Unmasking the Future gives behind-the-scenes look at Electric Company Theatre works in development, February 6
Jonathon Young and Carmen Aguirre talk about the inspiration for their new creations, and working in a time of COVID restrictions
Carmen Aguirre and Jonathon Young reveal the stories behind the new pieces they’re working on at the Progress Lab. Photo by Emily Cooper
Electric Company Theatre core artists Carmen Aguirre and Jonathon Young will reveal some of the new work they’re developing at Unmasking the Future.
The free in-progress showing, discussion, and talkback takes place Saturday, February 6 at 4 pm. You can find more info here and register here.
This month, Young and Carmen Aguirre have taken up residence at the company’s home studio in East Vancouver, Progress Lab, working with a small group of actors and collaborators, as well as scenery and technical elements.
Young’s next untitled work is loosely inspired by Goethe’s Faust, and by the idea of endless development and the desire for a sense of permanence and place in an ever-changing world. He’s working with the premise about a small-town community on the shores of an ocean sound, where a mysterious development campaign emerges.
Aguirre’s untitled project, meanwhile, centres around Tina Mondotti, an Italian photographer and revolutionary whose artwork thrived in Mexico City in the 1920s. She was part of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s inner circle of artists and communists.
Following the showing, viewers can ask the artists questions in an interactive discussion.
Unmasking the Future is a window into the Electric Company core artists’ larger response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the way they have come together to support each other and find pathways to creativity. During the year, the Vancouver-based company has gathered in person and online to devise future visions for the stage. One of their biggest efforts has been Reframed, a production commissioned by the National Arts Centre as part of its pandemic Grand Acts of Theatre project. Filmed in West Vancouver’s Ambleside Park in October, it featured dozens of local actors and was recently released online as a short video (see below).
Amid the artists’ experimentation, the pandemic has brought a host of new considerations and limitations: masked actors, temperature checks, safety managers, and more, resulting in a continual need to change plans and adapt to new restrictions or absent artists. Through this environment of uncertainty, the constant has been a deficit in audiences—spectators for the company’s signature spectacles. In nonpandemic times, Electric Company would normally host public showings and collect audience feedback. That’s why it’s pulling back the veil on the COVID-closed studio experimentation in this online sharing event—reaching out to connect with its viewers.
This post was sponsored by the Electric Theatre Company