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Commission

In the SongBird Forest

This piece was a commissioned piece that came out of the Forest in Danger field trip as part of this year’s Artist Brigade.

Artist Statement

In the SongBird Forest involves six Blue People (performers in large blue masks) inhabiting a spot in this special place. The performance emerges from a project of Runaway Moon Theatre in which these beings have appeared in different natural and human settings. We have discovered that the Blue People have the very appealing qualities of curiosity and openness, qualities which translate into curiosity from their unplanned audience. We also discovered that they are stunningly photogenic, with their form, colour, and movement. Because they are all the same blue and the same ambiguous scale they create an image of wonder and beauty.

The intention is to draw attention to performance art in Nature, in turn bringing attention back to nature. We hope that by introducing the Blue People to the SongBird Forest they can draw attention to its plight of being slated for logging in 2024.

Artist Bio

Cathy Stubington is a multidisciplinary artist who lives on an organic vegetable farm in Grindrod, in Secwepemc traditional territory in the Interior of B.C.. Since 2000 most of her ventures have been through Runaway Moon Theatre of which she is Artistic Director, producing both puppet theatre and large-scale community-engaged art projects.

PRODUCTION CREDITS

DATE: April 2022

VENUE: Songbird Forest

WITH: Cathy Stubington


Artistic Director & Mask Design

Cathy Stubington

Filmmaker

Trent Maynard

Production Assistant

Ali Casey

Performance Lead

Thomas Conlin Jones

Musician

Matthew Ariaratnam

Photographer

Shel Neufeld

Performer

Nita Bowerman

Performer

Bella Casey

Performer

Leah Day

Performer

Chantal Gering

Performer

Mohammed Zaqout

Performer

Matthew Ariaratnam

Performer

Thomas Conlin Jones