Launching The Investigator

It's been a long journey, but Yukon Digital Theatre Collective is finally ready to launch The Investigator. I'm the lead creator on this project, as well as a co-artistic producer on all five of the projects being developed under Yukon Digital Theatre Collective (YDTC).

The whole concept behind the YDTC was to offer theatre creators the chance to learn about digital theatre and then deliberately create and/or adapt their work to be presented digitally. We were inspired by all of the brave productions which pivoted from in person productions during the pandemic, and wanted to learn from those productions to question what would happen if we weren't pivoting, but intentionally creating digital theatre and taking the time we needed.

Well, turns out, there never quite seems to be enough time or money when creating digital theatre and it has been a big learning curve. Not only for us artists, but also for the developer we hired to do my project and Lillian Nakamura Maguire's project, Harrison Sparrow. All of us have pushed through and learned from each other though. I'm very proud that we launched Lillian's project on January 5 as well as a hub website for all five of the projects and now, on January 25, The Investigator.

I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, and this project has been prompting me to work on letting that go. Which is fitting as after picking up the hobby of weaving (thanks to funding from Canada Council of the Arts for research on the original one person play The Weaver), I've been reminding myself to let go of perfection while working on my weaving projects. Theatre also isn't the place for perfection, if I wanted that I should have pursued film. It's just in person we can forget actors' slight change of words, or enjoy a design compromise. Working digitally, it's hard not to get caught up in seeking perfection. But we're only human, and there is only so much time and money.

The Investigator is imperfect, but really, that makes it even closer to the fallible humanity inherent in theatre.

The Investigator wouldn't have been possible without all of these wonderful humans below and of course the funders:

Dramaturg & Co-Artistic Producer: Patti Flather

Developer: Harrison Sparrow

Sound Designer, Composer, Audio Producer: Jordy Walker

Audio Recording Director & Voice Actor: Meredith Pritchard

Voice Actors: Christine Genier, Ken Green, Carman Lam Brar, Ames Val

Funded by Canada Council for the Arts with rehearsal space thanks to @YAC Residency Program and Yukon Government Department of Tourism and Culture.

Original one act play researched & developed with funding from Canada Council for the Arts. Development support from Manitoba Association of Playwrights for a half day workshop with Yvette Nolan as dramaturg. Special thanks to weaving consultant Heather Meiklejohn.

Experience The Investigator at: YouAreTheInvestigator.com

Also check out the other Yukon Digital Theatre Collective projects at: YukonDigitalTheatreCollective.com