Donald Carr

CREATORS JOURNEYS - CM 2024

Driving themes

Philosophies of light & dark
“winged thought”
Living with cliché as legitimate form of expression

Goals

To bring clarity to his work
To further develop the piece with input from others

Beginning with

Lots of ideas
Playfulness
Humour
Intelligence
Using diverse clichés as useable performance genres
Props > lights, mask, fabric, horns
Text (original by creator)
Text (pre-existing poetry and prose)
Movement > set vocabulary

Desires

To communicate with audience
To celebrate the symphony of life

Questions

What to do with all the material within a performance?

Challenges

How to contain the material
How to detail or extend movement possibilities

Strategies used at the cm to develop material

Text is overwhelming all else. Work only with text to find phrasing, colour, diction that conveys what you want the audience to know.
Pare down what is being said and how to move and dance to clarify intention

Discoveries

The internal meaning of his text
Discovered the value of the inherent pacing/rhythms of the material (movement, text, sound, colour)

Development and skill-building

Text analysis for phrasing + tempo= meaning
Linking text with non-pedestrian movement

Self-challenging

To develop movement beyond pre-imprinted movement reactions
To stick with decisions
Believe that enough is enough

Questions from mentors

What do you want us to know from this performance at this moment?

Discussion points

What are the text links to the performance persona’s inner life (rather than the creator’s inner life)
What creates meaning? E.g. Donald’s work > colour + sound = meaning.
What is and isn’t necessary?

To practice

Remember decisions & form (directorial) so performance can grow rather than be constantly changing
Choose what is necessary at that moment, be specific
Practice sticking to decisions within the free-flow form of the work.

Future plans

Perform the work in summer festivals

Key words

Emotion, philosophy, inner world, journey, clarity, connection, sound, colour, light

Bio

Blessed by nature with a Jamaican birth, his mother blessed him with an educated tongue.

Adolescence overtook him in Toronto. Donald draws on over 70 years of life experience, preserving the pearls of African diasporic wisdom and weaving them into contemporary forms, gathering wisdom from all walks of life, and interacting with spiritual visionaries and thought leaders, continuing to learn the ultimate human achievement: to tell the truth, always, no matter the cost.

Donald enrolled in York University’s Bachelor of Science Program in his green age. His work with Black Theatre Canada and Theatre in the Rough from 1972 to 2001 addressed social issues with diverse groups such as Dixon Hall Social and Family Services and Hamilton School, Toronto, North York, and Separate School Boards to promote multicultural policies. Donald’s work was so impactful that, at the request of Nelson Mandela’s government, they were invited to South Africa to facilitate Forgiveness and Conflict Reconciliation workshops. He continues this work today as artistic director of DC Productions. Multidisciplinary and multigenerational, it focuses on BIPOC issues, social identity, feminism, diasporic memory, men’s empowerment, and mythologies.

In 1974, Donald began formal dance training on scholarship with the Toronto Dance Theatre and the National Ballet of Canada, continuing with the Alvin Ailey and the Martha Graham Dance Companies. He was a founding member of Toronto groups including Pavlychenko Dance Theatre, the Isintu African Dance Company, and the Usafari Drum and Dance Ensemble. Donald has written, directed, and acted in over 50 original, performing in Canada and Paris, Amsterdam, London, Munich, and South Africa.

Through his artistic, educational, spiritual and community-building activities he affirms the power of art to enlighten and transform. He has long volunteered for FoodShare Toronto, the Fringe Festival, and the Caribana Festival. He received the 2004 Harold Award as an “Unsung Artist of the Community” and the 2024 Canadian League of Poets Spoken Word Artist Award.

Midway through life’s journey, Donald speaks from experience as a bisexual black man having to deal with the insidious effects of the soft bigotry of racism’s low expectations. His imagination, intelligence, and wit blend words with the simplicity of two teardrops in a song.