BLUE LIGHT
A FESTIVAL OF SOCIAL MEDIA PERFORMANCE
A Message from Verb:
Thank you all for engaging with the Blue Light Festival 2020! This first year included 35 working artists, 10 new works and took place over 13 different platforms. Our goal for this festival was always to experiment, though we did not expect to do so during a global pandemic. Artists from around the world are now knee deep in digital art-making and the changes that people have made to their practices reveal how adaptable artists are, always have been, and will continue to be.
We would like to thank all the artists who presented, Anna Cummer, Jamie Dunsdon and the Calgary community for all the work and support.
All archived materials will be available to view on our website for the foreseeable future.
We hope that the Blue Light Festival has answered some questions and inspired new ones. Through the work presented, we have challenged some approaches to theatrical tradition and hope it encourages others to explore digital platforms to their full capacity. We look forward to supporting artists, continuing conversations and seeing you once again,
-Festival Curators, Shea Heatherington & Kiana Wu, May 3rd 2020
The Blue Light Festival
Curated by Kiana Wu and Shea Heatherington
Presented through April 2020 on Verb Theatre Social Media Platforms
Theatre and social media always seem to be at odds with one another. Before every show you are told to turn off your cell phones, remove yourself from the real world and separate from technology. Blue Light Festival is a challenge to the traditions of theatre that merges the online with the off. A daring experiment in undermining the definition of theatre that takes on-stage practices to an online world.
The Blue Light Festival is an online performance festival experienced through the mediums of Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and beyond. The festival will feature eight pieces nine performed using a social media platform online.
The Blue Light Festival Lineup
Blue Light Lineup Details:
Throughout the Festival: The Blue Light Breakfast Series!
Hosted by Griffin Cork & Karen Johnson-Diamond
The Blue Light Breakfast Series
Throughout the festival, Griffin Cork and Karen Johnson-Diamond are hosting "The Bluelight Breakfast Series" - They will be having breakfast with all the awesome artists involved in this festival and recording the interviews!
The Blue Light Breakfast Series is available 10:00am live on Zoom or at 12:00pm on Verb's Facebook Page on March 29th, March 30th, April 1st, April 2nd, April 8th, April 11th, April 17th, April 20th, April 25th and April 27th.Stay tuned on Verb’s social media channels to access the Zoom link, or check out the Facebook Page throughout the festival and find the recorded series!
Griffin Cork
Griffin is an Alberta-based actor and producer from Calgary who has been working professionally in the theatre, film and voice industries for over 12 years. He loves breakfast very much, and is happy that Shea and Kiana are letting Griffin and his mom, Karen, share their breakfast traditions with the Bluelight Festival! You might have seen Griffin working with Lunchbox Theatre, Calgary Opera, or Birnton Theatricals this year. You also might have seen him on CBC’s Heartland, or when he hosted his talk-show Studio 315 on Shaw TV. Or maybe you didn’t, and that’s okay too. It’s Breakfast Time!
Karen Johnson-Diamond
Karen Johnson-Diamond is a Calgary based actor, director, improviser, Neil Diamond lover and breakfast eater. In 2011, she began documenting her breakfast dates. After over 670 morning meals to date, she's put on weight.
April 1-2 2020 - Everybody’s Everybody’s Autobiography
By David Gagnon Walker
Everybody's Everybody's Autobiography
by David Gagnon Walker
a Strange Victory Performance
Everybody’s Everybody’s Autobiography is a collaborative writing and performance experiment.
For 24 hours, David will work across two public Google Docs. Using every word of a Google Doc anyone can contribute to anonymously, he will write a new text in a Google Doc anyone can see. After 24 hours, he will perform the resulting text, on Instagram Live and to a live audience in a city somewhere in Canada. The text will be called Everybody’s Everybody’s Autobiography. Starting March 31, Works Cited will be available to edit. Using this collaborative document, David will create, Everybody’s Everybody’s Autobiography live over 24 hours starting April 1, watch it come together! On April 2nd, he will read and perform the final piece on Verb’s Instagram Live at 6pm.
