Left Opened is a poetry, improvised piano and dance collaboration about the experience of anxiety. We filmed Left Opened on February 19th at the Orpheum Annex in Vancouver; the film is currently in the editing phase with a projected completion date of December 2019.

The teaser is now ready to share!
Which is the main purpose of this blog.

But before we get to that, I’d love to share the story of the film with you, and acknowledge everyone who made this project possible.

The Story of the Collaboration

Back in 2016, I approached Craig Addy (classically trained pianist and bold musical improviser) with a rough concept — I’d written a poem about anxiety and I wondered if he’d like to work together to add a musical tension and landscape to the piece. Just for fun.

We spent the next two years connecting in his living room to workshop, rehearse, and expand on that rough concept. 

There was a lot that I wanted to say and explore with Left Opened (I’ll be sharing more about this soon) but the real heart of the project has ended up being the dialogue  — the listening and responding — that occurs between myself and Craig throughout this exploration.

Since the very beginning, we were less concerned with creating something perfect (which would have been impossible anyway, since the music is entirely improvised) and more with exploring the collaborative process. We used our rehearsals to learn how to trust and be witnessed by one another; how to be vulnerable and bold in our choices; and how to support one another moment-to-moment, no matter what happened. 

I became so much braver as a performer during this process. 

Rick Etkin joined our team in September 2018. With his guidance as our director and cinematographer, we decided to film Left Opened, and finally document this collaboration. His belief in what we’d created lifted this project to new heights. None of this would have been possible without his leadership and imagination. 

Planning took place over the next 6 months. 

We secured the Orpheum Annex Theatre as our venue and a Steinway Concert Grand as our piano (which is incredible). Teo Van Raalte joined us as our sound engineer in December and introduced us to dancers Vitantonio Spinelli and Drew Temple. It hadn’t been our original plan, but I liked the idea of adding a physical exploration of anxiety to the project. After meeting them, I knew they were going to bring something special to the collaboration, and their focus, passion, vulnerability, and skill exceeded my expectations. 

Because Left Opened is entirely improvised, we realized we were going to have to film the collaboration start to finish without any cuts. That’s a 12+ minute take. We used 5 different cameras to capture all the angles, and 4 different mics to capture the audio landscape.

In addition to the above, our incredible crew also included:

Tina Mohns (Second Camera), Rob Sturgess (set stills), Stephanie Seemel (her title is specific to this project. I want to call her our conductor; she helped Craig and I follow each other in the loud theatre), Lea Chambers (Slate), Kris Constable (Digitech and Data),  Karen Gary and Marn Norwich (our production assistants), and Zoran Dragelj (Behind-the-Scenes video). 

Left Opened was filmed on February 19th, over a 10 hour shoot day. I am so, so grateful to the morale and enthusiasm of the entire crew. Energy stayed high the entire day amidst a shared feeling that we were creating something special.

I was still buzzing from the experience a week later.  

A few weeks ago, Trevor Jacobson joined us as our film editor to bring this project to the finish line in style.

Maddi Dewalt has also joined us to edit an alternate and experimental version of the film, with a heavy feature on the dance.

We’re very lucky to have both of them on our team.

The teaser I’m about to share with you was cut together by our director and my co-producer Rick Etkin, and features some of my favourite moments from our shoot day.

I hope you enjoy. 

Left Opened Teaser Trailer:

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I’ll be sharing more information about my goals in writing a poem about anxiety in the first last week of November. Stay tuned.