A Sense of Place: CONVERSATION ON A HOMECOMING

CONVERSATIONS ON A HOMECOMING has gotten me thinking so much about the concepts behind the idea of a sense of space.  So many of us have that connection, that attachment to a place.  A place that defines us. A place that we occupy.  And as we march forward through our lives, and leave that place behind for what feels like only a moment, that place marches forward without us.  The house where you grew up. The seldom seen child of a friend, suddenly off to college. The people you are closest to despite how far apart you may have grown. 

For the protagonist of CONVERSATIONS, the sense of place is critical and palpable.  This is the night of his homecoming to a place of refuge, sanctuary, and fellowship.  He’s marched forward in his life for ten years not needing it, but now he’s crossed an ocean seeking the vitality that only a sense of place can bring.

“Sense of place is a social phenomenon that exists independently of any one individual's perceptions or experiences, yet is dependent on human engagement for its existence.”  ( I got that lovely quote from Wikipedia … I know, I should be looking for something more profound, but it works.)

One thing that excites me about theatre is the creation, celebration, deconstruction, and recreation of place. For both theatre makers and partakers, the sense of place is intense, short-lived, and ethereal. Built to be struck down easily.

The other elemental feature of theatre is that it is ‘dependent on human engagement for its existence’. Sharing these spaces with audiences, spectators, participants, is the most vital and essential part of theatre. 

I love opening the doors to our space and inviting our guests to participate with us in the celebration of a new sense of space over and over again.  But far beyond the sense of space, the real celebration is sharing it with our guests; thriving on the knowledge that the celebration is ‘dependent on human engagement for its existence’ and that by joining us, you allow our stories, and our theatre, to exist. 

We hope that our theatre can bring you that sense of space, and that vitality that it promises, and we hope that for a few hours we can share a story together while the rest of the world marches forward without us. 

Hank Boland
Ensemble Member and Interim Artistic Director

You’re Only Neutral To The People Choosing Sides

You’re Only Neutral To The People Choosing Sides
Blog Post by Hank Boland

This post we'll talk about IMPROBABLE FREQUENCY in terms of our value of Community; in particular, in regards to the setting and situation of the show, and how a political choice can create a national community.

The Irish marked their boarders as a reminder
to both Allied and German Airforces
to respect the Irish airspace

IMPROBABLE FREQUENCY is set in Dublin during World War Two. But the Irish didn’t call it WWII, they referred to is as ‘The Emergency’.
And while most of the world was at war, the Irish remained neutral. The Irish stood their ground, and by doing so were fighting for themselves, and holding on to the independence they had only recently won from England.

Ireland's neutrality made the island a target for both the Nazis and the Allies, each wanting access to the Irish ports, as well as the nation’s valuable strategic location.

We’ve put together a lot of historical information for you this show and you'll find it in the lobby and the program when you visit, and also in a study guide. A lot of great work done has been done by our Dramaturge Kati Sweaney, Ensemble Members Kat McDonnell and Aly Renee Amidei, as well as Board Member Joyce McGreevy (about to receive an award from the National University of Ireland in Galway for her contribution to the Arts). I’m pulling liberally from Kati’s dramaturgical package for this post

“Neutrality was a way for the Irish to solve an unsolvable problem (and this whole play is about solving unsolvable problems): Ireland couldn’t join Britain in the war, because Ireland had only won its independence from Britain 20 years earlier. They couldn’t immediately agree to be controlled by them for the whole war. But they weren’t Nazis either, so they could hardly join the Axis.”

“From the British perspective, Ireland’s failure to join the war was an insult to Democracy. The British perceived the Irish as failing in their moral character and failing as a nation because of their neutrality. However, to the Irish, refusing to join the war was a quintessentially democratic move—proving that they were democratically independent from the UK.”

Click for Video: 'Germans Bomb Dublin'
1941 British Pathe Newsreel

Ireland turned inward as war broke out as a way to affirm it's Independence from Britain.  The civil war in Ireland over the treaty that created the Irish Free State was still fresh in the Irish mind and siding with England might have provoked another civil war. They needed to focus inward and explore what it meant to be an independant nation from within, before taking their place in the world as a new republic.

