ARCADE is an ongoing work, exploring urban environments and communities through the act of walking and through the ruse of a shoe store. Since we first presented this work in a shipping container in Montreal’s Old Port in 2009 we have adapted it to a variety of circumstances and contexts. It all began with the two of us presenting a series of ruminations on various sites and boroughs of Montreal. We presented all subsequent iterations of this work in collaboration with Shauna Janssen, who saw its value as a pedagogical tool and encouraged us to workshop it with other artists, students and community members. The 2009 presentation was a co-production with Studio 303 and les Escales Improbables.
In 2011, we joined Shauna Janssen’s Urban Occupations series and invited artists and community members to join us in an exploration of Montreal’s Griffintown neighborhood as presented at the Darling Foundery. From there the work has evolved and traveled widely to include a master class at Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal (2013), a workshop with playwrighting and directing students at the National Theatre School (2014), a summer intensive for Graduate students at York University, a workshop and presentation in Carleton-Sur-Mer (2016), a theatre design course at Concordia University (2018) and as part of the Performance Arcade in Wellington, New Zealand (2020).