A NEW CREATION BY SOME OF VANCOUVER’S MOST EXCITING THEATRE ARTISTS

In 1992, Cosmonaut 3rd Class Sergei Krikalev was stranded on the MIR space station when the Soviet Union collapsed. The home he had blasted off from no longer existed and his new country, Kazakhstan, did not have the money, authority, or expertise to land him. While he waited to be landed he circled the planet 5,000 times, spinning uselessly and trying to repair his leaky space station, all for a country that no longer existed.

Transit Lounge interweaves the stories of an eclectic group of characters orbiting the Lost and Found desk at a Douglas Adams-style Airport-at-the-End-of-the-Universe. The creation process was launched with each of the highly individual artists creating original works inspired by the plight of Sergei Krikalev. A year later, the play’s dramaturge and director Rachel Ditor has arranged this material into a constellation of stories about the quest for home.

Ditor, a Theatre at UBC graduate, has assembled a top-notch collection of talent for Transit Lounge. The creators’ areas of expertise range from dance to fiction, from site-specific spectacle to disciplined physicality, from visual arts to acoustic experimentation. And each brings a unique perspective on the idea of home.

Transit Lounge is a collective creation by Ditor and writer-performers Conrad Alexandrowicz (The Singer Falls Silent), Kendra Fanconi (The One that Got Away), Amiel Gladstone (The Wedding Pool), and Maiko Bae Yamamoto (The Empty Orchestra); writer Anosh Irani (The Matka King); sound designer Andreas Kahre, and set and lighting designer Robert Gardiner, Head of UBC Department of Theatre, Film and Creative Writing. Also in the cast are three students in UBC’s BFA Acting programme: Ryan Beil, Ruth Brown and Astrid Varnes. Costume design is by MFA Candidate Michael Patton, Stage Management is by Caryn Fehr, with UBC student Noa Anatot acting as Assistant Stage Manager.

Transit Lounge is the fifth and final production in the 2004-05 Theatre at UBC season and is co-produced by the Department of Theatre, Film and Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia, the Norman Rothstein Theatre and Chutzpah! The Lisa Nemetz Showcase of Jewish Performing Arts. Performance dates are April 7-16, Monday-Saturday at 7:30pm at the TELUS Studio Theatre, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, 6265 Crescent Road, UBC.

The creators of this play began with an inspiration package that I made for them that contained information about the actual event of Krikalev's abandonment on MIR as well as quotes an images about space travel and home. They were each charged with creating 15 minutes of material in response to this package. The added complication was that they worked in pairs with the (primarily) non-text based artist creating their 15 minutes first and then adding that to the inspiration package for their partner to respond to. This produced a variety of original work (dance, sound design, physical theatre) that was related tangentially, thematically, imagistically - more by association and impulse than by design. The accidental connections and parallels that emerged was surprising and encouraging.

Ever since the first drafts were completed we have been workshopping story ideas and physical images and sequences. The start of rehearsals was energized by the addition of three very talented UBC BFA acting students and set/lighting/projection designer Robert Gardiner, whose SSHRC grant brought the show to UBC and the Telus Theatre at the Chan Centre. As dramaturge and director it has been my role to encourage and assess the work the creators bring into the room and look for what is most vivid and truthful in it, and then make decisions that will support and grow those undeniable bright spots of inspiration and magic.

It's been wonderfully challenging to shape a coherent universe that holds such disparate voices - but then that seems perfectly appropriate considering Transit Lounge is in many ways about the struggle for many voices to share one home - Earth.

Rachel Ditor
Director and Dramaturge