When CRUMBS was in Graz.

Above is a group of us walking in the snowy Graz street. Below is Lee distorted in a picture.

Graz. Graz is the coolest little city you've never heard of. Unless of course you've ever read my blog or know a thing or two about Europe or Austria. I guess I shouldn't assume that you don't know, you're probably a very smart and well informed person, after all, you are reading this blog (*not sarcasm).

Graz is the home of a wonderful theatre company known as Theater Im Bahnhof (TiB) and they do improv as well as "actual", "real" and "legitimate" theatre. In fact, it goes beyond that, they do challenging and avant guard work.

Now CRUMBS tours around a lot, you know that, you read this blog. We've been to Graz a number of times. We usually show up, do a show and then leave, and it all happens too fast. So we decided to start initiating projects along our tour, so that we could stay in a city for a little longer and actually develop something. So this time in Graz, we were actually working together for a week brainstorming on a co-production between CRUMBS and TiB. The plan is to continue creating this new show and eventually (fingers crossed) present the show next year. Exciting right? (yes it is exciting)

-A picture of Lee and I when there used to be a Chi-Chi's in Graz

-A picture of the artificial island in Graz

-A picture of the stairs leading to the castle on the mountain

-A picture inside the cafe inside the island (illegal picture)

Thanks for reading the internet words posted here. More to come.

CRUMBS in Graz

 CRUMBS have been coming to Graz, Austria for 10 years now. The group in Graz is TiB, which stands for “Theater Im Bahnhof”, which translates to “Theatre in the train station”. They started out doing just that, theatre at the main train station. What they have grown into is an amazing theatre company that not only does impro, but also actual theatre... actual mind blowing avant-guard theatre. We have some good friends that are a part of the company, not to mention a fellow Canadian. Jacob Banigan has been in Graz for almost 10 years. We first met Jacob while he was the Artistic Director of Rapid FireTheatre in Edmonton.

Now when we come to Graz, it is one of those places on our tour where we feel less like we're on tour, and more like we're visiting friends and being normal. We just happen to do a show... and possibly a little bit of babysitting. We are distance uncles to Lili Rose (daughter of Jacob and Trixi).

This year, after many years of admiring the great work that TiB has done on stage, we decided to see if we could develop a show with them. We started with a simple enough theme, a connection between Austria and Canada. So not only did we do a show in Graz, we have started to create a show as well.

The show we did was CRUMBS plus Jacob Banigan (always a treat). The show involved Canadian Curling, Crazy Carpenters and Camping in Croatia (the Six C's of improvisation).

 The Curling story was about a couple of Canucks who loved curling. But then we introduced Daphne (Was Daphne her name?) a girl who is then a wedge in the curling duo's world. The introduction of sex and love that potentially distracts a curler from his concentration on curling. We also had to explain curling in the show because nobody really knew that much about curling at all. It was quite educational... well, actually, it was quite silly.

The Crazy Carpenters story was about an old carpenter and his brand new apprentice. They were building a house for a rich (and snooty) British man. They end up killing him. Some stuff happened to lead up to this, but it was really really complicated. You had to be there.

The Camping in Croatia story involved a single dad taking his two sons on a trip to Croatia to go camping. The trip goes horribly. They get into a car accident, it rains the whole time, and the two sons run away. Dad is still upset about his wife leaving him, and has anger issues. They end up reuniting and dad promises to keep his anger to himself. There is hope for this family after all.

After the show, it is a tradition to go for a drink (like most shows in the theatre). Usually the bar is one called “The Running Horse”, but the bar was too full. So we ended up going to another pub down the street. Now it is time for the “what?” factor to increase. We entr the bar and notice a Manitoba flag. Strange. The only other flags are the Union Jack, the Irish flag, the English flag and the Scottish flag. Okay... then we see a Winnipeg Jets jersey above the bar. What? It's the only hockey jersey in the place. So of course we talk to the bartender about it.

It turns out that one of the partners who one the bar is from Winnipeg. Small world, and more Austrian Canadian connections for the show concept we are creating.

Neat huh?

