| Time marches on, but it’s still difficult to imagine a member of the Old Trout Puppet Workshop, a theatre collective that prides itself on equality, as a 19-year-old crewman scrubbing decks on an American warship and taking orders from brisk navy types. Difficult to imagine, but a slice of real life nonetheless, as revealed in Peter Balkwill’s Sailor Boy, the opening production of Ghost River Theatre’s 2005-06 season.
Making its première in the Vertigo Studio Theatre from October 19 to 30, Sailor Boy, which follows Balkwill’s four-year tour in the U.S. Navy, reflects Ghost Theatre’s ongoing mandate to showcase new work by Alberta artists. The solo show is written and performed by Calgarian Balkwill and will be directed by Jillian Keiley, founder of the Newfoundland troupe Artistic Fraud and last year’s winner of the prestigious Siminovitch theatre prize. This marks the most recent collaboration between Balkwill and Ghost River – the actor was involved in workshopping the company’s Betty Mitchell Award-nominated X-Ray last year.
Moving from the Pacific seaboard to mainland China, Ghost River will then produce the debut of Dig, a new work by local playwright-director Glenda Stirling about three archeologists struggling with their pasts against the backdrop of an excavation seeking evidence of a mythic dynasty. The play, directed by Vanessa Porteous of Alberta Theatre Projects and featuring Caroline Cave (who recently starred in Theatre Calgary’s Macbeth), runs from April 27 to May 7, 2006.
Capping the Ghost River season will be The Alan Parkinson’s Project, a new musical currently being developed by artistic director Doug Curtis in collaboration with songwriter David Rhymer.
Having recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, Curtis plans to examine and demonstrate the challenges of living with a degenerative disease. The actor-playwright, known for his autobiographical storytelling, sees this play as both a cathartic outlet for his own struggle as well as an opportunity to create a resonant "musical exploration of surviving unwanted illness."
"I get a kick out of it because it’s authentic," he says. "There’s nothing like true stories – they can’t be beat."
The Alan Parkinson’s Project runs from June 6 to 25 at Dancers’ Studio West.
In addition to its Calgary productions, Ghost River will be taking Mesa, Curtis’s cross-generational buddy comedy, on the road again. Next season will find the popular show travelling to England, including London’s Pride of Place Festival, and to the National Dramatic Arts Centre in Shanghai. A tour of Saskatchewan courtesy of the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts is also tentatively planned.
Even though Ghost River’s tour dates are still being nailed down and the final show of the season remains unwritten, Curtis maintains that time is on the company’s side.
"We practically run year-round now, taking advantage of curated festivals," he says. "More often than not, we haven’t decided what to do until late August." |
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