Street Spirits Theatre Company

On April 27 the Prince George Regional Arts Council held its awards presentation event at the PG Playhouse. Street Spirtis members took part as stage crew providing support and control for the event. The evening was a lot of fun with many fine performances.  Andrew opened the show with a spoken word performance. There were performances by dancers, singers and a metal band and a fine demonstration of on the spot creation of art by Cat Severtson in the lobby area.  Later in the evening awards were presented. Andrew received the award for Arts Advocacy for supporting the growth of arts and for using creative arts as a means of advocating for change.

On April 14-16, 2012 Street Spirits Artistic Director, Andrew Burton took part in two presentations as part of the American Education Association International Conference in Vancouver. The conference drew thousands of participants from all over the world. Presenting along with colleagues from the United States and Canada he presented material on the use of performance for education and social change covering a broad range of method and effect. Later he took part in a panel on the importance of play in human development. A high point of the event was the opportiunity to work with Judith Marcuse. Lynn Fels, Lois Holzman and Carrie Lobmann.

On Wednesday May 2, 2012 Street Spirits provided a workshop for the Imigration and Multiculturalism Services Society. Participants in the workshop learned performance skills and play creation skills then used those skills to explore issues they chose as concerns. Participants chose to create scenes of bullying and racism. Taking part for Street Spirits were Sabrina, Marie, Kaiser, Elise, Brianna, Dominique and Amee.

On April 17 Street Spirits, led by Teresa, provided a performance of workout theatre for a regional meeting of Ministry of Forests staff at the Prince George Civic Centre. Participants were asked to suggest issues that were of concern to them and our actors improvised dramatic scenes based on suggestions from the audience. These scenes were developed according to audience input then preformed in forum with audience members joining the scene to generate solutions to the problems. Taking part for Street Spirits were Holly, Kaiser, Elise, Travis, Charles and Dominique.

On April 23, 2012 Street Spirits provided an interactive play for studetns of DP Todd secondary school. The play explored issues related to substance use. The performance took place in one of the protable units at the back of the school. A number of students were actively involved in generating some thoughtful solutions to the problems in the play. Taking part for Street Spirits were, Charles, Mary, Vanessa, Isaac, Dominique and Travis.

Over the years Street Spirits has gained a reputation for creating hard hitting, socially conscious, dramatic performances about problems that affect the world. In the process we have developed a company of skilled performers with remarkable range. From time to time we take on new projects that give our actors the opportunity to show another side of their talents. Our most recent endeavor is “The Philosopher’s Stone”.  This is an original, full length romantic comedy about what happens when four ordinary young people try to figure out the meaning of life while on the road  travelling across Canada. Can Anton become the next big thing in custom cars? Can Bertram change the world with sandwiches? Can Jade really turn people into toads if she chooses to? Can Amber seduce the rest into making her own plans a reality? Coming soon!

For the second year in a row Street Spirits was a part of the Coldsnap Music Festival Arts Engagement program. On  Sunday January 22 we conducted a workshop at Connaught Youth Centre. We had thirty five participants from IMSS, Katimavik, PGNFC,  CNC, UNBC and some from the public. Participants identified issues of concern including poverty, homelessness, bullying in schools, family violence and substance abuse. Workshop participants developed a complete play based on these issues. On the following Saturday the play was performed publicly as part of the last day of the festival. The play was presented in Forum theatre allowing audience members to get involved and generate solutions to the problems in the play. Participation was good with many thoughtful changes made to the story. Performing for Street Spirits were Charles, Kaiser, Elise, Linda, Dominique, Brooke and Sabrina.

On Sunday, December 4 Street Spirits provided a workshop on public presentations to participants of the Katimavik program. Katimavik is a life experience exchange program that provides young people the opportunity to find out what life is like in other parts of the country while providing community service wherever they go. The presentation was to assist the participants in developing skills in public speaking and advocacy for social issues. Participants learned about selecting topics, tailoring a presentation to the audience and specific performance skills and knowledge to help deliver an effective message.

On December 2 Street Spirits provided role playing actors to the Crisis Intervention Training program organized by Canadian Mental Health Association.  Kaiser, Charles, Linda, Elise, Holly and John role played people experiencing mental health problems so that participants in the program could practice the skills they have learned. Group participants tried to intervene with our actors in scenarios and resolve problems in a good way. the similarity to our forum theatre work meant that our performers were able to give the participants a realistic and effective practice experience.

From Nov. 18 to 26 Street Spirits provided a combination workshop to the community of Creston BC. The first part of the workshop was a Train the Trainer event teaching people the skills they would need to operate a theatre program. There were participants from all over the Kootenays and from as far away as Calgary. The second part of the event was a community workshop with young people who created an original play to perform for the community. Train the Trainer participants took part in the workshop with the youth to gain experience and to start the process of establishing a theatre program in Creston. The group decided on “The Vicious Circle” as a title for the play and also as the name for the  theatre company. We performed for an audience of about 85 people with good participation and great responses. The crew got a standing ovation at the end of the show. here’s the media on this event: http://www.crestonvalleyadvance.ca/news/134340443.html