Connect the Plots Mid-Summer Festival at the Strathcona Community Garden. Performer Thomas Jones as the God Lugh welcomes the crowd.
The next artist featured in our New Narratives Artist Interview Series is the incredible Tallulah Winkelman. Her answers pretty much blew us away. We’re especially excited to post this interview because of Tallulah’s connection to the Environmental Youth Alliance Wild Mind Project: the initiative that your New Narratives ticket purchase will support!
Tell us a little about yourself, your company, and your work:
Tallulah Winkelman is a Vancouver born theatre artist who has worked professionally as an actor, improvisor, playwright, theatre maker and teacher for over 20 years. Her collaborations include new improvisation formats, sketch comedy, mask, music, puppetry, site specific and environmental theatre. Twenty years ago she became a shareholder and fell in love with Fraser Common Farm Cooperative and by extension, small scale agriculture and natural food systems. Out of this interest, Theatre on Earth and it’s first production, Project Corndog, was born. Do we own the life forms we create? Do we owe them anything? Do life forms have intrinsic rights? Project Corndog travelled through the fields and forests of Fraser Common Farm following a farmer, her daughter and her daughter’s wonderfully weird creation. The play ended with a full sit down, outdoor organic meal sourced heavily from the farm and enjoyed by audience, artists and farmers alike. The conversations around the table were an integral part of the evening.
The Theatre on Earth collective has had the privilege of including many great local theatre artists. The current ensemble is made up of original members; Sarah May Redmond, Thomas Jones and Tallulah Winkelman. This year’s project Wild Mind will mark our 5th year of working together with the Environmental Youth Alliance in the Strathcona Community Garden on our Connect the Plots series. We have hosted Keys to the Streets pianos, garden music jams, the Cultch’s Ignite Youth Program and festive community gatherings.
The next artist featured in our New Narratives Artist Interview Series is the incredible Tallulah Winkelman. Her answers pretty much blew us away. We’re especially excited to post this interview because of Tallulah’s connection to the Environmental Youth Alliance Wild Mind Project: the initiative that your New Narratives ticket purchase will support!
Tell us a little about yourself, your company, and your work:
Tallulah Winkelman is a Vancouver born theatre artist who has worked professionally as an actor, improvisor, playwright, theatre maker and teacher for over 20 years. Her collaborations include new improvisation formats, sketch comedy, mask, music, puppetry, site specific and environmental theatre. Twenty years ago she became a shareholder and fell in love with Fraser Common Farm Cooperative and by extension, small scale agriculture and natural food systems. Out of this interest, Theatre on Earth and it’s first production, Project Corndog, was born. Do we own the life forms we create? Do we owe them anything? Do life forms have intrinsic rights? Project Corndog travelled through the fields and forests of Fraser Common Farm following a farmer, her daughter and her daughter’s wonderfully weird creation. The play ended with a full sit down, outdoor organic meal sourced heavily from the farm and enjoyed by audience, artists and farmers alike. The conversations around the table were an integral part of the evening.
The Theatre on Earth collective has had the privilege of including many great local theatre artists. The current ensemble is made up of original members; Sarah May Redmond, Thomas Jones and Tallulah Winkelman. This year’s project Wild Mind will mark our 5th year of working together with the Environmental Youth Alliance in the Strathcona Community Garden on our Connect the Plots series. We have hosted Keys to the Streets pianos, garden music jams, the Cultch’s Ignite Youth Program and festive community gatherings.
Theatre on Earth team up with the Cultch's Ignite Youth program to create an original site specific piece that travels through the Strathcona Community Garden.
What is the Environmental Youth Alliance Wild Mind project, and how are you involved?
