Edmonton
Festival Report (2000)
Edmonton
International Buskers Festival. Edmonton, Alberta.
Martin Ewen
Edmonton
International Street Theatre Festival is the mother of all godzilla work-hard,
play-hard, feel-good festivals in North America for the simple reason that
the whole endeavor is shrouded in a deep respect for the performers and their
work.
It's a ten day festival, now in its 16th year, held mainly in Winston Churchhill
Square, which, when at its busiest, has 6 circle shows and three or four roving
acts all working at once. There are also outreach programs where performers
visit the elderly and hospitals and the obligatory revenue boosting shopping
center appearances.
An army of volunteers are everpresent on the pitches, providing hospitality
back in the lounge, cooking, pouring drinks, picking up litter, driving etc.
We all stay at the Sheraton and party pretty hard and it's one festival that
has the luxury of selecting from some of the best street performers there
are; some of whom participate for far less than their usual commercial rate
simply because of the society that forms over the 10 days.
Additionally to the outdoor performances, the entire cast of performers are
split into two groups who are each given the opportunity to produce a collaborative
stage show for one night each on the last weekend of the festival. These are
called "Late Night Madness" and some of the work cobbled together
over two days rehearsal is a brilliant testament to the caliber of talent
collected.
Mention must also be made of the stage management that takes place over these
two nights. The tireless, professional, yet unpaid efforts of a small group
of people who find props, set up lighting and stage manage on the nights themselves
leaves nothing for the performers to do but create comedy and perform. This
also extends to the ground management crews whose abilities in crisis aversion
and premanagement are legendary while for the most part being invisible.
This years line-up included acts from all over with a cunning mixture of both
the hard hitting and the whimsical. It rained for a couple of days and the
big circle acts waited for the crowds to arrive while the rovers went about
their business and it was great to see what, in the absence of the circle
acts, takes place all around them in the form of strange characters wandering
around engaging individuals and small groups.
Forgive me as I paraphrase talent:
Andrea House-
Two roving characters, the shadow and the wishing well, one cute, the other
cute and creepy, can sometimes be heard under her breath muttering "I
am not a bunny."
Bill Ferguson-
The stern uncle of veteran street performers. The words taut, rigid and successful
are all understatements. Its a toss-up as to which is longer, his show or
his hair. Still immensely successful with a show involving juggling found
objects and a pie in the face. Also has a unique combative style and brings
fathers and sons closer together using only light violence and pastries.
Andy Zap-
From Australia, Andy brought a new show to the festival that was a cabaret
hybrid, involving music dance and juggling. Used to good effect both in the
opening nights indoor performance and on the street. One of the heavy sweaters.
Annie Dugan-
Hula hoop goddess and bulldozing sprite, Annie pulled off show after show
dispute the high levels of competitive volume that surrounded her.
(The only criticism from time to time was that there was sometimes too many
performers working on site. Still overall I think its a balance issue and
programming re: volume is becoming more of an issue as everyone amps up simply
because they can.)
Checkerboard Guy and Richard Berg-
With a show thats been around the world multiple times and already having
appeared at the Edmonton fest more than once, Checkerboard guy knew that the
only way in this year was to come up with an entirely new act. That he and
Richard Berg did with consummate ease, performing a king kong spoof that drew
and held large crowds.
Carrot top /Cindi-lou / Jacquie Paul/ Lucie Brouillard-
I apologize for clumping all the face and body painters together as I know
each has their own style. The evidence of their efforts were the multicolored
children that added to the carnival atmosphere and like the rovers, it's all
a matter of the smaller things raising the overall energy of the festival
and not relying on big shows to pump the audience for their own ends.
Christof-
"Blunt aussie charm" a multi skilled interactive clown/buffoon,
Christof's energy and quicksilver changes of direction make him adaptive and
entertaining in any situation presenting itself.
F.M. Railways-
Mariann Sinkovics and Joanna Wright create moving installations of canned
pork and fish, there may have been canned beef also but my mind becomes clouded
as I was hardly a passive observer at this festival. They would roam the grounds
forming an abstract and obscure counterpoint to many of the other self explanatory
acts. It's efforts like this that give this festival its unique richness.
Guo-Qing Li-
40 years playing traditional Chinese music added a further multicultural aspect
to the festival. Unassuming and able to work under all the conditions the
festival presented. The only challenge to his formidable composure came on
the multiple occasions where his chair would get stolen between sets.
Heather D. Swain-
A multi-character rover, Heather strode purposely hither and thither and was
one of the more vocally interactive performers, contributing significantly
to the background roaming atmosphere that shone at this particular festival.
Guillermo Serrano-
A brilliant marionettist, he ignored his doctors orders to not participate
in the festival. An unfortunate side effect of using your fingers and limbs
with precision over long periods of time is a kind of repetitive strain condition
where joints become painful and inflamed. After a couple of days Guillermo
had to stop, just too painful. It's a credit to both him and the pull of this
festival that he gave all he could for as long as he could and the performers
all wish him a speedy and full recovery.
Lynette Maurice-
Lynette has been a longtime Board member of the fest, past President, and
is the prop mistress par excellence. She devised, found, or invented most
of the props used in the Late Nights, and is a formidable clown in her own
right.
Lynette was in charge of the childrens area which was a zone in which children
tried stilts, bounced on inflatables, got painted up and participated in workshops
on circus/clowning skills, in conjunction with Michael Charrois as well as
a host of other activities designed to soak up the sugar their parents had
inadvertently overdosed them with. It was always a hive of energy and popular.
Gary Palmer-
A soft spoken Irishman resident in Los Angeles, his chalk art spoke for him.
Deep in texture and subtext his work is beautiful, serene and striking with
his chosen medium poetic in its impermanence. Non substantial- much like all
street theatre
Humans Against Gravity-
Peter Boulanger, Ninon Parent, Darren Adams and Robyn Fox started the festival
with their act of high level gymnastics, teeterboard, movement and balance.
Unfortunately, early in the festival Robyn Fox injured her leg in performance
and then had the added misfortune of having her foot gnawed off by a passing
squirrel. Such are the challenges of the modern street gymnast. Still the
battle against gravity continued, and the humans put on large show after large
show with an adapted format. While Robyn spent the rest of the festival being
pushed round in a wheelbarrow collecting charity.
Queen Elizabeth (Carolyn Sadowska)-
What impeccable class, what pristine grace, how uncommon. The Queen shone
as only royalty can, accompanied by her mono-dimensional corgies, she shared
elevators, pickup trucks, opening ceremonies and various other events with
us, the common people. And we became better people for it, if only as a byproduct
of the mirth that flowed effortlessly in her presence. (Can you tell I'm greasing
for a knighthood?)
Impromaniacs-
Dave and Rick are grown men with families and responsibilities, yet have constructed
careers out of remaining highly articulate 8 year olds. They are veterans
of improvisation and produced circle shows and roved in unison throughout
the festival as well as directing the first Late Night Madness show.
Julie Donahue-
An interactive rover, Julie performed as 'Game show Gertie' a character addicted
to games of chance and arcane knowledge. She helped, along with the other
rovers, to keep the festival percolating while the larger acts were unable
to work due to rain and it was characters like herself who constantly provided
the public with interaction and entertainment throughout the festival
John Higby, The Yo Yo Guy-
Poe faced yo yo poetry with just a hint of manic disorder. John Higby combines
high skill with high energy performance to consistently produce shows of any
length that all have in common the audience being picked up swept along and
deposited gently at the other end.
Jason Webley-
A voice far older than his years and lyrics ranging from deep pathos to dark
humor. Quietly spoken but gravelly harsh and guttural while performing, his
street music is unashameably uncompromising. He wrings what he needs from
his accordion and invites his audiences to not so much sing but grunt and
bellow along.
Lee Zimmerman-
Humble, yet deeply sexual, Lee Zimmerman is what can only be called borderline
casual. His act consists of dangling inorganic matter from stings attached
to what look like extremely painful marital aids that he wraps his hands around
while waving his arms about to simulate a rock and roll lifestyle.
Then he goes back to his real one.
