solo series sponsor CAGE CREATED BY DIEGO MATAMOROS, LORENZO SAVOINI, & RICHARD FEREN }{ generously supported by: the Drummond-Dorrance Family Artistic Development Fund & the Garland imagination Fund & BMO Financial Group approximate running time: 70 minutes there will be no intermission ARTIST NOTE: LORENZO SAVOINI Before stepping into a theatre together, Diego Matamoros, Richard Feren, and I spent some time at the zoo, an unconventional but critical part of the process that informed our point of departure. It was there, watching the beautiful gorillas behind metal and glass, that cage as a metaphor began to come into focus. We began to see cages everywhere. The most fascinating to us was the human cage. Outside of us is the objective reality of our physical world that is bound by time, space, and matter, and inside of us exists a limitless subjective reality filled with the potential of our imaginations. Between these two realities exists a tension that is central to our exploration. Inspired by apes, Zen Buddhism and the ideas of avant-garde composer John Cage, we have created an experimental meditation on space, time, memory, and the human animal. Our goal was to create something that was the result of chance encounters between various disciplines that would be governed by a structure, with all three of us active performers (though to different degrees). Space, themes, objects, text, performance, lighting, video projection, and sound were all equal participants intersecting and juxtaposing one another as they created an abstract collage of experience. We were interested in something that existed somewhere between the accidental and the intentional. We are making something that is a meeting place between performance art and theatre and it is an artistic expression that requires you, the audience, to bring your imagination and interpretation to complete it. It is my sincere hope that Cage is a work that awakens your senses and frees your mind. We welcome you to our meditation. LORENZO SAVOINI, Young Family Director of Design & Co-Creator of Cage. SEE CAGE IN NEW YORK CITY! Join us in July for Soulpepper on 42nd St: Canada Crosses the Border diego matamoros. photo: Lorenzo Savoini.
ARTISTS CAGE Diego Matamoros, Lorenzo Savoini, Richard Feren Co-Creators Diego Matamors Performer & Writer Lorenzo Savoini Production Designer Richard Feren Composer & Sound Designer Shannon Litzenberger Choreography Kelly McEvenue Alexander Coach Andrew Leeke Technical Director Sarah Noyes Head of Wardrobe Lisa Nighswander Head of Properties Paul Boddum Head Scenic Artist Robert Harding Production Stage Manager Arwen MacDonell Stage Manager DIEGO MATAMOROS. PHOTO: LORENZO SAVOINI
BACKGROUND NOTES Diego Matamoros, Lorenzo Savoini, and Richard Feren are the creators of this work, but the spirit and playful methods to say nothing of the last name of American composer John Cage provided inspiration for their examinations. Cage himself once said he wished critics could be introducers, writing about his music with a view to helping audiences understand its meaning and intention. Please consider this note to be Cage s introducer. Allow us to present to you an original piece on a stage in a theatre that is not a traditional play and is not driven by traditional narrative. Designed to be an experience rather than a story, it might help you to know that, along with Mr. Cage s investigations, these artists were inspired by some of the guiding principles of Zen Buddhism: Do one thing at a time. Do it slowly and deliberately. Do it completely. Do less. Another strong influence is the creators fascination with happenings. These interdisciplinary events were a dynamic part of the performance art movement of the 60 s in New York City. Poetry, painting, music and dance were combined and staged as live action. The audience was a vital element in these events, adding a final element of chance and randomness to the proceedings. A happening had the possibility to evolve and change with its audience and, ideally, to give each spectator a unique encounter, with the content, with the artists, with themselves. All three of these points of departure Zen, John Cage, and happenings make questions and questioning central to any endeavour. Some questions the creators asked here were: Is life in my head or out there in the world? Am I trapped in this theatre? Am I trapped by what I think and believe? So imagine a considered improvisation, a laboratory environment designed for discovery, multiple layers of visual, aural and intellectual stimulation. Imagine a meeting between performance art and theatre. Let go of your expectations. Allow this piece to wash over you. See you on the other side. Background Notes by 2017 Soulpepper Resident Artist Paula Wing
BIOGRAPHIES CAGE RICHARD FEREN born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. SOULPEPPER 2017: Music/Sound Designer: Cage. FOR SOULPEPPER: (Selected) Music/Sound Designer: A Doll s House, The Testament Of Mary, The Dybbuk, Twelve Angry Men, Angels in America, Endgame, Uncle Vanya. OTHER THEATRE: Unholy (Nightwood); TomorrowLove (Outside The March); The Magic Hour (Theatre Centre); The Body Politic (Lemontree Creations); 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (Kidoons/Wyrd Productions); The Other Place (Canadian Stage); Life, Death & the Blues (Passe Muraille); Arigato Tokyo, The Maids, Blasted (Buddies). FILM & TELEVISION: Past Perfect; Possible Worlds; A Trip To The Island; The Anniversary; numerous shorts. OTHER: Seven Dora Awards; 1999 Pauline McGibbon Award; shortlisted for 2012 Siminovitch Prize. ROBERT HARDING born and raised in Lewisporte, Newfoundland. SOULPEPPER 2017: Production Stage Manager: Cage. Stage Manager: Of Human Bondage, Spoon River. FOR SOULPEPPER: It s a Wonderful Life, The 39 Steps, The Odd Couple, The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine, Marat/Sade, The Dybbuk, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Spoon River, Of Human Bondage, The Norman Conquests, The Barber of Seville. OTHER THEATRE: Once On This Island (Acting Up Stage/Obsidian); The Best Brothers, Communion, A Beautiful View, How it Works, Past Perfect (Tarragon); Stuff Happens (Studio 180/Mirvish); Parade (Acting Up Stage/Studio 180); Divisadero: A Performance, This Is What Happens Next (Necessary Angel). SHANNON LITZENBERGER born and raised in Melville, SK. RESIDENT DANCE ARTIST, SOULPEPPER 2017: Choreographer: Cage. OTHER THEATRE: Artistic Director, Shannon Litzenberger Contemporary Dance. Choreography: World After Dark (in development), Everyday Marvels (Gardiner Museum, Nuit Blanche, Guelph Dance), HOMEbody lessons in prairie living (Danceworks), The Den (dance: made in Canada). Performance (selected): petites danses (Chartier Danse), HOMEbody (SLDC), From Thine Eyes (Signal Theatre), Fleshed Out (Pressault Danse), Pimooteewin (Soundstreams), Dead Philosopher s Limbo (Susie Burpee), missing (Heidi Strauss), Sculpting Time (David Earle), The Left Seed (DA Hoskins). OTHER: Jack McAllister Award for Accomplishment in Dance.
ARWEN MACDONELL SOULPEPPER 2017: Stage Manager: Cage. FOR SOULPEPPER: Production Stage Manager: A Christmas Carol, Parfumerie, Angels in America, Loot, Awake and Sing! Stage Manager: Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts I, II, III), Eurydice, A Christmas Carol, Glass Menagerie, Ghosts, Parfumerie, Salt-Water Moon, Mary Stuart, The Chairs, Phedre. OTHER THEATRE: Persee, Armide (Opera Atelier/ Royal Opera House, Versailles); I Claudia (Crow s/edinburgh Fringe); The Dishwashers, Fishwrap, Rune Arlidge, The Domino Heart, Side Man, The Good Life, Midnight Sun (Tarragon); The Triumph of Love, The Fellini Radio Plays (Stratford); Vida!, The Drowsy Chaperone (Mirvish). OTHER: Dedicating my work this season to my wonderful grandparents, Doctors Ása and Jack MacDonell. DIEGO MATAMOROS born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and raised in Toronto, Ontario. FOUNDING MEMBER, RESIDENT ARTIST, DRUMMOND-DORRANCE FELLOW, SOULPEPPER 2017: Cage, Spoon River. FOR SOULPEPPER: Mr. Matamoros has performed in every season since the company s inception including major roles in plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Molière, Ibsen, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, and Ferenc Molnár, among others. OTHER THEATRE: Roles in more than 50 productions for various theatres across Canada and the US. KELLY MCEVENUE born and raised in London, Ontario. RESIDENT ARTIST, SOULPEPPER 2017: Alexander Coach. FOR SOULPEPPER: (Selected) Spoon River, La Ronde, Of Human Bondage, Twelve Angry Men, Kim s Convenience. OTHER THEATRE: Stratford Shakespeare Festival & Birmingham Conservatory. The Lion King (Mirvish); The Syringa Tree (Canadian Stage). FILM & TELEVISION: Canadian Film Centre Conservatory, Triple Sensation, Terry: The Story of Terry Fox. OTHER: Faculty member of Humber College Theatre Program, teaches on Patsy Rodenburg s Voice Teacher Training Course - NYC, published book The Actor and the Alexander Technique, A&E Black Publishers, London & New York. LORENZO SAVOINI born in Thornhill, Ontario. YOUNG FAMILY DIRECTOR OF DESIGN, RESIDENT ARTIST SOULPEPPER 2017: Set & Lighting Designer: Of Human Bondage. Lighting Designer: Kim s Convenience. Co-Creator & Production Designer: Cage. FOR SOULPEPPER: Set Designer: A Doll s House, Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts I, II, III), The Odd Couple, Marat/Sade, Happy Place, The Dybbuk. Set & Costume Designer: It s A Wonderful Life, Eurydice. Set & Lighting Designer: Incident at Vichy, The Testament of Mary, Of Human Bondage (Dora Award). OTHER THEATRE: Stratford Festival, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Belfry Theatre, Neptune Theatre, COC, Canadian Stage, and many theatres across the country. OTHER: Graduate of the Soulpepper Academy.
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