Assembly Hall
Crystal Pite & Jonathon Young
choreography, directed by: Crystal Pite
written and directed by: Jonathon Young
composition, sound design: Owen Belton, Alessandro Juliani, Meg Roe
scenic design: Jay Gower Taylor
costume design: Nancy Bryant
lighting design: Tom Visser
video design: Cybèle Young
show control, sound programmer: Eric Chad
assistant to the creators: Eric Beauchesne
additional music: Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23, TH. 55 - I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso - Allegro con spirito performed by Alice Sara Ott/Münchner Philharmoniker, Thomas Hengelbrock ℗ 2010 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin
performers: Brandon Alley - Woody, Livona Ellis – Gail, Rakeem Hardy – Boyd, Gregory Lau – Dave, Doug Letheren – Shaun, Rena Narumi – Bonnie, Ella Rothschild – Mae, Renée Sigouin - Glenda
voice director: Meg Roe
voices: Ryan Beil - Dave, Marci T. House – Gail, Alessandro Juliani – Boyd, Meg Roe – Bonnie, Gabrielle Rose – Glenda, Amanda Sum – Mae, Vincent Tong – Woody, Jonathon Young - Shaun
production manager, technical director: Jeff Harrison
stage manager: Yvonne Yip
audio and show control operators: ilvs Strauss & Eric Chad
set construction: Great Northern Way Scene Shop
scenic artists: Charlie Easton, Barry Kootchin, Sharon Sloan, Patrick Spavor
prop builders: Monica Emme, Jay Gower Taylor, Heather Young, Jen Hiebert
aluminium armour: Rob Valentine & Valentine Armouries
cutter: Janet Dundas
costume assistants and builders: Alaia Hamer, Nicola Ryal, Alice Devonshire
stitchers: Tracey Gauvin, Eloise Pons, Jayme Cline
rehearsal assistant: Nasiv Kaur Sall
executive producer: Jim Smith
producer: Francesca Piscopo
duration: 90’
premiere: Vancouver Playhouse 2023
A group of medieval re-enactors have come together for an Annual General Meeting in their local community hall. As the Board of Directors, they oversee an event called "Quest Fest" that has fallen on hard times: membership is dwindling, debt is mounting, and the hall is falling apart. Unless something drastic happens, the Directors of this venerable order will be facing dissolution. As the meeting progresses, the line between real and re-enactment begins to blur, ancient forces are awoken, and it soon becomes clear that there is something much more at stake here than a mock-medieval tournament. From the team that brought you the ground-breaking, award-winning productions of “Betroffenheit” and “Revisor”, comes Kidd Pivot’s latest offering: a dance theatre hybrid that promises the company’s signature wit and invention.
In a choreographic career spanning three decades, Crystal Pite has created over 50 works for companies including The Royal Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater I, Cullberg Ballet, Ballett Frankfurt, The National Ballet of Canada, Ballets Jazz Montréal (resident choreographer 2001–04), and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Pite is a Member of the Order of Canada, and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Benois de la Danse, Canada Council Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, Grand Prix de la danse de Montréal, two UK Critics’ Circle Dance Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and the 2022 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. She began her dance career as a company member of Ballet British Columbia (Ballet BC), then William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt, and is currently Associate Choreographer of Nederlands Dans Theater I, Associate Dance Artist of Canada’s National Arts Centre, and Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells in London. She holds an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University. In 2002, she formed Kidd Pivot in Vancouver. .
Jonathon Young is playwright-in-residence at Kidd Pivot and a core artist and co-founder of Electric Company Theatre, where he has created and performed in over 20 original productions since the company was formed in 1996. He has worked as an actor on stages across Canada including Soulpepper Theatre, Coalmine Theatre, Luminato Festival, Vancouver Playhouse, Necessary Angel, Theatre Calgary, Bard on the Beach. “Assembly Hall” is the third full-length work created with Crystal Pite after “Betroffenheit” (2015) and “Revisor” (2019). In addition, he wrote the text for two projects at Nederlands Dans Theater (“Parade” and “The Statement”). Jonathon Young is the recipient of the UK National Dance Award. .
World-renowned for radical hybrids of dance and theatre, Kidd Pivot creations are assembled with a keen sense of wit and invention. Led by Canadian choreographer and director Crystal Pite, the company is unflinching in the face of such challenging and complex themes as trauma, addiction, conflict, consciousness and mortality. Pite’s bold and original vision has earned her international acclaim and inspired an entire generation of dance artists. Kidd Pivot strives to distill and translate universal questions into artworks that connect us to profound and essential parts of humanity. “Running through all of our work is the question of what moves us” says Pite. Kidd Pivot tours internationally with critically acclaimed works such as “Betroffenheit” and “Revisor” (both co-created with playwright Jonathon Young), “The Tempest Replica”, “Dark Matters”, “Lost Action” and “The You Show”. Since 2015, Kidd Pivot has measured its touring carbon footprint and offset over 1000 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent), enabling Kidd Pivot to be one of the first dance companies to tour carbon neutral.
