Presented by Rumble

Director’s Lab 2020

February 24 – 28, 2020

Workshop, Mentorship Program

Facilitated by Maiko Yamamoto

Progress Lab 1422 

This year Rumble presented the seventh edition of Directorsʼ Lab, led by Siminovitch Prize-winning director Maiko Yamamoto.  

Entitled “Directing from the Inside > Out”, the Lab focused on adapting autobiographical material and found texts into performance. The masterclass explored the integration of narrative and counter narrative and the adaptive cohesion of dramaturgical form in the creation of new works, and included discussions with guest artists around dramaturgy, design, and defining one’s audience. We were also fortunate to have Registered Clinical Counsellor (and former theatre artist) Tanya Podlozniuk join us for the week to assist participants with the process of working with difficult material. 

The guiding questions for this year’s masterclass were: 

1) Building Content: How do you build performance from autobiographical / biographical material and/or lived experience? 

2) Finding Form: How does this content become structured into compelling performance and navigate larger concepts and broader questions? 

3) Entering Dialogue: How do form and content come together through direction, with considerations of design and production elements, and become a full performance with a consciousness of intended audience? 

About Our Masterclass Leader: Maiko Yamamoto

Since 2003, Maiko has been an Artistic Director of Theatre Replacement, a company she formed with fellow artist James Long. The company’s work has focused on building new, experimental and intercultural performances that react to contemporary existence through a highly evolved and extended process of collaboration, and explores unique and challenging ways of using content and staging material. In addition to her work with T/R, Maiko directs, writes, teaches, mentors and creates contemporary performance for and with a diverse range of companies and institutions, including the National Theatre School, Company 605, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the MAKE Artists Residency in Ireland, among others. She holds a BFA in Theatre from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and a MAA in Visual Art from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. theatrereplacement.org 

Masterclass Leader

Maiko Yamamoto

Director’s Lab 2020 Participants

Ariel Martz-Oberlander
Daniela Atiencia
Dennis Gupa
Lili Robinson
Lola Ryan
Alisha Davidson
Megan Stewart
Robin Luckwaldt
Santana Berryman
Zahida Rahemtulla