This presentation has now finished. Click below for the finished documents & performance:
David Gagnon Walker
David Gagnon Walker is a playwright, dramaturg, and performer working across Canada. He was born and raised in Edmonton and currently lives in Halifax. His work explores the spaces between text-based theatre and other modes of contemporary performance. Recent projects have focused on the complex intersections of human experience, technology, and the natural world. His play Premium Content was presented at the 2020 High Performance Rodeo in a production by Major Matt Mason Collective. Softly, now, his collaboration with Anthony Black and Christian Barry of 2b Theatre Company, premieres in Halifax March 24 - April 5, 2020. www.davidgagnonwalker.com
April 2nd, 2020 - Curse of Crowsnest Pass
by Conner Christmas and Troo Knot (Instagram )
Braden is an average 20 something amidst the Covid-19 crisis, and wants to get away from it all. He packs up his gear, and heads out to the wilderness of the crowsnest pass to wait it all out. Little does he know, the area he chooses happens to be haunted by an old bootlegger who died during the prohibition. Is this ghost friend? Or, foe?
Curse of Crowsnest Pass will be posted through Instagram stories on April 2nd, 2020 7:00AM - 12:00PM.
WATCH IT HERE: https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-fp1e9pEHZ/
This presentation has now finished. Please click below to view the full short film on Instagram below:
Conner Christmas
Conner Christmas is an Actor, Comedian & Producer from High River Alberta. He is also a regular Instagram user, and loves to post entertaining stories to make his followers laugh! Conner's acted internationally and performed stand up all over Canada. He is 100% more entertaining than this bio.
Troo Knot
Troo Knot is a 1 man variety show known for his versatile musicality, undeniable stage presence, and wacky sense of humour. This genre-twisting madman blends intricate production with live music, beatboxing with clowning, audience interaction with entertainment, and nostalgia with novelty. He has played shows and festivals featuring…Shawn Desman, Ice T, Swollen Members, Dub FX, Kytami, Mac Lethal, AFRO, The Widdler, Freak Motif and more.
April 4th - April 10th, 2020 - Serotonin Drip
By Thunder Lizard Collective (Christian Kostyniuk, Zoë Arthur, John Tasker and Zip Toto) in association with: Edison Grove, Caitlin Herring, Dylan MacKay, Vicki Trask and Malik Elassal on Instagram
Serotonin Drip is a music video in multiple parts. Separated in sections by various dancers, “SD” seeks to provoke the dichotomies of social media and mental health through motion, music, and personal expression.
Serotonin Drip will be posted through Instagram over the course of a week from April 4th - April 10th, 2020.
On April 4th, a video of an original Kelly Tuna song will be posted on Verb’s Instagram Stories. From April 5th-10th a daily music video will be posted on Verb’s Instagram stories each with a different dancer. On April 10th, a full music video will be posted on Verb’s Instagram Stories.Start watching Serotonin Drip here:
https://www.instagram.com/verbtheatre/
This presentation has now finished. Click below for the Instagram Series:
Christian Kostyniuk
Christian Kostyniuk is a Calgary born and raised multidisciplinary artist and founder of Thunder Lizard Collective, a media production company known for their podcasts and various short films. Christian strives to constantly perfect his work and hopes to show his diverse talents through the Blue Light Festival.
Zoë Arthur
Zoë Arthur is an actor, director, mover, creator, clown, drama educator, and all-round goofball. She graduated from the University of Lethbridge in 2018 with a BFA in Dramatic Performance and is currently the Artistic Associate for Calgary Young People’s Theatre. Zoë is passionate about creating theatre that is weird, thought provoking, full of movement and of course magic. Her most recent acting credits include SAFEHOUSE (7 Starving Artists Theatre Collective) and ZOO (Reckless Daughter Creative). Coming up Zoë will be playing Corey in The Way We Burn by Madeleine Taylor-Gregg at the Calgary One Acts Festival and Common Ground Festival.
John Tasker
John Tasker is a recent graduate from the University of Lethbridge BFA performance program. He has been acting in the Calgary Theatre community for close to 10 years. While he mostly does theatre, you may have seen him on the screen in Thunder Lizard sketches like “John’s Whiteboard/Blackboard Show”, “John’s Tree Climbing Show” and “John’s Stairwell Show”. He is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the collective again, and excited to merge his biggest loves: theatre and film.
