MAINSTAGE 2025-2026
The Chair (Reimagining Ionesco's The Chairs)
Kathryn Ricketts
Photo: CREDIT
The Chair (Reimagining Ionesco's The Chairs)
When first produced in 1952, The Chairs was a failure, mostly because audiences were uncomfortable with Ionesco’s theater-of-the-abstract, and the stream-of-consciousness he used to structure a play about the idea of presence and absence, being negotiated in the memory of two very elderly characters. Remounted in 1956, and then translated to English for 1957 production in England, The Chairs is now considered one of the most influential and important plays in the canon of Western theatre of the 20th century. The Chair’s history and it’s abstract structure plays with the idea of absence and presence, and our human need to find meaning in a world that is progressively convincing us that meaning is fluid and negotiable, absent and present, real and unreal.
I am working in collage with movement, images, sound and text bridging a more structured approach with a high level of abstraction. It is here that I feel creates the most opportunity for audience to interpret freely, exercising imagination, association and memory.
I bring in-depth knowledge(s) of experimental stage practices, integrated dance/theater, and have a sophisticated understanding of the body as the site for interpreting and embodying complex ideas of history, sexuality, biology, aging, and the ever-present/ever-changing amalgamations between cult, culture, and social cultivation.
This production, has commissioned some of the leading members of our national arts who are experimenting with A.I. infused approaches to the creation of set, sound and media creations. This solo works in tandem with the digital partner of this original two hander.
Kathryn Ricketts
Kathryn Ricketts, PhD, is a Full Professor and lead of Dance/Arts Ed in the Education Department at the University of Regina and is now working from Vancouver through on line course offerings. For the past 40 years Ricketts has been researching and practicing dance and visual arts performing and teaching throughout Europe, South America, Africa, Australia and Canada. Ricketts has articulated the methodology Embodied Poetic Narrative which is focused on developing individual and collective ‘voice’ through poetic performances and writing with vulnerable populations using artifacts and personal narratives. She has 4 performative research characters which she performs regularly.
I am an improvisor and inhabit characters for a long period of time (LUG is 20 years old). My characters become a kind of kinaesthetic conduit for the stories of others. Sometimes these are stories that have been silenced and/or never been told. In this way, my practice-based research works as a catalyst for community building within an emancipatory process. All four of my characters echo themes of displacement, migration, belonging, arrivals, departures, restitution and atonement. I have been dancing these characters for 20 years and each time I perform is different, as each presentation is a structured improvisation in direct response to context and conditions. Typically, my performances end with conversation with the audience and the storytelling continues as well as nurturing a kind of performance literacy. I like offering community workshops adjunct to my performances in writing and movement.
Performance History & Upcoming Performances
I am interested in cultivating dynamic spaces with imaginative and playful ways of fostering individualized voices and fortifying community structures. I have been privileged to work in a vast range of contexts with many arts based and interdisciplinary collaborations and I am outlining parts of this work below under the heading Performative Scholarship.
My performative research involves inhabiting characters for a long period of time (LUG is 15 years old). They act as a kinaesthetic conduit for the stories of others, stories that have been silenced and/or never been told. These characters become a catalyst for community building within an emancipatory process.
LUG with a full-length overcoat, felt hat and weighted by aged leather suitcases dances stories of arrivals, departures and the liminal spaces between surfacing stories of belonging and isolation. https://youtu.be/jXFS2GnvvsA, https://youtu.be/bTmlCjr1i68 Remington, an anthropomorphized bird inhabits an austere prairie-soaked landscape of sound and video. Provoking important conversations around identity, land, place, migration and belonging. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4x3fnt8ha9j7k8z/2021_landing_kathryn.mp4?dl=0
Rufus, a tired clown in an oversized 3-piece suit, calls attention to the natality in dissonance and error, reminding us not only of the value but the necessity of failure and risk taking. https://youtu.be/XTJbMWGM13w?t=665 All characters echo themes of displacement, migration, belonging, arrivals, departures, restitution and atonement.
This work often entails extensive collaborations with musicians, digital artists, graphic artists, film makers and actors.
In the past few years, I have created two full evening performances which entailed several residencies with several collaborators both here in Regina and in Vancouver for the creative process. I have also created 3 short films with my LUG character which have toured both National and International festivals.
I am now incorporating more voice work and text in my movement work with my two full length shows Hal; Single L and The Chair (a reimagining of Ionesco’s the Chairs) In this way I am experimenting with play and characters as I explore source material as a springboard for creatively personal renderings both as a performer, director, collaborator and facilitator moving between performances, dialogue and workshops.
Performances and Exhibitions 2018 - 2024
Solo Dance
Dance performance of three solos Ottawa Dance Directive 2024
Collage
Dance creation with Ottawa School of Dance and Saskatchewan Youth Ballet 2024
Where Do We Go from Here?
