Boca del Lupo

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Boca del Lupo is one of Vancouver’s most innovative and dynamic theatre companies, specializing in experimental theatrical productions and spectacular outdoor presentations while focusing on collaborations with international, national and regional artists.

MICRO: powerful performances on an intimate scale
MACRO: spectacular, site-specific productions
MEDIA: inventive and interactive media projects

Vision

A world where art is an integral part of everyone’s everyday life.

Mission

To create and present extraordinary experiences in unconventional spaces.

The company consciously collaborates with artists diverse in culture and practice, and seeks to engage intergenerational audiences in the Metro Vancouver area. The company believes in providing equal opportunities to a diversity of artists and individuals in both emerging and leadership positions. Boca del Lupo is devoted to accessibility and works to broaden the participation, perception and importance of contemporary performance within the multiplicity of Canadian cultures.

History

Originating as a collective in 1996, Boca del Lupo has been led by Artistic Director Sherry J. Yoon and Artistic Producer Jay Dodge for the last twelve years. As members of the founding group, Yoon has co-created and directed most of the company’s original productions and Dodge’s writing and designs have been central in all of Boca del Lupo’s work. During the tenure of the pair, the company has received numerous awards including Jessies for Outstanding Design, Outstanding Production, Significant Artistic Achievement and Outstanding Performance; the Critic’s Choice Award for Innovation; and the Alcan Performing Arts Award.

With a foundation in contemporary performance, in 2004 Boca del Lupo began working in new media both as part of their performances and in stand-alone installation and interactive media projects, some of which have garnered national and international attention. These projects include The Suicide which toured across Canada and Mexico, The Perfectionist which featured ground breaking animation interactivity and live feed integration and Sleeping Soldiers, an interactive video installation currently on tour in US galleries. Due to the growing quantity of Boca del Lupo’s new media work they brought on a full time director of technology to join the core team. Carey Dodge came to Boca del Lupo from the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast in 2009 and is a multidisciplinary artist and technologist whose work focuses on sonic arts, interactivity, installations and sound design often incorporating custom electronics and live video processing. He currently sits on the national board of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community and his work over the past 15 years has taken him across Canada, USA, Australia, France and the UK.

The original collective members were fellow SFU School for the Contemporary Arts graduates James Long, Kevin MacDuff, Tamara McCarthy, and Maiko Bae Yamamoto.

Current Artistic Staff

Sherry J Yoon, Artistic Director, is a theatre creator and director with a passion for creating new performances through collaborative pursuits. Sherry has co-created over 40 productions that include large scale and intimate work. Her award winning productions have toured festivals and venues across Canada, Mexico and Europe. Her most recent directing projects were for the Richmond Gateway Theatre, Bard on the Beach, the Vancouver International Children’s Festival and at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada. Sherry also sits on the Studio 58 Arts Advisory and has been part of the Canada Council’s Racial Equality for the Arts in Canada (REAC) committee, Arts Advisory Committee for the Theatre Section at Canada Council and BC Arts Council Advisory. She also has launched the 3.7% Initiative: an advocacy group for emerging and established ethnically and culturally diverse female artists to support, inform and inspire each other and communities about their work that is currently in the process of organizing with a national leadership scope. Her most current project, Great Acts of Theatre is a co-curation for the NAC for large scale outdoor works staged in 11 communities coast to coast.

Jay Dodge, Artistic Producer, has won several Jesse Richardson Theatre Awards including seven nominations for the Critic’s Choice Award for Innovation. His artistry is one of innovation and daring, demonstrated in his one-man show about conflict photography featuring interactive video, stunt rigging and verbatim text, Photog. Jay’s playwriting is characterized by a balance compelling content with dynamic forms. Other examples include Red Phone, an iterative project that dramatically shifts the relationship of the audience to the playwright through the technology of a telephone and video prompter; large scale, site specific works such a Vasily the Luckless co-written with James Fagan Tait which engaged the geography of the performance’s journey as a central collaborator in the dramaturgy and design; and My Dad, My Dog which leveraged the world of Jay White’s animation in taking the audience on a journey to the most sequestered kingdom on earth, North Korea. Currently serving on the national board of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT), Jay is also a co-founder of PL1422 and has special interest in creative space making. He has consulted with several local BC companies including the Playwrights Theatre Centre and Gateway Theatre for their strategic and facility planning.

Carey Dodge, Technology Director, is a multidisciplinary artist whose work involves sonic arts, interactivity, installations, sound design, projection design, site-specific work and performance. He specializes in developing novel sound and projection systems for live performance and installation work. Carey has a keen interest in creating new and exciting immersive experiences. He has been Boca del Lupo's Technology Director and for over 10 years and continues to work there. He taught sound design at UBC and continues to consult and work on performances and installations in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Micro

Each year, Boca del Lupo presents the Micro Performance Series (MPS). MPS is centred on and around Granville Island at The Anderson Street Space. These productions are created and performed by local, national and international artists working across disciplines in intimate and small scale forms. Each project asks the audience, which is rarely more than 20 at a time, to immerse themselves in a world of the artists creation.

Micro performance is an emerging global trend proliferating in many forms, from theatre and dance to new media, live art and interactive technology. While encompassing many different types of artists, what brings them together, in this case under the umbrella of Boca del Lupo’s Micro Performance Series, is how each project prizes depth of experience above all.

Macro

Our large-scale Macro work began in 2002 with The Last Stand, our first production in Stanley Park. Following in a long standing tradition of using theatrical spectacle to tackle contemporary issues and political themes, these productions are free, all-ages and often site-specific.

Our first four Macro productions took us high into the canopy of Stanley Park with performers rigged in the towering spender of the rain forest. Subsequent productions drew audiences out under the Vancouver’s monolithic bridges and into the rain slicked streets of Gastown.

Media

Due to the high volume of work being undertaken in the area, Boca del Lupo recently labeled its new media activities under the moniker of MediaLab. MediaLab is the social enterprise arm that leverages our company’s unique and significant expertise in multi-media solutions along with an impressive inventory of hardware.

MediaLab clients include: The National Film Board, The Vancouver Parks Board, Arts Umbrella, Electric Company Theatre, Real Wheels, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Magnum Photography, Neworld Theatre, Creative Mix and Vancouver Art Gallery.

Production History

External Links

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