{"id":20205,"date":"2020-11-18T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T17:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=20205"},"modified":"2020-11-18T15:44:56","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T23:44:56","slug":"belfry-event-showcases-stories-from-theatre-designers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/11\/18\/belfry-event-showcases-stories-from-theatre-designers\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfry event showcases stories from theatre designers"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a part of its free online fall 2020 programming, the Belfry Theatre is presenting the community storytelling initiative The Flame<\/em>, which is hosted by Deborah Williams and Michelle Poirier Brown, and features stories told by people in the local Victoria community.<\/p>\n

Williams is no stranger to storytelling: she founded the theatre group Mom\u2019s the Word over a decade ago in Vancouver, out of a desire to bring people together to share stories of their own humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought it would be really great to hear my neighbourhood stories, so we invited some people over and said, \u2018Here\u2019s some wine and cheese and all you have to do is bring a story,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cEven though [they were all] performers, they were terrified, but after everyone told their story they went away going, \u2018Oh my God, I\u2019ve got another one; oh, I want to do this again!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Deborah Williams is bringing a free storytelling event to the Belfry this month (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The main objective of The Flame<\/em> is to increase the sense of connection between people in a community, and to draw out some of the stories that make people unique and define the human experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really believe in the power of storytelling,\u201d says Williams. \u201cI\u2019ve watched people over the years, and once they\u2019ve shared their story and gotten over the terror of standing in front of a group of apparent strangers\u2014once you\u2019ve told your story [or] heard someone\u2019s personal story, you can never go back, and you have a relationship with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams says that a storytelling class she taught through the Belfry was very effective in uniting random people as friends and neighbours.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were 10 people and everybody went away going, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ve got a community, I want to tell stories with you forever,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s really about that connection; it\u2019s a really great thing to be able to watch people connect like that and want to continue that relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each iteration of The Flame<\/em> is themed differently. The upcoming performance will feature the people who work backstage in theatre, bringing it to life. Williams says that while playgoers are naturally focused on the main production happening onstage, there are a lot of talented people working invisibly to make the show happen, and they deserve a spotlight, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not there alone, we\u2019ve got this huge hammock holding us up, the playwright and the director and the designer, and so it\u2019s really great to publicly acknowledge those people,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s really great to be able to get them onstage and be able to thank them and hear about their experiences, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show will feature five set, lighting, and costume designers from Canada\u2019s theatre industry: Pam Johnson, Carmen Alatorre, Alan Brodie, Andy Moro, and Itai Erdal. Williams says that while some of the stories are likely to be themed around the behind-the-scenes life in theatre, the main goal is simply to allow the participants to tell their own stories from any part of their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think probably some of them will [focus on theatre],\u201d she says, \u201cbut I think that with these particular stories it\u2019s what else they do besides theatre, [it\u2019s what] they have in their lives that are bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams says that the most important thing about storytelling is to treat each story as a gift to the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re giving it away, you\u2019re sharing it,\u201d she says. \u201cYou\u2019re not trying to teach someone something, you\u2019re not trying to preach or boast or any of those things\u2014just know why you\u2019re telling the story and just give it away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Flame
\n<\/em>7 pm Wednesday, November 25
\nFree, online
\nbelfry.bc.ca<\/a><\/p>\n

NOTE: This article has been updated to give the names of the designers in the show.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a part of its free online fall 2020 programming, the Belfry Theatre is presenting the community storytelling initiative The Flame, which is hosted by Deborah Williams and Michelle Poirier Brown, and features stories told by people in the local Victoria community. Williams is no stranger to storytelling: she founded the theatre group Mom\u2019s the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20205"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20280,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20205\/revisions\/20280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}