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Navigating Your Own Theatre Adventure with “Tracks”

The ambulatory theatre project Tracks by playwright Mac Brock (Vena Amoris Projects), was set to close out the Off Season of Fringe Theatre Adventures (FTA) but with stages going dark, “My gut instinct was to hold the show until later,” admits Brock. Instead, the show’s director, Beth Dart, stepped in and proposed an alternative. “[Beth] is the type of person to see any obstacle as an opportunity to do something that we’ve never tried before... which is exactly what this moment needs.”

With unwavering support from his team and FTA, Brock and his ensemble were left to ask what they could do in the situation that they wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. The result is a reimagined version of Tracks that allows the audience to experience the show from the comfort of their own homes, without sacrificing the intimate nature of the project.

In the production’s original incarnation, audiences would have explored the backstage and hidden spaces of the ATB Arts Barns, encountering stories along the way. With the audience choosing their own path as a key component in the show, the team needed to find a way to impart the same participatory ability online. Brock and Dart approached technical designer Bradley King with a wild set of ideas, and together they worked their magic. “A week later, he brings back this new web application he built that allows us to host different live streams from our performers’ homes, and direct the audience in real time to different parts of the website where they have choices on where they go and what they see,” says Brock. “It also has interactive functions to connect with the performers in real time while they’re performing live.”

Performance artist NUIBOI at home, setting up for Tracks. Photo supplied.

This tenacity and ingenuity was embraced by every person involved, fostering new skills and storytelling techniques. With the cast performing from their own homes, design packages were sent to each performer to build their own “mini stage” – lighting, sound equipment, microphones, full painted backdrops. “They’re creators, performers, and now they’re designers, technicians, stage managers – it’s ludicrous!” exclaims Brock. “It shows off how much artists like this are built for times like these. We have a team of people who are adaptable and never see a problem as a wall. They see it as a new opportunity to learn something they didn’t know how to do before. We’re going to get to the other side as a team of 20 artists who are all armed with new technical knowledge. It has been inspiring and humbling.”

At its core, Tracks is a show about stories. Originally workshopped at NextFest in 2018, the show came from a period in Brock’s life where he was struggling to find value in his stories and himself. That production grappled with how we assign value to our work and explored the process of putting something out into the world, without constantly wondering if it’s enough. That story is still at the heart of the production; the audience will see Brock’s story from start to finish, and at various points will be able to go off and witness a performer’s individual version of that story.

Different home set-ups for Tracks. Photos supplied.

The performers’ narratives provide a range of voices and perspectives on identity. Tackling race, gender, ability, and sexuality, every story is unique, vulnerable, and intimate, “They are stories that I think a lot of people feel they need to hear and see more of.” Stories are shared through varying performace styles (music, movement, comedy, etc.) allowing the performers to create in a way that's authentically them. “We found intimacy in performers sharing their own stories from their own spaces and hope that it allows audience members to leave the experience exploring what stories they have chosen not to share, or have chosen not to see value in.”

Moving the project online also opened a larger discussion around accessibility. “This project is now available to audiences who couldn't enjoy it as an ambulatory show and opens us up to an even broader audience. We would like to see this continuing long after this situation has changed, and we are able to all get back into stages.”

Hayley Moorhouse in Tracks. Photo supplied.

With cost being a barrier for many people right now, the decision was made to sell tickets using a sliding scale, which includes a zero-dollar price point. Patrons can decide what they contribute – including the option to buy a ticket for a higher price than normal. According to Brock, “this system has allowed us to offer tickets when finances could be a barrier to attending the show, while still being able to support and fairly compensate our artists while there’s very little work.” Tickets been selling fast to local theatre-lovers, but also to people outside of Edmonton and Alberta. For Brock who is born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, he considers it a great gift to be able to share such a deeply personal work with his friends and family back home. “All of us cannot wait to create for live audiences again, but I hope that this experience has shown that there is a different way to be live and accessible for an audience.”

Tracks runs May 19 - 24, starring Asia Bowman, Mac Brock, Fatmi El Fassi El Fihri, Anthony Hunchak, Moses Kouyaté, Marguerite Lawler, Hayley Moorhouse, NIUBOI, and Mustafa Rafiq. You can purchase your tickets here.

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Life Stage (The Blurred Line Between Art & Life) at Sushi Performance and Visual Art, July 26-28, 2002. This event was a three-day multidisciplinary exposition of visual and performing art by over a hundred individuals and artists exploring the boundaries of a Life Stage. Attendees of all disciplines were also invited to share their life and work through exhibition, performance, and demonstration. Our expectations of art, and artists, were (at least in the context of the event) open to interpretation and investigation. We were all actors on stage performing our story and creating new experiences in the context of a living theater. In many ways Life Stage was inspired by Fluxus, and various elements of Burning Man. #ericwongprojects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #arthappenings #socalartist #experimentaltheatre #experimentaltheater #fluxusart #alankaprow #poetic #poetry #poetsofinstagram #poetryinmotion #poetrycommunity #instapoetry #poetryofinstagram #poetryisnotdead #poetryporn #poetrylovers #poetsworld #poetsofinstagram #instapoets #bayareaart #performanceart #documenta #avanttheater #experimentalart #offbroadway #socialsculpture #livingart #performa #socialpracticeart https://www.instagram.com/p/B58c3A9pjsZ/?igshid=1fmm797euh2k9