Martin Ewen/Lurk-
A viler practitioner of mock buffoonery I have yet to have the displeasure
to see. His vain efforts to disguise his transparent vacuousness with attempts
at being vague took what small vestige of dignity was left to him as a professional
pantomime.
Mark Segal-
A diminutive Scot with a large show full of danger, risk, balance and an array
of calculated stupidity, Mark has evolved his show over the past years to
the point now where he can put himself in any situation and create a success
of it. This season seems to be the celebration of his talent that he has been
working towards the last few years and his enthusiasm was apparent as he bounded
out in all weathers to take advantage of the milling crowds.
The Big Mammoth show-
Dave Lawrence and Ken Gardner are Gorg and Nog and are improvisational Neanderthals
who, with clubs and wearing furs, create a show from the confusion of being
thrust into the 21st century. They would come up with new material regularly
and while their show was a work in progress, the audiences had no reason to
suspect it wasn't a polished, rehearsed show.
Mendhi Magic-
Sabrina Samuel provided another cultural layer to the festival by providing
an invitation to the public to become canvases for the ancient tradition of
Mendhi body painting, traditionally used to adorn East Indian brides.
Michael Charrois-
A strange deadpan clown, his twisted interpretation of cause and effect shone
in the moments where he tethered children to himself while he wore rollerskates
and dangled folded money on a stick in front of them thus giving himself a
means of propulsion around the site.
Mike Battie-
A tight circle show containing all the elements: juggling, unicycle and patter.
It was easy to see he had a successful background in both street and corporate
theatre. Still we can't all be unsuccessful romantic masochists.
Mood Swings-
Joani Bye and Linda Kidder are a duo with a mass of experience both as session
vocalists and in their own right as performers, they dubbed themselves the
wandering menstruals and worked well at the opening ceremony and other indoor
venues but found the outdoor environment quite difficult as they work best
with a certain degree of preset focus. Creating this in an outdoor setting
surrounded by distraction and volume bleeding from adjacent shows proved difficult
as the street environment was entirely new for them. They would of learnt
lots in a short period but I don't think it was the most fun they've ever
had.
Patti Stiles-
A bearded old fisherman, Patti roved the site displaying her catch and improvising
with the public, she's a respected and talented improviser and proved her
worth as well as being the only character who had a raincoat built into her
character so surviving the rain that fell heavily over a couple of days.
Ron Pearson-
A warm, comfy street magic show, Ron has heaps of experience and constructs
a well paced entertaining show. I don't forgive thumbtips easily but forgive
his, which is a measure of his ability to engage even sad old crusty cynics
like myself.
Sirena/ Ghostwriter Theatre-
A tent with a barker outside touting the wonders within, this show was a tribute
to the carnival sideshow, featuring an illusion of Sirena the living mermaid,
it preyed on peoples curiosity and received a steady stream of patrons.
Sharon Mahoney-
Sharon provided lots of conversations amongst various people as to whether
shaking your money-maker in the faces of men was exploitive or post- feminist.
Still at the end of the day people were entertained, donations flowed and
the boob-tube held up under the strain.
Scared Weird Little Guys-
Two rocker blokes so talented they should be compost. Not content with the
outer fringes of society, they found each other. A seamless comic musical
review, the cd I still use to make me smile on cue. Lines like "Come
to Australia....You might accidentally get killed" and longwinded quickwitted
absurdity concerning inflammable koalas, the flag and womball. Their show
was a guaranteed laughfest and their audiences were treated to new material
that had yet to be released, however they just so happened to have more than
a few prerelease cd's which I'm sure they sold out of.
Special Blend-
Or "Special Bend," Eugene and Jessica disappear into their movement
pieces which are short and extreme. Awesome flexibility is their foundation
but the pieces themselves are so much more than that, movement metaphors form
in the audiences heads as they move together and work apart with what amounts
to an extremely disciplined simplicity.
Stickleback Plasticus-
Peewee and Em deftly use ironic manic enthusiasm as a comic device and are
one of the few acts that are funny everytime you watch them. (Bear in mind
that as performers we get to watch -if we want to- acts as many times as we
wish, and that over time, very few acts cannot be digested as formula.) Formula
aside, no one deals with energy levels like Stickleback. The Don Kings of
ballroom dancing.
