Theatre Conspiracy

About

Mandate

Theatre Conspiracy taps the crosscurrents of international culture, society and politics to create, interpret and translate theatre works that speak beyond borders by:

• creating original work that speaks to international themes;
• interpreting the work of acclaimed contemporary, international playwrights;
• exploring contemporary world drama in translation;
• curating and producing events where audiences mix with local, national and international performers

Theatre Conspiracy has "an eye on the world." We tap the cross-currents of an international city and connect local audiences with the world-wide theatre conversation, whether written as a sophisticated drama, gut-busting comedy or blood-drenched tragedy. We bridge Canada to international theatre by often producing the Canadian premiere of some major international plays.

Mission

Theatre Conspiracy is committed to enhancing a rich dialogue between our city, the province and the international community. We are committed to working with other arts organizations and community leaders to achieve artistic excellence, engage audiences, raise the profile of theatre and share resources.

Up to now

Theatre Conspiracy was co-founded by Richard Wolfe and Tim Carlson, incorporated in 1995 and is a registered charity. We are backed by a large membership and a board of directors interested in both local and international culture.

Some accomplishments include:

• The Canadian premiere of four stellar productions from New Yorker Will Eno's Pulitzer-nominated Thom Pain (based on nothing) to UK dramatist Jez Butterworth's hilarious rock n roll show, Mojo.
• The North American premiere of Nobel laureate Gao Xingjian's Fugitives
• The world premiere of Tim Carlson's dystopian thriller, Omniscience. Now translated into several international productions
• The world English premiere of Heiner Müller's Macbeth: nach Shakespeare.
• The new readings series Envoys: Contemporary World Drama in Translation, a free series of translated readings to Vancouver's diverse audience.
• Produced nearly two-dozen different cabarets, music events and art openings.
• Founding member and guiding force in the See Seven marketing initiative for Vancouver independent theatre.
• Participated in Progress Lab's groundbreaking theatre installation events HIVE and HIVE2 (2008, Magnetic North Theatre Festival)
• Co-curated and co-produced the performance platform Club PuSh at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in 2009

Who we are

Tim Carlson - Artistic Producer

Tim is the artistic producer of Theatre Conspiracy in Vancouver, B.C. As a dramaturge he helped to develop Best Before with Berlin’s Rimini Protokoll (Push Festival 2009), collaborated with PuSh and Theatre Replacement on 100% Vancouver, and boca del lupo on La Marea in 2011. In the coming year: Conspiracy’s new documentary work Extraction; a new play, Nine Tenths, as an Associate at Playwrights Theatre Centre; the independant project Fractional Jets; and co-curating Club Push 2012 with Norman Armour and Veda Hille. Tim is also developing the newsroom comedy A Liar’s Guide to Non-fiction as an artist-in-residence at the Vancouver Playhouse and will conspire on The Saints Project with resident artist Jeremy Waller over the course of the next two years.

Tim led Conspiracy’s commission of The Meal, a funky and theatrical new song cycle by Maddocks, inspired by the Gnostic Gospels and Bunuel's film The Exterminating Angel, presented at Club Push at 2011 Push International Performing Arts Festival. He also led the creation of Live From the Bush of Ghosts, inspired by Nigerian author Amos Tutuola’s novel and the Brian Eno/David Byrne recording, presented at the 2009 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver. Conspiracy’s premiere production of Omniscience was nominated for six Jessie Richardson theatre awards in 2005, including best production. Omniscience was published by Talonbooks in spring 2007 and in German translation in Theater der Zeit’s anthology, Dialog. The translation received a staged reading at Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theatre in 2006 and was produced by Theater Magdeburg in Oct. ’07. The play premiered in the U.S. at Stage Left in Chicago in April 2008 and a Portuguese-language translation was produced by Novo Grupo de Teatro in Lisbon in June 2008. The Theatre Conspiracy production of Tim’s most recent play, Diplomacy, premiered at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre in November 2006. It was published by Talonbooks in 2009. He is also the author of the one-act newsroom comedies Night Desk (2001) and The Chronicle has Hart (2000). His short comedy The Reinvention of Minister Thorne is included in the Brave New Play Rites anthology (Anvil Press, 2006). A new one-act play, And this is this one, was recently produced by the Walking Fish Festival in Vancouver.

