ATP's Playwrights in Residence Hard at Work!

“Together we are one big, interesting playwright!”

David van Belle laughs as he describes his unique creative partnership with Eric Rose; van Belle and Rose are ATP’s Playwrights in Residence for the 2007-2008 Season.

ATP’s Playwrights in Residence program offers artists like van Belle and Rose vital support as they begin the development of a new work. Whether it is a more traditional playwriting process or a devised creation process, the Playwrights in Residence program is a spring board that launches a project to the next level. By providing seed money for the research and writing of the play as well as supporting workshops, ATP works with the artists to design the most effective development process for each piece.

“We really appreciate that ATP asked us what we needed first and wanted to support us in our own process.” Rose says.

These two artists have a diverse background in Calgary’s theatre scene. After 7 years as a member of One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre’s ensemble, van Belle’s freelance career has included an Alberta Playwrights’ Network commission to write the new play Everything Is Terribly Nice Here and directing a range of projects for companies like the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Ground Zero Theatre and One Yellow Rabbit's High Performance Rodeo. ATP audiences will recognize van Belle as a member of the ensemble of Why Freud Fainted at the 21st Annual Enbridge playRites Festival. After leaving his position as Artistic Associate at Theatre Calgary, Rose has worked on a variety of projects from an immersive workshop with his company Invisible Elephant Performance to develop a show inspired by Sergio Leone’s work called Something to do with Death to directing Thornton Wilder’s iconic Our Town at Theatre Calgary.

The project van Belle and Rose are working on as Playwrights in Residence is indeed unique. The Highest Step in the World is a solo show inspired by the pre-astronauts in the late 1950s who went up into the atmosphere in balloons and then jumped off from an altitude of over 100,000 ft. into a freefall to test a parachute system that was later used in space travel. Van Belle, a self described “space buff with a NASA fetish” was intrigued by the parallels between this enormous freefall and the nature of risk. Van Belle and Rose’s creation process includes working with a filmmaker and an aerialist to explore the relationship the audience may have to the performer.

It is a rare opportunity for artists to have this support so early in a process. ATP is proud to take the leap into the unknown with this inventive project at the very start of its life when the artists are exploring, experimenting and risking. Van Belle, who has been involved in many a creation process knows the value of this early support, “A good idea, well supported is how bold and innovative theatre gets made.”

Van Belle and Rose will be working on The Highest Step in the World during the Enbridge playRites Festival and will present an excerpt of this work in progress as part of ATP’s Creation Cabaret on Saturday March 8 at 4:30 on the BD&P Stage 2 (in the Big Secret Theatre.)