Theater Resource Center employs clown and dance as it explores Canada's intrinsic culture.
Who are you?" asks Richard Pochinko. A pause. A look out the window. A stutter. A laugh. That's your clown," he says, " that little place between the thought and the feeling -- what do you do? You laughed -- that is what allows you to be human".
Pochinko is one of Canada's foremost figures in Clown and Mask. He traveled around Europe for two years on a Canada Council grant studying with LeCroq, Grotowski, Peter Brook, the National Greek Theatre, and then he returned to Ottawa to direct the Young Company with the National Arts Centre. But in 1974 he felt the company wasn't sure what direction theatre was taking. "There is a lot of museum theatre. But what were the alternatives?"
He decided the best way to explore theatre was to start his own company, and hence the birth of the Theatre Resource Centre. In 1975 he rented a convent in Ottawa and hired a group of dancers, actors, and mimes and together they examined the "acting craft" Pochinko explains that when the theatre opened its goal was no to define Canadian theatre but rather "to evolve techniques to pull out whoever we are so that we could began to form our own cultural mosaic."
As the members of the Theatre began to move in different artistic directions, they spread out to discover Canada. Ian Wallace, a co-founder of the company, moved to Stratford to work with the Young Shakespeare Company, part of the group moved to Edmonton and Vancouver, and some headed for Halifax. Ultimately the company found a new home in Toronto.
Asked about the name of the Theatre, Pochinko explains; "Resource for me means tapping into the resources of the culture and then being able to funnel it, channel it, challenge it and let it our again."
Pochinko's own interests moved increasingly towards clowning and dance. He instructs that the process of discovering one's clown is a lifetime project, but essentially it involves facing all the directions of oneself and creating masks of those selves. While the masks act as anchors, the clown lies in the space between these characters.
"Clowning for me is the most immediate expression of our artistic natures because what you are doing is learning ways to celebrate not only the normalcy of you but the extremity of you . . . it allows us first of all to learn how not judge ourselves. If you face all the direction yourself, you'll be able to laugh at the sheer beauty of that that's inside you."
In 1984 Pochinko met Fiona Griffiths, who eventually joined the company. With Griffiths in mind he says; "When you can no longer speak; sing. And when you can no longer sing; dance." Griffiths trained as a nurse and then got involved in dance and choreography. Last year she completed a M.F.A. at the Concordia University. She has toured Poland with Bits and Pieces of Love From Canada, she opened in Toronto with a performance entitled Fractures and Misfits, and CBC has called her "the new face of modern dance." She sees the Theatre Resource Centre as a "meeting of Minds" where everyone is encouraged to create their own space and develop their individual talents.
Griffiths refers to her dance as "accessible abstraction." She defines abstraction as a metaphor. "Take a gesture and go far enough where it's removed from reality but it tiggers your imagination," she says. The process of making her dance accessible involve making it universal, not taking it too seriously, offering it, allowing people to take it if they want it, not trying to make them have it, not deciding that this is the message that they have to get." Pochinko adds that "It is important to explore 'the playfulness of creation,' the idea that we can all play." Although each performer is unique and each person experiencing the performance does so uniquely, the participation in someone's creation allows for a sense of community.
An important aspect of the Theatre Resource Centre are the workshops. Within the walls of the Resource Centre exterior definitions dissolve, Gender, economic status, education, and career become irrelevant. After ten intensive days of leading a workshop, Pochinko realized at the end of it that although he knew the participants very well, he did not know what they did for a living, how much money they made, etc. Griffiths explains that what the Theatre Resource Centre is interested in is people and that indefinable thing that makes them unique.
"Despite similar values and beliefs, what is it in them that keeps them from being like somebody else?" she asks.
"Its the that magic that no one else has," adds Pochinko. "That's what we're interested in. we've been so well trained to think that joy and God and happiness exist outside ourselves, but perhaps they are inside of us, and our only responsibility (if there is such a thing) is to share them with others."
While clowning allows for an exploration of the self, theatre demands the communication of what is discovered. "No matter what's in there, what's the sense of knowing it if you can't communicate it?" he asks.
