
WHAT SHE BURNED
An album pressed onto an x-ray plays the last sounds and conversation she heard. A young woman and her doll go to the wood to seek what her family demands. On returning, she brings with her a choking fire. Through Slavic folktales by Alexander Afansyev, this sonic experience tasks its solitary audience into the woods to witness performance around a spinning vinyl record.
During the Cold War, "Rock on Bones" or "Ribs" was a technique used to record and trade banned music across Iron Curtain. Taking discarded x-rays from trash bins of hospitals, the records were cut using stolen recording devices from Germany during the war. It was called ribs because many of the x-rays were of lungs from the tuberculosis outbreak at the time. With vinyl sales controlled by the state, the flimsy x-ray film was ideal for its availability and ability to be hidden in sleeves. The process of printing "Ribs" caused the record to have deteriorating sound quality after the first play. Knowing each play depreciates the performance, we hope to capture the vital essence of live theatre through organic erosion. This has been imperfectly synthesized in our piece as an act of theatre.
WHAT SHE BURNED experiments with is the spirit of oral tradition. Passing the work to each creator along a path with little contact between. Our story is narrated by the eternally captivating Glynnis Ranney, seasoned performer at Shaw and Stratford Festival of Canada. Captured and scored by Richard Lam, performer and rock artist. The recorded performance is enhanced by augmented movement and digital video team. Clarke Blair, choreographer and movement director, is a graduate of CCDT and University of Toronto, BSc in neuroscience and cell biology. Performed by dancer Macayla Paris. Taking the physicality and creating a projected reality, projection designer Cameron Fraser joins from Vancouver, British Columbia. Produced by Arkady Spivak. Original production management by Jeff Braunstein and technical direction by Aaron Grandy, we teamed up with Red Spade Records (The “Queen of Bones”) to create these lathe cuttings. Where each skill fades into the next, little changes in our tale along its journey, is what theatre tradition is. Thank you for coming to our story. How will you hold it now that it is yours?