I saw the most incredibly bold and inspiring solo production of Hamlet last night at the Uno festival in Victoria.
I can’t think of anything more artistically frightening and challenging than performing a solo show, except performing a solo show of the greatest play by the most brilliant playwright. Raoul Bhaneja performed it like a poetic warrior. Amazing!
It was just the thing I needed to see, while I’m in process of writing my own solo peice. I’m realizing that even though I no longer work with a mining company, I still maintain the business of digging for gold; the literary variation. I’m taking myself places I thought I’ve been to before, places I didn’t know existed, and places I dare not return to, all the while making new discoveries and coming upon deeper understandings of my humanity. I’m transitioning now from a phase of thinking, ‘Who is going to care about witnessing this story?” to “Hey, this is my story. I wonder what would happen if I told it.”
I’m so thankful to Intrepid Theatre for putting on the Uno Festival and giving our island community another opportunity to share in the beautiful art of storytelling. Check out the shows at the Uno Festival!
Janice Performing Arts
Today I had a glorious dayfor several reasons, starting with my morning. I woke up before 5:00am to the emerging sounds of the bright sunny morning; birds chirpping and zero traffic. I decided to walk down to Cobs bakery and fetch a mini-loaf and I was happy to take time to get acquainted with the neighbourhood at the bottom of Dunbar hill. I rediscovered the joy of taking an early morning stroll and freshly baked bread for breakfast. A bit reminiscent of mornings when I walked the Camino in Spain. Another highlight to my day was meeting up with my former co-workers at Peak Gold. I got the most lovely card with a sassy pair of cuff links…and was even sent home with a delicious chocolate cake! Yum!
The sun was incredible! I have never felt so sun-deprived anywhere as I have living through a winter in Vancouver. I may need to make my residence in this city seasonal…for summer only. To remedy my vitamin D deficiency, I sat on a blanket with Yumi under the sun whilst processing our shared state of artistic unemployment. After talking a bit about various options within the Vancouver Arts community, she shared a comment made by an established theatrical actor and hollywood celebrity. After approaching two professional theatre companies in Vancouver with a request to work as an actor and a willingness to take any role, only to be turned away, the seasoned actor said that the Vancouver Theatre scene is more difficult to break into than the Los Angeles film scene. This is the sorry state of the theatre Vancouver theatre scene…and so we moved onto more optimistic perspectives - like all the other artistic endeavours we are also excited about.
I showed her the greeting card that I got earlier that day and said, “See this. I can do this.” And I went home and selected all my greeting card ready photos. Touched up, cropped, tuned and sent them for printing. In a few days, I’ll have greeting cards to sell. I know that by the way I’ve written it here is can easily sound as if making greeting cards is a meantime thing, but I’ve actually had it on my mind to do for many years. For whatever reason, today I just decided that I was ready to do something with the idea. I’ll sell them individually and in little mixed bundles. I’ve also been a long time collector of poetic and inspirational quotes, and sometimes will come up with my own verse. So designing greeting cards feels like a great opportunity to marry my love of images and words. Even though e-cards are animated and less expensive, I’m still a fan of mailing a card. There is something about holding the sentiment in the hand that I feel has a special value to it.
So if you’re one who likes to keep cards on stock for the uexpected or nearly forgotten occassion, keep Jea’s cards in mind. I’ll post here when the first batch is ready.
Janice Uncategorized
