COLLABORATION!
by Jill Fenstermaker
So goes the song that the Chicago-based sketch group Planet Terrance wrote for the Around the Coyotes recent collaboration project. CIC’s group Cornwallis was fortunate enough to participate in the project as well. The venture (and its subsequent weekend-long workshop)sought to answer the question What can happen on a stage when visual artists, musicians and performers collaborate? We were paired with visual artist Caroline Picard, who had very little exposure to theater and was unfamiliar with improv. She talked about her art and learned about ours, and together we created a way to influence and inspire each other on stage.
Our collaboration culminated this weekend when we performed three shows at the Around the Coyote Fall Arts Festival. Caroline created many new paintings specifically for our performances. Her influence continued as she instructed which paintings should appear in each performance (we had no idea which ones would be included) and also gave us a suggestion to begin the show (again, we received this about 2 minutes before the show.) Director Jonathan Pitts was on hand to give us guidance.
This multidisciplinary performance experience was one of the most creatively fulfilling projects Ive ever been a part of. It was like doing a show with props, except that the props could be anything! We used paintings as masks, as additional characters, and as part of the set. Blank canvases and screens were used to convey emotions and feelings. Lots of positive feed back was received about the shows and about our form, including one person who said I never thought to improvise with paintings.
Our enjoyment and the audiences may lead us to explore an opportunity to do this form again, so please stay tuned. In the meantime well continue to cherish the experience, remembering that if we’re ever in need of a creative kick, we simply have to sing the words (or word, rather) to Planet Terrances song: COLLABORATION!
