Theatre Encounter

All content copyright © Theatre Encounter 2011.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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Our MISSION

Theatre Encounter’s Mission is to create, produce, bridge, engage, and encourage artists & community in personal, artistic and social means. We aim:

•    to create a trusted experimentally creative environment, for performing artists as part of ensemble mentality, to explore “the real through the unreal”, free expression through style and form, in an atmo¬sphere of performance creation.

•   to produce a creative alternative environment for our audiences and community where people can engage in an collective dynamic on intellectual and visceral levels through personal and social means.

•    to bridge the gap of artistic mediums by gathering our diverse community of artistic talent through the concept of ‘total theatre’;

physical movement, dance, music and visual arts into productions.

•   to engage in our community of Calgary in an artistically social capacity through workshops, community development initiatives, and direct support using classic dramatic texts as a relating point.

•   to encourage the next generation of Calgary’s artists through internship, education, professional development, and research opportu¬nities.

Our APPROACH

Theatre Encounter in part takes its name from Jerzy Grotowski who said “the core of the theatre is an encounter.” We are not interested in traditional dramatic approaches to theatre that are popular, but rather alternative directions for each production. We seek to alter classic texts with variant aspects of style such as Wagnerian drama, Expressionism, Surrealism, Melodrama, ritual, montage, symbolism and other non-traditional approaches, all using various forms to connect the actor to the spectator with an encounter of experiencing something real. This encounter is the core of our work. As a result, our work is highly experimental and extremely physical, a physicalized rendition of the original that often brings audiences on an artistic journey that most have not experienced. Rooted in intense physical explorations, we use the body and action as the starting point for inquiry. Each production is steeped in theory. In this way, we offer a very focused and unique approach to theatre, setting it apart from other traditionally contemporary companies in Calgary.

Theatre Encounter creates an audience base interested in reconnect¬ing to quintessential work. Alternative versions attract young adult audiences craving fresh interpretations. Stimulating intellectual and physical reactions is the heart of what Theatre Encounter is trying to accomplish artistically. By doing classic works, Theatre Encounter opens itself up to a broad audience potential, which incorporates diverse cultures of Calgary, who historically have been the foundation of Western classic theatre.

Our PROGRAMMING

Theatre Encounter believes in community development by inviting local artists, designers, and performers, and creating performances that include high school audiences. It also seeks to foster the next generation of artists by offering workshops and outreach development programs that include performance related classes to enhance the artistic community. Theatre Encounter’s accredited MFA staff, plus other local artists offer this opportunity. 

Wanting to break the barriers between the arts, Theatre Encounter brings Calgary’s artists together through the concept of ‘total theatre’, by bridging the gap of dance, music, film and visual arts. One of the ways we commit to community development is through supporting the community of Calgary in artistic development via intensive workshops specializing in the aforementioned techniques. Our unique approach to theatre is a rare offering in Canadian theatre, and afforded through our international and educational experience.

Our PROCESS

Theatre Encounter works within a very large rehearsal process. Each show is worked on for over a year in advance, and rehearsals with the performers are usually up to half a year; a substantial length of time compared to the typical three week rehearsal process that most theatres abide by. Theatre Encounter uses this elongated rehearsal process for an in-depth look into the play, and involves a lot of physical explorations, strength conditioning, style development, performative theory and script building. One of the unique approaches to our work is spending a significant amount of time creating the physicality of the play through impulse, free-movement, martial arts, dance, and somatic explorations, before adding the text.  Actors often undergo extensive physical and stylistic training as an important compontent of this.

Theatre Encounter’s performance history starts and ends with the physical. We modify quintessential scripts and bring them into a more contemporary context, without losing the essence of the text. We are constantly searching for the text’s essence and experimenting with the physical and vocal tools of the performers, and then choosing what we feel shows this essence most effectively.

"The theater, which is in no thing, but makes use of everything - gestures, sounds, words, screams, light, darkness - rediscovers itself at precisely the point where the mind requires a language to express its manifestations." [Artaud]