Clay and Paper Theatre

Question: how does the renovation work for you?

From Tamara:I completely agree with the main space now functioning as a hallway. The new setup was quite exhausting during our Night of Dread month-long residency. People mistook C&P people for Park staff constantly. It was hard to focus on the work or giving our complete attention to workshop participants because the main room was a busy thoroughfare. It also felt like we were forced to stay more vigilant for safety reasons.

Because so many walls in the main space are now windows, doors or lockers, it was extremely challenging for C&P to set up and organize all of our Night of Dread puppets and bins of costumes and supplies and maintain a neat and presentable appearance to the public, during the pre-parade workshops. In the previous room, the benches all around the room (and easily accessed shelves above them) were great storage. There was more flexibility in how we could use the space. (More open space - with the current iteration - does not actually ensure more flexibility.) It used to be so much more practical in many ways.

The overhead lights issue: myself and two other staff who were working long days and hours during the NOD residency had to always wear ball caps or sunglasses because the lights were headache-inducing. During the first 15 minutes of each day I’d feel nauseous because of the brightness. The irony is the office and kitchen lights can be turned on and off anytime, but not those in the main room. Additionally, we had a workshop participant enter the clubhouse and then have to leave because she had epilepsy, she told us, and she was afraid the lights were too bright and might induce an attack.

I would add that signage is poor. During our residency again, ppl kept coming in and asking where the washrooms were or where could they find staff. Many people didn’t event know it was a public building.

The original architectural drawings that placed our C&P puppets in the clubhouse space completely changed the puppets scale - so it was an inaccurate and false representation. The result is that very few of our actual puppets can be hung in the space. We’re going to re-examine this a bit more this winter and see what we can bring and hang. I guess, in part, we’re now thinking about the safety of our puppets pieces as well. We can hang a big puppet over the fireplace (a nice showplace). But now that there is a fireplace/bench (essentially a stepping stone to access the puppet), there’s nothing to stop anyone from getting up on it and damaging or stealing the puppet. We never had these issues before.

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