Over the past couple months I’ve been busy working with Boca del Lupo, a theatre company here in Vancouver. It’s been a great experience meeting new people – artsy and creative people. I had the distinct pleasure to meet Jay Dodge and Sherry J Yoon, Artistic Producer and Artistic Director, respectively, of Boca back on April 30 2009. I was attending a Canada Council for the Arts luncheon along with my Neworld Theatre family. (More on my connection with Neworld Theatre later.) So I sit down at a table and Jay and Sherry end up at the same table. “Pleasant folks,” I thought to myself.
Fast forward eight months to mid-December and I get a call from Jay. They needed someone to help on the production-side with their upcoming show, Dance Marathon. I knew the Olympics was coming up and auditions would be down a bit and figured it would be a great use of my time. The biggest reason why I decided to take on the opportunity was because when Jay had described the show to me, I was instantly excited. The show was not just your typical sit-down-and-watch type of show. It was participatory – highly participatory – and it was dance and music and competition.
Hello?! I’m big on the participatory theatre aspect and adding those extra things was just icing on the cake. Not just any icing and not just any cake. It’s like the cake I only find in Japan when visiting family which is not too sweet but just perfect.
But I digress.
Dance Marathon was a huge success. It definitely kept me busy. I even had a chance to work with and get to know Kim Barsanti in a different light since I only knew her through her work as a Talent Agent.
One of the highlights was heading downtown to do some “on the street” interviews with people to drum up some buzz for the show. I’ve embeded the video below for your viewing pleasure.
and here’s a 4 minute montage of what the show was about