What's the project?
JOAN is a new play written by Theatre SKAM's artistic producer Matthew Payne about his best friendship with local arts maven Joan Mans. The show has been in development for some time, and thanks to the Victoria Foundation, will soon be ready for a full preview in April 2014.
The preview runs at the Metro Studio Theatre (1411 Quadra Street), April 18 & 19 at 8 PM and April 20 at 2 PM.
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“A celebrated — and slightly notorious — figure in this city’s close-knit cultural scene.”
– Adrian Chamberlain, Times Colonist, Victoria
For over thirty years, Joan Mans attended arts happenings in the capital, sometimes from morning until night, finishing her evening most nights at Swan’s Pub dancing to live music.
She developed quite an eye for great theatre and an ear for excellent music. In 1997, enthralled with our outdoor back-alley production of Zastrozzi, she made a donation to SKAM to pay for the 50 army blankets we'd provided for the audience. These same army blankets are still used at SKAM shows today.
The play has gone through a lengthy development process, as SKAM worked closely with Oak Bay Lodge, The Belfry Theatre, and The Banff Centre; Canada’s Creative Leader in Arts and Culture. A reading at the Belfry Theatre in March of 2012 was successful and built buzz for the show's eventual debut.
In its current
form, Joan is a biography of Joan from the outside,
with Matthew-Payne-as-himself attempting to discover the hidden details of
her life. Projections, recordings and re-enactments examine the
truth of Joan Mans and question the reliability of memory. Jan Wood
and Lynda Raino play twinned representations of Joan – but
sometimes Matthew is Joan and Jan and Lynda are
Matthew’s college buddies. At one point they all wear goldfish
heads. (Hey, it wouldn’t be a SKAM show without a few fun
surprises.)
Who are we?
Theatre SKAM is Victoria's leading alternative theatre company. For nearly 20 years, SKAM has created varied and provocative theatrical entertainment -- at home and abroad -- that is innovative, entertaining, and above all... never boring.
In 2013, we presented a solo show about fatherhood. We created a new venue for Victoria artists. We staged the world premiere of a musical on the back of our new Mobile Performance Venue:
We h
osted the 5th incarnation of our annual theatre festival Bike Ride, where the audience rides bikes to over a dozen short, multi-disciplinary performances from local and national companies:We gave kids from six local elementary schools the chance to turn a gallery audience's outfits into entirely new, wearable art:And we doubled our annual operating budget.
Theatre SKAM is mandated to create a living, contemporary, professional theatre, and to employ emerging theatre artists while we do it. You can check out more information about our past and future projects at SKAM.ca.
Who are you?
You are a fan of theatre. You take pride in supporting the arts and emerging artists within Canada. You are excited about this project and either hope to see it in Victoria during its preview run, or want to help build up a strong preview that will heighten the prospects of a future touring run that will bring the show to you in years to come. May we just say, you are also very handsome.
What will happen?
Theatre SKAM has a proven track record for ambitious, intimate, and unique projects like this one.
“Theatre as it should be. Current, confrontational and provocative.”
– Victoria News Group
“Whatever Theatre SKAM touches seems to turn to theatrical gold.”
– Jon Kaplan, NOW Magazine
Adding to a significant contribution made by the Victoria Foundation, your investment will go towards paying the actors, production team, designers, venue hosts, and administrative staff necessary to make this project possible.
JOAN features an extensively integrated multimedia component, with video clips and photographs of Joan Mans and her fascinating life projected across the stage in a surprising and clever variety of ways. Your contribution will help support the purchase and installation of the equipment necessary for this ambitious undertaking, and allow Theatre SKAM to enhance its shows with exciting multimedia for years to come.
Throughout the process, we'll keep our funders -- that's you -- in the loop about the production process, with behind-the-scenes text and video updates as we prepare for the show's premiere. And all IndieGoGo contributors will be thanked personally on our website and on display at the performance venue.
How else can I help?
We'd appreciate it if you would Like and Share
our page on Facebook, follow us
on Twitter, and most importantly, tell your friends! Even if you can't contribute to this IndieGoGo campaign -- or can only contribute a little -- it would be a tremendous help for you to bring people to the project page who want to support innovative, entertaining, and unique Canadian theatre. Plus, have we mentioned just how handsome you look today?
Thank you for your interest, your time, and your generosity.
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--Theatre SKAM
