A dear friend and mentor: Paul "Sparky" Johnson brings his new solo show to town! Not to be missed by anyone in Winnipeg who has a taste for theatre. -Andraea
BACK TO BORNEO
When: Monday, March 14th, 8pm
Where: Manitoba Theatre for Young People
Tickets: $10 at the door
Paul “ Sparky” Johnson will stage his one-man show Back to Borneo at Manitoba Theatre for Young People on Monday, March 14th at 8:00 pm.
The show sees Johnson take the significant stories of his life (he was born in British North Borneo, which is now Malaysia) and play them as if they were happening right now. In all of them, his mentor, the late Paul Sills, who was an american icon in theatre, is at his side, encouraging him to “stay in the present”, and coaching him towards the discoveries of focus that eventually save his life.
"The premise is that I have become unstuck in time, like Kurt Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim," said Johnson. "I think every actor gets to that state or wants to get to that state where he or she can be present, even though it is something that has happened before, like a play he or she has rehearsed over and over again. One thing Paul says to me in the show is 'become a child, go back to a time when you were connected. Get back to Borneo.' Whenever I lose focus, then, he will remind me to get back to a time when I felt connected, to get back to Borneo."
Underlying everything is Johnson's attempt to highlight the work of Viola Spolin, the mother of Sills and modern day improvisation, who believes that nobody teaches anybody anything, rather, that a person learns from experience and experiencing. In Ms. Spolin's words, "You are connected, you're right there. That's where the spontaneity is; that is where the joy is; that's where the happiness is. It is the never-ending spiral of life."
The show is the culmination for Prof. Johnson of at least two decades of research, in that he had a very close association with Sills until Sills' death in 2008.
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