Dive into the creative minds of playwright solar punks, envisioning radical pluralistic futures where nature and community thrive in this series of staged readings from Climate Change Theatre Action 2023 - All Good Things Must Begin.
Downstage’s Katherine Rawlinson sat down with theatre artist and All Good Things Must Begin co-director, Saeid Asgarian, to discuss the power of theatre to transform society. All Good Things Must Begin takes place at Motel Theatre from November 17 - 19, presented by Downstage and the Immigrant Council for Arts Innovation.
Katherine: You’re co-directing All Good Things Must Begin with Downstage Artistic Director, Clare Preuss. This is a staging of a collection of 5 minute plays by international playwrights, inspired by the title of an Octavia Butler scientific journal entry All Good Things Must Begin for the Climate Change Theatre Action Initiative. What enticed you to be a part of this project?
Saeid: I've guided some shows at the University of Calgary, where I’m currently a Masters candidate in Theatre Studies, but I haven’t yet had many other chances to direct shows outside of the university as an immigrant director here in Calgary. So it’ll be challenging and a good opportunity for me to learn about Canadian culture and Canadian art. It will help me to be a better director in Canada in the future.
Katherine: What is your research focus at the University of Calgary?
Saeid: I’ve been uncovering how theatre can help integrate immigrants into host society. And it's a very important issue right now in Canada because this beautiful country has between 400,000 to 1 million new people each year. Theatre can be a tool to help us understand each other better. Now, with the right show, you can connect with people of any background. I think it's the magic of theatre.
Katherine: You're already starting to answer my next question, which is, what do you see as theatre’s role in integrating newcomers?
Saeid: Yeah, it's a big question. It’s the main portion of my thesis. Integrating different people together in theatre is a process. I know we can share a show with audiences and work on basic awareness. But the actual process of theatre, I think, is the most important thing for intake. It's an opportunity for integration because people spend a lot of time beside and with each other, and they need to communicate with each other and find a way to understand other perspectives. For instance you’re from Canada, right? And you have different backgrounds. Your childhood, your high school, your memories, your beliefs probably are different than mine. So, if I want to work with you, and if we want to make a high quality show, and share it with audiences, we need to understand each other. It's essential.
Katherine: That's great. Tell me more about your process as a Director.
Saeid: I can answer in two parts. In my previous work on more traditional theater and texts, I tried to understand, what is this text? What are the terms? What is the most important moment? What is the climax? What is the relationship between the characters? What is the relationship between the stage and audience? And the answer to these questions begin to form the show. But these days I work more in a laboratory theatre setting where we get to start with just an idea and have the time to develop that idea in a workshop together. I think we should always consider the audience. We are making this show…for who?
All Good Things Must Begin will be playing at Motel Theatre from November 17 - 19 at 7:30 pm. For more information and to buy your tickets, please visit downstage.ca.