Street Spirits Theatre Company

On Monday June 15, 2009 Prince George City Council recognized Street Spirits at the beginning of the regularly scheduled council meeting. Mayor Dan Rodgers spoke about the accomplishments of Street Spirits over the past years and presented the company with a certificate of appreciation.

On Monday June 15 Street Spirits provided an interactive performance for Ron Brent School. The performance looked at issues related to bullying and to marijuana use in schools. Desiree, Ryan, Meranda, Amy, Mary and Destry took part in creating and performing the play. Participation from the audience was lively with many ideas about how to deal with bullying and drug use brought forward by the students.

On Saturday June 13, 2009 Street Spirits provided a presentation on what we do for the Bridges Arts Festival at UNBC. Taking part in the presentation were Neale, Mike, Paingwen, Stephanie and Elise. We created a “play within a play” about how we create theatre that included a forum theatre performance about Eating disorders and an interactive Workout Theatre presentation that involved the audience in creating a new play. Participation was good with some people very moved by the performance. 

 On June 1 2009 Street Spirits left Prince George to visit Haida Gwaii. The workshop team included Andrew, Meranda, Paingwen, Jay, Holly, Mike and Stephanie. The trip involved a long drive to Prince Rupert then an overnight ferry ride to Skidegate. We arrived on the island at 6:00 am on the 2nd. Our workshop was scheduled in the community of Port Clements in the centre of the island.  We had some free time on the first day so we visited North Beach, driving through dense rainforest to find a deserted stretch of sandy beach. After a good day we prepared for our workshop. We had a range of people attending from all over the island. Over the next few days we taught theatre skills and began creating a play that would address issues of concern to the region. Over the course of the work a performance piece developed that looked at the history of the people and at the problems that grew from that history. The play covered issues of unemployment, family violence, child neglect, sexual abuse and the silence that allows such things to continue. The play was performed by a mix of workshop participants and Street Spirits actors. We gave three performances in the communities of Queen Charlotte City, Port Clements and Massett. Audience members were engaged in the process and took part in finding ways to deal with the issues in a positive way.  

On May 28 Street Spirits was invited to perform for a group of visitors from Guatemala. The Law Courts Society was hosting their tour of Northern BC as part of a project to share alternative means of dealing with crime. The visitors did not speak English but had an interpreter with them. We had planned a performance but the lag in interpretation would have made that difficult so we used a Workout Theatre process asking the audience to suggest scenes and having our actors show them in frozen images then bringing them to life. We were able to do some interventions with the interpreter. Response was good and the event went well.    

On May 27 Street Spirits provided a performance of an original play about birth control and making decisions about sex. The performance was hosted by UBC. Jay, Mike, Paingwen, Meranda, Amy, Destry and Mary did the performance. We included a song and dance number as part of the presentation, a rare element in a Street Spirits show. Turnout was low but we did a good show.    

On May 15th Stephanie and I flew to New York.  Our first day was spent shopping and sight seeing.  We took a carriage ride through Central Park and rode the Carousel. 

At 7:30 PM on May 16th we attended a performance of “This is your ridiculous life” at Castillo Theatre.  The play was an amusing blend of social therapy and improv comedy.  It was very entertaining.  

On May 17th at 12:30 we headed back over to Castillo Theatre.  First was a luncheon attended by the other nominees, and people from Castillo, All Stars Project, and the Eastside Institute. At 2:30 the award presentation started.  Our award was presented by a lovely young woman from the All Stars Project. Stephanie accepted the award for Street Spirits.  She spoke about what Street Spirits has meant to her and the work it has allowed her to do.  The presentation was followed by a panel discussion.  A variety of questions were presented, and answered by Stephanie and her fellow panelists.  One of the questions was what made each individuals work “political”.  Stephanie’s response earned her a standing ovation from some of the people present.   Afterwards we attended a reception with everyone.

On May 21 2009 Street Spirits provided a performance on bullying to students of Foothills School. Over 100 grade 5, 6 and 7 students attended and engaged in finding solutions to problems of bullying in schools and internet bullying.  Destry, Paingwen, Amberlynne, Mary and Mike  were the actors in the piece. A number of students asked about joining Street Spirits after the show.

On May 17 Street Spirits provided a workshop on the use of theatre to address discrimination and prejudice at the Gaia Gathering at the UBC Campus in Vancouver. As a keynote presentation we led participants through a series of theatre exercises demonstrating workout theatre and forum theatre. Participation was good and the response was positive. Sarah, Danielle and Jay assisted in the presentatiom.  

On April 23 we provided two performances of different plays for the School District Arts Festival. Mike, Destry, Meranda, Paingwen and Bryn took part in the creation and performance of both plays. Out first play was for elementary school students and focused on bullying. We had about 180 people in the audience. Participation was good and response from the audience positive. The second play was on gang violence for high school students. We had about 75 people in this audience. Again response was good. After the shows we were asked about some future bookings for performances in schools and at a community event.