Facilitator – Peter Hinton

Attending Directors are:

Kathleen Duborg
Mindy Parfitt
Cameron Mackenzie
Nicole Rousseau
Krista Jackson

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The 2014 Directors’ Lab was geared specifically towards Vancouver-based emerging directors who want to get rigorous with the foundations of their craft, unhindered by production and scenographic considerations. Using an established text as a working model, the Lab focused on the director’s preparation process, early stages of rehearsal and assessment and critique of the work. Over five days, participants discussed principles of directing, examined and analyzed a text, rehearsed scenes with an ensemble of actors and reflected on the processes.

This new iteration of Directors’ Lab is an exciting component of Rumble’s Mentorship Program, designed to catalyze relationships between emerging and established artists and facilitate young artists’ transition to a professional career.

Lab facilitator Ron Jenkins is an Edmonton-based director and two-time Siminovitch Prize nominee. Ron has been the Artistic Director of Shadow Theatre, Fringe Theatre Adventures, and Workshop West, and is a founding member of Skid Theatre and November Theatre. He has directed at the Citadel, ATP, Vertigo, Tarragon, Factory, Passe Muraille, LKTYP, MTYP, GCTC, Concrete, Ghost River, the Cultch, Theatre Calgary, Belfry, Vancouver Playhouse, and Off-Broadway in NYC. Ron has won ten Sterling Awards as a director and playwright and the Betty Mitchell Award for Direction. He is also the winner of the 2004 Syncrude Award for Artistic Innovation.

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Entitled “Directing from the Inside > Out”, the Lab focused on adapting autobiographical material and found texts into performance. The masterclass explored the integration of narrative and counter narrative and the adaptive cohesion of dramaturgical form in the creation of new works, and included discussions with guest artists around dramaturgy, design, and defining one’s audience. We were also fortunate to have Registered Clinical Counsellor (and former theatre artist) Tanya Podlozniuk join us for the week to assist participants with the process of working with difficult material. 

The guiding questions for this year’s masterclass were: 

1) Building Content: How do you build performance from autobiographical / biographical material and/or lived experience? 

2) Finding Form: How does this content become structured into compelling performance and navigate larger concepts and broader questions? 

3) Entering Dialogue: How do form and content come together through direction, with considerations of design and production elements, and become a full performance with a consciousness of intended audience? 

About Our Masterclass Leader: Maiko Yamamoto

Since 2003, Maiko has been an Artistic Director of Theatre Replacement, a company she formed with fellow artist James Long. The company’s work has focused on building new, experimental and intercultural performances that react to contemporary existence through a highly evolved and extended process of collaboration, and explores unique and challenging ways of using content and staging material. In addition to her work with T/R, Maiko directs, writes, teaches, mentors and creates contemporary performance for and with a diverse range of companies and institutions, including the National Theatre School, Company 605, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the MAKE Artists Residency in Ireland, among others. She holds a BFA in Theatre from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and a MAA in Visual Art from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. theatrereplacement.org 

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Rumble Theatre was pleased to present the sixth installment of Directorsʼ Lab, led by celebrated Canadian director Weyni Mengesha. Directors’ Lab is an integral component of Rumble’s Mentorship Program, designed to catalyze relationships between emerging and established artists and facilitate young artists’ transition to a professional career.

The Lab is a workshop for emerging directors who want to get rigorous with the foundations of their craft. Over five days, the participants discussed principles of directing, examined and analyzed a text, rehearsed scenes with professional actors, and reflected on the processes. They also learned more about the designer-director relationship during sessions with some veteran Vancouver designers.

Master Director Weyni Mengesha
Weyni Mengesha started her career directing ’da Kink in my Hair, helping build it into an international sensation, and composing its Dora-nominated score. The show went on to make history, selling out some of the largest houses in the country. Some of her other directing credits include: Father Comes Home from the Wars by Suzan-Lori Parks (Soulpepper Theatre), which won Outstanding Production at the 2017 Dora Awards; Butcher by Nicolas Billion (Why Not Theatre), which won Best Direction at the 2016 Doras; Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (Soulpepper), which received six Dora nominations in 2010; and, in 2011, Kim’s Convenience by Ins Choi (Soulpepper), which broke box office records, won two Toronto Critic Awards (including best new play), and is now a hit CBC TV show. Weyni is also a committed mentor of new talent. She has been the co-director of the acclaimed AMY (Artists Mentoring Youth) Project, training young women in performance arts since 2005, and she continues to guest teach at acting training programs across the country, including The National Theatre School of Canada.

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Master Director Kim Collier
Kim is a director, creator, teacher, actress and the co-founder of Electric Company Theatre where she was Artistic Producer for 15 years. The last few years she was Resident Artist at Canadian Stage Theatre and the inaugural director of their new MFA in Directing with York University. Recently she directed a new interpretation of Sweeney Todd for Vancouver Opera, Saint Joan (Arts Club Theatre), The Great Gatsby (Theatre Calgary), and Hamlet (Bard on the Beach). With Electric Company she was the co-creator / director of a large body of work including: Tear The Curtain (a film / theatre hybrid), No Exit (Jean Paul Sartre’s play transformed into a live film theatre experience) and Studies in Motion. She also directed a film version of their play The Score with Screen Siren Pictures and CBC. Kim was honored to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Letters last June from Thompson Rivers University. She is the recipient of the prestigious Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize for Directing, four Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards for Direction, and (with Electric Company) five for Outstanding Production, three for co-writing, and numerous Innovation Awards. She is the recipient of the Vancouver Mayors Arts Award and is a graduate of Studio 58 as an actress.

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