The Sunlight Zone, the story so far....

Right now I am in Toronto, where I've been performing a show I created collaboratively with 6 other artists. The piece was the vision of friend and colleague Kevin O'Connor, who finished ENC at the same time as me. It was inspired by environmental issues regarding the natural resource of water. Without getting into promotion mode, the piece is a happy marriage between a socially motivated point of inspiration, and a transcendent piece of dance and aerial acrobatics.

I originally came on board over a year ago, beginning the collaboration with only 2 other artists here in (then snowy) Toronto. Creation with Kevin and Chelsea lasted a chilly 6 weeks and was abruptly brought to an end when Kevin was injured during a rehearsal. His shoulder was severely dislocated and the outlook for continuing to climb rope was up in the air. The Sunlight Zone was on indefinite hiatus.

Then it was reincarnated nearly a year later, with an almost entirely new group of artists. This time the creation would happen in sunny Santa Cruz, where Kevin was well connected. He found us a superb rehearsal space, grant money, a palatial home for all the artists to live in, and classes to teach and support ourselves during the process.

In this new incarnation, though the inspiration remained the same, the cast would change. Leaving the group was Chelsea O Brian, a tissue artist, who would choose a longer term, more stable performing job with Cirque Plume in France. Joining us was Ana Flecha, a talented modern dancer with some beginning skills on rope, as well as her husband Fabio, adding his skills as a videographer and projectionist for the all-important multi-media element that is so central to this piece. Additionally, I recruited an acquaintance of mine for the piece, a younger, super-talented rope artist from Finland, Jukka Juntti. Jukka knew little about the content of the piece, but was open and extremely passionate about the idea of making an all rope evening length piece.

The creation period in Santa Cruz was productive. Not only did we generate twice as much material as we would ultimately use in the show, we started to get to know each other and gel as a group. Theresa Douthwright, the singer joined our rehearsals and leant her voice to blend with our dancing and climbing. The creation period ended with a weekend of well-attended shows in SC, and we all went different directions for a week before the next chapter in the Sunlight Zone's story.

We've been in T-To for a week and a half now. For 5 days we rushed through the teching of the show. The theatre in Toronto is much better equipped lighting wise, taking our show to another level of theatricality. The show is very physically tough, probably the most demanding show I've ever done! So we had to whip ourselves back into shape after the week off.

Anyway, long story short, we're all staying together in a nice little house in the east end of Toronto, like a happy little gypsy circus family. We do shows about 5 a week. The dream life. Only--one catch--excepting opening night, we've had audiences of less than 10 people. We've opted not to cancel any shows, abiding by the rule: if there're more audience members than people in the cast, the show goes on.

To what do we ascribe the lack of attendance? In my judgment, it's because we've accomplished very little in the way of promotion, though not for lack of trying. The newspapers and popular media have been slow to respond when they get back to us at all. We haven't had much opportunity for postering and flyering, and we haven't been doing much of this because it's supposedly a pretty ineffectual way of advertising. Soon we'll be doing guerilla performances in on street corners if this keeps up.

I sit in the quiet theatre, all the programs neatly laid out on the seats, our magnificent backdrop behind me, the ropes hanging in the air--the theatre awaits the crowd, but the crowd isn't coming.