news | Tuesday November 2, 2010

Electric Company's Bright Lights

Hot upon the heels of putting together the scintillating theatre experience Tear the Curtain! at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage in Vancouver, which follows an ideological struggle between creative forms of media in a lurid noirish atmosphere, the members of Electric Company Theatre appear to be in excellent standing to provide more experimental dramas for us.

Kim Collier, co-founder and artistic producer of Electric Company Theatre, who also directed the story written by Jonathon Young and Kevin Kerr, has won this years Siminovitch Prize, Canada’s richest theatre award. The prize is worth $100,000 and $25,000 of this will be given to her chosen protégé, a Vancouver-based director named Anita Rochon. Former recipients of the coveted Siminovitch Prize include Daniel MacIvor in 2008.

At Talonbooks, we are also very excitedly anticipating Kevin Kerr‘s return to Vancouver. He has spent the last three years in Edmonton as playwright-in-residence at the University of Alberta and will assume leadership of the Electric Company at the start of 2011, giving Collier and her husband, company artistic director Jonathan Young, a much-needed sabbatical.

Kevin Kerr‘s Studies in Motion, a work about the eccentric life of Victorian-era photographer Eadweard Muybridge, is currently in performance at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton. Once again, this production epitomizes the Electric Company Theatre’s penchant for combining historical scenarios with startling effects and runs now through November 14th.