
Following their discoveries in the workshop, van Belle and Rose began creating text inspired by their research into the pre-astronauts and these visual and physical explorations. This April, the group of collaborators gathered again to read the script and explore the sky with a model rocket.
Later this May, van Belle and Rose will work on their script at the Banff Playwrights Colony and continue to create this unique piece of theatre as our Playwrights in Residence during ATP's 08/09 Season.
Laryssa Yanchak, Eric Rose, David van Belle and Vicki Stroich attempt to predict a flight pattern. (Photo by Sandi Somers)

StudyInteractive - Sit down with Meg Roe, the star of The Syringa Tree, as she answers questions from classrooms around the city.
ATP: How many hours did you spend rehearsing?
ATP: What was your
favourite part about working on this show?
ATP: How did you first
start acting in
Meg Roe: When
I was in high school (in Airdrie!) I worked with a company in
ATP: What is the hardest part of this show?
ATP: How many opportunities are there in
Meg Roe: There
are lots of opportunities to work as an actor exclusively in

Welcome to ATP’s StudyInteractive, an online guidebook that
brings stronger educational tools to as many students as possible! A brand new
part of our Classroom Connections Program, StudyInteractive is a virtual
classroom, with blogs from artists, study guides, links, and online resources.
A technological advancement for ATP, we’re thrilled that we can now bring the
ATP experience to your classroom projector, your laptop or your desktop
computer at home. Bringing together
In this third installment of ATP’s Enbridge playRites Festival Video Blog series, Kevin K. James talks with ATP Assistant Dramaturg Amy Lynn Strilchuk about his character Phineas Gage, discussing how one prepares for such a complex role.
On the set of August, An Afternoon in the Country, Director Brian Dooley chats with translator Maureen Labonté about how each of them came to work on the show. Accompanied by ATP Assistant Dramaturg Amy Lynn Strilchuk, the two discuss the challenges of the play, as well as the difficulties of maintaining a Francophone perspective in a translated piece.
In this intimate interview, Assistant Dramaturg Amy Lynn Strilchuk speaks with Kathleen Duborg and John Kirkpatrick of The Gift of the
Coat about the show, their experiences during the Enbridge playRites Festival and the nature of their line of work, all caught on film in the Dressing Room of the Martha Cohen Theatre.
“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
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.)
Recent Comments
on The Drowning Girls - Feedback!: This play
on The Drowning Girls - Feedback!: The highli
on August, An Afternoon in the Country - Feedback!: Oh geez, t
on The Gift of the Coat - Feedback!: Um, the on
callie on Train - Feedback!: I was asto
Callie on Video Blog - The Gift of the Coat: I fou
Callie on Video Blog - that elusive spark: This
on Video Blog - August, An Afternoon in the Country: The title
on The Drowning Girls - Feedback!: Absolutely