Canadian Theatre Review

Theatre artist Adrienne Wong discusses the legacy of creating work within the context of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games. She uses as reference points three projects produced by Neworld Theatre in the years leading up to, during, and after the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games. The artist discusses how the Olympics-related funding in British Columbia facilitated the production of new projects, including PodPlays (a series of locative audio plays), but how the monies also carried expectations for crediting and interacting with Olympic sponsors. Wong explores how these requirements affected the creation and production of HIVE 3 (twelve micro-performances clustered around a central bar), specifically the stipulation of where critique could be expressed (within the artwork) and where it could not (in public statements). Wong posits that protest is central to the experience of the Olympics for people living in BC, where significant budget cuts were implemented that affected all social programs, the arts included. In response, Neworld Theatre produced The Apocalympic Cabaret, a event centred on artists and perspective. Wong concludes that participating in Olympics programming developed her producing skills and left her more deeply invested in using theatre to engage in and promote civic discourse.