“The overall feeling in Ireland throughout the war was that they were totally isolated, cut off from the rest of the world. This had a significant effect on their development as a new independent nation. It caused them to turn inwards, culturally, becoming even more interested in their own Irish language and folk culture.”
 

This is the community that our protagonist Tristram Faraday enters, and his adventure and relationships mirror the delicate and mulch-faceted relationship of England to Ireland.

In a similar way, before Strawdog can present a work to the outside world, we go through the critical phase of Tech Weekend. Everyone involved in the production spends an intense two-day tech weekend where we are immersed in the world of the play. Only when we've come together in the most intimate, private way can we hope to present a piece of theatre to the outside world 7 days later.

Strawdog embraces our value of Community this weekend as we tech the show, getting it ready for previews and opening next week. Tech weekend means at least two twelve-hour days of adding the technical and design elements to the work that the director has been doing with the actors for the last five weeks. It is the coming together of all the elements. It is exhausting, tedious, and wearying. It is exciting to discover the elements you imagined months ago working together seamlessly, and heartbreaking when elements you've loved must be abandoned for one reason or another.

Tech Weekend is Strawdog at its most communal. Company members volunteer their time, talent, and money to provide, prepare, and share three meals a day with our cast and crew.  Artists and family members are in and out of the building all weekend; supporting, assisting, and adding to the flurry and rush as the clock ticks forward.

It is a collection of individuals, bringing their best and working together. Not a team polarized or in opposition to another team; not against anything, but collectively towards a goal. A small community working together towards making the best story they can, and sharing it with a larger community: you, our audience.

Hank Boland
Interim Artistic Director

It’s like Tom Stoppard and Douglas Adams wrote a Musical…

That’s how I’ve been talking about Strawdog’s upcoming show, Improbable Frequency. 

Strawdog Ensemble Member Sarah Goeden
noired out as Philomena O'Shea
Photo courtesy of Sarah-Ji Photography

Smart. Funny. Fast-Paced. Scientific. Filled with a mix of Historical and Fictional Characters. Code Breaking. Word play. Puzzles. Romance. Singing. Dancing. World War II. Irish Neutrality. And a plot that hinges on the most unlikely of…. Well I won’t talk about that.  As the play traces the journey of Tristram Faraday, our reluctant hero, from London cruciverbalist to British undercover agent, you’ll find that there's a lot to love about this play, including the fact that it’s a challenge in the most rewarding ways.

‘Challenge’ is one of our core values at Strawdog; and to be honest, it is a tricky value to hold dear. Valuing ‘Challenge’ makes it difficult to say ‘No’ to the demanding, complex, or complicated. But it also draws us towards work that challenges us as artists and storytellers, and allows us to challenge the perceptions of well-known works, and sometimes we ask the audience to be challenged along with us.

One of the challenges of Improbable Frequency is the massive amount of word play, puns and double entendre (I'm considering making that the show's signature drink).  We’ll talk about wordplay in greater detail in a future post, but even the title sets up the duality and duplicity of words with ‘Improbable Frequency’ referring to both the re-occurrence of letter patterns in code breaking, and also the mysterious radio broadcasts originating in Ireland that our hero is asked to investigate, and perhaps even more.

‘Improbable Frequency’ takes on some challenging topics as well.  Like many, I never fully understood the complexity of Irish Neutrality in World War Two (It’s in here).  Or the fundamentals of Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger’s results in the field of quantum theory (I just thought he was an Austrian that hated cats). And of course Love. That one is always a challenge.  

Over the next few weeks we'll make certain that you're properly invited to this challenge. We’ll be sharing dramaturgical information, historical background, supporting research, and puzzles… because folks love a good puzzle.

We’ll be sharing this information in context of our Values: Challenge, Community, Genuine Connection, and Ensemble.

We’re excited to have you along on this production, and we look forward to having you back in our home soon for Improbable Frequency. 

Hank Boland
Ensemble Member
Interim Artistic Director
Strawdog Theatre Company