Dustin Harvey

farewell vancouver!

secret theatre — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:53:35 +0000

this time next month i will be in van city talking about the farewell project at the PuSh festival pitch event. so excited and grateful to be asked two years in a row! i am also so looking forward to talking about this show, which i made with friend and collaborator chad dembski… here is a clip for you:
farewell, halifax!

on visibility

secret theatre — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:07:41 +0000

when a play reveals itself too much like a play i find that i think about other things. i think about the way lights are used. i think about the staging. i think about the set pieces. i think about how the actors are acting. i like to think about these things, but that is not why i go to the theatre.

when i am in the theatre i want something to be altered. I want this encounter to be something that comes from inside myself. that is drawn out of me. that is tempted into my experience of the room.

during the recent work on ‘farewell’, c. and i talked a lot about positive ambiguity. that is when you leave gaps in what you are telling the audience in order allow them to make connections. these gaps depend a lot on understanding and staying within an audience’s circle of expectation. it is a delicate line. And demands a certain kind of gaze from the participant.

for me, the gaps can be like cracks to let the light in.

when a play reveals itself too much like a play i think i mean that our experience of it has been too held too much to the script.

and as a viewer there is nothing left for me to imagine.

What kind of room do you want to be in?

On Abandon

secret theatre — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:42:25 +0000

Abandon is sometimes part of the process.

If we arrive at a dead end, then we can no longer hold on to a prior expectation. We got to be willing to let it go. Ideas sometimes are only meant to get us to certain points.

At the same time constant change can be deceptive. With abandon comes a feeling of excitement and freedom. If you haven’t been feeling that in a process it can be really seductive. But be careful not to mistake it. Change for change is no change at all.

For me, the thing I need to remind myself of constantly is there is something important about the idea, an that is what I am looking for. Everything else is temporary.

last studio work

secret theatre — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:32:35 +0000

still working the material. still looking for more. still attempting options. the purpose is about focusing the ideas. the purpose is about having effort without being too precious.

soft invitations.

we started projecting to the street last night. not so secret.

how does one find movement between two points beyond dramatic action?

we are the halifax of this moment!

secret theatre — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:37:51 +0000

secret theatre this thursday, friday, saturday!

(we) are here Nocturne 2011

secret theatre — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:23:12 +0000

thanks to brian thanks to jacinte thanks to jenn thanks to erika thanks to siloen thanks to dan thanks to everyone who came out

we will remember this for some time!

farewell cardiff…

secret theatre — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 11:59:56 +0000

here is a link to the live blog during our performance in cardiff: LIVEART LIVE BLOG

now back in halifax and installing ‘(we) are here’ for tonight’s nocturne… stop in to say hi at the khyber third floor!

Implicit and Explicit

secret theatre — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:05:17 +0000

Clarity is not always linked to telling. Some ideas are flattened when efforts are made to explain or demonstrate. Some ideas need space to work. Some ideas need to be found rather than shown. Some ideas are made implicit by their inclusion. Some ideas only need the suggestion to do their work. Some ideas change once that are shouted. Some ideas require an viewers choice. Some ideas need to be seen in relation to other ideas. Some ideas lose all meaning when you look at them alone. Some ideas are not meant for everyone.

First Impressions

secret theatre — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 09:48:26 +0000

‘as an audience we take up the first and strongest things that come in our direction and they quickly become the object.’

We are loading our ‘farewell project’ into a new space today. I got interested in this idea of placing the audience very far away in order to create a kind of intimacy.

The idea comes in response to the space we are in. Fairly large. Wood floors. High ceilings. Can something be made of this volume instead of closing it off to make it seem smaller?

I don’t want to be working on ideas that only end up being explorations. I want them to be the work.

I stole that from j.burrows

thursday questions

secret theatre — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:29:25 +0000

can you see how the elements connect? where do the thoughts lead you? are you going beyond what is offered? are they your thoughts or someone else’s? does the music supply too much emotion? is it putting it out of balance? is there anything missing?