Theatre in a diner, then a coffee shop, now a bar... how do you follow that up? On a bus, of course!
A bus? Yes, folks, it can be done! We had the great pleasure of participating in Halifax's first Nocturne festival (http://www.nocturnehalifax.ca/). Nocturne: Art at Night was planned to showcase and celebrate the arts scene in this city. There was an awesome program guide with maps highlighting all sorts of galleries, exhibitions and special performances. And there was a free bus from 6 pm to midnight that took people along a route dotted with the galleries and exhibitions. The people on the bus - besides going up and down - were also entertained by a roster of performers that changed hourly.
Which is where we came in. Danielle, the coordinator for the bus performers, contacted Garry about performing and then Garry passed along the invitation for the DaPoPoli to jump on board.
As it turned out, Garry did a loop himself (Nocturne Bus 2, Trip 4) digging into his purple bag of wonderfulness for - among many things - finger puppets to do sonnets, his Canadian maple leaf politician tie to deliver Steve Cloutier's satirical anti-arts speech, his pipe to do an existential monologue from "Biography: A Game" as Hannes. He had an involved audience who asked questions and responded so well to the performances. He says it was incredibly joyful to do.
Sher and Kim teamed up for still a different time slot (Nocturne Bus 1, Trip 4) and entertained both themselves and their ever-changing ridership with a massive cross-section of typical Café fare, passing out cards with Café dates and talking up DaPoPo to boot. There was a wonderful reading of a one-act play staged in the seats amidst the passengers. The play had the "audience" in stitches and even kept some people on the bus past their stop. We also had the opportunity to dig out some children's items... Creepy Crawly Caterpillar and James and the Giant Peach, when we two young art lovers joined us. Kim's waitresses made their appearances and at the request "...do something from My Fair Lady!" there was an impromptu, unrehearsed rendition of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly" - with choreography! Lamb puppets whispering in people's ears. Dinosaurs separated by the chasm of an aisle snorting and singing "I Get Along Without You Very Well" Brutus and Cassius soliloquizing and being interrupted by a bit of an argument at one of the stops. Clutching at seat backs and overhead poles to avoid being tossed to the ground during an exuberant excerpt from Good Night Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet. Good times!
Eric was on still another trip. He got on one of the last buses with merely a music stand and Shakespeare's sonnets. He read them in sequence with the encouragement of the four final riders and got all the way up into the 60's before the bus returned to the origin at the Saint Mary's University Art Gallery.
Ah... merrily we rolled along, and in such different ways. I wish I had pictures, but I was too busy enjoying the moments to take out the camera. It should always be like that!
If you missed Nocturne this year, fear not. They were already talking about next year's festival at the after-party that same night! So keep an ear to the ground and as always, read the arts and entertainment listings in the papers, wherever you can online and stay tuned to the radio. And pass the word along...
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