In June last year my friend Melissa-Kelly Franklin sent me a play she had written. Like her other work it made my heart flutter. All her work has such a distinct quality of gently zooming in on human beauty and vulnerability, tackling difficult social problems with graceful listening.
We had met during a theatre production by practitioner Yorgos Karamalegos, staged at PhysFest in Liverpool in 2013. She, a Greek-Australian filmmaker and playwright, I an Icelandic actress and artistic director, moved away from one another after that summer in England but still kept in touch about our creativities and industry frustrations.
I was so honoured last fall when she asked if I wanted to stage the production - to explore it further. She was currently staging the first R&D in Greenwich, UK. She was passionate about amplifying the discussion on global warming through environmentally friendly art forms. She spoke of the power of playwriting - how a piece of art can be staged locally with local creators for local audiences simultaneously across the world to tackle a universal problem. Melissa-Kelly has been an avid supporter of Spindrift since our earliest experimentations, and we loved this opportunity to finally get to collaborate.
I set about contacting venues local to my New York home and contacted a trusted creator friend Anne Windsland. We have frequently collaborated on photoshoots, video shoots, and experimentations. She is one of the creative women I admire and lean on the most in New York - as being a woman in the world of typecasting and modelling is only sufferable with knowing allies. I called my army of Spindrift women: Anna, Bergdís and Tinna, to be my remote producers. Brainstorming, pulling our resources, and organising together for a more supported stronger production with a lifespan exceeding this initial NYC R&D.
We set about casting the production and found two wonderful performers. Léerin Campbell, who to me seemed like a young activist Jane Fonda and painted beautifully the fire and fear of the Young Woman, and Chris Nester, equipped with humour, charm and vulnerability we hoped for in our Young Man.
Léerin, Young Woman
Chris, Young Man
Sólveig, Director
Anne, Assistant Director
Throughout our Research and Development rehearsals at Dixon Place we have brought in trusted friends of Spindrift. Directing is such a good place to confront my own confidence, strengths and weaknesses. I knew I wanted a specialist in movement, and a specialist in music, to give us the tools we needed to dive even deeper into our material.
Luckily talented Sean Hollands of Fable Workshop Theatre and Frantic Assembly was game to Skype in to our most timid movement choreography sessions. We had studied at the same school and kept an eye on each other’s creative projects. I had illustrated his most recent production poster, he had participated in my interview series GRIT. I deeply admire his incredible eye for movement, his playfulness and lightness while directing heavy material, his ability to guide even non-movers through stunningly complicated movement sequences and his passion for constantly growing as a practitioner - having recently become an intimacy coordinator in addition to his movement and theatre direction.
We also contacted lovely Pekka Koivisto. Our Finnish composer from previous Spindrift projects, and friend of Anna Korolainen Crevier. There are few people who can create as beautiful complicated pieces from as vague directions. I remember throwing him the words “womb! earthy! embrace!” and out came a gorgeous cello theme music for our production Carroll: Berserkur, also featured in our workshop series. Creative talent much desired when as musically challenged as yours truly.
Melissa-Kelly, Playwright
Anna, Producer
Sean, Movement Director
Bergdís, Producer
Pekka, Composer
Tinna, Producer
We have three more weeks of rehearsals left of this R&D, before working with local artists in Reykjavík during Reykjavík Fringe Festival at the beautiful venue Iðnó. This beautiful piece of new writing is slowly taking shape, ranging from humorous playful moments of a young couple’s loving relationship to their deepest fears and anger. While organising these rehearsals we did not foresee the severity of the bush fires in Australia, and suddenly a piece warning about the potential future felt like a horridly contemporary tale. Throughout all, the main message is hope. Hope for humanity. Hope for the future.