EDEN: A Workshop Presentation
by Hope McIntyre
The truth can only remain buried for so long. It has a habit of coming back to haunt us.
Directed by Kayla Gordon
Assistant Director Heidi Malazdrewich
Featuring: Kevin Anderson, Andrea Del Campo, Ti Hallas, Marsha Knight, Jennifer Lyon, Josh Ranville, Steven Ratzlaff, and Tom Soares
Drumming by Jesse James Millar
Video by Matt Kennedy
Workshop presentations: February 28th at 7pm and March 1st at 3pm 2009
Colin Jackson Studio Theatre (at Prairie Theatre Exchange, 3rd Floor Portage Place)

Description:
EDEN is a bold and compelling new Canadian play written by Winnipeg-based playwright Hope McIntyre.  It combines the style of writers Caryl Churchill and Harold Pinter with its futuristic political bent.  It is an exciting piece not only due to its epic nature, exploring three generations of characters in a futuristic dystopia, but also due to the large cast size and unique production demands.  It is an interdisciplinary theatre experience which pulls from many cultural backgrounds.  Above all it is a puzzle where the truth is explored from many vantage points.

Check out the promo for EDEN

Sarasvàti Productions premiered Ripple Effect at FemFest 2008 and then toured throughout Winnipeg and surrounding areas. Ripple Effect explores the link between violence on a personal level with larger, more global violence.  How does violence in the home affect the school?  How does violence in school affect the home life?  How does violence in the world affect youth?  Does violence have a ripple effect? 

Background
The play was originally commissioned by Urban Rural Mission following an incidence of violence in a small rural community. Although this was the starting point of the project, the script has moved beyond this to explore a wider perspective. With the research into school shootings and bullying, the script attempts to look at the various manifestations of violence.  A janitor is used as the narrator in the play.  Upon discovering a poem outlining a desire to seek revenge on the school we are left to take a journey with the narrator into the lives of several characters in an attempt to discover which teenager may be the ticking time bomb.  The play attempts to question whether the effect of violence is more violence; whether it is possible to help youth and diffuse a cycle of violence.

The script development included roundtable sessions with youth from all backgrounds.  In the fall of 2007 the script was workshopped with youth and then presented in a workshop format to three selected schools and a public audience.  The response allowed for further rewrites of the play but also demonstrated the great need for the piece to be seen by a wider audience.  Teachers, youth and parents all expressed a desire for the piece to spark discussion among a broader representation of people.  The artists and teachers shared the fact that they have met all the youth who are characterized in the play and feel overwhelmed trying to deal with it all.  Youth insisted that they experience the situations in the play on a daily basis and craved the opportunity to have their peers see the work.  Adults also shared that it had opened their eyes to some of the things youth are dealing with and spoke to their own experience as teenagers. 

Responses:
“It has opened my eyes as a parent.  I hope my young children grow to see this one, it’s very important!”

“This is a very important message and I think this could make a real difference in the lives of many young people especially if proper follow-up techniques are used to bring out many issues in the schools.  It should be shown in every school.”

“As one of the parents, I see this as being a story that would touch both adults/parents and students.   Sometimes, even we don't realize the rippling effect of our actions onto our own children.  As much as we hope that all of our positive actions are absorbed, we have to remember that anything negative is also being noted.  The play reflected how it's so easy to categorize or criticize this younger generation without putting yourself in their shoes or understanding why they are this way.  Frieda's character certainly tried to make that relation with the students.  In having shown this production to the audiences this past week, hopefully it will have already started a positive rippling effect.” 

