FIREWEED
ONE TRUNK THEATRE’S BOLD NEW VISION FOR A 3-YEAR CYCLE LAUNCHING JANUARY 2023
You could say we lit a match to what our company had been. Through the fire we built community. Now, like FIREWEED- which emerges after a fire, covering the earth with brilliant, colourful new life- we are building towards a new future.
Before we dig into the next three years, we’ll dip back in time briefly to catch you up to where we are now…
One Trunk’s history is intrinsically intertwined with the career and vision of our founding artistic director Andraea Sartison. She and Gwendolyn Collins, now both Co-Artistic Directors, have been at the head of the company and been the visionaries/architects/producers of all company work. That is, until 2020.
At that time, in response to the Black Lives Matter and Idle No More human rights movements, One Trunk completely reshaped its values, mission and way of engaging with community and creators in order to centre Global Majority (IBPOC) artists and audiences. In doing so we removed the artistic leadership from creative input. Instead, we (Gwen and Andraea) leveraged our resources, including our expertise as producers, to support new work by and for Global Majority folx. Since then we have extended this invitation to other historically and currently underrepresented artists and audiences- specifically Deaf and 2SLGBTQQA+ folks.
Shifting the way we work is at the heart of our company. We have built our practice around the question: “what else can theatre be?” and by extension “who is theatre for”, “how else can we share it”, and “who makes theatre”? Project-by-project we have found inventive answers.
Over the past two years asking these questions has completely changed the way our company was run- by whom and for whom. We have learned a lot, and we have built strong connections. We have developed a new reputation as a safe space for diverse creators to grow, experiment and collaborate. Our community has grown in a grass roots way.
You could say we lit a match to what our company had been. Through the fire we built community. Now, like FIREWEED- which emerges after a fire, covering the earth with brilliant, colourful new life- we are building towards a new future.
It’s fitting for a company called One Trunk- as in the trunk of a tree- to explore stories of trees and forests.
One Trunk’s vision for the next three seasons is for Andraea and Gwen to return as the creative leadership of the company in a more hands-on way. They will be project architects AND collaborating artists, using their unique views as creators to build, enhance and realise projects that are still based in collaboration, but that also empower and include diverse communities.
Over the next three seasons, One Trunk Theatre will focus on furthering our collaboration with: rural communities, very young people ( ages 3-5), and emerging artists. This vision will be realised in the form of three separate large-scale projects: Talking Roots - a rural touring project, Saplings - a brand new show for very young audiences, and finally our Summer Resident (Emerging) Artist Program, which will support these exciting new ventures.
FIREWEED will also be a thematic investigation. Forest fires are necessary in a natural environment, but they are also a growing threat especially to rural Indigenous communities, and happening more frequently due to climate change. These are threats internationally; and, tangibly at home in Manitoba. Forests; our physical/spiritual connection to the land; environmental issues like resource sharing, colonization and climate change- these will be our launching points.
It’s fitting for a company called One Trunk- as in the trunk of a tree- to explore stories of trees and forests. With FIREWEED as the trunk of our investigation, we will see how a shared idea/theme branches out into two very unique projects for drastically different audiences.