A selection of short creative offerings exploring the journey of the soon to be premiered experimental musical Morag, You’re a Long Time Deid.

Panel Discussion: The making of Morag, You're A Long Time Deid

Theater in the Time of COVID-19 – Experiences from Austria and Canada
February 11, 2021 – Recording available to watch below!

Featuring:
Claire Love Wilson (CA), co-creator, co-producer and lead performer
Peter Lorenz (AUT), co-creator, co-producer and director
Roy Surette (CA) Artistic Director of Touchstone Theatre
Hannes Machor (AT), Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Ottawa

Austrian director Peter Lorenz and Scottish-Canadian multidisciplinary creator and performer Claire Love Wilson have been co-writing and co-producing the experimental musical Morag, You’re A Long Time Deid, a project has developed over the last 7 years weaving between Vancouver Unceded Coast Salish Territories, Scotland, Austria  and Germany.

In this online talk, the two artists will trace their joint long-distance collaboration. After the cancellation of Morag’s scheduled world premiere at the PuSh 2021 International Performing Arts Festival due to COVID-19 related obstacles, they will reflect on how their creation and rehearsal process has evolved in the face of the global pandemic. The creative team will be joined by Roy Surette, Touchstone Theatre’s Artistic Director and Hannes Machor, director of the Austrian cultural Forum in Ottawa, to examine the challenges for theatre in the time of COVID-19 with regard to the international co-production Morag, You’re A Long Time Deid. The presentation and panel discussion will be followed by a Q&A session open to all viewers.

Grandma's Dance - Extended Track

The team of the upcoming experimental musical Morag, You’re a Long Time Deid presents an extended audio track as a sonic window into their detailed development work that brings together traditional Scottish ballad singing with live loop soundscaping and imaginative dance facilitation. Through the process of warping, disrupting and re-configuring traditional Scottish storytelling and ballads, follow the protagonist Sam as she endeavors to piece together fragments of her grandmother Morag’s silenced story and discovers a voice of her own.

Singing at Sen̓áḵw: An audio walk with Xwechtaal and Claire Love Wilson

Join Squamish cultural leader Xwechtaal (Dennis Joseph) and Scottish-Canadian multidisciplinary artist Claire Love Wilson as they walk and sing together at Sen̓áḵw. This journey brings you to the edge of what is presently known as Kitsilano, on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) Nations, where you can listen alongside Claire as Xwechtaal shares stories of the land, his grandfather, and his visions for the future of Sen̓áḵw.

Originally commissioned by the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival as part of the PuSh Walk series
Audio editing by Ashley Daniel Foot

Creative team and support

ORIGINAL STORY & CONCEPT by Claire Love Wilson
WRITTEN by Claire Love Wilson & Peter Lorenz
PERFORMED by Claire Love Wilson, Rory Comerford, Rob Thomson & Dennis Joseph
DIRECTED by Peter Lorenz

MUSICAL DIRECTION by Rory Comerford
SOUND DESIGN by Rob Thomson
COMPOSITION & ARRANGEMENTS by Claire Love Wilson & Rory Comerford
CULTURAL PROTOCOL by Dennis Joseph
DESIGN by Wladimiro A. Woyno R.

DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT by Touchstone Theatre, Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, Federal Ministry Republic of Austria – Arts, Culture, Civil Service & Sport, Austrian Cultural Forum, Theatre Replacement, Creative Scotland, Traditional Arts & Culture Scotland, Scottish Storytelling Centre, University of the West of Scotland Theatre Lab
PRODUCED by Claire Love Wilson & Peter Lorenz in association with Touchstone Theatre with additional support from PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and The Frank Theatre

Show Specific funding credits:
Touchstone Theatre, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, The Frank Theatre, Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts, Federal Ministry Republic of Austria – Arts, Culture, Civil Service & Sport & Austrian Cultural Forum