If there’s a silver lining to be found in a COVID-19 world, heightened appreciation for the service and dedication of frontline workers certainly fits the bill.
While that hasn’t been lost on performance creators Peyton Le Barr, Alexandra Simpson, and Morgan Johnson, the trio collectively saw something else — a shared realization that led to their creation of a performance piece that will premiere in May at a Peterborough multidisciplinary arts festival.
“We saw where there were gaps in the system where care was needed and was not being provided,” explains Simpson who, with Johnson, founded the Animacy Theatre Collective in Toronto.
“We started talking about this two or three years ago,” Simpson recalls. “There was a teachers’ strike going on in Ontario at the time. We were thinking about the care work that goes into education that isn’t necessarily visible. That interest expanded from education to all sectors of care, including health and social work.”
The result of their collaboration is Care, a 15-minute performance piece that will have its first public staging as part of Erring at King George at the former East City public school, 220 Hunter Street East at Armour Road.
Presented by Public Energy Performing Arts and sponsored in part by kawarthaNOW, festival dates are May 6 to 8 and May 13 to 15. Tickets range in price from $5 to $30, can be purchased online at eventbrite.ca/e/erring-at-king-george-tickets-311827001957. Tickets will also be available at the door.
With musical support from Peterborough’s Benj Rowland, Johnson will perform the piece — a combination of spoken word and movement that will see her, wearing half masks designed and made by Simpson, portray a total of three characters.
“The way that we collaborated and created the script together was through the characters that were developed out of the masks,” explains Johnson. “We did a lot of improvisation and character development. That’s really where the material came from.”
“It’s a form that really lends itself to collaboration. If I’m improving and creating the characters, we need to be together in finding what works and create it together; full-on collaboration where everything is entwined together.”
Le Barr, who co-founded Peterborough’s Grassroots Theatre Company before the pandemic with Chris Whidden, says Care “has been a slow burn in the best of ways.”
“It started off with an interest in looking at teachers and the invisible care work that exists within their work,” she explains. “We then broadened it to something that can exist outside of Erring as well. I interviewed lots of social workers and people who work in care work — nurses, palliative care workers, all different fields, and also teachers — compiled that research, and really looked at what care work is and what makes it so invisible. What makes it difficult for us to understand and how is it compensated or not compensated?”
“It’s been quite a blessing to have this much time to sit with this knowledge so we can do service to the people that we’re exploring. We’re hoping to give them something that celebrates the work that is so undervalued within their day-to-day lives.”
The opportunity to premiere Care as part of the extensive Erring at King George menu of performances is “a wonderful opportunity” on a couple of levels, says Le Barr.
“I’ve always been drawn to performing in places that are public or have any element of free accessibility,” she says, adding “There’s nothing I love more than performing for people who are not in the theatre.”
People attending Erring at King George will most definitely not be in traditional theatre. The heritage building was constructed in 1913 and served as an elementary school until it was closed 106 years later.
“There are lots of reasons people don’t feel welcome in a theatre space,” Le Barr says. “Maybe it’s stuffy or old-fashioned, or it’s of a different era and it’s not really their vibe, or they’ve never been before and they don’t know the etiquette.”
“Art is meant to be enjoyed, not just by other artists but also by the public. That’s something that Public Energy is really, really great at. They have a big community that follows them that isn’t just fellow artists.”
As for presenting their creation in a very restricted time frame, Simpson says that’s “a blessing and a curse.”
“Fifteen minutes is easier to prepare — we can create something that’s really sharp for 15 minutes,” Simpson explains. “On the other hand, because we are developing the characters and our ideas around the piece, we’ve got a lot of ideas at this point and it’s hard to get all those into 15 minutes.”
“Sometimes boundaries and constraints are a great thing, forcing you to play within that and be really fruitful for creation and creativity. In a lot of ways, this is a test of some of the things we’re interested in about the characters, about the themes of care work, and about audience interactivity with masked performance. It give us a little taste of all that.”
She adds that it’s her hope the performance will “raise a lot of the questions we’ve grappling with as artists” for those who experience it.
“Maybe we hope they grapple with those questions as well in terms of the visibility of care work and how important it has always been, but has really become during the pandemic. Just questioning how we view care work in society and how we value it, or don’t value it — stirring up these questions is a goal.”
Le Barr adds that her part in the creation of Care “has become more and personal” for her.
“We had originally planned on myself performing as well, but I’ve taken a step back because in the process of developing the project,” she explains. “I became a mother. My husband just recently had a very serious pulmonary embolism. We’re in the clear now, but I have found myself in the throes of unpaid care work.”
“I hope this gives people a bit of appreciation for all the moments of care that happen in the privacy of homes or in the quiet moments of the work day that aren’t celebrated,” says Le Barr. “I hope that anyone in the audience who is a primary caregiver in any capacity, or has a career that is care driven, feels a little bit seen and recognized — not in a black and white way but in acknowledging some of the complexities of this work.”
Post Erring, the trio has plans to develop Care further, notes Johnson.
“We’re applying for grants to develop a full show that will be a little more long term, bring on a bigger group of collaborators, and think about care in a really broad sense. There’s hands-on care, there’s career care, there’s emotional care, there’s unpaid care in the home, and there’s structural care.”
Johnson provides several examples of structural care, such as caring for those displaced by the climate crisis and war.
“How do we care for a world that’s on fire? How do we care for people that don’t have anywhere to live or are escaping war? Just thinking about care as an organizing principle in a larger structure … use the research we’ve done and that we’ll continue doing to do a larger devised piece with a big group.”
There are 12 opportunities to watch Care during the Erring at King George festival. Performances run at 7:45 and 9 p.m. on May 6, 4 and 5:15 p.m. on May 7, 2:45 and 4 p.m. on May 8, 8 and 9:15 p.m. on May 13, 3:45 and 5 p.m. on May 14, and 3 and 4:15 p.m.on May 15.
For the complete Erring at King George schedule of performances and related special events, visit publicenergy.ca/erring-at-king-george-festival-schedule/
Involving more than 70 performance and visual artists, this is the third Erring festival held in Peterborough, the last being in 2014 at Mount St. Joseph.
This story was created in partnership with Public Energy Performing Arts.
