Lake, 1990

4 performers, spoken and recorded text, multiple slide projections, screens and scrims, sung and recorded music, archery platform, contact microphone target, earth-rimmed pool, plexiglass pool, 2 raised herb gardens, camomile covered projection booth
1 hour [approximate]

No Place
Summer (discontent)
Autumn (disillusion)
Winter (strength)
Spring (hope)
Every Place

Program Note:
Lake is about the desire for a better world. It is structured in a cycle of six parts moving from No Place, through four emotions connected to that desire, to Every Place.

It is important to me that my work be affirmative and healing while not failing to recognize harsh truths about the world. My ideal is to make work that is intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually integrated. Formally, my work is also about integration and the relationship of media.

This work began in research into Arthurian literature which then led me to Celtic mythology and history. An important discovery in the development of Lake was that the literal translations of the Greek, “utopia” and the Welsh, “anwfn”, were both “no place”. Anwfn is the Celtic spirit or other world. Utopias are usually understood as manifestations of ideal worlds from a socio-political perspective. This simultaneously summed up for me a duality of the spiritual and secular and the inner (spirit) and outer (politic). Western culture has polarized these aspects of being human.

My recent work tends to be concerned with states of mind and spirit in a way that I hope has universality. However, the piece also has specifics in its images arising from feminist and ecological concerns. I am interested in what has been called the “rediscovery of religions of the earth”. Aspects of this and other Celtic ideas have led me to recognize the importance of native ideas and cultures, that I know almost nothing of them and would like to learn.

I am privileged to work with the artists and other production personnel involved with me on Lake who have allowed me to see the work realized.
– Elizabeth Chitty 1990

June 13, 14, 15 and 16, 1990
Bill Bolton Arena, Toronto
produced by Cultural Desire Projects

Elizabeth Chitty (conception, choreography, text, lyrics, co-designer, director)
Chris Clifford (lighting design)
David Hlynsky (photography, co-designer)
Paul Hodge (composer)
Jak Oliver (set design)
Robert Siddons (associate director)
Shelagh Young (costume design and fabrication)

Cast:
Elizabeth Chitty
Pamela Grundy
Helen Jones
Odette Oliver

Stage Manager: Sandra Whitely
Vocal arrangements/taped Winter vocals: Jan Kudelka
Projectionists: Patrick Jenkins, Steve Clelland
Lighting Technician: Jennifer Keith
Audio Technician: Paul Hodge
Production Assistant: Terry Kay
Carpenter: Ron Lightfoot of the Carp Shop
Set Designer’s Assistant: Brook Claremont
Screen Constructions: Donna Goodall, Judith Miller
Poster Design: Ran Gledhill, David Hlynsky
Photographer’s Assistant: David Golden
Camomile Nurseryperson: Dorene Inglis
Drowning Assistant: Judith Miller
Plexi Pool Construction: Howard Mumford
Front of House: Yvonne Bayer
Space Locator: Berenicci Hershorn
Administration: Elizabeth Chitty
Publicity: Dance Umbrella of Ontario

Photos: David Hlynsky
from top: Elizabeth Chitty, Winter (strength); Odette Oliver, Summer (discontent); Pamela Grundy and Helen Jones, Autumn (disillusion); Elizabeth Chitty, Autumn (disillusion); Helen Jones (foreground), No Place; company, Winter (strength); Odette Oliver, Spring (hope).