Three Weeks In

Three weeks into this residency and things are taking off!

I have spent the past several weeks working on the structure and content of Night Sweats. The work now has a solid outline, separated into fourteen sections, ranging from 1 - 6 minutes in estimated length. I have also brought on board Haydon Wilson as director, Samantha Maclean as dramaturge, Steve Berrick as stage designer, Nathalie Pavlovic as sound designer/composer and Frances Barbe and Andrea Gibbs as mentors in movement and storytelling. I am incredibly excited and honoured to be working with this team of amazing creatives, and can't wait to see what these collaborations will bring. Working with Haydon and Samantha, I have developed a description of the work, as follows:

Tickets for the sleep train are worthless if you’re late to the station. Endure an evening with an insomniac, and examine what’s keeping them up for yet another sleepless night. A veritable feast of storytelling, song and visual magic, Night Sweats is one man’s ode to the witching hour.

Moving forward from here, I aim to have a completed draft of the written component of the work in the next week, and then draft choreography complete by mid-August. At that point, I will begin working in earnest with Haydon and Samantha, as well as Andrea and Frances, detailing and tightening the work.

It feels like something is happening. It feels like the beginning of something great.

I have been researching and thinking a lot about sleep and sleep deprivation, as well as ideas surrounding mortality and immortality - how can a human being be made into a god? Are the ways in which our lives are remembered more important that the reality of our mortal existence, and how can we shape our own legacy?

The performed character in the work is beginning to take shape also, remaining as 'Unnamed Man,' but starting to develop a physical form and aesthetic. Haydon and I completed a photoshoot, drawing inspiration from fashion editorial, clown and art - some of the results can be seen below.