Zipp Toto
Zipp Toto is a mover, a shaker, a tripping emotion maker. Zipp opens doors to a whole new world of storytelling and emotional expression with his interpretive dance, exploration of sport with soccer, and a welcoming hug for anyone. Zipp Toto, Andre, Mr. Wallace, a man of many names and even more stories… Zipp opens his heart and mind to a world willing to accept it.
Edison Grove
Edison Grove is a Calgary based sound designer and audio engineer who has worked on a wide variety of projects: sound design for art installations, recording and producing a wide range of music from classical to electronic music, mixing audio for web broadcast of sports, music, and corporate events, creating sound design and audio for animation, as well as doing live sound for theatre and musical performances. Most recently, Edison did sound design for an art installation featured in Campbelltown Art Centre and Cockatoo Island Film Festival in collaboration with Adrian Stimson, a Governor General award winning visual and performance artist. Edison completed a BFA in Electroacoustics at Concordia University in Montreal.
Caitlin Herring
Surrounded by music and arts since birth, doubled with artistic encouragement from a supportive family, Caitlin Herring knew that musicianship and the arts were a clear path for the future from the moment she started singing as a toddler. Born and raised in Calgary, AB, the last ten years of Caitlin’s life have been rich in many invaluable artistic experiences, including acting in Theatre Calgary’s production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ (2009, 2010), opening for Grammy Award winning artist Common at Afrikadey! Festival (2013) and singing in countless local and nearby music shows with various groups. Caitlin is also a proud alumnus of the Young Canadians of the Calgary Stampede (2011, 2012, 2014), having received exceptional vocal and dance training. Caitlin is currently writing and recording music alongside Dylan Mackay and Edison Grove, and have recently released an EP record, ‘Rose of Sharon’ under the group name ‘Sharon’. Her biggest musical influence is her late father, Kevin Herring, and will continue in his footsteps with a tremendous appreciation for the music and arts communities.
Dylan MacKay
Dylan MacKay is a songwriter and musician who has performed, composed, and recorded with several music groups based in Calgary including The Blue, Apollo Rose, and Sharon. Dylan has written and performed his own music since the age of 11 and has performed in concert jazz, R&B bands, as well as vocal jazz throughout grade school.
Ben Laughland
Ben Laughland has a passion for music and music creation. He has studied music at the Berklee College of Music online and has played around Calgary both as a solo artist and as part of various groups. He can play multiple instruments but is most fluent on the guitar.
Vicki Trask
Vicki is a Calgary-based performer known for her work with musical theatre companies such as Storybook Theatre and Front Row Centre. She has spent the last 8 years as a dance captain and ensemblist in over 20 productions (recently: "The Neverending Story", "Sister Act the Musical", "Evita", and "Priscilla Queen of the Desert"). She has recently begun a career as a choreographer as well, after spending 10+ years as a competitive dancer and all around theatre enthusiast.
Malik Elassal
Malik is an actor and comedian and he hopes you like the moves. Previously seen in Thunder Lizard Collectives “Malik’s Bush Finding Show” he is thrilled to be working with them again. He thanks Kelly Tuna for the dope song for thsi project.
April 11th, 2020 - Radiant Alberta
A twitter event series By Michaela Jeffery on April 11th, 2020
Radiant, AB is the digital portrait of a small, fictional town as distinctly experienced by three of its young residents over one month in the spring of 2020. Jolie, Keeva and Luke are all in their final semester of grade twelve. As they individually prepare to embark on their respective next chapters, they collectively use the twitter hashtag #RadiantAB to document the REAL TRUE TRUTH about place they grew up and will invariably need to leave behind – the slowly shuttering agriculture town (population 617) called Radiant, Alberta. A story of transition, transformation, impermanence and belonging, Radiant, AB is told in real time through an ongoing stream of ‘live’ tweets by Jolie, Keeva and Luke, beginning on March 11 th , 2020 and ending on April 11 th , 2020. As Jolie, Keeva and Luke record their personal experiences and unsettling observations, a cohesive picture of the REAL TRUE TRUTH of Radiant, AB emerges. Part time-capsule, part investigative journalism, part fantastical construction, this unique Odyssey – piecemealed out in snippets of micro-fiction – is available to follow as it unfolds, or to binge all at once after its conclusion.
