Then They Fight was co-founded in 2015 by Aaron Jan, Jordan Laffrenier, Lucy Powis, and Luke Reece as a theatre company to support the work of underproduced, underestimated, and unexpected theatre artists in Canada. In aiming to bridge the gap between artistic disciplines and form relationships between early- and late-career artists, the company produced large-scale multidisciplinary work, created a playwriting roundtable, and curated a festival in honour of Canada's 150th anniversary in 2017.
For more information on Lucy's producorial and curatorial work with Then They Fight as their company dramaturg, click here.
THE 10/10/10 PROJECT v1
July, 2015
Hamilton and Toronto Fringe Festivals
10 emerging writers from across Canada each wrote from the prompt "There's something here that shouldn't be." These pieces were then given to 10 emerging composers who each composed a track based on the essence of the writing they were given. Each piece of music was then matched with one of 10 emerging choreographers, who created a movement piece inspired by the music they received. The writers then returned to each write a final piece inspired by one of the dances. During this process, none of the artists were allowed to talk to each other about the work they had exchanged, creating an ego-less and random creation environment.
Dramaturg: Lucy Powis
Director: Aaron Jan
Producers/Concept: Aaron Jan, Jordan Laffrenier, Lucy Powis, Luke Reece
Learn more about the rest of the team here.
Watch a trailer featuring more information about the process here.
Photos by Jordan Laffrenier
March, 2017
THE 10/10/10 PROJECT v2
Directed and led by Jordan Laffrenier and incorporating 36 original pieces of sound, text, dance and film, The 2016 10/10/10 Project: Our Idiot Friend is Now Dead is a workshop production about one ad hoc groups' last attempt to create a show after one of their members (after numerous suicide attempts) drowns himself. As they try to make sense of his strange life through vignettes, movement, eulogies and trying to create the play he left behind, Our Idiot Friend is Now Dead asks what the proper way to grieve for someone is and how we say goodbye to those who we love.
Director: Jordan Laffrenier
Dramaturg: Lucy Powis
Producers: Aaron Jan and Luke Reece
Learn more about the rest of the team here.
Watch a trailer to learn more about the process here.
Read an interview with director Jordan Laffrenier about the process here.
ROWING
October, 2015
Photos by Jordan Laffrenier
After losing their first race in 51 years, it’s a long night for Westdale’s community rowing team. Team captain Mark is missing, first seat Howie is going through a quiet mental breakdown and no one is coming to their charity fundraiser. Filled with party games, pyromania and encounters with emerging psychopaths, "Rowing" is a fast-paced, strangely violent, coming of age story about what it means to be a winner in a small town and the monsters we become when we fail.
Written and Directed by Aaron Jan
Dramaturg: Lucy Powis
Set and Costume Designer: Aram Heydarian
Sound Designer: Jason Thomson
FEATURING
Madeleine Brown, Lauren Griffiths, Courtney Keir, Francois Macdonald, Andrew Markowiak, Drew O'Hara, Zach Parkhurst.
Rowing had additional runs at the 2015 Hamilton Fringe and 2016 Toronto Fringe Festivals.
May, 2016
LOVE BROKE
In 2015, real-life aspiring theatre-makers and biracial best friends, Jordan Laffrenier and Luke Reece, created a controversial piece of theatre that staged a series of apologies to their real-life ex-girlfriends.
SINCE THEN, LUKE AND JORDAN HAVE HAD:
- Two awful breakups
- Three strange tinder dates
- One surprisingly good tinder date
- Two conversations with their fathers about losing their mothers
-10+ people who have said, "I hate Jordan Laffrenier"
-10+ people who said, "Let's just be friends, Luke Reece"
-And TWO new scripts
Written and Performed by Jordan Laffrenier and Luke Reece
Director: Aaron Jan
Dramaturg: Lucy Powis
Love Broke originated at the 2015 York University playGround Festival and was produced by Then They Fight at both Majlis Art Garden and Videofag. It went on to have a series of site-specific performances and was presented at PIECE OF MINE Arts's Black Men in Theatre night.
Photos by Jordan Laffrenier
Photos by Cesar Ghisilieri