August 2025

Theatre for Living Training, Vancouver, 2025

I've worked in theatre in various roles as a practitioner and an educator. Lately, I've also been exploring new avenues. One of these was a couple of workshops in Theatre of the Oppressed, a form of participatory theatre developed by Brazilian director Augusto Boal in the 1970's as a tool for social and political change. Then I found Theatre for Living, which David Diamond developed from Boal's work. David ran a theatre company in Vancouver for 30+ years, directing performances and tours and conducting workshops across Canada and internationally. He closed the company a few years back but still leads workshops and offers a 10-day summer training, which I've attended twice. These trainings have not only expanded and deepened my teaching, they've challenged me to grow as a person. There's such a profound need now for real dialogue, beyond ideology and across all kinds of divisions, and this is a creative path in that direction. I hope the seeds of it in me continue to grow.

        But since it’s been almost a year since I’ve written an update, I'll fill in the narrative.

After returning from Azerbaijan, I had a meeting with the Cultural Attache in our Baku embassy about remounting the camp in 2025. He was basically giving me a green light for embassy funding. I was also in contact with a teacher in Zagatala who was eager to host the camp. We laid out a schedule and I began to work on the embassy grant application.

Meanwhile, John McGivern’s Winter Wonderland at Oak Creek Performing Arts Center was a big success. This was the same venue as in 2023 but different stories and design. John is so talented and we’ve collaborated so many times, that’s it’s always a joyful ride.

Jed Diamond as Scrooge

My co-adaptation of A Christmas Carol was also remounted at Clarence Brown Theatre in Knoxville and was apparently the most commercially successful year ever. This was no doubt partly due to the return of Jed Diamond as Scrooge. Jed played Scrooge for me the first time around and he’s fantastic.

In late fall, I was contacted by a friend of a friend who works for Efficient Buildings Europe, a company that's working on the EU’s EPBD (Energy Performance Buildings Directive) to decarbonize buildings throughout Europe. The EU Parliament recently passed into law a plan to renovate some 5 million buildings. Considering that buildings are Europe's single-most consumer of energy and that most were built before 2000 and are environmentally inefficient, it’s a serious step toward combating climate change, decreasing dependence on Russia and saving money. Of course, this also means convincing millions of people to have their buildings renovated, which isn't convenient. It’s a massive undertaking. In any case, the company had a big conference in May, and they were looking to spice things up with something theatrical, which is why they contacted me. I ended up writing them a 20-minute play called A Renovation Intervention. The piece began as the "spontaneous" interruption of a lecture and then theatricalized the debate over renovating buildings through the conflicts of a previously divorced couple and their former marriage counsellor (whose building has been successfully renovated). The script was funny and the conference planning committee liked it. They wanted a live performance at the conference (with Croatian actors, in English) and also to produce a video version for PR and advocacy. Sadly, in the changing economic climate, they failed to raise the funds and the conference happened without my little play. Alas! I wanted to go to Croatia and direct it.

Also, I was due to return to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in March as a Fulbright Specialist. But a week before my flight, the government suspended the project, along with every Fulbright award that hadn’t yet begun. At the same time, virtually all U.S. Aid was cut, including the funding we were hoping to get from the Baku embassy. So the camp was cancelled as well. And suddenly my projects for March/April (Kyrgyzstan), May (Croatia) and July/August (Azerbaijan) were all cancelled or postponed. Sometimes freelance life is a challenge.

The good news now is that my Fulbright Specialist grant has been rescheduled and I'm going back to Bishkek for two months in September. Also, having established various contacts in Azerbaijan, I plan to apply for a grant to go back to Baku next year. We'll see if that works out. But that’s another story.

And this month, since I wasn’t running a camp in Azerbaijan, I decided to go back to Vancouver and take another training in Theatre for Living, which was an excellent idea. What a wonderful experience.

So it’s been a trying year in some ways, but really lovely in others.