On the Road

After 144 performances, Raven has landed at last in Toronto. Our impressive five months on the road saw 62 communities, from urban centres to remote villages and everything in between. One of our final stops was on the isles of Haida Gwaii, where we spent a magical week. From Prince Rupert, we boarded the overnight ferry and checked into our berths. Seven hours to cross the Hecate Strait, and we arrived early morning in Skidegate, continuing our early morning path up to Masset, which lies on the northern shores of Haida Gwaii.

On the islands of Haida Gwaii, we saw ravens of such size as we’d never seen before. None was more special to us, however, than the white raven, memorialized in the Port Clements Museum. Either a genetic rarity or a bird from the time before Raven turned black, this bird held a particular magic over the people who knew him. The only one of its kind on these 1,884 islands, the white Raven was well known and beloved by the residents of Port Clements; so much so, in fact, that they erected this sign: CAUTION! WHITE RAVEN X-ING! Sadly, in 1997, this unique animal was electrocuted.

Very, very early one morning in May, the Raven cast was up before the sun, on the way to the airport. Our eventual destination: Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, home of the University of Illinois and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. We had been invited to perform four shows over two days in one of the Center’s four main performance spaces – we were situated in the beautiful Colwell Playhouse Theatre, seating capacity of 674.

Another two months have flown by and Raven is still on the road. Red Sky spent March and April in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and British Columbia, visiting schools and venues including Kenyano College in Fort McMurray, Esplanade Theatre in Medicine Hat, Moose Jaw Cultural Centre in Moose Jaw, Festival Place in Sherwood Park, Port Theatre in Nanaimo, Max Cameron Theatre in Powell River, and Raven’s Cry Theatre in Sechelt.

Hot on the heels of Tono’s success at the Vancouver Playhouse as a featured highlight at the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad, Raven also flew in to the Cultural Olympiad with performances on Granville Island for the Winterruption Festival; at the Britannia Community Centre for the Talking Stick Festival; and culminating with three days of performances at the beautiful Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Centre in Whistler, British Columbia.

After two weeks on the road in Alberta, the Tono cast and crew arrived in Vancouver. We prepared for our performances amidst this very busy landscape, executing each technical and artistic detail with great excitement and achievement.

After our great success in Calgary, thirteen dancers, musicians, artistic and technical personnel piled in to two vans and drove north from Calgary to St. Albert, Alberta, just north of Edmonton. We were headed to the Arden Theatre for two performances in this beautiful venue. Another friendly crew was there to meet us, and lots of media too. Although our time in St. Albert was short lived, we hit our stride with fantastic performances, standing ovations, and wonderful responses from audience members.

I think I found my new home! How fortunate are we to have been able to spend a week on Vancouver Island. Our first stop was Victoria where the company had a few days off to spend checking out the place. This was much needed giving our tour to 65 communities across Canada. I couldn't believe it was winter! We had some beautiful sunny days, which made the week all the better. Our performances in Victoria were all well received; we had some huge audiences and some small ones depending on the communities and the audiences loved it all the same

We finished up in Burnaby and headed north to Merritt where we were to perform for two days. This was the beginning of our “in school” performances. We had a short stop over in Chilliwack to visit Emily, a long-time friend of Erroll’s and we also stopped in Harrison Hot Springs to get a little hot spring action. Although our time in Merritt was short we were still able to take in the beauty of the Nicola Valley. The mountains were breath taking! It was definitely quite a temperature change from Burnaby; it actually felt close to an Ontario winter!

Red Sky’s Tono is currently out west where the cast and crew of 13 people from Canada, Mongolia and China made their way to Calgary, Alberta. Hosted by the exceptional High Performance Rodeo and curated by Michael Green, Red Sky performed three shows at the Theatre Junction GRAND, and received three warm standing ovations.