Stephen Dubetz-
A world traveling balloon artist based in Edmonton, Steven provided mementos
for hundreds, if not thousands of people throughout the festival and also
created an unshakable horny balloon man that provided one of the most successful
running gags of one of the Late Night Madnesses.
Tupahn-
A pelvic thrusting CD vending machine, Tupahn plays guitar through a sequencer.
Playing the guitar is his show and selling cds is his livelihood. The "I'm
playing the guitar like I'd make love on a hot summers afternoon" school
of performance. Post coital public wander off with disks held in their sweaty
palms.
Tesseract-
Two members of Humans Against Gravity doubled their output and worked as a
duo, producing a movement piece on a giant sparse spiky thing that they climbed
on and moved via momentum. The spiky thing is itself a Tesseract. My dictionary
was no help but apparently its a representation of the axis x-y-z from 3 dimensional
graphs. It's difficult to infuse grace into something only capable of staggering
but they succeeded.
Wendy Vousden-
Sister Wendy is a roving nun, sort of like a creepy clown but with all the
archetypical subtextual baggage of nundom you can't help but want to trust
her, she evokes faith while creating comedy from the fact that you cannot
really tell how eccentric a nun has to get before you know it's a performance.
She wandered the main venue as well as shopping centers and a harrowing walkabout
in the terminal ward of the hospital.
Zandra Bell-
Well known in Canada for researching environments for site specific roving
performances and creating hilarious characters, Zandra roved as Shirley Best,
the high priestess of polyester. A bulletproof character who barreled round
the site ricocheting verbally off gaggles of public, she proved her reputation
well founded. Also roved as Estelle, the Goddess of Grooming, providing free
fashion advice and coloured hair mascara.
John Ullyatt-
An accomplished Canadian stage actor, John Ullyatt successfully stretched
his comfort zone by donning the guise of a dungbeatle and rolling a ball on
which people wrote the figurative shit in their lives. When it rained all
night and day it was John who celebrated his buggyness by running, jumping
and cheerfully wallowing in every sodden puddle on site. A barren pitch with
a madman gleefully sliding and flapping from puddle to puddle was one of my
personal highlights.
Thank-you Tezuka-
Kan Tazuka is a Japanese modern pantomime who flew at his own expense to this
festival for no other reason than its reputation and the opportunity to perform.
Proving that you can survive as an extremely strange individual in Japan just
as long as you remain polite. He was out there with an oriental punctuality,
popping his elbows in and out of joint and mincing about wearing a gold wig
and fruit skin as dentures.
LATE NIGHT MADNESS
This is one of the Highlights of the festival and seems to be being incorporated
into more festivals in Canada as its popularity with performers and public
grows. Essentially a free for all with a couple of days notice, a designated
director or directors and a stage provided for a late night group performance
containing improvised pieces with people who haven't worked together before
or specific pieces people bring to the program that may not be suitable for
the daytime family audiences.
There were two different nights in Edmonton, each with different direction
and casts and both nights highlighted the wealth of talent for stagework otherwise
untapped. The audiences paid $10 and certainly laughed harder than they had
probably since the year before.The stage management was excellent and props
were found as needed by volunteers.
I could see this being the potential start of a traveling stage piece. The
quality of material would survive repetition and was stronger than say University
revue pieces I've seen in the past that worked in part because of sympathetic
and bipartisan audiences. A lot of this stuff stood on its own and audience
and performers alike were suitably proud of the madness.
The Directing of the festival changed hands this year from Dick Finkle to
Shelley Switzer, who cast and produced and oversaw and ran the whole thing.
As administrators go, Shelley runs the festival like she's driving a big Mack
down the highway with the breeze blowing through the cab and her arm slung
casually out the window. Which is a rare and exceptional thing given the potential
stress there is to surf with something this big with its own momentum.
Thats all I have to say and please remember these opinions are my own and
I have had more than my share of head injuries.
Martin Ewen
Martin Ewen and his 3-meter-tall
stilt character 'Lurk' have been traversing the globe for the past ten years
observing the world from a slightly different perspective than the rest of
us.
