Origins - Festival of First Nations
The Rites of Story Weaving
A Workshop with Marie Clements
This three-day workshop lead by Writer/director Marie Clements will be a highly integrated and collaborative investigation into the creation of Aboriginal infused modern storytelling- working inside of multiple disciplines and cultural perspectives,
western and Aboriginal story structures, and contemporary and ancient rituals.
The Rites of Story Weaving will focus on the embodiment of Aboriginal time across tense,
the fine lines between blood memory and spirit-making, the base rhythm of land in context with the bones of dramatic text.
Thematically using her latest theatrical creation The Edward Curtis Project, the workshop will explore contact as an axis
point, what exists between “the documented” and “the documenter” and how these particular seeing-s shape our ideas of vanishing
and survival. Guest workshop facilitator and co-collaborator, photo-journalist Rita Leistner will join us in the dialogue and offerings.
The Edward Curtis Project was a co-commission for award winning Métis/Dené playwright Marie Clements and noted Canadian
photojournalist Rita Leistner who embarked on a three year journey of discovery revisiting the landscapes and First Nations
communities that photographer Edward S. Curtis “documented” one hundred years earlier in his iconic work for The North American Indian.
Their investigation culminated in a multi-disciplinary collaboration of theatre and visual art which called upon the spirit of Edward Curtis
in a dialogue that re-contextualizes
his work in the light of contemporary cultural themes and values.
www.edwardcurtisproject.ca
Marie Clements is one of the most important makers of theatre and film in the indigenous world today.
A Métis artist from Vancouver, she is an award-winning performer, playwright, screenwriter, director, producer
and founding artistic director of urban ink productions and co-artistic director of red diva projects.
Her most recent play as writer and director was The Edward Curtis Project which premiered as a part of the Cultural Olympiad 2010.
This piece was a collaboration with photographer Rita Leistner, and their approach informs this three-day workshop on vanishing and survival,
rites of text and embodiment, design as environment and character.
Supported by Canada Council for the Arts.
Marie Clements
Rita Leistner
www.indigeneity.net
Presented by Border Crossings Laboratory and 'Indigeneity in the Contemporary World: Performance, Politics, Belonging' ERC project (Royal Holloway, University of London)
29 June – 1 July, 10am – 5pm,
Centre for Creative Collaboration , Acton Street WC1
£150 (£80 concs) for all three days.
To apply for a place on the workshop, please fill out the form below.
We will contact you to let you know if your booking has been accepted, and to arrange payment.
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