Our winter project is compiling a portfolio of past work. This will include media clippings, interesting bits of archives, reviews and photos. Tonight Seb and I sat down to go through the photos and pick the top 5 for each show. It has caused some major flashbacks!
The photos from Alice in Wonderland were the funniest. This show was a remarkable undertaking. We produced it in the summer of 2005 and it was our second outdoor show. To give you an idea of how ambitious we were here’s a photo of the cast and crew
Can you believe how many people were involved in this show! I have so many amazing memories from this production. It took place in the Finnerty Gardens at UVic and we only kind of had permission to be there. I don’t remember the details, only that I was 20 and didn’t entirely understand exactly that you couldn’t just put on a play anywhere. Ah, the naivety of youth. The whole process was a big, hilarious gong show fueled by passion. We made lots of mistakes – realizing that starting an outdoor show at 8pm was going to result in no sunlight for 90% of the show and having to light the whole thing with open flame torches (beautiful actually), finding out at midnight that the paper mache masks were left in a bush and having to go up to the park in the pitch black, hunt through the garden and fish them out, agreeing to build all of the costumes myself and very quickly regretting it deeply resulting in massive all night sewing parties involving the entire cast and crew. So much learning. It was the poster boy production for learning on your feet. And here’s the craziest thing – this show garnered fantastic reviews and played to sold out audiences every night. Out of this production ITSAZOO developed relationships that have been vital to today. The groundwork was laid and blue prints were drawn up for what we do today. I am so glad that we have never been afraid to take risks and make mistakes because the results are so often amazing. If you’re curious, here’s a bit of a look back at that production:
