The Saint John Theatre Company’s residency program, now in the second year of a pilot project, will raise its international profile with an upcoming European tour of Stephen Massicotte’s play, “Mary’s Wedding”.
Stephen Tobias, Executive Director of Atlantic Repertory Company (ARC) and director of Mary’s Wedding, says the tour of shows in late October and early November has its roots in a conversation that began more than four years ago.
“I was away for a few weeks and when I got back there was a business card on my desk from a man named Christoph Nix, with a scribble on the back, ‘have some theaters in Germany, would you like to come?,'” says Tobias.
It turned out Nix was the manager of the Theatre Konstanz in Germany.
“At the time we were were doing a production of Henrik Ipsen’s Enemy of the People,” says Tobias. “Nix’s director is a big fan of that play and one of his theatres was producing it that season in Germany.”
He admits he was skeptical about the authenticity of the overture at first but Maria Milisavljević, the Berlin-based playwright Tobias engaged to adapt “Enemy of the People”, assuaged his doubts and confirmed the legitimacy of Nix’s offer.
“I took the plunge and flew over to Germany, and met them. They told me if we ever came over to Germany they would give us a place to stay and perform, and would show us around,” says Tobias.
ARC and Theatre Konstanz have been collaborating ever since.
“I sent them a copy of ‘Mary’s Wedding’ and they told they would be happy to host the play at their theatres, and to find other theatres for us to perform in.”
-
- Caroline Bell and Kenzie Delo, the principals of Mary’s Wedding Images: submitted by ARC)
The play is an epic love story set in the First World War as time, dreams and memory intersect, just wrapped a series of performances at The Saint John Theatre Company’s BMO Studio. The play will also be performed at the WC O’Neill Arena in St. Andrews on October 16th.
Beginning in Germany, the tour of “Mary’s Wedding” will last two and a half weeks with three performances at the Theatre Konstanz in Konstanz from October 24-26th, two performances at Das Internationale Theatre in Frankfurt from October 29-31 and two performances at the Waggonhalle Kulturzentrum in Marburg.
Each theatre is considering the possibility of adding at least one further performance for students.
“Theatre Konstanz is a great company, if they were in Canada, they would maybe be the second largest theatre company in the country,” Tobias says.
The tour will conclude with a final performance at the Cultural Centre at the Canadian Embassy in Paris, France November 7. Tobias had worked with the French consulate, who introduced him to the Canadian Embassy in Paris.
“We were so excited at the opportunity, it is a really exciting thing to get to do. It’s the kind of experience we could be telling the story of for the next five years,” he says.
Tobias has been busy establishing a network of professional contacts around the world. His ambition for the ARC is that at least every two years, there is the development of a project that is performed internationally.
“I feel like we’ve made some really good connections through the International Amateur Theatre Festival (IATF) that was held in Saint John this summer, including contacts in Monaco, Czech Republic and Sweden,” he says.
He fully recognizes there never any guarantees, but believes if timing works, and if someones likes a project of theirs, they could gain access to funding and more opportunities to perform.
“Now that I’ve dipped my toe in the international network of theatre we are learning and gaining more knowledge, creating more opportunities for ARC moving forward; I’m surprised at how often I keep running into the same people.”
“I would love for us to perform in Berlin, it is such a huge cultural capital,” says Tobias. “European theatre does look and feel a little different than theatre at home; not better, just different.”
Originally published on Huddle.Today – content partner with Acadia Broadcasting Limited.