WHY TWITTER? As an early adopter of this particular platform, I vacillate between the belief that Twitter is a horrible hellscape – a vapid, desolate wasteland full of angry, willfully ignorant people, attracted to its lack of any species of oversight – and my genuine love for it’s gentler, kinder, stranger side – where imagination flourishes and people feel safe enough in this same anonymity to reveal aspects of themselves they might not be courageous enough to embrace in their real lives. Radiant, AB – a story about (among other things) self-invention and grappling with where we’ve come from – is right at home here. Three distinct voices (Jolie, Keeva, and Luke) create three distinct impressions for us of the same place, the same events, the same people, yet will seem to us, in moments, as though they inhabit three completely different worlds. Twitter has always encapsulated this sensation best for me – the feeling of a particular place, a particular person containing multitudes.
This piece will be presented on Twitter April 11th, 2020 with profiles available to view beforehand.
Follow Keeva, Jolie & Luke on Twitter now! Sort #RadiantAB by ‘Latest’ to view.
Michaela Jeffery
Michaela is an Alberta based playwright and graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada (2016). Recent writing credits include: The Extractionist, commissioned by Vertigo Theatre (Calgary, AB), text creation for Persephone Bound, Imago Theatre (Montreal, QC), Wolf of the Ringstrasse, Spirit Fire Theatre (Calgary, AB), WROL (Without Rule of Law), premiering in November 2019 at Persephone Theatre (Saskatoon, SK), The Listening Room, Cardiac Theatre (Edmonton, AB) in conjunction with The Azimuth Theatre & Downstage Performance Society; The Listening Room will receive its American premiere in November 2019 with Nylon Fusion Theatre Co. (NYC, NY). Always, The Cultch Emerging Artist Festival (Vancouver, BC), Hardscrabble Road, GODHEAD, (Shortlist, Headwaters New Play Festival – Creede, Colorado; The Sunset Theatre, Wells, BC), Sundogs (Holding Hollow Productions; Edmonton International Fringe Festival), and others. Her short play Expanding Concepts of Dislocated Space (And Associated Boundaries) was recently published in the July 2018 edition of Bare Fiction Magazine (UK Publication)
April 11th - April 18th, 2020 - What Ever Happened to Alice Monroe?
One year ago social media star Alice Monroe made her last post. Her sudden disappearance captivated the world and inspired countless conspiracy theories. This piece asks the audience to dig through her social media and uncover the truth of what happened to Alice Monroe.
What Ever Happened to Alice Monroe? will be an online scavenger hunt across multiple platforms. Click below to start the hunt! Or, copy and past this link into your browser:
Lyall Jovie
Lyall Jovie is a calgary based technician, designer and actor. He holds a BFA in Tech/Design from the University of Lethbridge. He works in the Vertigo Studio as their house technician, and is the Technical Director for Seven Starving Artists. Lyall's love's to push the boundaries of traditional theatre.
Megan Eileen Jovie
Megan Eileen Jovie is a queer actor, writer, and director based in Calgary.She holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Lethbridge and is Artistic Associate and founding member of the Calgary based theatre collective Seven Starving Artists. She is passionate about making theatre that makes a statement and challenges the artists and audience alike.
Laura Couch
Laura Couch is a graduate of the BFA Performance program at the University of Lethbridge and a co-founder of Seven Starving Artists. She is a performer, playwright, director, and devised theatre creator with a passion for creating new art that explores social issues and human connections through collaborative processes. She loves discovering different forms of storytelling.
Melanie Howe
Melanie was born and raised in Calgary, but trained professionally in Ontario at Toronto Film School, studying acting for television, film, and the theatre. Her experiences on screen and stage sets in both technical and performing roles have been wide-ranging as an actor, stand-up comic, director, improviser, and most recently and predominantly as a screenwriter. Her next project is a sketch comedy show bordering on absurdism.
April 18th - April 20th, 2020 - Last Seen at 12:07AM
By Lara Schmitz and Britt van Groningen - April 18th - April 20th, 2020 on WhatsApp.
