Blocked from the beginning-of-winter-cold, people holding $4 beers, ukuleles, and strawberries gathered inside Arts Court’s basement to show support for a three-year-old theatre collective run solely by volunteers.
The group, Red. Collective, held a fundraiser at Club SAW inside the Arts Court. It aims to raise money for upcoming shows, which costs between $2,000 and $3,000, Emma Hooper Brooks, the group’s co-founder said.
Hooper Brooks graduated from Carleton in 2009. She said her time as an architecture student has helped her outside of school.
“The way they push you and the experiences you have there, apply to basically everything in your life,” she said. “They almost taught you just because you’re doing architecture it doesn’t mean you have to be an architect.”
The time meant she got experience designing different things, such as shoes and a theatre.
Hooper Brooks got involved in Sock ‘n’ Buskin, where she bonded with another Carleton student, Rebecca Shoalts, who would become a co-founder of Red. Collective before leaving the group. The two found common ground over a play about lesbian robots.
“We ended up bonding over that because it was a very bizarre experience,” said Hooper Brooks. “We were like . . . maybe make real theatre that doesn’t involve lesbian robots.”
This pushed the duo to create a collective that, among other things, wants the audience to experience struggles people go through in a more physically immediate way than reading a paper.
“Maybe a kid isn’t going to read the newspaper, but if they see a show about it, they’ll remember not to bully somebody,” Hooper Brooks said.
The play she is referring to was about Matthew Shepard, a 21-year old in the U.S., who was tied to a fence and killed for being gay.
The playwright who told Shepard’s story used direct quotes by visiting the town and interviewing the townspeople, Hooper Brooks said.
“When you’re sitting there [as an audience], and you’re realizing these people are actually saying these things, it just brings this whole new level of realism to it,” Hooper Brooks said.
As red lights reflecting a mirror ball hovered over the shoulders of about 40 audience members, three solo musicians played between announcements about shows and auditions. Chats over round tables and bar counters during intermission melded with belly-laughs.
Liam Meagher, a fourth-year Carleton music student, sang with a guitar.
“As long as people aren’t making an obscene amount of money . . . then it seems alright [to volunteer],” he said.
The group explores issues such as sexual exploitation, labour issues, and abusive relationships. Ideas tend to come from the members’ personal experiences, Hooper Brooks said.
“It’s kind of art therapy in a way,” she said.
