“I bow my head to the audience as I present these oral stories of my relatives. The stories by no means are meant to represent and speak for all of our People, but within these stories maybe a little window can open into some of the issues that our People who live on First Nations reserves deal with on a daily basis.
I have attended each rehearsal with fascination as I watched the actors and directors, designers and stage management slowly and daily apply theatrical methods and techniques to the traditional stories, to make them come alive and to reach the heart of the listeners. Tr(tradition) X Me (method) = Th2 (theatre and its Double). It gave me faith in the theatre once again as a universal art, and I go away back to my reserve, with the voices of the actors, and the shadows living in my memory.”
(F. Favel).
The Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS/CHORN) is based at Concordia University. It explores the links between oral history, digital media, the arts and education. It collects, archives, analyzes and shares audiovisual oral history records, primarily through its members’ projects and initiatives – which have historically shaped the Centre’s identity and values, placing the principle of shared authority at its core (From the COHDS website). In our case we decided to use puppets as our means to integrate our performances based on Floyd Favel’s stories into the small COHDS space. Each vignette used its own style of puppetry, overhead projection, or shadow play and was dedicated to one of Favel’s stories. Work process and storytelling was facilitated by Lisa Ndejuru (COHDS member and liaison), who continued throughout the process to serve as our guide to oral history performance.
CREDITS
Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling
Stories: Floyd Favel
Supervision: Floyd Favel, Ulla Neuerburg
Performer/Co-Creators: String Game: Caite Clarke, Marika Karlsson; Sister Story: Zeina Ismail-Allouche, Kyla Gilbert-Heaney, Ollie Siino; Beaver Brother’s Story: S. E. Callender, Camille Banville; Grandmother Story: Caite Clarke, Marika Karlsson
Storyteller: Floyd Favel
Music: Joël Denizot, Ralph Denzer
Assistant and Facilitator: Lisa Ndejuru
Puppetry Consultant: Tanja Hoehne
Graduate Advisor: Bonnie Klohn
