Capturing Unseen Visions
Through My Lens -
A Unique Fusion of Conversation, Hospitality,
and Blind Perspective
Through My Lens is a new intimate work by theatre artist Amy Amantea that combines conversation, hospitality and portraiture.
Amy is an artist with a lived experience of blindness, specifically having a total of 2% vision in one eye. She is also a photographer with a practice that involves walking the city at twilight looking for interesting light patterns and capturing them with her camera.
Through My Lens brings these life experiences into one small photography studio where Amantea shares her work as a photographer with a single participant who then describes her images – images she has never “seen” – back to her. The photos reveal themselves in accordance with the conversation and open up new realms of perception – a reciprocal collision of visual and non-visual experiences.
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Testimonials
Credits
Written and Performed by Amy Amantea
Amy is an artist with a lived experience of blindness, specifically having a total of 2% vision in one eye. She is also a photographer with a practice that involves walking the city at twilight looking for interesting light patterns and capturing them with her camera
Written and Directed by James Long
JAMES LONG is a director, actor, writer and teacher whose creative practice occurs in a wide variety of interdisciplinary and collaborative contexts, including as a founding Artistic Director of Theatre Replacement (2003-2022) and as an independent artist working in live performance, community engaged practice and public art.
James’s work has been presented across North America, Europe and Asia and includes (in no intended order) Weetube, Footnote Number 12, Clark and I Somewhere in Connecticut, Town Criers, BioBoxes: Artifacting Human Experience, King Arthur’s Knight, How to Disappear Completely, Morko, Winners and Losers and others. In 2019, he and Maiko Yamamoto were awarded the Siminovitch prize for their work at Theatre Replacement and as freelance artists.
Long graduated from Simon Fraser University’s Theatre Program in 2000 and received a Master’s in Urban Studies in 2018. He serves as the president of the organization that stewards Vancouver’s Russian Hall, a multi-purpose performance and gathering space, and is an assistant professor in Theatre and Performance at SFU’s School of Contemporary Arts.
Media Design and Operation by Nico Dicecco
Nico Dicecco is a video artist, technical director, stage manager, and photographer based in Vancouver, BC on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Some favourite past (and some ongoing) projects include Through My Lens (Theatre Replacement), Momentum of Isolation (Radical System Art), The River (Myriad Dance Projects), Body Parts (Tara Cheyenne Performance), In Camera (Realwheels Theatre), #whatnow (Alley Theatre), Mambo and Other Works (Ballet Kelowna), and Benevolence (Ruby Slippers). Nico holds a PhD in English from Simon Fraser University for his research on adaptation, digital media, and performance.
Lighting and Set Design by Sophie Tang
Sophie Tang is an award-winning lighting and set designer working in Theatre, Opera and Dance. She has worked with companies including Stratford Festival,Shaw Festival, Electric Company Theatre, Vancouver Opera, Artsclub Theatre, Bard on the Beach, Citadel Theatre, Canadian Stage, Theatre Replacement and so on. Recent credits: East Van Panto-Beauty and the Beast ( Theatre Replacement), Cinderella (Gateway Theatre), Michel(le) (Théâtre la Seizième), Fairview (The Search Party), The Apple Cart (Shaw Festival), Henry V (Bard on the Beach), Legend of Georgia Mcbride (Artsclub Theatre), Midsummer Night’s Dream (Vancouver Opera), Undeveloped Sound (Electric Company Theatre), Choir boy (Canadian Stage and Artsclub), The Pearl Fishers (Vancouver Opera).
Portfolio website: sophieyufeitang.com
Production Support by Jordyn Wood
Jordyn Wood (they/she) is a queer theatre artist living and working in so-called “Vancouver”. Their practice has been intentionally varied, jumping from devising to playwriting to directing to curating and producing. Their recent work includes production management for Before They Cut Down Our Tree (J to K Productions, Vancouver Fringe Festival), direction/playwriting for Vascular Necrosis (Bramble Theatre Collective, rEvolver Festival), and stage management/production assistance for the 2022 & 2023 iterations of Through My Lens presented at The Festival of Live Digital Art (FOLDA). Jordyn is currently the Assistant Arts Administrator for Realwheels Theatre, and has worked as a production/studio assistant on several Theatre Replacement productions in addition to Through My Lens, including Do You Mind If I Sit Here?, Best Life, and New Age Attitudes. They are also a part of The Cultch’s Youth Panel as Festival Director Assistant for the IGNITE! Youth-Driven Arts Festival, helping to curate and produce the 2021-2024 festivals. Jordyn holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Simon Fraser University’s School of Contemporary Arts in the Theatre Performance stream.
Profile website: jordynwood.com
Technical Direction by Daniel O’Shea
Daniel O’Shea makes theatre, designs projections, and creates films, using technology and design as a keystone to support narrative and deepen dramaturgy.
Daniel’s work has been seen in Canada and internationally. He is a founding member of A Wake Of Vultures. Daniel is engaged with Vancouver’s thriving contemporary performance scene and often engages in crossover with indie film and the digital arts.
Profile website: doshea.net