Key of Three /// Integrating the Arts: Legacies of the Past Portals to the Future.

The idea came about when the Executive Director of the Port, Bruce Halliday, and Arts Council President, Rosina Solylo, pondered the question, what if we invited artists from disciplines that do not usually work with each other to come together? What would they create? How might integrating the arts spark the creative edge in Nanaimo.

Nanaimo Arts Council Manager, Odette Laramee, explains the process, “The idea is to work with three groups of three artists who practice in three different disciplines and develop three pieces that juxtapose their traditional disciplines in a new way and to create a short video of the process and excerpts of the performances.

The nine artists included painters, theatre practitioners, dancers, singers, musicians, puppeteers, etc. The three performances the groups have developed ebbed and flowed between the mythic, the political, and the sublime. Each group of artists in the 'Key of Three' played on the edges of their craft. Together they created a spectrum of possibility that invited the audience to explore the parameters of their own understanding(s)”.

“Full Circle”. Theo Massop's warm song lyrics invited the audience to experience BC 150,000,000. Shadow puppets, designed by Johanne Galipeau, revealed the delicate yet powerful mayhem of the four elements. And a mythic journey, embodied by director/writer Eliza Gardiner, was borne into a multilingual quest.

“Do Your Part”. Muralist Cecile van Woensel turned her drop sheet into a whale and became an actor. She observed Nicole Busby transform from a Black Angler Devil Fish, to seaweed, to ... into engaged citizen with the signs and symbols evoked by the rock music lyrics of Miles Morrison.

“The Narrows”, moved from the vibration of rock music to the resonance of stillness. The lighting designer, Michael Stebbings, invited the audience to participate in the creation of the ‘lightscape’ for the penetrating breath-based performance offered by percussionist Dave McGrath and dancer Holly Bright.