“An engaging, moving, and immersive experience that prompted new insights
and viewpoints both professionally and personally.”
– Gregg Taylor, Director, Family Services of Greater Vancouver / Counsellor
Synopsis:
Left Opened is a poetry, improvised piano and improvised dance collaboration about the experience of anxiety.
Centred around a five-part narrative poem, Left Opened explores the sensations, melodies, metaphors, and movements associated with anxiety. Rather than offering solutions, or telling a hero’s narrative that turns anxiety into a villain that we needed to beat down or destroy by the end, we were specifically interested in exploring the ‘experience’ of anxiety. This film is a collective exploration; our focus was listening, supporting, and building on one another’s voices.
VIEW A SHORT PREVIEW OF THE FILM
Our Story
Back in 2016, I approached Craig Addy 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. Much later on in the process, we were joined by dancers Drew and Vitantonio who added movement to the piece — an addition to our topic of anxiety, which I now see as invaluable.
There was a lot that I wanted to say and explore with Left Opened but the real heart of the project has ended up being the dialogue — the listening and responding — that occurs between all four performers throughout this 15 minute one take marathon of a film.
Since the very beginning, we were less concerned with creating something perfect, 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 feel so proud of what we ended up creating together.
View a Short Preview of the Film
Metaphors and Anxiety
I’ve found that approaching mental health through a metaphoric lens is incredibly powerful (especially right now, amidst this pandemic, with so many folks experiencing severe anxiety for the first time in their lives) because it gives people an opportunity to creatively define their experience.
The two main metaphors for anxiety I explored through the film are: ‘anxiety is a box’ that I need to escape from and ‘anxiety is an enemy’ that I need to destroy. I provide more context for these metaphors in the following article.
Left Opened features (cast):
Direction and Cinematography
“Collaborating on a passion project with such a talented, dedicated and motivated team, all working to create a performance piece with an important message was an honour and a pleasure. Anxiety affects so many people and Christine’s poem inspired me the first time I heard her recite some of the opening lines.”
Production Team:
B Cam Operator:
Tina Mohns
2nd Assistant Director:
Stephanie Seemel
Slate & Script Supervisor:
Lea Chambers
Set Stills:
Rob Sturgess
Behind-the-Scenes Recording:
Zoran Dragelj
Digitech:
Kris Constable
Production Assistant:
Karen Garry
Production Assistant:
Marn Norwich
Theatre Technician:
Levi Pease
View the 60 Second Trailer
This is a compilation of some of our favourite shots from the film. Edited by our director, Rick Etikin.
About the Sound Mixing
Sound capture and mixing was done by TEO VAN RAALTE and Oceanview audio.
Craig and I are performing at the same time, which posed some challenges. We used 3 different mics to capture all of the nuance of piano, and 2 mics to capture the performance of the poem.
Craig Addy is playing the Annex’s beautiful Steinway grand piano.
About the Editing
Left Opened tells a story about anxiety, but also about collaboration. With this in mind, we decided to share our story in two different ways.
- MADISON DEWALT created a conceptual and non-linear version of the film that visually dramatizes the narrative and invites audience members into the experience of anxiety itself. (Left)
- TREVOR JACOBSON roots our story in a firm sense of place (a black box theatre), beautifully capturing the spirit of the improvisation — our mistakes and moments of synchronicity — exactly as they happened on the day. (Right)
“Maybe the ability to heal, doesn’t mean the ability to explain,’
— this section of the poem really hit home for me with a personal experience about trauma and recovery, actually (not anxiety) – it felt very relatable & really captured how I feel and actually helped me make sense of how I feel.”
Attendee at our pre-screening on December 9th, 2019
READ MORE AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
View Our Press Package
Our press package includes the bios of our creative team, testimonials, photographs, and a longer version of our story.
Gallery
Photo credit: Rob Sturgess
Connect with us
Are you interested in:
- Screening our film.
- Hosting us for a live performance.
- Learning more about our goals and mission, and the inspiration for this collaboration.
- Working with us to host workshops exploring the experience of anxiety with teens and adults.
Please send me an email at christine(at)9creativelives(dot)com. I’d love to connect.