Weaving a spell in Fort Simpson
Two live performances captivate audience
Roxanna Thompson
Northern News Services
Published Thursday, October 23, 2014
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Both the young and older members of a Fort Simpson audience were captivated by two shows performed on Oct. 20.
Using an overhead projector and acetate sheets, Shary Boyle creates captivating images during Spell to Bring Lost Creatures Home. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo
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The village was the final stop for Spell to Bring Lost Creatures Home, the first show in the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre's 2014-2015 tour season. All three artists involved in the performance said it's been a pleasure to have the opportunity to show their work across the NWT.
Terry Pamplin, a Yellowknife artist, opened the show in Fort Simpson and the other four communities on the tour route with a shortened version of his play Let the Children Be. The autobiographical work reveals scenes from Pamplin's childhood in Quebec where he didn't fit in and and wasn't accepted for the artist that he was and is.
"It's storytelling with live art," said Pamplin, who sang, painted and acted out stories during the play.
The tour required constant improvisation because every performance space was different and had different acoustics. Unplanned situations during the performances, like glitches with the sound tracks, had to be worked around, he said.
One of the delightful aspects of the tour were the unplanned similarities between Let the Children Be and Spell to Bring Lost Creatures Home, the audio-visual performance created specially for the NWT by Shary Boyle and Christine Fellows, said Pamplin. Both works feature disenfranchised children who are picked on, ships and almost matching sailor caps.
"We're telling the same story in a different way," said Pamplin, who currently has a show on display in the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife.
Spell to Bring Lost Creatures Home explores a variety of themes including trying to include and give a voice to people who feel marginalized, mortality and nature and the environment, said Boyle. Boyle, a visual artist from Toronto, and Fellows, a musician and songwriter from Winnipeg, spent a year developing the show.
Both artists were excited by the opportunity to tour in the NWT, a place neither of them had been before.
"It's really, really a special opportunity," Fellows said.
The performance was like a series of vignettes strung together that Fellows gave voice to through singing and music and Boyle created images for using what she calls live projected art.
With an overhead projector, Boyle brought images to life using a variety of techniques including paper shadow puppets and painting with an ink and brush on acetate.
"Shary's artwork really seems to resonate with young people," said Fellows.
"They get it. They understand that they could probably do that."
The whole tour went really well, said Boyle. Each community was different and each audience had different expectations and different experiences with going out and seeing art.
Lynn Canney was one of approximately 45 people in the audience in the village.
"I love them both," she said referring to the two performances.
After seeing the two works, Canney said she has a new appreciation for the combination of performing and visual arts. The Northern Arts and Cultural Centre's next show in Fort Simpson is When That I Was, a one-man play on Nov. 17.
