As we approach the end of the year, we are looking back at our most recent endeavours as a company. This past fall, with the support of the Rozsa Foundation’s Online Programming Grant, we at Ghost River Theatre were able to launch a hybrid presentation of the newly-crafted pandemic production SensoryBox, which was presented both live at the West Village Theatre for a physically distanced audience and streamed online across the world.
The project brought the sense of touch into focus, which was already at the top of mind for many people both at home and abroad. Due to COVID-19, everything we touch is part of our consciousness. This production examined this phenomenon and also what touch means in the midst of a pandemic. We are sitting in the discomfort of the unknown, weathering the storm, waiting out what seems like an eternity. There are so many variables overwhelming all of us so we thought it would be wonderful to just sit down and focus on something joyful. The Rozsa Foundation believed in this idea and gave us the funding and resources to take it on. We, in turn, brought the idea to you, our audience members.
Photo Credit: SensoryBox 2020. Photo by Jaime Vedres
SensoryBox is an exploration of the unknown. It is a positive reframing of something that feels daunting to all of us. The experience took this time of isolation and separation, and offered a sense of connectivity, discovery, and delight from afar. We may be apart, but we’re in this together. That is why it was so important for us to be jumping into hybrid-style productions, where we have audiences in-person at the theatre and watching live online. After experimenting with this new form during SensoryBox, we’re eager to continue developing new productions with similar models in the future. By presenting objects to the viewers, especially those at home, we’re creating a bridge to the immediacy of live performance. Artistic Director Eric Rose said, “It is our intention to celebrate and examine our relationship to touch at this particular moment in time. We are experimenting with how visceral touch can be in a live performance and through an online medium.”
SensoryBox is the latest instalment in our celebrated six-senses series of performances including Tomorrow’s Child, The Intuition Project, and Scent Bar. The series is a rigorous exploration of what happens to the boundaries of narrative when you focus on stimulating the audience's senses. When you take away sight—our primary gateway in the world— how do our imaginations open up to narrative? The performance, which featured one storyteller, Mike Tan, and a mysterious box for each audience member, was performed for sold out audiences here in Calgary and was also viewed by people in Vancouver, Charlottetown, Kingston, Toronto, Pittsburgh, New York, Jacksonville, Amsterdam, New Zealand, and Serbia. As Mike said to the audience during the shows, “The contents of the box in front of you originated here...they passed through this place on the way to you.” It’s a profound connection, a physical and tangible connection, that this experience provided for audience members no matter where they were in the world. This is a global pandemic, it is a holistic human experience, and we’re extremely pleased to have been able to connect with people all across the globe with this fantastic and imaginative project. We look forward to connecting with you all again soon.
Photo Credit: Mike Tan featured in SensoryBox 2020. Photo by Jaime Vedres