Someone is typing, but nothing is ever sent. They read your message 20 minutes ago, but still haven’t responded. You get a notification that they’ve messaged you, but it’s deleted before you can read it. An exploration of the pauses, deletions, delays, left-on-reads, and everything else that makes us wonder what the other person is really thinking or wanting to say…
Last Seen at 12:07am will be shown through WhatsApp on April 18th - April 20th, 2020.
ARCHIVAL PHOTOS BELOW: Click on photo to scroll
Lara Schmitz
Lara is a local actor and budding playwright. She is currently messing around with the length, form, and structure for theatrical experiences in other writing endeavours, so this opportunity to play with social media exhilarates her (despite the fact that she’s been personally social media free for years). This winter, she performed in the World Premiere of The Ministry of Grace by Tara Beagan at the Belfry Theatre and, in the fall, Theatre Calgary’s production of Iceland. She is grateful to be a part of the Blue Light Festival and working with Verb Theatre again, after performing in their production of Sextet a few years back.
Britt van Groningen
Britt van Groningen is a scenographer excited by experimentation in theatrical forms. Her latest experiment “A People Watching Tour” (which is exactly what it sounds like) premiered at the Prague Quadrennial and is now making its way to a festival in Belgium. In 2016 she completed an MA in Scenography in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Thank you to Verb for creating this unique festival.
April 21st-25th, 2020 - Seven Stages of Isolation
By Robert Morrison
Stuck inside with nothing to do, Eva is at wits' end. But then from the internet, or her imagination perhaps, a stranger arrives to keep her company. In this 7 part series, observe Eva’s life through the lens of hacked web-cams while she is isolated at home alone. Told over Instagram TV, this is a 7-episode video series using movement and dance. Released through April 21-25.
Check out Verb Theatre’s Instagram TV : https://www.instagram.com/verbtheatre/
Follow @eva_porter_97 to engage with the piece further.
Robert Morrison
Robert is an actor and director living in Toronto and Calgary. In Calgary, he has performed with companies and festivals across town including: Theatre Calgary, Verb Theatre, The Shakespeare Company, Hit & Myth Productions, Storybook Theatre, Hoodlum Theatre, Seven Starving Artists, The High Performance Rodeo, The Calgary International Children's Festival, The Beakerhead Festival & The Silver Stars. He has directed Any Night and No Exit and assistant directed Unity (1918) for the stage and Dissipation on film. He currently trains at the Ryerson School of Performance.
Alli Carry
Alli Carry is a Calgary born dancer/emerging artist currently training at the Ryerson School of Performance in Toronto. Aside from performing as a dancer, Alli is inspired to create art and experiment in the medium of film. Most recently Alli has taken great interest in producing, choreographing and directing for dance films of her own, in collaboration with Robert Morrison. The most recent project being a short dance filmed titled Dissipation which premiered on YouTube in March 2020. In 2019 her dance credits included a performance of repertoire from two pieces: Pacific Mocean, Miranda Meijer, and Sacred Garden, David Earle (2019). As well as a performance of Myriapoda, Corinne Vessey in the Skylines Dance and Film Festival (2019).
Angel Lo
Angel is an actor from Calgary, currently studying at the Ryerson School of Performance in Toronto. Her recent theatre credits include: Proof, Romeo and Juliet (RSP), and Concord Floral (Theatre 44). She is very excited to perform from within the comfort of her own room, and grateful to have an opportunity to create amidst these uncertain and isolating times brought on by the ongoing public health crisis.
Kole Durnford
Kole Durnford is a Metis theatre artist from Edmonton, Alberta. Kole is currently living in Toronto, attending Ryerson University's School of Performance. Kole has experience in a wide variety of artistic disciplines, including acting, directing, writing and composing. He is a co-founder and artistic director of Precipice Productions, an emerging theatre company focusing on producing theatre that breaks into other disciplines. Recent credits include: Mustard, Romeo and Juliet, Upright, Columbinus, Listen to the WInd, Asteroid Belt.
