Stage Door News
Stage Door News
TORONTO, ON (June 26, 2014) – In celebration of Harbourfront Centre’s 40th anniversary, the organization commissioned The Tale of Harbourfront Centre, a 40-minute audio play created by Toronto-based theatre and media company FIXT POINT to conclude the 2014 World Stage season. FIXT POINT artistic director Lisa Marie DiLiberto and managing director Charles Ketchabaw spent two years piecing together Harbourfront Centre’s prolific history, one tale at a time. The Tale of Harbourfront Centre is a Fresh Ground new works commission and is part of FIXT POINT's national Tale of a Town series. The Tale of Harbourfront Centre is now available online for public enjoyment.
Weaving together memories, interviews, forgotten tales and archival documents, FIXT POINT reveals the untold story of Harbourfront Centre through a compelling audio drama. Years ago, the city was disconnected from the lake and an industrial 100-acre waterfront wasteland began its journey of transformation into what has now become a dynamic incubator for art, culture and creativity. Surviving threats of funding loss and permanent closure, Harbourfront Centre is now a 10-acre cultural campus teeming with life, year round. The Tale of Harbourfront Centre creates a poignant audio portrait of an important part of Toronto’s history told through the lens of artists.
“Harbourfront Centre is an organization with a remarkable story,” shares Tina Rasmussen, artistic director of World Stage. “For four decades we have led an imaginative groundswell, inviting Toronto and its visitors to come together in a year-round celebration of art and culture. The Tale of Harbourfront Centre is an exciting work that not only shares our 40-year history through a unique theatrical medium, but it also captures a collection of stories submitted by our visitors, patrons and staff throughout the past two years.”
FIXT POINT engages with communities through a combination of site-specific performance, audio art and digital story mapping in order to tell tales across multiple platforms that serve to preserve and promote local heritage and neighbourhood culture. A technique known as binaural recording was used to create The Tale of Harbourfront Centre, a technique best experienced when using a pair of high performance headphones. Throughout the duration of the creative process, FIXT POINT conducted over 60 interviews, in combination with CBC Radio Archives, The Toronto Star Archives, Harbourfront Centre Archives and City of Toronto Archives.
“This piece represents a bold step in our pursuit to reimagine what a devised performance can be. Harbourfront Centre is an inspirational destination for artists and creators from around the world,” describes FIXT POINT artistic director Lisa Marie DiLiberto. “But it’s also a place of community. With over 17 million visits per year, Harbourfront Centre has become a place where families gather, where cultures mix and mingle through the lens of arts and culture and place where memories are made. It’s been very interesting uncovering this tale, with the generous help and support of our many collaborating partners.”
FIXT POINT has recently launched The Tale of a Town-Canada, a national tour aiming to capture the collective community memory of our country, one story at a time, culminating in a celebration of Canada's 150th anniversary in 2017.
To listen to The Tale of Harbourfront Centre online, the public may visit harbourfrontcentre.com/worldstage/thetaleofharbourfrontcentre.
For full company and performance information, including photos and videos, please visit harbourfrontcentre.com/worldstage and connect with the season on Facebook and Twitter using @WorldStageTO #artlive.
Photo: Harbourfront in 1974.
2014-06-26
Toronto: World Stage and FIXT POINT release "The Tale of Harbourfront Centre"