Dream Migrations, a devised performance co-created by 28 theatre students at UBC’s Okanagan campus, will open April 8 at the Kelowna Art Gallery, before moving to the UBC campus for two more performances April 9 and 10.
Virginie Magnat, professor with the Interdisciplinary Performance Program, describes the devised public performance as, “a high-spirited balancing act between our need for community and our desire for freedom, our search for identity and our capacity for transformation, our predilection for certainty and our attraction to the unknown.”
Magnat is co-directing with Ker Wells, a pioneer in Canadian devised theatre and this year’s Devised Theatre Artist in Residence at UBC’s Okanagan campus. They are collaborating with Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies (IGS) Master of Fine Arts students Claire Leger and Tanja Woloshen, and IGS Master of Arts student Ozgul Akinci.
During his two-week residency (Feb. 24 to Mar. 8), Wells gave a talk sponsored by the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies and hosted by the Kelowna Art Gallery, where this piece will be premiered. He worked intensively with students in and outside class to help them generate and structure physically based material.
“This is a key aspect of devising which enables performers to take risks, explore possibilities, and enjoy a collective sense of creative agency and artistic ownership,” says Magnat.
“Dream Migrations is the result of the creative work of all the undergraduate students enrolled in THTR 280/480 Devised Public Performance, as well as that of three imaginative, supportive, and resourceful graduate students,” she notes. “The collaborative process — which is key to the making of this piece — also informs its main theme: community.”
The opening performance is 8 p.m., Friday, April 8, at the Kelowna Art Gallery. The production moves to UBC’s Okanagan Campus University Centre ballroom (UNC 200) for 8 p.m. performances on Saturday, April 9, and Sunday, April 10.
Tickets are available at the door for a minimum $5 donation, with proceeds going to the UBCO Save Japan initiative. A ticket to the closing night performance also includes access to the cast party afterward.
The production is supported by the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, Department of Creative Studies and the Kelowna Art Gallery.
— 30 —