Ripple Effect – Cast List

Robbyn Michal - Roxanne
Hailley Rhoda – Jane/Susie
Alexandra Boulton – Julie/Theorist #1
Ashley Chartrand - Sarah
Desi Retalis - Ashley
Aaron Pridham – Justin/Boy 2/Theorist #3
Dan Augusta - Chris
Lacina Dembélé – Rick/Boy
Tiffany Ponce – Celia / Theorist #4
Susan Kelso – Frieda
Kevin Anderson – Capshaw/ Theorist #2

CHECK OUT THE RIPPLE EFFECT PROMO VIDEO

HUNGER

Based loosely on a true story, HUNGER is the story of one woman's struggle against political and emotional turmoil. Jesse is a human rights lawyer who married the Commandante of a Guatemalan guerrilla group. He soon disappeared. Knowing this was a common government tactic, Jesse began a hunger strike on the steps of the Guatemalan Capital Building . We follow her journey of deprivation which is filled with dreams, nightmares and memories. She soon discovers just how her own American government is caught up in the same web of corruption as the Guatemalan government, both torturing and tormenting the Mayan population in order to maintain control. Using movement, original sound score, video and slide imagery, this play is a powerful portrayal of loss and hope.

HUNGER was originally workshopped in Toronto in 1998 and was performed that same year in Theatre Passe Muraille's Backspace produced by Sarasvàti Production s. The show was then remounted in Winnipeg in 2001. Both shows sponsored a benefit for Amnesty International raising money and awareness for human rights work. The play has also been published in International Plays for Young Audiences (Meriwehter Publishing Co.). Sarasvàti Production s is currently seeking funding to take this production on tour.

REVISIONING

"Watching a theatre company mature is one of the real pleasures of regular theatregoing. With Revisioning, the latest show by Sarasvàti Productions, the group takes an impressive leap forward.." - Jon Kaplan NOW

Three women are shipped to the New World ( Canada ) on a convict ship from Britain . Molly's journey begins with great hope of her new life, Sarah has been taken against her will and forced to leave her life behind, and Rene has no illusions that as a convict her life will be much the same. All three are transformed throughout the months on board and find that their lives are changed forever. This moving piece tells a tale of Canada's founding mothers, examining a part of history that is often left untold.

Originally read before an audience in 1998, REVISIONING was first produced as part of the Festival of Original Theatre in Toronto and then given a three week performance run at the Alumnae Theatre Studio in 1999. Sarasvàti Production s will be organising a school tour of this production in the future. A chapbook of the script is available at http://oneactplays.net .

FIRE VISIONS:

POEMS BY BERTOLT BRECHT

"No one ever accused Brecht of being subtle. He saw himself as the blunt conscience of the proletariat and against those who turned a blind eye towards the beggars, the unemployed and the homeless. In 14 poems, well-assembled by director Hope McIntyre and her quartet of able performers, Brecht noisily pounds home his message...The four performers were dressed in the typical Brecht stage uniform - in black and barefoot - and delivred the verse clearly, strongly and with welcome visual accompaniment. Whether Great Babel bore a baby puppet, or slide projections of refugee camps during the recitation of Eight Thousand Poor Peopole Assembled Outside the City, the poems were all presented with trademark Brechtian flair." - Kevin Prokosh, Winnipeg Free Press (January 24, 2002)

Using the poems of Bertolt Brecht, FIRE VISIONS was created with the input of four performers, director, dramaturge, sound composer and consulting visual artists. It is a theatrical work using movement, projection, puppetry, song and text. The poems have been explored both in the context of Brecht's world and the modern world around us. Each poem is presented true to its style, the entire piece is therefore wrought with tension and excitment due to the variety of presentational techniques. Brecht's poetry explores the themes of war, poverty, class struggle, idealism and capitalism. Added to this is the exciting score of Winnipeg sound composer Curtis Walker . FIRE VISIONS previewed at Windsor Theatre in Sackville and then premiered at BrechtFest 2002 in Winnipeg from January 22 - 26.

OTHER PRODUCTIONS

As a company dedicated to emerging artists, Sarasvàti Productions has also produced several workshops of new work as well as readings before a public audience. MISSIAH received an extensive workshopping followed by a public showing and a talk-back session. This piece is a dramatic depiction of the global situation in the year 2000. It uses the metaphor of the world as an asylum and a homeless woman charged as the Missiah who must save them all. Using movement and incredible sound composition by Anita Beaty, this cross-cultural piece is visually stunning to watch. Other scripts which have received readings/workshops are: DEATH OF LOVE (which went on to win UNI Theatre's 2000 International Playwriting Contest), TRAUMA (which went on to win Vancouver's Theatre in the Raw One Act Play Competition), and CHILDREN OF THE STATE.