.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pi Theatre has spent several months planning the logistics. \u201cEssentially,\u201d notes the press material, \u201cmore than 220 community members from 12 different choirs will participate over the show\u2019s run.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also notes that, while Claire \u201cstruggles to understand the event that changed her life, we are asked to decide whether love and hope can survive in the wake of an inexplicable act of violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Events <\/em>previews Jan. 17 and runs Tuesdays to Sundays until Jan. 28, with evening and matin\u00e9e performances, at the Russian Hall, 600 Campbell Ave. Tickets ($31\/$26) are available from pitheatre.com\/the-events<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mishelle Cuttler has the challenge of supervising the musical elements of The Events, which features a different community choir every show. (photo from Pi Theatre) In 2011, while he was out with his son, who was then 12 years old, writer David Greig read the news that Anders Breivik had killed 77 people in Norway […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[4952,3036,5806,1774],"class_list":["post-27403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-hope","tag-music","tag-religion","tag-terrorism"],"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\/27403","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=27403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}