We arrived in London town in the evening. Walked around downtown. Not too many people around. Diners, boutiques, haircuts, pawn shops, restaurants, record stores, McDonalds, a library, beautiful old buildings, parking lots where buildings must have been before. A new place to dig. When the sun comes up we will see the light on downtown London. What will we see?!
Check out our article in the London Free Press HERE!
or read all about it below....
Seeking stories of downtown
JULY 16, 2012 CORE: A Toronto production company adds London to its list for its Tale of the Town By: KATE DUBINSKI, The London Free Press
Remember going to the movies in the underground Smuggler's Alley? How about shopping at the Simpson's department store, or visiting the monkey at the old Covent Garden Market?
Your downtown memories will become the foundation for a unique theatre experience coming to London.
Members of Fixt Point, a Toronto production company, will set up in downtown London starting Thursday, gathering stories about the city's downtown.
They'll be here for two weeks, listening to and recording tales that they'll turn into a theatre and documentary project using the anecdotes and audio footage.
Eventually, they'll come back to London to put on an interactive performance -- a Tale of a Town -- in an empty storefront.
The exact show will be dictated by the stories Londoners tell.
"We know stories about pioneers and settlers, but one of our beliefs is that we should celebrate our recent past more," said Charles Ketchabaw, theatre director for Fixt Point.
"The stories should be in the living memory of people."
A story-mobile -- basically a trailer -- will be set up in various locations downtown from 2 to 4 p.m. daily for the next two weeks, starting Thursday.
People can come in and tell their stories with Ketchabaw and artistic director Lisa Marie DiLiberto. For those who can't make it downtown, a hotline has been set up.
"It's a multi-layered, site-specific documentary project," Ketchabaw said.
The production company will eventually use archives, props, costumes and artists for its performance.
Similar projects have been performed and are ongoing in Toronto, St. Catharines and Huntsville. Ketchabaw also is working on a Tale of a Town in Kampala, Uganda.
"We want people from all walks of life to share their stories," he said. "Everyone's story is equally important. We want to inspire change, to bring people back downtown, to celebrate the entrepreneurs, the owners, the people who live there, the eyes and ears of the place."
Cities, especially city cores, have larger-than-life characters and places that deserve to be highlighted, Ketchabaw said.
The production company has partnered with Downtown London.
"We want to honour the heritage on which our downtown was built," said Kathy McLaughlin, program co-ordinator at Downtown London.
"This is an interesting mix of creativity and technology. We love our past in London but maybe we don't celebrate our present enough."