One Little Goat Theatre Company
Encyclopedia
"Toronto's enterprising One Little Goat Theatre Company" is North America’s only theatre company devoted to modern and contemporary “poetic theatre.” Founded by poet
, playwright
and director Adam Seelig in New York
in 2002, and based in Toronto
since 2005, the company is distinguished by its highly interpretive, provocative approach to international plays. The company takes its name from the ancient Aramaic folk song (Chad Gadya
) that traditionally concludes the Passover Seder
.
, Zeami
, Luigi Pirandello
, Bertolt Brecht
, Samuel Beckett
, Thomas Bernhard
and others on One Little Goat’s dramatic approach.
“Poetic theatre attempts to find clarity through ambiguity. It’s not verse theatre or prose theatre or journalistic theatre. It’s theatre that treats the text as a score [...] and treats the gap between actor and audience not as an obstacle to bypass, but as a medium through which multiple meanings can emerge. There’s a difference between shining a light directly into the audience’s eyes, and having it pass through a prism.”
One Little Goat’s “definition of ‘poetic theatre’ is a work in progress” and the company’s artistry is practical before it is theoretical: “doing the plays comes first; theory and definition follow.”
(Opening production of La MaMa's 49th season, the last one under the artistic leadership of founder Ellen Stewart
)
By Thomas Bernhard
, Directed by Adam Seelig, Translated from the German by Kenneth Northcott and Peter Jansen
With Shannon Perreault, Maev Beaty and Jordan Pettle
Sets & Costumes, Jackie Chau; Lighting Design, Kate McKay; Stage Manager, Sandi Becker; Music, Ludwig van Beethoven
Overview:
In Ritter, Dene, Voss (named for the three actors - Ilse Ritter, Kirsten Dene and Gert Voss - who premiered the original 1986 production in German), Thomas Bernhard explores sexual repression and sibling rivalry with characteristic tenacity and wit. The play involves two sisters – both actresses – and their attempts at reintegrating their volatile brother into their home. The brother, a tormented genius (loosely based on last century’s great, idiosyncratic philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein
), has just returned from a mental health institute, complicating the dynamics between the three siblings.
Talking Masks (Oedipussy), World Premiere, 13–28 November 2009, Walmer Centre Theatre, Toronto
Written and Directed by Adam Seelig
With Richard Harte, Jane Miller, Andrew Moodie, Cathy Murphy
Sets & Costumes, Jackie Chau; Lighting Design, Laird MacDonald; Projections, Jason J Brown; Sound Design, Christopher Stanton; Stage Manager, Wendy Lee; Production Assistant, Ruthie Pytka-Jones
Overview: Talking Masks (Oedipussy) involves a son, two mothers and an absent father who, in exploring the intertwined fates of their family, fuse two of the world’s most enduring myths: the tragedy of Oedipus
, and the harrowing tale of half-brothers Isaac
and Ishmael
. What unfolds is a wild progression of rapid-fire interactions that expose as much as they mask about the “charactors”.
Publication: Talking Masks is published by BookThug (Toronto 2009).
Someone is Going to Come, English Canadian Premiere, 13–29 March 2009, Walmer Centre Theatre, Toronto
By Jon Fosse
, Directed by Adam Seelig, Translated from the Norwegian by Harry Lane and Adam Seelig
With Michael Blake, Dwight McFee, Stacie Steadman
Sets & Costumes, Jackie Chau; Lighting Design, Kate McKay; Stage Manager, Wendy Lee; Music, Ludwig van Beethoven
Overview:
Jon Fosse's provocative and primal three-person play involving sexual jealousy is featured in a new English translation by University of Guelph Professor Harry Lane, and One Little Goat’s Artistic Director, Adam Seelig. Someone is Going to Come involves a man and a woman who move to an old, run-down house in the middle of nowhere in order to be alone together. From the beginning, however, they grow anxious that “someone is going to come”. And sure enough, someone does come, someone whose presence unleashes hidden jealousies that threaten to shatter the couple’s relationship. This all unfolds through Fosse’s distinctively austere lyricism.
Ritter, Dene, Voss, US Premiere, 6–8 December 2007, Trap Door Theatre, Chicago
Antigone : Insurgency, World Premiere, 9–25 November 2007, Walmer Centre Theatre, Toronto
Written and Directed by Adam Seelig
With Richard Harte, Earl Pastko, Cara Ricketts
Sets & Costumes, Jackie Chau; Lighting Design, Kate McKay; Sound Design, Kathy Zaborsky; Stage Manager, Liz Air
Overview
Antigone : Insurgency presents a provocative, post-9/11 reworking of Sophocles' masterpiece
from the fifth-century BC. Drawing intriguing parallels between the original Greek tragedy and current global politics, the production explores the socio-political repercussions of combating insurgency
.
Ritter, Dene, Voss, English Language World Premiere, 17 November - 3 December 2006, Alchemy Theatre, Toronto
Radio Plays by Yehuda Amichai
, English Language World Premieres, 2003–2006, various venues including the 92nd Street Y
and Museum of Jewish Heritage
in New York, Miles Nadal JCC in Toronto, and in a podcast for Poetry Magazine
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and director Adam Seelig in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 2002, and based in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
since 2005, the company is distinguished by its highly interpretive, provocative approach to international plays. The company takes its name from the ancient Aramaic folk song (Chad Gadya
Chad Gadya
Chad Gadya is a playful cumulative song in Aramaic and Hebrew. It is sung at the end of the Passover Seder, the Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover...
) that traditionally concludes the Passover Seder
Passover Seder
The Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted on the evenings of the 14th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, and on the 15th by traditionally observant Jews living outside Israel. This corresponds to late March or April in...
.
Poetic Theatre
Producing, developing, defining and redefining “poetic theatre” has been One Little Goat’s mandate since the company’s inception. While the term is open to interpretation, One Little Goat’s Artistic Director, Adam Seelig, outlines key elements of the company’s aesthetic in an essay for the Capilano Review entitled “EMERGENSEE: GET HEAD OUT OF ASS: ‘Charactor’ and Poetic Theatre”. These elements include "charactor" (Seelig’s term for combining an actor’s onstage persona with their offstage nature), the "prism/gap" (between actor and audience), and ambiguity. The essay also traces the influences of SophoclesSophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
, Zeami
Zeami Motokiyo
Zeami Motokiyo , also called Kanze Motokiyo , was a Japanese aesthetician, actor and playwright.-Acting:...
, Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
, Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
, Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, Thomas Bernhard
Thomas Bernhard
Thomas Bernhard was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet. Bernhard, whose body of work has been called "the most significant literary achievement since World War II," is widely considered to be one of the most important German-speaking authors of the postwar era.- Life :Thomas Bernhard was...
and others on One Little Goat’s dramatic approach.
“Poetic theatre attempts to find clarity through ambiguity. It’s not verse theatre or prose theatre or journalistic theatre. It’s theatre that treats the text as a score [...] and treats the gap between actor and audience not as an obstacle to bypass, but as a medium through which multiple meanings can emerge. There’s a difference between shining a light directly into the audience’s eyes, and having it pass through a prism.”
One Little Goat’s “definition of ‘poetic theatre’ is a work in progress” and the company’s artistry is practical before it is theoretical: “doing the plays comes first; theory and definition follow.”
Production History
Ritter, Dene, Voss, New York Premiere, 23 September - 10 October 2010, La MaMa Experimental Theatre ClubLa MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is an off-off Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, and named in reference to her. Located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the theatre grew out of Stewart's tiny basement boutique for her fashion designs; the boutique's space acted as a theatre for...
(Opening production of La MaMa's 49th season, the last one under the artistic leadership of founder Ellen Stewart
Ellen Stewart
Ellen Stewart was an American theater director and producer and the founder of La MaMa, E.T.C. . In the 1950s she worked as a fashion designer for Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Lord & Taylor, and Henri Bendel.-Biography:Ellen Stewart was either born in Alexandria, Louisiana or Chicago,...
)
By Thomas Bernhard
Thomas Bernhard
Thomas Bernhard was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet. Bernhard, whose body of work has been called "the most significant literary achievement since World War II," is widely considered to be one of the most important German-speaking authors of the postwar era.- Life :Thomas Bernhard was...
, Directed by Adam Seelig, Translated from the German by Kenneth Northcott and Peter Jansen
With Shannon Perreault, Maev Beaty and Jordan Pettle
Sets & Costumes, Jackie Chau; Lighting Design, Kate McKay; Stage Manager, Sandi Becker; Music, Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
Overview:
In Ritter, Dene, Voss (named for the three actors - Ilse Ritter, Kirsten Dene and Gert Voss - who premiered the original 1986 production in German), Thomas Bernhard explores sexual repression and sibling rivalry with characteristic tenacity and wit. The play involves two sisters – both actresses – and their attempts at reintegrating their volatile brother into their home. The brother, a tormented genius (loosely based on last century’s great, idiosyncratic philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Cambridge from 1939 until 1947...
), has just returned from a mental health institute, complicating the dynamics between the three siblings.
Talking Masks (Oedipussy), World Premiere, 13–28 November 2009, Walmer Centre Theatre, Toronto
Written and Directed by Adam Seelig
With Richard Harte, Jane Miller, Andrew Moodie, Cathy Murphy
Sets & Costumes, Jackie Chau; Lighting Design, Laird MacDonald; Projections, Jason J Brown; Sound Design, Christopher Stanton; Stage Manager, Wendy Lee; Production Assistant, Ruthie Pytka-Jones
Overview: Talking Masks (Oedipussy) involves a son, two mothers and an absent father who, in exploring the intertwined fates of their family, fuse two of the world’s most enduring myths: the tragedy of Oedipus
Oedipus
Oedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. He fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother, and thus brought disaster on his city and family...
, and the harrowing tale of half-brothers Isaac
Isaac
Isaac as described in the Hebrew Bible, was the only son Abraham had with his wife Sarah, and was the father of Jacob and Esau. Isaac was one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites...
and Ishmael
Ishmael
Ishmael is a figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an, and was Abraham's first born child according to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Ishmael was born of Abraham's marriage to Sarah's handmaiden Hagar...
. What unfolds is a wild progression of rapid-fire interactions that expose as much as they mask about the “charactors”.
Publication: Talking Masks is published by BookThug (Toronto 2009).
Someone is Going to Come, English Canadian Premiere, 13–29 March 2009, Walmer Centre Theatre, Toronto
By Jon Fosse
Jon Fosse
Jon Fosse is a Norwegian author and dramatist.Fosse was born in Haugesund, Norway and currently lives in Bergen. He debuted in 1983 with the novel Raudt, svart . His first play, Og aldri skal vi skiljast, was performed and published in 1994. Jon Fosse has written novels, short stories, poetry,...
, Directed by Adam Seelig, Translated from the Norwegian by Harry Lane and Adam Seelig
With Michael Blake, Dwight McFee, Stacie Steadman
Sets & Costumes, Jackie Chau; Lighting Design, Kate McKay; Stage Manager, Wendy Lee; Music, Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
Overview:
Jon Fosse's provocative and primal three-person play involving sexual jealousy is featured in a new English translation by University of Guelph Professor Harry Lane, and One Little Goat’s Artistic Director, Adam Seelig. Someone is Going to Come involves a man and a woman who move to an old, run-down house in the middle of nowhere in order to be alone together. From the beginning, however, they grow anxious that “someone is going to come”. And sure enough, someone does come, someone whose presence unleashes hidden jealousies that threaten to shatter the couple’s relationship. This all unfolds through Fosse’s distinctively austere lyricism.
Ritter, Dene, Voss, US Premiere, 6–8 December 2007, Trap Door Theatre, Chicago
Antigone : Insurgency, World Premiere, 9–25 November 2007, Walmer Centre Theatre, Toronto
Written and Directed by Adam Seelig
With Richard Harte, Earl Pastko, Cara Ricketts
Sets & Costumes, Jackie Chau; Lighting Design, Kate McKay; Sound Design, Kathy Zaborsky; Stage Manager, Liz Air
Overview
Antigone : Insurgency presents a provocative, post-9/11 reworking of Sophocles' masterpiece
Antigone
In Greek mythology, Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Oedipus' mother. The name may be taken to mean "unbending", coming from "anti-" and "-gon / -gony" , but has also been suggested to mean "opposed to motherhood", "in place of a mother", or "anti-generative", based from the root...
from the fifth-century BC. Drawing intriguing parallels between the original Greek tragedy and current global politics, the production explores the socio-political repercussions of combating insurgency
Insurgency
An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents...
.
Ritter, Dene, Voss, English Language World Premiere, 17 November - 3 December 2006, Alchemy Theatre, Toronto
Radio Plays by Yehuda Amichai
Yehuda Amichai
Yehuda Amichai was an Israeli poet. Amichai is considered by many, both in Israel and internationally, as Israel's greatest modern poet. He was also one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew....
, English Language World Premieres, 2003–2006, various venues including the 92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y is a multifaceted cultural institution and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, at the corner of E. 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Its full name is 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association...
and Museum of Jewish Heritage
Museum of Jewish Heritage
The Museum of Jewish Heritage, located in lower Manhattan, is a living memorial to those who perished in the Holocaust. The Museum honors those who died by celebrating their lives – cherishing the traditions that they embraced, examining their achievements and faith, and affirming the vibrant...
in New York, Miles Nadal JCC in Toronto, and in a podcast for Poetry Magazine
Poetry (magazine)
Poetry , published in Chicago, Illinois since 1912, is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Published by the Poetry Foundation and currently edited by Christian Wiman, the magazine has a circulation of 30,000 and prints 300 poems per year out of approximately...
External links
- One Little Goat Theatre Company official website