All in One Yellow Rabbit

Back in the Saddle - The High Performance Rodeo is Here with A Child Ruled by Fear

Back in the Saddle - The High Performance Rodeo is Here with A Child Ruled by Fear

Alex Bonyun
Artist Perspectives, One Yellow Rabbit

The High Performance Rodeo is back! One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo (HPRodeo) is returning with a series of seven productions and presentations this spring including This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear, May 26 - 28. Hand-picked to delight audiences, these seven selections represent what HPRodeo is all about – wild and ambitious, progressive and provocative, and inherently LIVE. We had a chance to sit down with artist David Gagnon Walker, creator of This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear to find out what inspired him and how this unique show came to be.

Bringing Back bliss (the birthday party play)

Bringing Back bliss (the birthday party play)

Kiani Evans
Inspiring Stories, One Yellow Rabbit, Elevating Your Experience

On October 28, One Yellow Rabbit will welcome back bliss (the birthday party play) for its second run, returning live performance to the Big Secret Theatre stage at Arts Commons. Written and acted by Verb Theatre director Jamie Dunsdon, critically acclaimed bliss approaches the inopportune moments in life when, like an errant balloon, our ignorance is popped. Perhaps it’s the dawning horror that Santa’s handwriting looks an awful lot like moms, or the burgeoning weight of climate change and environmental action­­––whatever the catalyst, bliss embarks on an exploration of our vulnerability, our curiosity, and our limitless capacity to ignore that which we shouldn’t.

The Family Behind Season of Gratitude

The Family Behind Season of Gratitude

Celina Vides
Arts Essentials, National Geographic Live, Arts Commons Presents, Calgary Philharmonic, Downstage, One Yellow Rabbit, Theatre Calgary, Alberta Theatre Projects

Long-time patrons of Arts Commons, as well as avid supporters of the arts, Rodney and Karen McCann along with their family, wanted to find a meaningful way to give back to our essential workers who have given so much to get us safely through the pandemic. The idea that they came up with, in collaboration with Arts Commons, is the Season of Gratitude program which aims to bring essential workers to productions by the Resident Companies of Arts Commons.

Capturing the History of One Yellow Rabbit

Capturing the History of One Yellow Rabbit

Rukhsar Ali
Artist Perspectives, Behind the Scenes, One Yellow Rabbit

When Andy Curtis began capturing photographs of his friends and One Yellow Rabbit colleagues in 1984, he never intended to create a time capsule.

Now, those photos take on a new life as Curtis exhibits his curated collection of photographs and inside stories on One Yellow Rabbit’s Instagram page. His digital exhibition pulls back the curtain and invites audiences to a behind-the-scenes look at the history of One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre.

Rodeo Song: One Yellow Rabbit Takes a New Approach to the Beloved Theatre Festival

Rodeo Song: One Yellow Rabbit Takes a New Approach to the Beloved Theatre Festival

Stephen Hunt
One Yellow Rabbit, Inspiring Stories, Behind the Scenes, Arts Essentials

Prior to every new work they created over the past four decades - and there have been a lot of them - the company members of One Yellow Rabbit asked a very existential question.

“Who are we now?” says Rabbit Blake Brooker. “It’s a question we always ask of ourselves. So, when we sit down as a group, we always ask who are we now?

“And then that [question] starts to bake and gently move into other questions: Who do you want to be? Who were you? Who are you this moment?”

They may have started asking those questions back in the mid-1980s when Reagan was president, a Mulroney was the prime minister, and phones hung on walls in kitchens - when they launched a performing arts festival called the High Performance Rodeo - but 35 years later, as 2020 turned into a year unlike any other for performing artists around the world, the question seemed more relevant and more poignant than ever.