Today is our last day of the festival, so sadly later today we will part ways with the 16 visiting artists that we have bonded with during the seven day festival. During our time here we have had the pleasure of sharing stories and trading teaching tricks with an incredibly inspiring group of individuals/artists.
After the festival closes tonight Susanne and I will stay on to continue working with Let’s Dance, a local dance school in the HVGB area, so stay tuned for a post on this portion of our outreach and education activities later!
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| The morning view at our billet's house |
About the Festival (aka: the logistics of a committed and inspired community)
At year 39, the festival is Canada’s longest running Children’s Art Festival. Since we arrived, it has been a whirlwind of teaching, sharing stories, and experiencing the Labrador hospitality. This year the festival invited 18 artists from across Canada to share their artistry and professional practice with students from across Labrador. The range of invited artists includes theatre, puppetry and voice, singer songwriters, interactive media and music integration, visual artists, a cartoonist, a contortionist, a children’s writer, costume designer, a food writer and two dance groups! (Our friends Calla Lachance, Andrea Tucker, and Tammy MacLeod are here!)
At year 39, the festival is Canada’s longest running Children’s Art Festival. Since we arrived, it has been a whirlwind of teaching, sharing stories, and experiencing the Labrador hospitality. This year the festival invited 18 artists from across Canada to share their artistry and professional practice with students from across Labrador. The range of invited artists includes theatre, puppetry and voice, singer songwriters, interactive media and music integration, visual artists, a cartoonist, a contortionist, a children’s writer, costume designer, a food writer and two dance groups! (Our friends Calla Lachance, Andrea Tucker, and Tammy MacLeod are here!)
The festival itself is centred around the
nightly student plays which are written, directed, performed and produced by
the students themselves. Each night we pour into the Lawrence O’Brien Art
Centre to witness the hard work, dedication, and the inspired imaginations from
students up and down the Labrador coast. The students prepare their plays in
September-October, and they also fundraise and/or get assistance from the
festival to travel to Happy Valley-Goose Bay to perform their plays and take
part in the workshops and festival experience.
In the daytime the artists are busy
teaching workshops at the local schools, for the various adult and education centres, and for
schools in the surrounding communities. We were also teaching workshops at the
community North Cross Church (the larger rental venue) for the visiting coastal
students who are in town sharing their plays –
these students are also billeted around the town, therefore they really get to share in a
full community experience making new friends with the other kids and families in the
town.
The festival also prioritizes giving
accessibility to the arts for all Labrador students by providing workshops up
and down the coast for those who can’t make it to Happy Valley. Some of the
lucky visiting artists get to the remote coastal communities to deliver their workshops, stay the night or fly back in time to see the
nightly plays. The coastal communities who participated this year include: Nain, Hopedale, Makkovik, Postville, Rigolet, Cartwright, Black Tickle, Port Hope, and Mary's Harbour.
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| Map of Labrador |
Behind all these logistics is the Labrador
Creative Arts Festival committee and a community army of volunteers. Volunteers
drive the artists to all the different regions in “the big land” of Labrador,
volunteers to make lunches, to billet the visiting artists and coastal
students, fundraise, and volunteers are in the theatre to support the students
backstage so that the “heart of the festival” – the student plays can be
shared with the community on a nightly basis.
My Festival Reflection (aka: my attempt to articulate the open heart)
The theme for the 39th Labrador
Creative Arts Festival is Communication. The students presented their community
school plays centred around this tying theme, and each night Susanne and I
witnessed truly wonderful stories, interpretations, and reflections of how
communication and communication devices effect their daily lives and world
around them.
You could tell it was comforting for the
students to be on stage talking about the positive and negatives of social
media and texting. This topic is ripe in their minds and is a key driver in the
teenage tool for communication.
Yet ironically, in contrast to my accessibility, these students are coming from tiny schools where the student population range is 2 students to 60 (no exaggeration here), from communities with limited road and internet access, and where flying in and out is the only means for communication with the outside world. So the range and intimacy of their perspective was incredibly heart warming. Honestly though, I am somewhat envious of the space and pace that this situation fosters in both the people and their artful reflections. The Labradoreans really have mastered the zen quality of “ma”.
Yet ironically, in contrast to my accessibility, these students are coming from tiny schools where the student population range is 2 students to 60 (no exaggeration here), from communities with limited road and internet access, and where flying in and out is the only means for communication with the outside world. So the range and intimacy of their perspective was incredibly heart warming. Honestly though, I am somewhat envious of the space and pace that this situation fosters in both the people and their artful reflections. The Labradoreans really have mastered the zen quality of “ma”.
Seeing the students work on stage together
was also incredibly powerful to witness.
The people of Labrador are especially grounded, “serving it with nothing
added,” understated, open-hearted, and are extremely exceptionally when it comes
to just being yourself.
On top of this, the plays’ presentation or performance styles all have a special sense of family or community about them. There is a natural wild and naive spirit that dances alongside the students as they perform their plays. It is a spirit that can’t be rehearsed no matter how skilful one may be at drama, yet it is still extremely evident due to the reality that the students have known each other their whole lives, or they likely are a cousin of someone on the stage with them, or a whole family for that matter - literally and metaphorically, it is a spirit that only the culture and the landscape of “the big land” can foster.
I am incredibly thankful to have witnessed such tender and introspective student plays.
On top of this, the plays’ presentation or performance styles all have a special sense of family or community about them. There is a natural wild and naive spirit that dances alongside the students as they perform their plays. It is a spirit that can’t be rehearsed no matter how skilful one may be at drama, yet it is still extremely evident due to the reality that the students have known each other their whole lives, or they likely are a cousin of someone on the stage with them, or a whole family for that matter - literally and metaphorically, it is a spirit that only the culture and the landscape of “the big land” can foster.
I am incredibly thankful to have witnessed such tender and introspective student plays.
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~Sara
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