about TheatreRUN Canada

A note by Adam Paolozza

Artistic Director of TheatreRUN Canada

TheatreRUN was founded in 2003 by myself and a group of five graduates of the École Jacques Lecoq in Paris. We created original, devised work and toured extensively in the USA and Edinburgh. Since 2005, I have established  TheatreRUN Canada in Toronto as a vehicle to create and produce my own, original work.

The company is driven by artistic values, such as craftsmanship, formal innovation, and ongoing research and development into traditional and experimental theatrical forms.

I place a strong emphasis on teaching as a way to pass on the craft as well and to continually explore innovation in training techniques.

I place an enormous value in working in a collaborative process.

I think the most important thing about theatre is that it happens live, in real time, in a real space with a group of people who come together to share an experience. Whatever happens during this experience is the true meaning of theatre – it lies beyond words and rational explanations.

I work in both French and English. I create work from:

• existing theatrical texts
• adapting literature and other non-theatrical texts, such as poetry and letters
• devised, original ideas

My work is heavily influenced by Mime and is preoccupied with the way the human body expresses itself through movement, gesture and rhythm. One of the recurring themes in my work is the beautiful vulnerability of the human condition and our precarious place in history. I like to think that my work, even when it faces the dark side of our nature, still celebrates the joy of being alive and human.

Artistic Mandate: Some Notes Towards a Personal Manifesto

1) Bring back to the theatre what is theatrical

2) The work is Mime in the largest possible sense of the word.
Mime as a way to make phsyical contact with the world by embodying it through imitation.
Mime as a re-presentation, a selection, a “showing-again”, of the world.

2) The theatre must first and foremost be concerned with creating a space : from a space a rhythm can be born. From a rhythm comes a re-presentation of time. In this vision of time and space we must present what is usually unseen, unheard, surpressed, censored and unsaid. In this sense we engage in a politics of “seeing” and “giving to be seen” and all the responsibility that comes with this.

3) The weight of tradition should not be borne in a reactionary manner; everything is possible, everything is to be reinvented.

4) The energy of creation must be released from the friction of a true dialectic with tradition. Tradition not as a monolithic structure but as a point of departure, a doorway, a generator of sparks. A culture without a tradition is a culture that runs around as a chicken with its head cut off, a culture of hysteria, an attention deficit culture, in short a culture outside of history, i.e. modern global capitalism.

5) The arts are the last refuge of the irrational, the illogical and the absurd. These are still given a voice in the arts and a space in which to be seen and heard

6) No more work that concerns itself with Form in a clumsy, self-conscious or ironic way. We must accept the Formal nature of what we do and get on with the business of creating

7) Sometimes to adhere strictly to tradition is the most revolutionary act..

8) Do not avoid the cliché. Engage the cliché and pass through it.

9) The work must at all times entertain a rigorous dialogue with the Past, like the Roman god Janus, always looking forwards and backwards at the same time.

A TheatreRUN history:

2003

*Adam Paolozza, Molly Feingold, Sophie Fletcher and Martine Eichenberger graduate from École Jacques Lecoq and form TheatreRUN

*Horror Vacui: A Twisted Tale is created and previews in the geriatric ward of an art therapy hospital in Paris, and premiers in New York at the International Fringe Festival

*TheateRUN’s creates Cabaret Fou! a music-hall style review

2004

*Horror Vacui: A Twisted Tale plays to sold out houses at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC and garners rave reviews at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival

*Bertie Wiesner joins TheatreRUN as company manager for Edinburgh-Charleston mini tour

*Consolidated Works Contemporary Arts Center in Seattle, WA commissions TheatreRUN’s second full length creation, Russian Doll

*performer Jimmy Garver and writer Andy Miara join the TheatreRUN ensemble for Russian Doll

*Russian Doll wins Seattle Times Footlight award for best of Independent Theatre

2005

*Russian Doll plays at the Piccolo Spoleto festival

2005

*Adam Paolozza establishes TheatreRUN Canada in Toronto

*Adam Paolozza collaborates with Toronto’s Theatre Smith-Gilmour on Chekhov’s Heartache

2006

*Adam Paolozza collaborates with artist Laura Nanni on the Playground series of performance/installations

2007

*Adam Paolozza collaborates and performs in Theatre Smith-Gilmour’s Lu Xun Blossoms in China. The piece is a co-production with the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre

2008

*Adam Paolozza collaborates and performs in Theatre Smith-Gilmour’s The Mansfield Project at the Factory Theatre in Toronto

*the TheatreRUN Canada-Why Not Theatre co-production of the clown show TOOLS is the best-selling production of the Toronto Clown Festival

*TheatreRUN Canada presents the workshop performance of Artaud: un portrait en décomposition in Toronto

2009

*TheatreRUN canada, Theatre Smith-Gilmour and Why Not Theatre co-production of SPENT is best selling show of Toronto Clown fest and goes on to successful run at Factory Studio Theatre

*TheatreRUN canada and Why Not Theatre co-creation of The Raven, by Poe is presented at the Young Centre as part of Luminato’s New Waves Festival and later at the Factory Theatre’s Lab Cab Festival.

*Adam Paolozza and Coleen MacPherson translate and develop The Pasolini Project.

2010

*SPENT is nominated for 3 Dora Mavor Moore awards, Best New Play, Best overall Production and Best Performance by an Ensemble. It goes on to win Best Performance by and Ensemble (Adam Paolozza and Ravi Jain)

*Staged reading of The Pasolini Project at Canadian Stage’s Festival of Iddeas and Creation.

*New creation, The Double, adapted from Dostoevsky’s novella presented at Theatre Passe Muraille’s BUZZ Festival. Piece is co-created with Arif Mirabdolbaghi.

*Spent is remounted for a four week run at the Factory Theatre.

2011

*New production of Artaud presented at Théâtre Français de Toronto, L’Empire de la nuit to be presented at L’Alliance Français’ salon du livre and international workshop with Marcello Magni from Théâtre du Complicité.