Shows in Development
Realwheels always has works in development at various stages. Revisit this page to see what’s next in line for Realwheels’ audiences.
Rolling Wheel Voices out to the Community
Click for a glimpse of our first Wheel Voices project.
Wheel Voices is a free, weekly performing arts workshop for people with disabilities to explore creative expressions in theatre, music, visual arts and dance.
Wheel Voices unites professional artists with disabilities with the community of people with disabilities for a series of weekly workshops in storytelling and performance. Each workshop session focuses on interpreting participants' stories through a particular artistic discipline. Special guest artists are also invited to engage with the participants.
The project culminates in a live, multi-disciplinary performance at GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre (BC's largest rehabilitation centre). Imagine a 'live music video' and you'll get the idea of what we're up to here!
Care to sing, dance or act? Contact Realwheels to find out about the next Wheel Voices, starting up again in 2012.
Congratulations to our first group of Wheel Voices participants!
WHOSE LIFE IS IT ANYWAY?
As part of our 2012-13 season, Realwheels is preparing to produce Whose Life is it Anyway? by Brian Clark. This popular and controversial play is about a sculptor who-having become quadriplegic-argues eloquently for the right to be discharged from the hospital, a move that will end his life.
A Tony award-winning Broadway hit, Whose Life is it Anyway? first premiered on the London stage in 1978 and continues to be produced worldwide. Most recently it was rewritten for a female lead starring Kim Cattrall.
This is a unique opportunity for James Sanders, a quadriplegic actor, to play a quadriplegic character who shares a similar physicality, but differs greatly in attitude. "I love life despite all its challenges. I'd hate to give it up," quips Sanders. Realwheels' production will challenge the perception of people with disabilities, of their capabilities and their dreams. With James in the lead, this production will add a layer of questions challenging audiences' ideas about the value of a life with a disability and the right to take it away.
James is currently revising the script, with permission from the playwright, to bring the story into a contemporary Vancouver setting. "Euthanasia is a contentious issue for Canadians," says Sanders, "I want to honour, and perhaps, cite cases such a Latimer and Rodriguez to Canadianise the story beyond geography and right into our social, political hearts."
Whose Life is it Anyway? will deepen the audiences' understanding of the disability experience by tackling universal issues of human rights against a backdrop of a personal story of disability. "Everybody wants to die on their own terms and we can all relate to that."
Realwheels has begun fundraising and is seeking producing partners to put Whose Life is it Anyway? on the biggest stage with a terrific cast of Vancouver's best actors.
Five Lives
Carrying on the tradition of Skydive and Spine in creating a visually arresting production with a strong social impact, Five Lives explores the universal issues of death, dying and grief. Just as death remains a social taboo, so too is disability; this production will explore the point of view of a person with disability whose diverse experiences with death influence his life journey.
Realwheels is uniquely positioned to explore this subject matter and theme. Members of the core artistic team for Five Lives--Kevin Kerr (playwright), Bob Frazer (director) and James Sanders (actor)--have each been deeply and profoundly affected by death in their lives. As individuals and as artists, each has his personal inspiration points for wanting to explore the theme.
Five Lives will begin with a period of exploration and development that will involve the core artists in three workshop periods over a five-month period in 2010.
