issue | // volume 44

arts // no. 7

Youth relmagine gender binaries in ‘Wyspa’

> A Fringe Festival show on climate change and consequences

Caroline Ho
Arts Editor

 

hen environmental

degradation causes societal
collapse, what kind of world will
the future generations rebuild?

This is the premise for Wyspa, an
upcoming show directed by Douglas
College graduate and former Other
Press writer Julia Siedlanowska and
written by Siedlanowska and Kanon
Hewitt, developed in collaboration
with five youth performers aged 11
to 16. As part of the 2017 Vancouver
Fringe Festival, Wyspa is one of five
shows created through the mentorship
program Generation Hot: Waterborne,

supporting young writer-directors in
Vancouver. All of the shows in Waterborne
tackle themes of global warming and nm
the impacts for generations of people as ‘ ~
growing up in a world of environmental = se
and societal transformation. : a ;
Wyspa (Polish for “island”) follows ij | f 3

a group of youths who are cast away Ak
from their walled community onto an as ss i
island where they must build their own the new island environment, Hewitt and History abounds with instances of audiences when presented by young
society to Survive. The story takes place Siedlanowska have allowed the youths to children who have been forced to survive actors with profound perspectives.
in three distinct worlds: The home . develop their own ideas around equity. on their own, such as the story of Polish- “When youre talking about climate
community, long sustained by fracking, The introductory text of the show Jewish writer and pedagogue Janusz change, youre talking about something
until a devastating fire causes the youths is written by Hewitt and Siedlanowska, Korezak, who operated an orphanage in that’s so far removed from our own
to be sent away by their mothers; the up to the point where the children arrive Warsaw during the Holocaust. Although consciousness, it’s almost like the effects
ocean, where the children struggle to on the island—after which Wyspa has Hewitt and Siedlanowska drew much are not immediately tangible to us in
survive on small boats with minimal largely been left to the young actors. The of their inspiration from researching our daily lives.” said Siedlanowska. “We
food; and the island, where the kids are kids have been the ones to determine Korezak and other accounts from history, talk about, ‘What are we doing for the
left to create their own new world. the rules of the world, create scenes and the story of Wyspa is meant to be more future generations?’ But what happens

‘The inspiration for Wyspa grew out lines of text, and guide the direction metaphorical, and the playwrights hope when the future generations are telling
of discussions about the recent rise in . of the story. “The suggestions they that the extreme circumstances of their the story right in front of you?”
domestic violence m Alberta, and the link come up with are all amazing,” said fictional world remain far from reality.
of violence to job losses in the oil industry. Siedlanowska, describing some of the Nevertheless, Wyspa shares a
Siedlanowska said she specifically wanted ines they’ve written as “super poetic” powerful message about the consequences Ee ee ee

to examine the dynamics of raising

of Generation Hot: Waterborne will be

. : us aD and “beautiful.” She’s been particularly of continuing along with our current . : .
children in often rigid gender binaries, impressed by the young performers’ path of environmental exploitation eee at Nee
exploring the ways these norms contribute quality of dialogue, their enthusiasm and degradation. Siedlanowska at ‘Gemalls Lube cane’ 7 to
to gender-based violence. In the home for the work, and their maturity and believes that the message will 16. Tickets for the eae ee
community in Wyspa, men and women insight in dealing with the issues raised. resonate even more powerfully with a

occupy very distinct, hierarchical roles. In

Chairman of the Board: Pulps and paperbacks

> ‘Paperback’ board game review

Ed Appleby
Contributor

 

kek

rcs N° comes the big question: What are you
going to write about? And the equally big
answer: Anything you damn well want.” - Stephen
King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.
Paperback (2014) is a deck building and word
creation game for two to five players designed by
Tim Fowers and published by Fowers Games. In
the game, all players are given a starting deck full
of various consonants with a purchasing point
value. Players draw hands of five cards, then
take turns creating words with their cards and
a communal vowel card, after which the point
value can be used to purchase other cards on the
table to be added to a player's deck. These cards
have other letters or combinations of letters,
and some have modifiers that can affect the

point values or number of cards you can play.

The communal cards can be claimed by
creating a word over a specified number of letters,
after which that vowel is permanently added to
that player’s deck. Points are scored by claiming
communal cards or buying Book cards, which
act as wild cards for letters. The game ends when
all of the communal cards are purchased or
two of the Book cards stacks are emptied. The
winner is the player with the most points.

I hate Scrabble (1948); luckily, this is not
Scrabble. Though you do need to know your
spelling—which is limited to common English
words—the deck building aspect leads to a much
more engaging gameplay than the random draws
of Scrabble. Though I found the turns to be a bit
on the long side, the delay isn’t as noticeable as
with other games. In fact, it gives you time to
formulate your own words out of your hand.

I found Paperback to bea fun, light game
suitable for anyone who has a good eye for words,
and who isn’t a hardcore Scrabble player.

 

  

Photo by Julia Siedlanowska

Illustration by Ed Appleby