April 26th, 2020 - Cracked Mirror: A Improvised Dystopian Choose-Your-Own-Adventure
By the Kinkonauts Jennifer Leblanc, Christine Harvey, Michael Harvey and Jimbo Jordan on April 26th on Instagram
The future is coming and it wants to solve your problems. Humans are bad at knowing what it is they actually want. If only we could be happy with where we are right now. Cracked Mirror is a troupe of improvisers ready to get themselves into trouble and they want you to lead them in a direction, any direction will do. No one really knows where they'll end up until it's over.
Cracked Mirror: An Improvised Dystopian Choose-Your-Own-Adventure will take place over YouTube on April 26th, 2020.
This piece has now ended. Please CLICK HERE to watch the archived video. Thank you to all those who participated!
Jennifer Leblanc, Christine Harvey, Michael Harvey, Jimbo Jordan & Ryan Shiskowski
We are the Kinkonauts: Calgary’s Improv Lab. We strive to delight audiences through the art of spontaneous theatre. We are always stretching the boundaries of our imaginations to create innovate our one-of-a-kind performances.
April 28th - May 2nd, 2020 - Bonnidale
By Ryan Reese, Kelly Malcolm and Camille Pavlenko
Riley has just ordered a dark web mystery box. They have high hopes the unboxing video will be the most popular upload on their new channel. When Riley finally opens the box, the only thing inside is an old smartphone containing hours of video and audio recordings. On these recordings are two people Riley has never met before, and they seem to be searching for something that doesn't exist. As Riley digs deeper into the footage, they will be drawn into a story that defies belief, bringing their viewers along for every terrifying step.
Bonnidale is archived on YouTube, click the link below to watch on the YouTube channel RileysReactions.
Camille Pavlenko
Camille is a playwright and actor based in Calgary, Alberta. Select acting credits include: Noises Off (Theatre Calgary), Blackbird (Verb Theatre), The Outsider (Stage West Theatre), Timmy, Tommy, and the Haunted Hotel (Pape & Taper Productions), Silence & the Machine (Theatre BSMT), Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lethbridge Shakespeare in the Park) and eight Theatre for Young Audiences productions for New West Theatre. As a playwright, her work has won and been short listed for awards from Theatre BC, the Alberta Playwriting Competition, Playwrights’ Guild of Canada, Ottawa Little Theatre, and the Herman Voaden Prize. Along with singer-songwriter Kathryn Smith, Camille was selected for the 2018-2019 New Musical Program at Alberta Musical Theatre Company (Alberta Opera), which culminated with the world premiere of their original musical, Baba Yaga. She is the recipient of the Allied Arts Council’s Young Artist Award and is a Betty Mitchell Award nominee. Camille is also the co-host of internet favourite comedy podcast, The CineVals, analyzing the filmography of Val Kilmer, which can be found at www.boathausstudios.com
Kelly Malcolm
Kelly Malcolm is Calgary-based actor and physical theatre performer. Recent credits include: Legend of the Lost Tooth, Munsch-O-Rama, The Kitchen Witches (New West Theatre), Win the Warrior, Peter Pan and the Fairy’s Revenge, Hansel & Gretel (GP Family Theatre), The Underneath (Theatre BSMT), One Man Two Guvnors, The Crucible* (Theatre Calgary, *Betty Mitchell Award Nominee Best Supporting Actress), and The Legend of Four (Evergreen Theatre). Kelly is also a founding member of the award-winning Pohcinko clown duo The Tighty Whities. When not performing, Kelly also works as an arts administrator and drama instructor for the young and young at heart. She holds a BFA from the University of Lethbridge and has trained at the Manitoulin Conservatory of Creation and Performance.
Ryan Reese
Ryan is a Calgary based actor, producer and playwright. He has performed with such companies as Red Phone Theatre, Evergreen Theatre, Trickster Theatre and New West Theatre. As a playwright, his work has been performed and read in and around Calgary, and is a back to back winner of the Alberta Playwriting Competition's Discovery Prize (2013 & 2014). Ryan is also the Artistic Director of Theatre BSMT (Basement), Calgary's only horror based theatre company.
If you have any questions or would like furthur information about The Blue Light Festival feel free to email shea@verbtheatre.com and kiana@verbtheatre.com.