Help us write The WikiPlay Project now! (photography by Lisa Stanton ):::COMPANY HISTORY:::Originally called Witness Theatre, the story of UnSpun began in the winter/spring of 2001 with a group of young actors hungry to explore alternative theatrical processes. Core members Christopher Stanton , Chris Hanratty (UnSpun's Co-Artistic Directors) and Tara Beagan (now an Associate Artist with UnSpun) formed a company of creator/performers that workshopped and ultimately produced the Edmonton Fringe hit Wreck - a one-act collective creation based on a fatal subway collision in London, England in 1999.
Relocating to Toronto, UnSpun began in earnest with the production of Panhandled (February 2004), a new work by Toronto playwright Brendan Gall , and featuring Tricia Lahde, both of whom have since become Associate Artists with UnSpun.
Beagan's first play, Thy Neighbour's Wife (June 2004), was an enormous success critically, garnering rave reviews from Toronto's major weeklies. It also received three nominations for the 2005 Dora Mavor Moore Awards, and Tara Beagan was ultimately awarded the Dora for "Outstanding New Play or Musical (Independent Division)."
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump was staged as part of the 2005 Toronto Fringe Theatre Festival. The creative team returned to the alternative creation techniques that UnSpun first used to create Wreck. Basing the process of creation primarily on the "RSVP Cycles" (or "Methode Repère") popularized by Robert Lepage, the company drew upon a variety of techniques - including improvisation, found images/text, musical composition, and written assignments - in order to create Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. It was the first UnSpun project for Kate Hewlett , now an Associate Artist.
minotaur - presented as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival this past July - was called the "scariest hour you'll spend at the Fringe" by Eye Weekly. An experiment in form and filmic theatricality, the show took audiences by surprise with its blend of Japanese-style neo-horror, traditional ghost stories, and a wry underlying sense of humour.
DON'T WAKE ME, collectively created as part of the 2006 SummerWorks festival, borrowed liberally from the imaginative realms of hard-boiled fiction, film noir, and detective comics. Following a man who attempts to hide from his blindness in the mysterious world of his dreams, DON'T WAKE ME garnered a Best Ensemble mention in Now Magazine's SummerWorks Wrap-Up.
A further investigation of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump followed in December of 2006. A full-length re-imagining of the hit Fringe show, the collective was disassembled and put back together with Tricia Lahde and UnSpun newcomer Shira Leuchter joining the creation team and stepping into the roles originated by Kate Hewlett and Tara Beagan.
Conceived in February of 2007, The WikiPlay Project is an ongoing experiment in global collective creation - an online "wiki" that invites anyone and everyone to test the limits of dramatic collaboration.Coming up next...
Gather your courage. UnSpun's going back to the basement...
(Hallowe'en, 2007)
"The bright future of Canadian Theatre." - Robert Crew, The Toronto Star
CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTORS
Chris Hanratty
Christopher Stanton
ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
Tara Beagan
Brendan Gall
Kate Hewlett
Tricia Lahde
MEMBERS Patrick Beagan , Emily Boutet, Leah Simone Bowen, James Cade, John Cleland, Tim Gentle, Robert Kingston, Emily Kulasa , Shira Leuchter, Amy Levett , Natasha Martina, Alison McElwain, Megan McGuire, Mike McPhaden, Katherine Alison Porter, Lisa Stanton .
UnSpun Theatre is a proud member of the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts
with support from
www.unspuntheatre.com