It Takes a Village: Spinning the Collective Yarn

By Peter Balkwill

It Takes a Village: Spinning the Collective Yarn reflects on the collaborative process through which we discover our singular stories. It argues that sharing oral traditions is the best means to blaze pathways to performance.

Every day we tell stories, and listen to them, in countless exchanges with people in all walks of life. Not all of the stories we tell are ours. Our stories are raised up from the communities that are our people, and they are added to the words that end up making us who we are. How do we find the ones that let us land here and now?

Peter Balkwill’s It Takes a Village: Spinning the Collective Yarn is the 2023 Pratt Lecture, the oldest public lecture at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Pratt Lectures were established in 1968 to commemorate the legacy of E. J. Pratt. Over the years, the series has hosted world-renowned authors and scholars, including Northrop Frye, Seamus Heaney, Helen Vendler, Mary Dalton, George Elliott Clarke, and Dionne Brand.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Breakwater Books
• Release date: Apr 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781550819663

Peter Balkwill

Peter Balkwill is a founding co-artistic director at the Old Trout Puppet Workshop in Calgary, Alberta, whose internationally acclaimed productions include The Unlikely Birth of Istvan, Beowulf, The Last Supper of Antonin Carême, Famous Puppet Death Scenes, The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan, and Ghost Opera. Peter is also co-artistic director - curator of live performance for the International Festival of Animated Objects, as well as the founder and educational director of the Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry. He is an assistant professor in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary.

Book preview

Cover: It takes a village, spinning the collective yarn, the 2023 Pratt lecture by Peter Balkwill. Part of 'The Pratt Lectures' series.

It Takes a Village

It Takes a Village

Spinning The Collective Yarn

The 2023 Pratt Lecture

Peter Balkwill

Logo: Breakwater Books. An illustration of a lighthouse.

Breakwater

P.O. Box 2188, St. John’s, NL, Canada, A1C 6E6

www.breakwaterbooks.com

Copyright © 2023 Peter Balkwill

Isbn 978-1-55081-965-6

Back cover buffalo puppet image: Mike Tan Photo

A cip catalogue record for this book is available from Library and Archives Canada.

The main typeface used throughout this book is Adobe Jenson Pro. Adobe Jenson Pro captures the essence of Nicolas Jenson’s roman and Ludovico degli Arrighi’s italic typeface designs. The combined strength and beauty of these two icons of Renaissance type result in an elegant typeface suited to a broad spectrum of applications. Designed by Robert Slimbach, Adobe Jenson Pro provides a power and flexibility for text composition rarely found in digital type.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without written consent of the publisher or a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free 1-800-893-5777.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador through the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts and Recreation for our publishing activities.

Printed and bound in canada.

Breakwater Books is committed to choosing papers and materials for our books that help to protect our environment. To this end, this book is printed on recycled paper that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council®.

The Pratt Lectures

were established at Memorial University in 1968 to commemorate the legacy of E. J. Pratt. Over the years, the series has hosted world-renowned authors and scholars, including Northrop Frye, Seamus Heaney, Helen Vendler, and Dionne Brand.

I dedicate this lecture to my parents,

who managed to raise an artist,

and to my family—Nan, Walker, and Juno—

who continue to raise me as an artist.

It is a remarkable journey.

The scene is an empty stage with a podium and microphone. There is a side table with a small plastic bottle of water. The centre dwellings of the stage are lit with a pronounced spot. The lecture is set to start … Five minutes go past the posted start time before the host comes out to settle the gathered public. A general introduction is delivered, including a short, formal bio.

The host then looks off and up to stage right. There is an awkward pause. Something must be wrong. The host begins to go back up stage right. The stage is bare for a moment. The host returns looking bewildered but maintaining a sense of decorum. They stand at the podium for a moment with their concern focused up and off stage right.

A slight bustle up stage left. our hero enters dragging a long, seemingly unending piece of paper, while also balancing several sheets of loose-leaf, a reusable bottle of water, and a small, old, tattered suitcase. As he enters, the host