"The theatre gets people to celebrate the things that happened to them instead of crying about them . . . You've got the art to keep you from getting self indulgent," adds Griffiths.
Pochinko points out the importance of keeping theatre alive and evolving, and that means not getting weighed down by definitions and labels.
"It is partly putting ourselves in the pigeon-holes that prevents us from knowing who we are . . . It's like somebody saying; My clown won't do that. The minute you say that your clown is dead. Charlie Chaplin once said; "If I ever knew what Charlie was I'd stop doing it." " Griffiths continues; "Theatre has always got to change because people change and theatre is people.
The directive of the Theatre Resource Centre is to encourage young artists to express themselves in such a way that they can provide a solid base for the future culture . . . to provide a solid alternative. Although more cynical and more realistic in their outlook, Pochinko does not find the new generation of artists jaded. Even in face of a dying planet, deadly viruses, and the threat of nuclear war, he feels that the youth generate a great power of hope and that they are searching for an expression that can turn that (a dying planet) all around.
"Lily Tomlin embodies this energy and hope," he says. "She is one of America's foremost clowns. She is not only dealing with the issues, she is making us look at them and laugh deeply at them." Pochinko sees clowning as an important function in society.
"In most indian societies the clowns come from a matriarchal source." he notes. "It was the grandmothers of the village who would say, when the chief was getting out of hand. 'Get the clowns out and get the clowns to shit on the chief's head to let him know that he's human!"
About lack of funding in the arts, Pochinko says; "We are artists and we have to contribute and start creating our own jobs. Money controls a lot of people, but I'd rather not have an ulcer. I'd rather have my crazy polish smile on every morning and be working with the people I'm working with." Both Griffiths and Pochinko look at art as a necessity as opposed to a luxury ---- and they are very critical of pretension in art. It is just like any other job no more and no less important.
"My mother had a beautiful saying," quotes Pochinko. "Always remember you are a farmer, the only difference is you are planting seeds in people's minds and hearts instead of planting seeds in the earth."
Griffiiths and Pochinko are also involved with a sister theatre ---- The Kensington Carnival Arts Society. He is associate director and she is the choreographer. The show reflects their interests as artists. It is a multimedia performance with actors, dancers, and musicians. Both feel it is important to communicate with artists from all disciplines. They play traces the history of Kensington Market from the arrival of the Jewish population from Eastern Europe, through the exploitation they experienced at the hands of Kensington Market. It also details the arrival of other ethnic groups, which turns the market into a colourful and energetic community.
"The performance celebrates the progress we are making," claims Pochinko. The show, in keeping with the clown philosophy, is performed with humour and humanness. A particularly wonderful scene occurs as night falls on the market. After a busy day of buying and selling the lights fade and the market empties, but shadow puppets of cockroaches, rats, cats, and dogs come to life in the deserted stores.
Pochinko is also the producer - director of Nion, performed by Ian Wallace. "Every generation creates artists who are just a little ahead of their time, to lead us to new forms of celebration," says Pochinko. Nion is one of these artists. "The show has had superb reviews and has been praised for costumes and sets. but particularly for the skilled performance of Ian Wallace who explores his different identities through 'sublime mime.' Another performance of Nion will be announced sometime in the fall.
Aside from productions the Theatre Resource Centre also offers workshops. This fall Pochinko will be instructing Ringmaster --- clowning, and Griffiths will be conducting several dance programs including one tentatively titled finding the Dance in Masks. The theatre is forever in a state of change and Griffiths and Pochinko want to continue to be a part of that change. The people who participate in the workshops come form all walks of life, influence the artistic direction, and contribute to the vision of the centre. "People in transition . . . people who are looking . . . Whenever a society is starting to clean up its garbage that's when clowning emerges as a major theme." (Hefferman, 1988: pg 13)
We are artists and we have to contribute and start creating our own jobs. Money controls a lot of people, but I'd rather have my crazy polish smile on every morning and be working with the people I'm working with.