We here at Mortal Coil have decided to start this blog as one way to document the development and production of The Britannia Project (current and definitely working title), probably one of the largest projects that any of us have ever worked on.. (And by the way, if anyone has a better idea for a title, feel free to email us and suggest it.)
The reason for doing this, and bear with us on this, is that we think that documenting and 'sharing' the process of developing this piece, with everything that's involved with it, is actually going to be useful to other people who are doing this kind of work. It's a way of getting what we have learned out there, and working towards a public record of the path(s) we are taking.
A few things to keep in mind if you're reading/following this: while we will try to be straightforward about how the project is progressing, there will be some things that aren't discussed in this forum (to protect the innocent: namely, us). What is posted in this blog is completely at Mortal Coil's discretion, so forget it if you think we're going to spill any indiscreet beans.
Anyhow, enough preamble, now a short history of where we are so far.
Eighteen months or so ago, through a series of coincidences, and after our last site specific production Letters from Lithuania, we landed at the wonderful location of the Britannia Shipyards at Steveston, on the Fraser River in Richmond. Through some company connections, we were able to connect with the City of Richmond, who owns and runs the site, and got permission to negotiate with the resident Curatorial staff about producing this completely unformed project. And we have to applaud Bryan and Brook, the staff at the site for just jumping in and going with the idea, and giving us all their support.
We already knew that Peter Hall (Director) and Sharon Bayly (Community Artist) the co-Artistic Directors of Mortal Coil would be intimately involved as primary creators/artists of this project. What we then began to do was to start to put together the larger core team. We had worked with Nicola Harwood as the Playwright on Letters from Lithuania and knew that our aesthetics and politics aligned, so she was the obvious choice to write the play. We have also been trying to find the right piece to work with Martin Kinch from Playwrights Theatre Centre for some time, so after some preliminary discussions, he agreed to come on as the production Dramaturge.
Once the primary team was put together, funding applications started going out. We first applied to the Canada Council Theatre Section for Development money, and were succesful. Also, by coincidence, we were put on three year funding from Direct Access gaming at this point, so the funding from that programme will stretch over the entire period of the development and production. This means that by the time we put our first application to Arts Partners in Creative Development in (which failed, by the way), we had about $40,000 in hand for the overall activity. Still well shy of the total, but a good start, and certainly enough to commission a playwright.
After Nicola was commissioned by us, she put in an application to the Canada Council as a writer in residence for this project for Mortal Coil, and that was also successful. So, by this point, things were starting to align nicely, and we were feeling like we might actually be able to green light the show.
But the grant that finally made this project a definite go was receiving, in August of 2010, an Arts Partners in Creative Development award. This funding guarantees that Mortal Coil has enough resources to be able to focus on The Britannia Project as needed, and that we will be able to commission and pay all the artists that are necessary to give the production a fighting chance. One of the things that we have learned over the past 30 years or so of producing is that you have to have real money to be able to make new creation based work as good as it can possibly be, and this grant was going to help to make that situation a reality. Or at the very least, give us enough money to actually pay everyone for their work and thus, be able to buy their time to work on the project.
Now the planning and development moved into a higher gear. Peter started talking to potential Musical Directors, Choreographers and Puppet Makers. We began planning a community development component of the show, which we will be implementing with the City of Richmond's Youth and Diversity Officers, and will be headed by Sharon (more details on this will be posted as they come up), and the schedule for the script development process has been hammered out. And on September 8, 2010, we all went down to the site at Britannia to do a video projection test. The site is one of the most evocative places that there is in Vancouver, and the net lofts and boat sheds are prime 'screens' for using video to change the scenery without having to change the scenery. We also wanted to get a sense of the kind of light that we are looking at having during the show and when we will be able to start using the projections. This will determine the time the show will start, as well as where the audience will start.
We calculated sunset on September 8 is about 30 minutes sooner than when the show is planned for in mid August. With that in mind, we arrived at 7pm to set up, and to witness the various lighting states as the evening progressed. It turns out that images started to show up on the side of the lofts around 8:30 (or 9:00 show time). Here's what the first images looked like - if you look really hard, you can see the side of the net loft being broken up by a photograph. As time went on, obviously the images became clearer - in fact they became spectacular, backing up our original suspicion that this will be a useful way to make the site changes that we may need during the play.
We then moved to the Murikami residence, where we did a few more tests - and just to prove that serendipity does in fact exist when you give it the room to emerge, we discovered quite by fluke, that we are going to be able to project video on the trees behind the Murikami house to create some astonishing images that will carry the story forward in a extraordinary way. It was too dark for us to take pictures at that point, unfortunately, but believe us it was amazing.
So that's where we are as of September 19, 2010. Nicola and Peter continue to research the stories, and have made contact with First Nations members and artists; Nicola went home from the video test to Nelson to continue to work on the first draft, and we are looking at a November script workshop. We are continuing to fund raise through the various grants that are available to us, and of course our fingers are crossed at this point about all of those proposals. Grant applications will continue right through to March of next year: we'll report on how they turn out as they come up.
We'll keep this updated as things progress - feel free to contact us or to comment on what you are reading - that's the point of this whole thing!
October 24
It looks as if we are going to have a completed first draft in a few weeks. Wheee! This will allow us to do a full workshop at the Britannia site at the end of November, which will include all the primary creators, actors and designers and will have readings built into the schedule that will bring together all of the artists with as many of the community advisers as can make it, along with the relevant City of Richmond staff members.
