Lunchbox Theatre

Twelve Days by Joe Slabe, co-produced by Forte Musical Theatre

Over 80% of the materials used to create this holiday musical production were second hand! Designers Madeline Blondal (set), Jolane Houle (costumes) and Neil Fleming (lighting) collaborated with director Samantha Currie and production manager Skylar Desjardins to source items like old pianos, furniture and vintage clothing to achieve a beautiful look with minimal impact.

We Had a River 

Part of the Wahkotowin project by Yvette Nolan and Joel Bernbaum, a National Verbatim Theatre Climate Change Project. The script was developed during the 2024 Stage One Festival of New Canadian Work.

This play is a “verbatim theatre” text built out of interviews with Calgarians conducted by our team in the spring of 2024. Over 20 artists gathered in our initial circle to learn about creating verbatim theatre and to develop the framework for interviews with a range of local community members to hear their thoughts and feelings about climate change. During the Stage One Festival, Joel Bernbaum, Alixandra Cowman, Patricia de Guzman, Wendy Froberg, Charlotte Hurdman, Martina Laird-Westib, Evan Medd, Mackenzie MacDonald, Katelyn Morishita, Lara Schmitz and Bronwyn Steinberg collaborated to transform text from 36 interview transcripts into a play with several original songs called We Had a River that was presented during the festival.

Home for the Holidays by Cayley Wreggitt and Alixandra Cowman

& Cottagers and Indians by Drew Hayden Taylor

These productions were part of our participation in Old Dogs, New Tricks: What is Sustainable Theatre Design? More details on that project are below.

Both of these productions used platforms from stock and standard-sized lumber that could be stored for reuse. Home for the Holidays included several coats, suitcases and many small props that we crowd-sourced from the team (remembering the indie theatre days). Cottagers and Indians used (expensive) biodegradable stains instead of latex or oil-based paint, as well as reclaimed wood, and all the furniture was all purchased second hand.