Stone Boat Artist Retreat - WILDLIFE
A Guest Blog by Liz Peterson (eventsinrealtime.org) on creating work at SBAR for WILDLIFE, a new performance at the SummerWorks Live Art Series 2015
Inspired by one woman's search for meaning through well-being techniques, Wildlife is a collaborative performance about spirituality and identity. Centred around a talk-show set in an alternate world, two salespeople pitching a new spiritual practice, and re-enactments from nature documentaries, the show combines personal narratives with some impossible propositions.
Our process for making Wildlife began in April 2015, with meetings and dinners culminating in a series of interviews that we shot in Toronto. After a few weeks of hiatus we came back to work in July when we stayed at the Stone Boat Artist Retreat for three nights to figure out how to tie together all the research we had done up to that point. With Norah Sadava of Quote Unquote Collective as our host we were told that anything is possible and everything is at our disposal. We shot a promo video, Norah taught us yoga classes, we worked on an amoeba dance, examined our interview footage, read, wrote, argued, barbecued, jumped into the lake nearby, watched movies, and then got up and did the same thing all over again.
The Nostbakken family who own and operate SBAR left us clean sheets and fruit with the only caveat that we had to write in the guest book. The farmhouse is a beautiful old home with wallpapered rooms and a big farmhouse kitchen. We rehearsed and did yoga in the parlour, which is an amazing time capsule of paintings and furniture and crockery. What a gift to be there. My only regret is that we weren't there longer to fully explore the acres of land around the farmhouse. If you have the chance to attend SBAR at any point, take it!
Wildlife runs August 12-16th, 2015, as a part of the SummerWorks Live Art Series in Toronto, Ontario. Find more information HERE.
For more information on SBAR and to inquire about your own retreat, contact us at info@quoteunquotecollective.com