The Environmental Youth Alliance’s Wild Mind Project is phase one of a succession plan for transitioning the south/east corner of the Strathcona Community Garden from a landscape dominated by Himalayan Blackberry to a wildscaped pond and forest garden that is safe, inviting and open to all. It will create habitat for a diversity of local pollinators, birds, insects and small mammals as well as a space to convene the local community that provides education and inspiration on urban re-wilding. Theatre on Earth will be working alongside Environmental Youth Alliance’s Wild Mind project as artistic collaborators. We will be gathering content and sharing our artistic practice to enhance the learning process with a wide range of school and community groups. Throughout July and August we will lead weekly workshops that encourage creative expression of the themes of the project, inviting the participants into the creative process as writers, performers and designers. Our program will culminate in a theatrical presentation at the Strathcona Community Garden Fall Fair, based on themes regarding the history of the location, the life of indigenous plants and the story of creating a place where urban and wild co-mingle.
What is the Environmental Youth Alliance Wild Mind project, and how are you involved?
The Environmental Youth Alliance’s Wild Mind Project is phase one of a succession plan for transitioning the south/east corner of the Strathcona Community Garden from a landscape dominated by Himalayan Blackberry to a wildscaped pond and forest garden that is safe, inviting and open to all. It will create habitat for a diversity of local pollinators, birds, insects and small mammals as well as a space to convene the local community that provides education and inspiration on urban re-wilding. Theatre on Earth will be working alongside Environmental Youth Alliance’s Wild Mind project as artistic collaborators. We will be gathering content and sharing our artistic practice to enhance the learning process with a wide range of school and community groups. Throughout July and August we will lead weekly workshops that encourage creative expression of the themes of the project, inviting the participants into the creative process as writers, performers and designers. Our program will culminate in a theatrical presentation at the Strathcona Community Garden Fall Fair, based on themes regarding the history of the location, the life of indigenous plants and the story of creating a place where urban and wild co-mingle.
Freidi meets her corn/dog creation for the first time. Theatre on Earth's Project Corndog @Fraser Common Farm
Is there a quote, an image, an artist, an artwork, a book etc. that currently inspires you? What is it?
Wendell Berry is an American novelist, poet, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer.His work teaches me what is possible. He is a weaver of; reverence and rebellion, art and nature, people with the land they work and eat from, as if it is all one and there is enough beauty
in the abundance of life itself to sustain us. He gives me hope that if we truly integrated with our present world we could find a balance within it. I encourage you to read (with a simple google search);
The Peace of Wild Things
For the Hog Killing
& any of the Mad Farmer Poems
Would you rather live under the sea or inside a giant balloon? Why?
Under the sea, absolutely. I would rather face my fear of the depths and encounter whatever enormous sharp-toothed cold-blooded creature I may find than to be floating in absolute isolation untethered from the earth.
Is there a quote, an image, an artist, an artwork, a book etc. that currently inspires you? What is it?
Wendell Berry is an American novelist, poet, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer.His work teaches me what is possible. He is a weaver of; reverence and rebellion, art and nature, people with the land they work and eat from, as if it is all one and there is enough beauty
in the abundance of life itself to sustain us. He gives me hope that if we truly integrated with our present world we could find a balance within it. I encourage you to read (with a simple google search);
The Peace of Wild Things
For the Hog Killing
& any of the Mad Farmer Poems
Would you rather live under the sea or inside a giant balloon? Why?
Under the sea, absolutely. I would rather face my fear of the depths and encounter whatever enormous sharp-toothed cold-blooded creature I may find than to be floating in absolute isolation untethered from the earth.
Georgia and her daughter Freidi say goodbye to the Corndog. Theatre on Earth's Project Corndog @Fraser Common Farm. Performers: Sarah May Redmond, Chloe Doucet-Winkelman and Tallulah Winkelman
Thanks so much Tallulah! We’re SO excited to see your piece in New Narratives!
For more information on the Environmental Youth Alliance Wild Mind Project (the initiative that your New Narratives ticket will support!!) visit:
http://eya.ca/project-view/wild-mind/
Thanks so much Tallulah! We’re SO excited to see your piece in New Narratives!
For more information on the Environmental Youth Alliance Wild Mind Project (the initiative that your New Narratives ticket will support!!) visit:
http://eya.ca/project-view/wild-mind/
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