“It’s a type of artistry finding the right people to bring into a collaborative space” says Eric Rose who is co-artistic director along with David van Belle of Ghost River Theatre. The theatrical dynamic duo has wowed audiences recently with a series of plays showcasing a unique blend of otherworldly adventure and technical derring-do.
When the pair first met van Belle had been working as assistant director with One Yellow Rabbit. Rose living in Toronto was interested in the collaborative nature of the company’s work and came to Calgary to study their process. “We hit it off immediately” says van Belle. They’ve worked together as co-artistic directors with Ghost River Theatre for the past five years culminating in shows like The Highest Step in the World featuring acclaimed screen-projected imagery that netted them the Betty Mitchell Award for outstanding production (Ghost River scored the award again a year later with ONE) and Tomorrow’s Child a soundscape work that debuted in March.
Their latest production The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst was inspired by the bizarre true tale of a British sailor who mysteriously disappeared after attempting a solo world-spanning sailing race in 1969. The story first came to van Belle’s attention 20 years ago when his theatre mentor told him the surreal high seas yarn. Years later while he and Rose were rehearsing Highest Step the story resurfaced and they knew what their next show would be. “Like Highest Step it’s that feeling of going beyond what’s possible” says Rose. He says he doesn’t feel beholden to rigid historical accuracy. “I think we’re more interested in mythology not a forensic approach to telling the story.”
Both say that while a story has to be compelling so does the theatrical problem it poses. How do you tell the story on the stage? How do you create an ocean? “The spark the idea comes immediately” says van Belle. “But then it gets developed over a long long time. It’s not give and take or negotiation — that’s not the key to good work. It’s more like offering to each other asking each other ‘What if?’”
Crowhurst premières in February 2015 at Alberta Theatre Projects. Working with a larger company has its complexities says van Belle though he adds that ATP has given them the freedom to create the work according to their own methods. For Crowhurst’s projected imagery the creative process is built into the play — the audience will see how the visuals are made during the performance. “It’s like a magician showing you a trick and explaining how it’s done but you still believe it” says Rose.
ATP’s executive director Vicki Stroich says Rose and van Belle’s work has helped ease her skepticism around the use of projection in theatre. “There are some who use it as a shortcut to the imagination” she says. “I’ve been skeptical because the power of the performer and the allure of the screen tend to obliterate each other not complement each other.” In this case she says their projection work isn’t ornamental and pushes the images to become part of the production.
“What appeals to me is how they think of theatre so holistically the sense that it should engage intellect emotion and the visceral body” she says. “What I love about their work is the level of risk. I rarely meet artists that have the ambition they have the level of storytelling ambition and rigour in their work.”
Projection is just another part of the theatrical vocabulary says van Belle. “We’re not obsessed with technology” he says. “Not all shows necessarily need it but we want to speak a full theatrical language.” Rose says process is the most important part of the work. “What we’re offering is another way” he says. “I think the way we work is a magnet for change — it doesn’t work for everyone but it draws people to us.”
This need to explore a full theatrical “language” led the pair to create the first in a proposed Six Senses Series (that’s right six) the audio experience Tomorrow’s Child. The adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s sci-fi short story was heard rather than seen the audience remaining blindfolded for the entire performance.
Rose and van Belle are busy outside of Ghost River Theatre as well with van Belle currently prepping his play Liberation Days for its première at Theatre Calgary this October. They say they know intuitively the ideas that are their own and which ones they can bring to each other. “The ideas need to have space for both of us” says Rose. “It has to be big enough that we can both do what we like with it.” He likens their audition process to dating working with potential collaborators through workshops internships and other performances.
Musician Kris Demeanor says that adventurousness has brought him to work with them on numerous productions including Reverie and Buzz Job. “They trust they will find performative strengths in their actors that haven’t before been recognized or tapped which keeps their actors energized and marginally freaked out at all times” he says.
Demeanor adds that they have an intuitive understanding of how music works with narrative. “In Reverie they would allow the imagery or mood of the songs to dictate how the story progressed ‘scoring’ the songs with visuals and movement instead of the other way around” he says. “Artists hunger for that something new the fresh untried thing — it’s hard to hit upon but Eric and David search for it while always making sure there is a core in any piece that will connect directly and emotionally with an audience which is what I’ve always strived for in music.”
Rose and van Belle are also excited to discuss Ghost River’s move to its new space the West Village Theatre (formerly inhabited by Dancers’ Studio West). “We’re a small company and it’s great to use this space as we want to like a lab space” says van Belle adding that the new space is an active part of their creative process not only allowing room for three companies to inhabit it (Ghost River Green Fools and Calgary Young People’s Theatre) but helping to encourage a more collaborative theatrical community.
“I think they’re making true strides in getting young people excited about theatre” says Demeanor. “A lot of companies state this as a mandate but few have figured out how to deliver it. Ghost River has found the balance of doing shows that have a contemporary feel dazzle and tempo along with resonant active storytelling.”
