Butcher Shop Collective 'In The Belly Of The Carp"

IN THE BELLY OF THE CARP at The Shadbolt Centre For The Arts

NOTE: this show has closed. We will glad continue to accept donations from anyone who want to support the work done on the show, or help it have a future.

This is a fundraiser to:

What is the show?

When brilliant but erratic songwriter Rodney has to give a concert, spectres from his troubled past emerge to play tug-of-war with his well-being, torpedo his relationships (especially with his long-time manager and closest friend Samantha), and plunge him into a battle for his soul inside a giant fish. This hybrid concert/play/poetry-reading includes visual fantasias by award winning shadow puppeteers Mind of a Snail.

Vancouver is a tough town (“impossibly unaffordable” on a global scale, according to a report by Chapman University in California who ranked it the 3rd most expensive city in the world). Many of our finest artists have left the city because they just can’t sustain a practice here. On this show, we’re working within the guidelines of a Canadian Actors Equity agreement, but our current budget still does not pay musicians, actors, our stage manager, and some technical staff a living wage for Vancouver. They’re working with us because they believe in the project, but we want to pay them more.

The show has many moving parts, and the material is emotionally demanding. We knew that the common 3-week rehearsal period would make it impossible to do high quality work and create a healthy working environment, so we committed to an extra week. Theatre artists generally appreciate a decent rehearsal period but working 4.5 weeks full-time makes it hard to fit in other sources of income (Film & TV, for example, where actors can sometimes make as much in a day as they will in two weeks of theatre work). For these reasons, we want to pay better than Equity minimum wage.

Why is the show?

Butcher Shop Collective creates work which explores living with trauma, including Complex PTSD, class conflict, addiction, poverty, and intergenerational violence. Because the material is volatile, a certified therapist who specializes in trauma and PTSD is working with us as our Mental Health Facilitator, offering guidance to the working company and therapy services to individuals as needed. It's a priority in our practice to explore ways of working that grant everyone involved the time and space needed to work on a show like ours safely. To those artists who are struggling with substance use, those in recovery, those in the battle of poverty, or coping with mental illness, we hope that our exploration of more holistic ways to develop and rehearse will ultimately be valuable to the community as a whole.

In The Belly Of The Carp tells a story of working towards health through creativity. In the spirit of the show, we are offering free workshops to the public. Carp creator/performer Rodney DeCroo and director TJ Dawe are both donating their time to teach workshops. Rodney is presenting ‘We’re All Poets: a workshop about writing poetry from our lived experiences’. TJ will offer a three-hour workshop on ‘How to Tell a Five Minute Story’.

We will also be sharing a workshop for the company and Vancouver arts workers led by the internationally esteemed PTSD psychologist Dr. Gregory Passey. Dr. Passey's presentation will be a brief overview of PTSD with special attention to details not typically found in textbooks, including triggers, meaning of emotions, understanding dreams/nightmares, self-care, and how to support people with PTSD. Questions and discussion will occur throughout the session.

We have also been negotiating with several creators on other exciting workshops. Working with our current budget, however, we won’t be able to share all of these with the community.

How is the show?

Six years ago in the summer of 2018, David Bloom, Rodney DeCroo, and Samantha Pawliuk conceived In The Belly Of The Carp in the basement studio of the Cultch’s Green House. After going through stacks of Rodney’s songs, poems, and short stories, we began to see a story. We named that skeletal outline Next Door to the Butcher Shop, and thus the Butcher Shop Collective was born.

With support from the Canada Council and Heather Redfern at the Cultch, we put together many workshops and informal presentations. We worked with a number of brilliant artists, including composer/cellist Peggy Lee; designers Kate King, John Webber, & Sammy Chien; choreographer Anne Cooper; actors Bailey Creed, Masae Day, Dean Paul Gibson, Marguerite Hanna, the late and beloved Michael Kopsa, Sebastian Kroon, Camille Legg, Chirag Naik, Adrian Neblett, Tom Pickett, Evan Rein, Lili Robinson, Anthony Santiago, Quelemia Sparrow, & Mike Wasko; and musicians Roisin Adams, Sky Brooks, Dominic Conway, Ellen Marple, Cole Schmidt, & Clara Shandler. This show wouldn’t be what it is without their generous contributions.

In spring of 2020, we went into a two-week intensive, believing it was the final step before going into rehearsal with the show. Then, one of our Collective members had a mental health crisis. Rather than try to push through to finish the workshop, the team made the decision to cancel the second week and encouraged our team member to seek treatment. Within weeks, theatres were closed, shelves were bare of toilet paper, and we all stayed 6 feet away from each other for what felt like 20 years.

In 2022, TJ Dawe joined the team as director and, in 2023, we established our relationship with Jessica Gabriel and Chloé Ziner of Mind of a Snail Puppet Co, whose unique approach to shadow puppetry pulled the show together in unexpected ways. Also in 2023, Beth Southwell from the Shadbolt invited us to produce a short run of the show as Artists in Residence. Most recently, guitarist and producer Jon Wood, who toured with Rodney for many years, has joined the team as music director. And here we are: battered but unbowed.

We want our show to be accessible to as many people as possible. We want at least one performance interpreted for D/deaf patrons - ideally, all performances would be.

Also, the show directly deals with the challenges of those experiencing trauma, mental illness (specifically C-PTSD), Substance Use Disorder, and poverty - we want everyone to feel welcome and have tools to stay safe at this show which deals with experiences they may share. Audience members will have the freedom to leave and re-enter during the show and, if necessary, will have the option to decompress with the Collective’s Mental Health Facilitator, a trauma-informed active listener.

We will have moderated talk-back sessions after every performance and literature from support groups will be available in the lobby.

When is the show?

The upcoming run is short; we perform:

November 28 7:30 pm

November 29 7:30 pm

November 30 2:00 pm & 7:30 pm

We will be documenting the performances and putting together a package for festivals and potential producers across Canada and abroad. We believe this show has “festival potential". Who knows, your donation could help us share it with the world stage.

Who is the show?

Created by Samantha Pawliuk, Rodney DeCroo, & David Bloom

Songs and Poems by Rodney DeCroo

Directed by TJ Dawe

Projections and Shadows by Mind Of A Snail

Music Direction by Jon Wood

Lighting Design by John Webber

Production Manager Claire French

Mental Health Facilitator Caleb Shearer

Performed by Rodney DeCroo, Sebastian Kroon, Camille Legg, Shekhar Paleja, Samantha Pawliuk, Ed Goodine (Drums), Brian Barr (Guitar) & Jon Wood (bass)

Butcher Shop Collective is currently part of the Deer Lake Artist in Residency Program, City of Burnaby.

Butcher Shop Collective engages under the terms of the INDIE 2.2, professional Artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.