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March 22, 2006
Ottawa without helmets
In Ottawa we have just one performance in Canada´s National Arts Center.
I performed in the very same building many years ago with Son of A Bitch, then alone.
As I remember from my previous visit, this massive mansion of performing arts is in professional hands, and as a result the stage (as every detail from posters to leaflets) is just perfect. I wish our lighting designer Mikki Kunttu would see the knife sharp lights and exact, delicious colors!
They have funny rules in the house: we should wear yellow helmets and special boots when we work behind the stage. Exactly at midday, a few minutes before the end, they stop our dress rehearsal and tell us the theatre has to pay a huge penalty if they don´t obey the union rules. Poor Tero, who has to start the rehearsal all over again after an hour. He never complains, just thanks the technicians and tries to keep his muscles warm for one hour more. This dream team seem to share a general Zen attitude, which brings much better results than any yelling or egoism.
The performance was one of our best, and at the end the whole audience was standing, which has become kind of a rule with us. Some disappeared crying to the lobby. In the public discussion after the show they openly addressed emotions raised by issues of the evening; humanity, loneliness, friendship, love and sacrifice.
The technology I use in Hunt is often the first question I get. I reply by telling the story about a bug my long time programmer, Jacke Kastelli, found in Macromedia Director, the software which we later decided to use in Hunt. The result is not video, but an interactive animation tool. I use it to I paint / shoot at Tero´s body with his own images in real time.
I like to see every performance, and every night I discover something new. This art form is always different, and I realize it better when I see the same work again and again. The audience too impacts the performance, and they are very different in every country. The extremes must be the noisy and emotional Italians and French, versus the quiet and reserved Japanese and Finns. Canadian are somewhere in between.
After the show the happy and tired bunch of performers enjoyed a heavy and hearty meal in a Scottish pub. One plate of cheesecake was enough for four! Photos are taken by Iiris Autio, our managing director. She joined us in Ottawa, and a few minutes before the performance she hugged me telling how much she loves her profession and this team.
After the show The Finnish Embassy has organized a reception, and we will stay one more day in Ottawa before flying to New York. A similar reception was organized during my last visit here, and it was also exceptional;informal, popular, and besides having fun I met remarkable professionals and got many reasons to visit Ottawa again. Well done, Embassy!
Posted by marita at March 22, 2006 11:51 AM