WINNIPEG
Manitoba Association of Playwrights
Gather.town also facilitated communication with and inclusion of our colleagues in Montreal and Vancouver. Given pandemic restrictions most consultations with our content experts were given over zoom, but the participating artists were able to work in-person, in Video Pool Media Arts Centre spaces and the MAP Studio, spread out over three floors of the Artspace building. One of the advantages of being housed all in one building was the easy access the participants had to each other’s projects, popping in for visits and to satisfy curiosities, and outside of the workrooms there were many spontaneous opportunities to check-in with each other and share learning outcomes. In all, it made for a vibrant hive of creative energy and activity.
Hosted in Winnipeg by the Manitoba Association of Playwrights in partnership with local company Video Pool Media Arts Centre, both located in the Artspace Building in Winnipeg’s historic Exchange District, this leg of the DDI primarily focused on the integration of digital technology and practices into live performance pieces. The core of the Winnipeg investigation centred on exposing theatre artists to potential digital tools in early stages of their story development, countering the traditional integration of digital design in late stages of the process, often not until the pre-production or rehearsal phase. How might this early exposure influence or shape or inform how their story is being told? Most of the projects were at a very hands-on stage of development and the week became an opportunity for rapid prototyping and rough-testing.
Winnipeg benefited greatly from being the 2nd leg of the DDI initiative, which had always been planned as an iterative cross-country undertaking. So much of what was developed in the Montreal leg - scheduling, onboarding the artists, setting up the spaces, serving the individual projects and their needs – was learned from and carried forward into the planning and execution of the Winnipeg workshops. Case in point, Gather was once again used as a virtual meeting hub, but the Winnipeg version benefited greatly from the tweaking and patching that was done in Montreal. In that sense, it was interesting to see some of the digital tools themselves being improved over the course of an initiative investigating the use of digital tools.
“Digital dramaturgy, for me, is anchored in a critical investigation of the relationship between digital technology and artistic performance, encompassing everything from the live versus mediated performing body to the collisions of structure and form.”
Note from Brian Drader, Artistic Director of Manitoba Association of Playwrights
On behalf of the Manitoba Association of Playwrights, I was thrilled to be invited on this national partnership journey. Pre-COVID, the synergy of digital technology with live theatre events was alive and well in Manitoba, but of course was super-accelerated by the pandemic and our forced plunge into all things digital. This initiative could not have been timelier. What will we take with us from the digital world as we begin to return to the live experience of theatre? What have we learned? What curiosities and possibilities have awakened, or deepened? To be able to create and facilitate a residency to support our region’s artists in a continued investigation exploring the integration of digital technology and expertise in early stages of story creation was a gift.
Digital Dramaturgy, for me, is anchored in a critical investigation of the relationship between digital technology and artistic performance, encompassing everything from the live vs. mediated performing body to the collisions of structure and form. But at its most practical I approach it as a focused extension of the process dramaturgy we’ve been practicing for decades now, a process that begins at point of story conception and continues through to production; supporting the story teller towards discovering and realizing the most authentic and actualized version of the story they want to tell. The practical application of Digital Dramaturgy focuses our attention on exploring how digital technology may influence that story and how it might manifest theatrically; curiosities and accumulated experiences and knowledge and questions coupled with a bank of collaborators and experts that can be called upon, all applied within the context of the needs of the specific project and the artists creating it.
After witnessing the artists’ discoveries leading up to and over the course of the Winnipeg residency, there is no doubt in my mind that their early exposure to potential technologies and applications had a profound influence on the story those artists were just beginning to imagine, and the theatrical form that emerging story might take. The generosity that all the residency artists across the country showed in sharing their discoveries and what they learned will have a deep impact on MAP’s ability as an organization to serve Manitoba’s theatre community and their continued digital explorations going forward. The Manitoba iteration also exposed a rich vein of local and national digital artists eager to share and collaborate with our region’s theatre artists. For that I am grateful, and look forward to sharing knowledge, discoveries, and resources.
Land Acknowledgement
MAP's staff and the artists we serve live and work on Treaty One Territory and on the homeland of the Métis Nation. We are grateful to the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene Peoples for their tradition stewardship of this land. We acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past, and we dedicate ourselves to moving forward in partnership with indigenous communities in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.