As an arts writer and editor Carlson has worked on staff at the Vancouver Sun and Halifax Daily News and has also written regularly for the Georgia Straight, Globe and Mail and Vancouver Review, a cultural quarterly. He taught writing in Simon Fraser University’s Summer Publishing workshop for three years. Carlson was born in Edmonton, Alberta and grew up on a cattle ranch near Medicine Hat. He holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia, earned a journalism degree at University of King’s College, Halifax, and an BA in English from the University of Regina. Carlson is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Playwrights Theatre Centre in Vancouver.

Belinda Bruce - Communications Manager

Belinda has over 15 years of experience in editorial, design and communications work, plus a love of theatre and the cultural sector as a whole. She will also play a lead role in organizing Conspiracy’s Secret Spaces events.

 

 

 

 

Photo by V of 4sightfoto.com

 

 

 

 Jeremy Waller - Artist-in-Residence

Jeremy Waller is the artistic director of Craning Neck Theatre. He is a playwright, director, dramaturg, and theatre whore in general. He is currently an associate artist with Playwrights Theatre Centre, and an Artist-in-Residence at Theatre Conspiracy. He recently directed a theatre installation with image, rock’n’roll, and beats, sourced from his play Trunk, at The Gam Gallery in Vancouver and was dramaturg and A.D. on Theatre Terrific’s The Bread Project (July 8-10,2011). This fall he collaborates with American playwright Erik Ehn combining research into the intersection of non-matrixed and traditional forms with three of Ehn’s Saint Plays, in co-production with Theatre Conspiracy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GasHeart Theatre - Resident company

 

Quinn Harris

Quinn co-developed and directed the GasHeart / Conspiracy translation and production of Heiner Müller's Macbeth: nach Shakespeare.

She is a graduate of the BFA theatre program at the University of Victoria with a specialization in directing, where she first took on Müller with a production of Hamletmachine. She is an artistic associate at Theatre Conspiracy, and co-founder of GasHeart Theatre. Quinn directed the company’s inaugural production, The Mechancal Bride, at the 2008 Victoria and Vancouver Fringe Festivals. She has also directed at two Walking Fish Festivals, was an instructor for Carousel Theatre’s Teen Shakespeare Program production of As You Like It, and assistant-directed Theatre Conspiracy’s Live from a Bush of Ghosts, and MD Collective’s production of Coriolanus. Most recently, she directed GasHeart Theatre’s adaptation of The Gas Heart for the 2009 Vancouver Fringe and NAPathy for the third installation of HIVE as part of the Cultural Olympiad. Up next, Quinn will be redeveloping The Gas Heart for the 2011 Neanderthal Festival in July. 

 

 

 

 

James Foy

James co-developed and directed the GasHeart / Conspiracy translation and production of Heiner Müller's Macbeth: nach Shakespeare. As Conspiracy artistic associate, he is also managing the company's office.

James is a graduate of the University of British Columbia with a degree in Theatre Design and Production. Selected past credits include production management for Blackbird (Rumble/Theatre Conspiracy), Seussical: the Musical (Carousel Theatre), The Hobbit (Carousel Theatre), Gravity (Urban Ink Productions), and The Odyssey (Carousel Theatre); and technical direction for Best Before (PuSh Performing Arts Festival), Stupidity and Live from a Bush of Ghosts (Theatre Conspiracy). In 2008, James co-founded GasHeart Theatre. GasHeart has produced two hit Fringe shows: The Mechanical Bride (2008) and The Gas Heart (2009).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Website design by Jane Gowan.
CSS, Flash and HTML implemented by Adam Skye Jones.
PHP code, database design and implementation by Greg Burnham.