Speaking with the assistant director about student-led play at Mt.A: Nocturnal Variations
Under the moonlight on cold February nights, a new puppet show is set to premiere at the Motyer-Fancy Theatre (MFT). Nocturnal Variations is a student-led puppet cabaret featuring original puppets created and performed by Mt.A students. This production is recommended for ages 14 and over, with Kayla Trites highlighting themes addressing the “precarity of life,” with humour, grace, and absurdity. In an interview with The Argosy fouth-year Mt.A. English student Kayla Trites, assistant director and puppeteer in the production, detailed the process and creating and organizing this production.
“It is not like anything else we have done at the MFT,” says Trites. The production places student work at its center, with creativity and individuality driving every aspect of the show.
Trites and show Director Ian McFarlane, who also serves as Trites research project supervisor, began by opening applications to students. Inviting pitches for puppet scenes exploring themes of grief and transformation. Applicants came from a range of programs and years of study, including students who had previously worked backstage, now taking the spotlight. The show is devised, meaning the artists started with their initial proposals, and the show blossomed from there. The student artists were able to shape the direction of their scenes, and work collaboratively at every stage of the process.
Trites started by thinking about how “puppets can tell a story”. The cast worked with object theatre, exploring how to give objects a personality through their movement, and focused on the stories created by the student cast. McFarlane took these scene ideas and then created a script which was born from ideas of “dream” and “transformation,” says Trites. This script draft process led to further character creation, such as a hostess character who is described by Trites as a guide for the audience “through the variety show”. Between script drafts, the artists then met together in groups, discussing their ideas, and working on individual scenes, and receiving feedback on the scenes from Trites and McFarlane. After defining these ideas, the cast and crew began the creation of the physical puppet and began discovering the direction of their scenes. Students not only had a say over the characterization of their puppets, but also the lighting and sound design, something unique in comparison to other productions at the MFT.
“We showcase a lot of different kinds of puppets than what people would think they are,” says Trites. The show will feature a variety of different puppets, such as fabric puppets, shadow puppetry, wooden puppets, and more. With the huge variety in acts and puppet styles in Nocturnal Variations, each audience member can walk away from the show with a different part that brought them joy. Through her research, Trites has learned that the abstractness of a puppet allows the audience to better connect to the show and its themes. She elaborates saying that “the great thing about a puppet scene is that it is not the real thing. It is abstract.”
Trites’s role as assistant director has been in conjunction with an independent research project on puppeteering and the exploration on what “makes” a puppet. “It comes down to animation of an object,” said Trites, explaining how a puppet can be any object, you just have to “give it life” through movement. “There was discovery through doing,” stated Trites, recalling McFarlane encouraging her to explore the fluidity and movement of puppets through a hands-on approach. “I thought all my words had to come from a paper… instead I led activities and tried not to write it into one thesis” said Trites. One such activity asked participants to bring in objects from home, meaningful or not, and move them, exploring how their placement and how the act of moving can create emotions. “Why, when the salt shaker is laying on its side, do we think it’s sad” recalls Trites. She highlights never finding a definite answer, as McFarlane encouraged her to “ask questions” rather than “explain words,” says Trites.
Nearing the end of the show’s creation process, the cast returned to the show’s themes of grief and transformation, finding a way to connect the scenes together. As the crew worked together, Trites was glad to see the impact the show’s themes had on the group, and the beauty of “having a script born from their own unique ideas,” says Trites. Nocturnal Variations is a passion project for the artists, with everything from the sets, props, and puppets, having been lovingly handcrafted by the students, and it is something that every cast and crew member should be proud of.
According to Trites, the show is very immersive, and is compared to entering a liminal space, a mix between a “cabaret” and “a dreamland.” She urges audiences, “don’t come in with expectations,” encouraging audiences to feel free to laugh, percieve, and come away from a joyous experience. Nocturnal Variations is a hugely student-led production unlike any other shows put on at the MFT. The puppets will be exhibitioned in the MFT the week of the show, giving the community the opportunity to appreciate the dedicated work of the student artists.
Nocturnal Variations runs from Feb. 4-7 at 7:30 p.m., with a 2 p.m. performance added to the Saturday date. Tickets currently being sold online, with limited tickets available at the door.
To purchase tickets online visit: https://app.ticketowl.io/aJ4piRT-ecPdFwg7/event/aLHcnDcIu3hQPh_1