A tag team interview of six questions with Emma Letki and Meg Dryden from Ten Toes production Pluto’s Revenge, part of the Dance Initiative of the Toronto Fringe Festival 2012!
Lucy: Can you tell me a bit about what you’ve been doing lately?
Emma: It’s been a very exciting year for me so far.
Meg: The girl has been BUSY!
Emma: I was the production assistant for the Dora nominated Everything Under The Moon, and I was in a few other dance festivals.
Meg: Not to mention this is Emma’s 2nd time in the Toronto Fringe Festival. Two years ago her piece Life Games had a successful run in the festival.
Emma: Which Meg helped out with.
Meg: Yup, I did the media on that one.
Emma: And you’ve had another play preformed the FIND Festival at the University of Victoria.
Meg: Yar, The Curse of Macbeth, ‘twas called. That was a fun one, it was performed in a haunted theatre. But lately I’ve been working behind the scenes, seeing how other people approach film and theatre.
Lucy: How did the concept for this year’s Fringe show develop?
Emma: I yelled at Meg a bit.
Meg: No you didn’t. You just annoyed me until I produced something.
Emma: But isn’t that how all good collaborations happen?
Meg: Yes? But what pretty much happened was I came up with about 10 different story ideas —
Emma: There wasn’t 10–
Meg: 10 ideas, pitched them to Emma, and we chose the best.
Emma: Naturally the one with space won.
Meg: The one about bread lost-
Emma: There was none about bread.
Meg: Sadly no.
Lucy: Maybe next year!? Can you describe your creative process?
Emma: Once we had our story idea to work from, Meg wrote up a basic scene break down.
Meg: Several versions of the story-
Emma: Which me, the other dancers and the musicians expanded upon. And as rehearsals went along, Meg continued to update the script and work with dancers to flesh out the characters.
Lucy: Artists take part in the Fringe for a variety of reasons — what was your inspiration to put your work on its feet in the Fringe Festival format?
Emma: We wanted to work together-
Meg: We’ve been talking about it for years, and since we were both in the city at the same time for the first time in six years.
Emma: So why not? We both have a history of working on the stage, but from very difference angles. We each bring a difference point of view to the creation of the work.
Meg: Where Emma zigs, I zag…but with dance and talking….if you know what I mean.
Emma: Once we found out we were lucky enough to get into the Fringe, we gathered more creative minds.
Meg: Musicians, costumes-
Emma: Dancers, lighting designers–oh and our lovely stage manager!
Meg: It’s been a very inspiring foundation to work from.
Lucy: How would you describe your work to potential Fringe audiences, who don’t necessarily see lots of dance?
Meg: Well Pluto’s Revenge isn’t really a traditional dance piece.
Emma: It’s very character and plot driven-
Meg: Which is my fault. I’m sorry Emma.
Emma: it’s okay, I think I made it work.
Meg: I think in a way, the piece is a melting pot of a little of both of us: dance, theatre-
Emma: Obscure sci-fi references that only Meg and 1% of the population might get-
Meg: Emma, more than 1% know about Doctor Who and Star Trek. It’s a thing.
Emma: It’s a thing?
Meg: Yeah it is.
Emma: Moving on. There is a lot of non-dance things that a non-traditional dance audience will get.
Meg: Dialogue being one of them. But I have to say for as many jokes and plot points I threw in, Emma threw in some major dance moves-
Emma: And the rest of the awesome team of dancers that I work with. But I would say that Pluto’s Revenge is a dance with jokes in it.
Meg: Pluto’s Revenge is like this conversation, but on a stage.
Lucy: What inspires you to keep making, creating, producing, performing?
Meg: Our friendship!
Emma: Awww. Or our love for our craft.
Meg: Yeah, I guess that’s good too.
Emma: We are continually inspired by the amazing art and performance that are coming out of Toronto-
Meg: And the rest of Canada
Emma: And the world.
Meg: And we want to contribute our own voices and stories.
Emma: Yar!
(photos by Andrea de Keijzer)
By: Meg Dryden
Company: Ten Toes
Choreographer: Collaboratively created by Ten Toes
Cast: Keevin Andrew – Composer
Meg Dryden – Playwright
Aria Evans – Choreographer/ Dancer
Kelly Gammie – Choreographer/ Dancer
Emma Letki – Choreographer/ Dancer
Kelly Morden – Choreographer/ Dancer
Vennie Tu – Composer/ Musician
Show length: 50min.
This performance is accessible for non-English speakers
venue
show times
July 04 08:45 PM
July 06 07:00 PM
July 07 04:00 PM
July 09 06:00 PM
July 11 08:00 PM
July 13 10:45 PM
July 14 01:45 PM
at-the-door tickets ($10)
advance tickets ($9 + $2 service charge)
Available up to three hours prior to the start of a performance: Online at www.fringetoronto.com
By Phone at 416-966-1062
July 2nd – 15th, daily, 9:30am – 6:30pm
In person at the Festival Box Office
July 4th – 15th, 12 – 10pm @ The Fringe Club, 581 Bloor St. W.
Value Packs:
5 Pack ($45) – savings of $510 Pack ($82) – savings of $18!more info: www.fringetoronto.com