CRUMBS in Graz

CRUMBS in Graz, Austria. We get to visit Jacob and Lili but no Trixi... So Hooray! Hooray! and Boo!

It is inspiring to be in Graz too. TiB are an inspiring bunch of people. Their current project is of course Top Secret but I can say this, it involves the audience wearing headphones and walking around a mall... doesn't it just get your imagination running wild?

The first half of the show was a CRUMBS show, it consisted of:

-Two drug store workers who hate everything.


-Two museum guards who are bored with everything. they are guarding Children's Museum of kids throughout the ages.


-One drug store guy meets a woman and falls in love (of course right?) She teaches him to eat ice cream.


-There might have been mention of the dangers of tampons.

-The guards catch a thief but then let him go. He was trying to steal a painting of his father, when his father was a child obviously. One of the guards paints a forgery and they open their own museum together.

The second half of the show was a mixed show with TiB. It was a film noir style destruction of the main character. The show also had really nice use of lights. We had some lamps onstage that we could manipulate to create some of the shadow and dark look that the films of the era had. It was very fun to play. Here is the second half in a nutshell.

-Engineering professor working on a way to make quiet scooters
-Professor gets wrapped up in some seedy dirty deals
-He then kills some people, all for a lady (the femme fatale)


Some of the lines uttered in the show could potentially be made into songs by a band named The Base.
Join their Facebook page here.
Check out their Myspace page (their cover of "Eye of the Tiger" will make you melt)

Here are the lines that might become songs:
“say goodbye to scooterboy”
“it smells like there was a party here last night and it lasted forever”


next stop: Wuerzburg (the sequel)

Graz

GRAZ

Graz is a wonderful city (is it a city or a town?). Every time we are in Graz Lee mentions on stage that it is his favourite city (in Europe or the World?). People think that he is "just saying that" and probably "says that in every city he goes to". Nothing could be further from the truth (actually, plenty of things could be further from the truth, but it doesn't make his statement any less true). Lee White loves Graz. Not that I don't, in fact, I love Graz as well, I just don't boldly claim it to be my #1 (but it is in my top ten).

What does Graz have going for it?

It is a beautiful little city (or biggish town) with enough good restaurants to keep you full. The transit is simple and easy to get around. Everything is close. There is a wonderful mountain to climb right in the middle of town (with the remains of a castle to look at). There is an artificial island in the middle of the river that runs through town. And finally, we have some good friends there (most obviously, Theatre Im Bahnhoff).

An artificial island (pictured in the above picture)

The island was built for the European Cultural Capital "thingy" and is really cool. Now, the city is thinking of getting rid of it (mistake) and I for one am up in arms over this issue. Originally, they were only supposed to have it for one year (the duration of the Cultural Capital "thingy") but then people fell in love with it (understandably) and hopefully it can still be saved (perhaps it is the Winnipeg in me that wants the public to rally around this hopeless cause?). The city already got rid of their famous "elevator to nowhere" which was also built for the Cultural Capital "thingy", the elevator would bring you up to eye level with a statue in town and see the view that it saw (cool). How many other cool art pieces must fall before people realize that they liked them enough to keep them? That goes for all cities, not just Graz.

Theatre Im Bahnhoff create really good work. Weather it is improv (which we like doing with them) or the theatre they put on which is really inspiring. We just really like what they do, and the way they do it. We also have a fellow Canuck in their ranks. Jacob Bannigan defected from the comfort of Edmonton's Rapid Fire Theatre to work with TiB and hasn't looked back (well, maybe has has glanced over his shoulder). What made him defect? Why, the love of a good woman... Trixi and Jacob then fused their love into a little bundle of brains most people know as Lili (but is affectionately known as "the Monster"). Lili will someday rule the world.

In Graz, after having the good fortune of sitting in on a TiB rehearsal, we were all sitting around in their wonderful theatre/complex/headquarters having some drinks and talking about the show and anything else that popped to mind, when there settle a lull in the convo. Within the lull, a new saying/proverb was shared.

"The say that in Russia, any time there is a silent moment in a room, a policeman is born"

(Maybe this is why the Russians will never stop talking?)