Dance creation with Association of Integrated Dance, Denmark 2023 -
The Chairs (Ionesco)
Performance with Darcey Callison 2023 -
Meet Hal Performance with Joan Bentsen
Deer and Rabbits Studio, Denmark 2023
EZEE Exhibition
Object(ified) Leadership, Aarhus Business Academy, Denmark 2023
Full evening performance with Ian Campbell
Art Gallery of Regina, In Response to Memories of the Sun 2023
The Things We Think With
Parallel Gallery Exhibition, curator and artist 2023
Loft Events (exhibitions and performances) 2015 -
Land(ing)
New Dance Horizons Prairie Circuit and Blue Prints 2025 -
Gallery 222
Ongoing exhibitions in the Faculty of Education 2018 -
Land(ing), Garden Plots, and Blomster
On Cue Performance Hub produced performance, Regina 2022
Arrivals and Departures; Remembered Moving Stories
Virtual performance/workshop - International Dance Studies - Vancouver 2022
Braiding Sweet Intentions Through Mentorship and Friendship
Poetry readings, paper presentation – Cape Town, South Africa Joseph Naytowhow and Kathryn Ricketts 2022
Blomster
Performance - xCoAx 2022 – Coimbra, Portugal & Rome, Italy 2022
Arrivals
Performance with on Cue and FADA Dance & Youth ballet of Saskatchewan 2022
COVID Lug #3
International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation Festival Conference 2022
3 POP up performances with On Cue Performance Hub
Project Sam, Regina Stories and Rufus
Ian Campbell, Dr. Stacey Bliss, Dr. Ken McDonald and Dr. Terry Sefton 2022
The Things We Think With
Exhibition, 5th Parallel Gallery, U of R
Dr. Kathryn Ricketts, Amy Snider, Dr. Christine Ramsey 2022
Blomster
Virtual Performance- Generative Art – Rome, Italy 2021
Remington and Rufus
Secret Garden Performances, New Dance Horizons 2021
LUG with friends
10 Nights of Gong at the AGR/Neil Balkwill Centre
Dr. Kathryn Ricketts, Dr. Stacy Bliss, Dr. Andrew Stewart, Dr. Rebecca Cainnes 2021
COVID LUGS 1 & 2 (film)
Generative Art Conference
Dr. Kathryn Ricketts, Scott Morgan, Dr. Arne Eigenfeldt https://youtu.be/jXFS2GnvvsA, https://youtu.be/bTmlCjr1i68 2019 & 2020
COVID LUGS 1 & 2 (film)
International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation Festival Conference
Dr. Kathryn Ricketts, Scott Morgan 2019 & 2020
(Un) Authorized
Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, SFU
Dr. Kathryn Ricketts, Dr. Arne Eigenfeld https://youtu.be/XTJbMWGM13w?t=665
2019
Land(ing)
Shadbolt Centre for the Arts
Kathryn Ricketts, Scott Morgan, Ian McDonald https://www.dropbox.com/s/4x3fnt8ha9j7k8z/2021_landing_kathryn.mp4?dl=0
2018
Project Created by: Kathryn Ricketts, Darcey Callison and Ian Campbell
Key Artistic Collaborators: Kathryn Ricketts Performer
Ryan Hill & Arne Eigenfeldt - sound, Hanif Janmohammed - set and props, Myrne Ross, Don Kugler, Carol Sawyer and Monica Prederghast outside eyes
Performance type: THIS WORK IS BUILT FOR THEATRE
How do you define this work: Dance Theatre
Length of performance: 60 minutes
Audience type: General Audience
General Technical Requirements: Projection on a white wall any other props and electronic equipment is provided by the performer except for theatre lighting and general sound
Required amount of time for tech set up: 4 HOURS
Alternative Venues: I would prefer an audience of no more than 100
Number of Performers on tour (including choreographer): 2
Number of Support Staff on Tour: 2
Availabilities:
Project Details
Community Engagement
I am open to the community that works best for the producer.
Outreach Activities
Community Building: I am interested in amplifying voices that face barriers towards personal agency - mainly through workshops and performances with talk backs even in tents (i.e. The Tent Talks). This is often combined with an intergenerational aspect enabling a bridging of the gaps with forgotten stories, traditions, and rituals. This entails collaborating with translators, social workers, elders, and knowledge keepers.
Auto-Ethnography: Fascinated by the wall of Value Village where discarded objects hang in plastic bags, I have collected many ‘bulging’ bags and used them to launch compelling new narratives. These stories are often rendered through artful and playful exchanges allowing an appreciation of shared writing. I continue to work in disenfranchised communities with this method of storying through objects.
Place Based: Through improvisational encounters I create unique knowledge ecologies. This work results in movement/writing explorations of self in relation to other and rooted in the places and spaces and memories we share in our lives. I have worked with small communities across Canada over the past 15 years through galleries, theatres, community centres, and museums
Recent Community Workshops and Programs
On line and in person writing using junk as a prompter in Canada and Europe
Developing the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Seniors Programming
Paper making and writing workshops on Salt Spring Island
Teacher Training workshop for teachers teaching with and for mixed abilities – Europe
Movement and Improvisation workshops Canada and Europe
Voice Movement work with theatre students
I am interested in acommunity workshop that involves voice/movement work based on my performance