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Project History

THE REENA PROJECT
What You Carry With You...
e-race

History

MISCELLANEOUS Productions is an arts organization that was incorporated in July 2000 as a B.C. non-profit society as a vehicle for diverse collaborative and solo artistic projects including performances, screenings of media works and visual art exhibitions. All our interdisciplinary and issue-based work to date has fused high art, community development and popular culture. We have worked with diverse professionals and non-professionals aged 13 - 70 years old, who find their roots on 6 continents and speak more than 25 languages and dialects.

e - r a c e (2005)

e-race is a 78 minute live, interdisciplinary performance and a 53-minute DVD adaptation of that hip hop musical performance that was presented by MISCELLANEOUS Productions in Richmond, BC at the Gateway Theatre in September 2005. The story of e-race works backwards in time and explores young people's obsession with "speed" including street racing, the "fast life" of gangs, crystal meth and “fast girls,” i.e. early sexual activity. e-race features a cast of young people aged 15 – 27 years old and also examines the erasure of race and racist stereotyping in the mass media.

Live Performance of e-race

Created and Directed by Elaine Carol
Produced by Elaine Carol and Jules Rochielle
Written by Elaine Carol with the cast – Astley Au, Pattie K. Burke, Adam Dunfee, Melissa Hafting, Emily Ra, Kascha Rolfe, Lindsay Snell, Theresa Steiger, Patrick J. White and Maxine Yu. Stacie Steadman replaced Theresa Steiger in the cast because Theresa broke her ankle.
Original Musical Compositions and Lyrics by Ndidi Cascade, Ganesh Anandan and Jessica Phillips & Kaoru Matsushita
Choreographer for Ndidi Cascade’s compositions – Jennifer Bishop
Choreographer for Ganesh Anandan’s compositions – Elaine Carol in collaboration with youth performers
Car sculpture designed and constructed by Arnt Arntzen
Costumes designed by Rebekka Sørensen
Lighting Design by Adrian Muir
Assistant Directors are Sarah Sawatsky, Jules Rochielle and Allyson McGrane
Onstage video segments produced and edited by Jules Rochielle with Trevor Tablotney
Project Coordination by Allyson McGrane
Production Management and Stage Management by Jen Jones
Professional Consultants for this production are Eric D. Wong, Esther Oh, Dr. George Tien, Tristin Wayte and Farnaz Khaki-Sadiq

DVD / video adaptation of e-race

Created and Directed by Elaine Carol
Producer of DVD / video adaptation - Teri Snelgrove
Written by Elaine Carol with the cast – Astley Au, Pattie K. Burke, Adam Dunfee, Melissa Hafting, Emily Ra, Kascha Rolfe, Lindsay Snell, Theresa Steiger, Patrick J. White and Maxine Yu. Stacie Steadman replaced Theresa Steiger in the cast because Theresa broke her ankle.
Director of Photography - Kirk Tougas
Location Sound - Jeff Henschel
Editor - Karen Duthie
“B” Camera - Jules Rochielle
First Assistant Director - Teri Snelgrove
2nd Assistant Director - Jen Jones
Youth Video Interns - Yumi Ang and Angela Chen
Technicians - John Langdon, Sarah Sawatsky and Brian Heath

What You Carry With You... (2003)

Dealing with emigration/immigration, violence and xenophobia, aging and inter-generational relationships, memory and belonging, What You Carry With You... was created and developed by a team of professional artists and technicians who collaborated with non-professional youth 14 -20 years old and elders to age 77 from Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Cast members find their roots on 6 continents and speak more than 25 languages.

This original theatrical work examined the legacy of violence and its links to xenophobia; families emigrating to Richmond, BC from diasporic communities in a world of war and violence; how violence and fear of "the other" manifests itself in the generations to come; the phenomenon of home invasions; grand-parents and their relationships with their grand-children and; memory and how it becomes ensconced, entrenched and accommodated in the body. Our thematic, visual and sonic goal for the performance was to create a space of transience representing the continuously evolving life-death cycle; a space of no beginning or ending; trauma, absence and memory; a space of in-between, alienation, dislocation / displacement / Diaspora, searching and struggle; a longing for belonging, family and connection.

Integral to the minimalist set was the use of video projections. We created, produced and edited seven video segments before the script for the performance was finalized. All video production involved the community members, both cast and crew. Some of the projected video in the performance was also live feed.

Performed mainly in English with sections in Cantonese, Malaysian Mandarin, Tagalog, Urdu, Punjabi, Eritrean, Japanese, Gaelic and French, the full script was developed with the aid of community participants. An outline prepared by Artistic Director Elaine Carol formed the starting point for the final theatrical script.

We examined community participants’ personal narratives including stories of leaving their homelands; surviving persecution, wars and famines; coming to a new land of hope; how their expectations matched or didn’t match the reality of their settlement; their inter-generational relationships with family members and friends; violence they encountered in their "new" home and how it triggered memories of violence experienced in their homelands; how their experience is shaping the lives of their parents and/or children and grand-children who accompanied them to Richmond; memory and how it is accommodated in their bodies.

The performance takes place in one specific neighbourhood in Richmond - around Cambie Secondary School - which is one of the "tougher" schools in the City. This area is also in close proximity to the airport. The characters in the play have some connection to each other - they are all neighbours, one family owns the local pool hall "Side Pocket", two of the youth work there, etc. Some of the seniors play grandparents, employees or aunts to the youth.

In What You Carry With You..., we continued with our experiments in cross-gender casting for specific scenes, as we did in the "Bad Dads and Beaten Down Daughters Game Show" from THE REENA PROJECT / Outcasts & Angels. In addition to cross-gender casting for specific scenes, we incorporated cross-generational casting - the elder played the youth and the youth played the elder. In some scenes the performer(s) played both youth and elder.

THE REENA PROJECT / Outcasts & Angels (2001)

THE REENA PROJECT was a series of interdisciplinary arts events made in memory of Reena Virk.

THE REENA PROJECT / Outcasts & Angels is a journey through the phat side of teen life in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada exploring the troubling contemporary issues of bullying, violence and discrimination featuring young people from the community.

This roving, site-specific performance began and ended at the Gateway Theatre and travelled to six sites that have cultural significance to teens in Richmond, BC.