A Little Grief (goes a long way)
A Performance Chapbook
A Little Grief was a collaboration based on poems written by Stephen Johnson and paintings by Lauren McKinley Renzetti. It was a memorial to the death of their fathers, as well as an exploration of the ways in which words, paintings, movement, sound, and character work might be integrated in the expression of grief in performance. For this production, approximately fifty canvases by the artist, from a series entitled eyedeas, were arrayed on stage.The three performers, Vern Gonsalves, Jennifer Johnson, and Richard Trevor-Williams, were involved throughout the rehearsal process in selecting and arranging the paintings, engaging with them, moving through and with them, in order to establish an appropriate setting for each character’s expression of grief. Sometimes the paintings were arranged in steep perspective, sometimes in a full-frontal collage; and sometimes the actors focussed on one painting, as if it was the visual manifestation, or illustration of the event. In one case, the poem was discarded altogether, and its ideas explored in a dance-with-painting. Sound was created by Simon Wood wherever he felt it would appropriately serve the explorations he observed on the stage–silences were his decision as well.
A chapbook including poems and images was created for the production–but the production itself was in effect a performance chapbook. It was dedicated to our fathers. Following are excerpts from the word-text, with images of the paintings, and photographs and video of the performance. Sound underscores the presentation of each text.
Words and Co-direction: Stephen Johnson
Movement and Co-direction: Jennifer Johnson
Performer Collaborators: Vern Gonsalves, Jennifer Johnson, Richard Trevor-Williams
Paintings and Set Design: Lauren McKinley Renzetti
Sound Design: Simon Wood
Stage Management: Luisa Fragale
First created for the Festival of Original Theatre, Toronto, April 1999.
Handmade Performance crafts new performance from old words, using movement, voice, music, design, and character in equal measure to explore the written word. For more, see the Homepage.
To read the text, view images, and hear sound from the show, please click the button below:
A chapbook including poems and images was created for the production–but the production itself was in effect a performance chapbook. It was dedicated to our fathers. Following are excerpts from the word-text, with images of the paintings, and photographs and video of the performance. Sound underscores the presentation of each text.
Words and Co-direction: Stephen Johnson
Movement and Co-direction: Jennifer Johnson
Performer Collaborators: Vern Gonsalves, Jennifer Johnson, Richard Trevor-Williams
Paintings and Set Design: Lauren McKinley Renzetti
Sound Design: Simon Wood
Stage Management: Luisa Fragale
First created for the Festival of Original Theatre, Toronto, April 1999.
Handmade Performance crafts new performance from old words, using movement, voice, music, design, and character in equal measure to explore the written word. For more, see the Homepage.
To read the text, view images, and hear sound from the show, please click the button below: