The Walleye
25
Theatre & Film
On the
Fringe
Local Duo Tour the
Play Heart-Strings
this Summer
Tanya Elchuk's hands fly, flap or interlock
as she talks about her summer Fringe Festival
experience thus far in Ottawa, Montreal and
Toronto. "It's been crazy, really fun and interest-
ing getting to perform a piece so many times,"
says Elchuk, a local performer who wrote
Heart-Strings, "a surrealist romantic comedy
about a girl and her heart". Elchuk is perform-
ing Heart-Strings with fellow actress and musi-
cian Amy Crnkovic (who plays Elchuk's heart),
also originally from Thunder Bay, as part of a
summer fringe festival tour. Home for only a
day, Elchuk heads west for their final perfor-
mances in Winnipeg and Saskatoon. "Each city
has its own audience," explains Elchuk. "We
take a lot of influence from clowning and re-
ally like to be engaged with the audience. You
get to try new things when you're performing
this much and sometimes the very best material
happens spontaneously. That's gold."
Created over a nine-month period and toured
in Kenora, Atikokan and Sioux Lookout last
summer, Heart-Strings is a play about the strug-
gle between reason and emotion: part physi-
cal theatre, part slapstick comedy and part live
music "Physical Theatre is a weird intersection
between theatre and dance, theatre and acro-
batics," explains Elchuk. "It's informed more
strongly by movement than dialogue." The duo
plays six shows in each of the cities visited. "We
are seeing so much different work. It's giving me
ideas as to where I want to go next. I definitely
want to do more training and possibly form a
company."
Hands flying again, Elchuk reminisces about
their first stop in Montreal running through a
street fair in their "ridiculous" school girl cos-
tumes because they miscalculated the address
and were going to be late for a preview show.
"We made it in time but it was kinda fitting
when we were running through the crowd with
people pointing and staring; I felt like the mup-
pets when they're in a movie outside of muppet
land," Elchuk smiles. "It was perfect."
For more info visit: wwww.heartstringsthep-
lay.blogspot.com
-TJ
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phot
ogr
aph
y
: Jean P
aul
phot
ogr
aph
y
: Jean P
aul