As part of “the Rhizome” , we created this documentary about a workshop we ran for “The Candlemaker’s Game”, a pandemic-proof verbatim theatre piece created by Proximity Lab artist Richard Lam.
Project: Humanity is pleased to present the Proximity Lab, a Verbatim Theatre research-creation project.We believe Verbatim Theatre can help democratize our stages by making space for a wide range of perspectives. This is a form that can share big ideas alongside where those big ideas come from.
The constraints of COVID-19 have devastated our sector in many ways, but also have forced innovation; in this 'pause', we have a rare opportunity to undertake creative work which is truly experimental, which values process over product, and which welcomes risk and failure in service of learning and growth.
Proximity Lab brings together theatremakers (Alten Wilmot, Katey Wattam, Lucy Coren and Richard Lam) and a suite of guest artist-consultants in an exploration led by Verbatim Theatre artist and Project: Humanity AD Andrew Kushnir. These theatremakers will imagine, discover, and test new “pandemic-proof” methods of presenting Verbatim Theatre. Proximity Lab is a process-focused opportunity to push boundaries, while centring care and compassion, and promoting togetherness across distance.
PHASE 2
Thanks to the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts’ “Digital Now” program, we were able to move explorations of phase 1 into a the next stage — where each theatre creator was given the opportunity to stage a workshop of their offering throughout the Fall of 2021 up to the Summer of 2022. All the work cultivated through this process culminated in a digital sharing entitled “The Rhizome”, which took place in June 2022. You can read about the experience here.
PROXIMITY LAB Phase 2 is SUPPORTED BY THE canada council for the arts’ “Digital Now” program
PHASE 1
Presenting Proximity Lab: Imagining the Future of Verbatim Theatre, a Magazine co-written by Andrew Kushnir and Lindsay Valve
Phase one of the Proximity Lab, which took place over 8-weeks during the Summer of 2021, was supported by the Ontario Arts Council through the OAC Arts Response Initiative. You can learn about the findings and process we undertook during this phase in our one-off magazine, “Imagining the Future of Verbatim Theatre”.
+ CLICK TO READ ABOUT OUR RESEARCH PROCESS
Our research questions converge on the premise that theatrical experiences are co-created between audiences and artists. As playwright Yvette Nolan puts it: “In theatre you can put all the positions on stage, and work things out in the air.” How do we create Verbatim Theatre that may not have artists and audiences sharing the same air? How do we ensure witnesses remain consequential and interconnected? What storytelling forms can transcend distance requirements between people? Can notions of space and time be re-imagined to afford participants a genuinely shared experience? Further, our theatre centres careful listening between artists and the communities they represent, with the aim to inspire active citizenship. How might we deepen the art of listening without occupying rooms or tables together? How do we fulfill our mandate to be ‘socially-engaged’ when socially-distanced?
Our research process, designed alongside Quilin Impact Consulting, undertakes these questions through iterative periods of learning, creation, sharing, and reflection:
![alt text](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/541b34b9e4b03814779c9ca2/t/60c0db4ed8694c4b1d982d87/1623251791119/June+2021.pnghttps://static1.squarespace.com/static/541b34b9e4b03814779c9ca2/t/60c0db4ed8694c4b1d982d87/1623251791119/June+2021.png"Proximity Lab Research Stages")
