What is the life of a full-time student, producer, festival director, and content creator like? Well, it is a wild ride of wow I’m grateful for the health of my body, thankful for the people who support me and my ambitions, grateful for the patience when I snap at folks. I am not the most bearable human when I am very stressed. So I am grateful for the gentle reminders that this is worth it, grateful for you, the readers who reach out to us about enjoying our content. I chose this year to create my own opportunities. No longer waiting for one to come my way, and God/Universe has heard me. Now I’m juggling multiple projects that are vital for my professional development and will allow me to refine my craft as a storyteller, producer, and writer.

My Artistic Director Goal

Okay, starting a project is one thing but pulling through and completing one is a whole other hurdle that is so fulfilling and uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable because sacrifice is involved. You sacrifice or replace your time with family, friends, and potentially other events to focus on this one task. I am a notorious multi-tasker and sometimes poor at time management, however a phenomenal improviser. I can think quick on my feet and come up with solutions, so I’m the champion of bullshitting. This sounds like it would clash with completing the task at hand, which at times it does, but it also makes me a risk-taker who is willing to go the extreme to get things done and ends up miraculously doing it well (not to flex on you). Also not to further flex on you but I struggle with sleeping and my insomnia has been a hinder and some sort of superpower that has given me more hours of the day to work hence the workaholic in me. I am not sharing this to sound cool or trendy cause social media has done a great job at making mental health illnesses sound quirky which is so toxic to market it as such. I implore if you experience this as well to take care of yourself (side note), I am sharing it because it is real and is part of my life.

Where does my goal of becoming an artistic director come into this? Well I like throwing ideas out there and seeing which one sticks. And collaborating with other creative minds is so much fun cause I learn and feed off of others better that way. Hey! Start a company, or a small playwright group, or join one! Get yourself out there and let people know how brilliant you are and “steal” or be “inspired” by brilliant tools that other story-tellers do that makes their work so rich and engaging. Pay attention to people you admire for their skills and talents. Take note of what works for them or hit them up for coffee and have a conversation about their growth and resources that have helped them develop their craft.

FEAR THE FESTIVAL

Wow, to be honest, imposter syndrome really hit me hard when Isabella approached me in August about this project and how she wanted me to be part of building it and making it happen alongside Ghostlight Theatre. First I was flattered and then hesitant to accept because I understood what a big undertaking it will be and that I already have my hands full of Shakespeare’s Hunnies projects coupled with the fact that school was going to start in a month. So what does this notorious multi-tasker do? She says “yes” why not eh. I nose dived and focused my energy on this project and kept reminding myself it will all be WORTH IT. And it has been especially with Isabella and Leila are fantastic partners who are now my confidants as we embark on this journey together. Most importantly, the purpose of Fear the Festival resonates with my goal as an artist and a person now thinking about it. And damn I want to do work that I actually CARE about and that I am not doing to receive a grade for or to compete with others. That this is my baby, and I want to nurture it, watch it stumble, watch it grow and witness it soar! I would have regretted rejecting the offer to be the producer, creator and festival director of this fantastic project.

 Fear the Festival, a BIPOC centred horror festival that elevates experimentation and creative storytelling created, curated and directed by Isabella Derilo and myself, Eunice Gatama.

On October 23 – 30, 2020 producer Ghostlight Theatre Projects alongside festival curators and directors, Eunice Gatama and Isabella Derilo, will be organizing a week long virtual and digital BIPOC Halloween horror theatre festival called Fear the Festival. 

Our festival aims to explore the systemic ‘fears’ and revelations faced by marginalized peoples and members of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) communities in Edmonton, Alberta. Our festival focuses on the experiences of BIPOC stories in relation to fear and various explorations through writing and movement. The festival would like to recognize artists’ vulnerability and sensitivity of sharing various moments of fear and the equal importance of being compensated for their artistry. With the pandemic progressing and the uncertainty of stability weighing heavy, many self identifying BIPOC theatre artists have been financially struggling and reconsidering their career.

This festival is an attempt to amplify and an opportunity to deliberately make space for these artists and their stories in a genre that is severely untouched and underrepresented within Edmonton. We believe that through an online digital platform we can reach various audiences and artists across Alberta and throughout Canada. Our focus is to provide networks for young emerging artists with professional artists and to facilitate a learning experience to engage storytelling and performance. All of this will be situated in the spookiest month, leading up to the spookiest of days, October 31 (Halloween).

My Playwrighting/Producer Goal

I started writing SKINS early September for a Festival called Fear The Festival 2020, a BIPOC centred festival. I think artists studying theatre in an academic system get stuck associating their worth and art with an institution. And by default, we get lost in it. To the point where we don’t give ourselves space and energy to explore what our voice is as creatives outside of these institutions. So I challenged myself this year to pick up writing, collaging, music, and reading more new works to experiment with what my voice is.

“SKINS” Synopsis 

For 21-year-old JoJo, opening the pandora box of “who am I without” questions relating to their identity and childhood traumas. Asking herself what is left of me when I begin to unpeel inherited expectations set by those I care the most about and why I feel shame and humiliation for abandoning them. 

SKINS follows the story of JoJo, a queer black woman going through an existential crisis in the bedroom closet her room at her childhood home. Throughout the piece, she “wears” the skins of family members, strangers, church members who have impacted her set of beliefs and values and have been an influence of intimate subjugation and humiliation. SKINS asks complex questions about identity, family, childhood trauma, generational trauma, shame, guilt, and beliefs. To reveal the social constructions that these things hold, and exploring the unbearable beauty and unbearable horror of humanity and love. Its title, a play on the literal fact that JoJo will be wearing articles of clothing that these people represent or actually have worn. 

When it came to developing SKINS, I realized this meant putting childhood me at the center of the story. And going down memory lane, asking questions about my home environment from family members and childhood friends, looking back at significant events and processing how I reacted to them and giving myself room to not judge the things revealed to me. These Skins are family member’s expectations and teachings projected onto me. These skins are my friend’s expectation of me to be “that” friend for them, religion became suffocating, the church became the most uncomfortable place to find solace. My blackness (social construct) or queerness came into question, my habits, patterns to navigate this world felt joyless and meaningless. I kept asking myself, who am I without you (society’s rules, cultures, and beliefs). And so SKINS aims to unravel this very phenomenon through movement, texts, and poetry.

October 23-30th Fear the Festival 2020 will be premeried via livestream on Youtube. I will keep y’all updated! In the mean time follow ghostlight theatre’s instagram and mine if you’d like @e.u.n.ice.