20K Collective saw "Mission Blue" at the Hot Docs Film Festival!

Last night I accompanied passionate water issues activist and Sci-Fi author Kaz Lefave to the Hot Docs premiere of Mission Blue. Mission Blue is a film about ground-breaking scientist (or should that be water-breaking scientist) Dr. Sylvia Earle. 

Dr. Earle is an inspiration for our own Dr. Aronnax in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under Tne Sea!

An aquanaut, marine botanist, submersible designer, and the former head of the NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - Dr. Earle is a ground-breaking (water-breaking?) pioneer in ocean exploration.  Dr. Earle's passion is to map the ocean and develop protected areas, just as we do with parks and reserves on land.

Dr.Earle was present with the codirector Robert Nixon and HotDocs programmer Heather Haynes, and answered questions from the audience incredibly well: evidence-based, realistically, but always with hope and making the audience feel our own agency to effect change.

MISSION BLUE SCREENS AGAIN AT HOT DOCS.
Highly recommended.
http://mission-blue.org/mission-blue-film/

You can find out more about Kaz Lefave at:
www.nemecene.com

You can support Mission Blue
www.missionblue.org

 

20K collective workshop week 2: Wed April 23

We have been preparing the stage design. The idea is that the stage is a "machine" like the Nautilus itself - a mix of high-tech and craftsmanship.  There will be real elements and virtual elements mixing on this platform that is on an exposed metal grid, so we see the transformations from one scene and adventure to the next.

image 1: Director Rick Miller and the array of laptops running multimedia and sound.

image 1: Ned (Gil Garratt) and Jules (Toby Hughes) rehearsing in the spartan Nautilus bunks.

 

Earth Day Canada in Toronto

Spotted in the lobby of TO VIC office tower in Toronto yesterday on the way back from workshopping the production of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. Congratulations to our friends at Earth Day Canada for getting the good word out.

www.earthday.ca

The categories of action pictured in the poster are:
Park It
Don't be Idle
Shut Down
Bright Ideas
Local Food
Blue Box It
 

20K team gearing up for its first invited workshop presentation!

Week 2 of a two-week Toronto workshop for 20K (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea). The incredible team of creators are trying to pull it all together for the 100 or so lucky people who will get a sneak preview of our show, Sat April 26th at 8pm. Led by director Rick Miller and co-creator Craig Francis, the 20K Collective of actors, designers and technicians are building props, sound, video, lighting, set pieces... anything to push the concept and make it fly (well, float, in this case).

Part of our concept is to explore how a stage show can be supported and augmented by online properties that not only support the themes of the play, but actually engage with the audience during the play itself! The 20K Collective is pleased to be working with the team at Logograph to create this online content, and these innovative, immersive digital experiences.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is commissioned by the
TORONTO 2015 Pan Am /
Parapan Am Games
Arts and Cultural festival
PANAMANIA
 


http://ls4.co/8Vm

20K collective workshop week 2: Happy Easter Monday

Happy Easter Monday!

Lots of work being done with our incredible creative team and talented actors to create something innvative and visually unique for 2015.

1) Is this the tempest?...

2) ...or are our actors under water?  (Maybe... lots of lines to learn!)

3) ...or is the whole stage an aquarium?

4) Whaler Ned Land (Gil Garratt) finds the brig of The Nautilus is a lonely place.

5) Director Rick Miller blocks Land (Gil Garratt) Professor Aronnax (Stephanie Baptist) and Jules (Toby Hughes).
 

20K collective workshop week 1: Monday

1) Craig Francis here, doing some rewriting on the play after our actors' read-through... while lights being hung above my head!

2) Assistant Director Andrea Sartison has set up her iOffice near the plug hole - smart.

3) Sound Designer Richard Feren has a whole table: the sound design is an exciting part of this project.

4) Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea getting the frame set up for the workshop at the great Theatre Passe-Muraille in Toronto.  

PANAMANIA: the Toronto 2015 Pan Am / Parapan Am Games Arts & Cultural commissions

Congratulations to our KDOONS creators:  after a late night hosting the Glenn Gould Prize at Rideau Hall, Rick Miller flew back to Toronto to host the morning launch of PANAMANIA, the Arts & Culture Program of the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games.

There are 27 new arts commissions for the upcoming Games in July-Aug 2015. One of the commissions is the 20K Collective's new adaptation of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, co-created by the "20K Collective" organized by Rick and Craig Francis.  Rick is also the creator and star of the KDOONS theatrical production BOOM, which will premiere in Toronto at Mirvish Theatres in 2015 (SUBSCRIBE NOW!), and Craig is the art director for KDOONS' Kidoons network as well as a BOOM producer.  The theatrical production commissioned by the Pan Am PANAMANIA will also connect to the multimedia KDOONS project H2Ocanada.com.

The event, held at fabulous El Catrin restaurant, was a jam-packed launch. Rick was delighted, among other things, to once again share the stage with Robert Lepage, whom he had fêted the previous night. Congratulations to our team, and good luck to the 20K collective.

Toronto Star article
Globe and Mail article
CBC article