Maybe you’ve noticed we’ve gone dark over the past year or so. While we haven’t had any LML productions or workshops recently to share, we have very good reasons – I’ve been in school and Johnny had another baby!
I’m sure baby photos will come eventually. But for now, here’s a quick photo blog recap from my (Matt’s) first “back-to-school” year:
- My locker at the School of Information at UBC. This photo was taken around November when layering for the weather is crucial, and although it looks like my locker is mostly full of sweaters and jackets there are books and healthy, non-perishable snacks under there I swear. Photos to give me perspective and inspiration.
- I got to touch a Shakespeare! And read it too! In November the instructor of an incredible course I was taking in the Theatre dept. arranged for a field trip to Rare Books and Special Collections so we could examine the UBC library’s copy of Shakespeare’s first folio. One of 235 extant copies of the original collection of the complete works of the Bard, printed posthumously by his friends and former company members in 1623. Our class was allowed one representative to handle the folio and my generous classmates offered the spot to me! The feeling of the weight of the pages is still in my fingers.
- A selfie I snapped in between classes at the amazing Richmond Children’s Arts Festival in February! Not sure why I didn’t take a pic of the beautiful library instead… I’ve been a teacher/artist at this festival for a few years now and I adore it. It’s wonderfully run with fun themes and I always meet fun and interesting organizers, teachers and kids.
- Huge highlight: meeting the incredibly accomplished and extremely inspiring Dave Deveau, author, youth-advocate and co-artistic director of Carousel Theatre for Young People. I had organized a lunch and learn for my program on Theatre for Young People with snacks and a slide show and everything. Unfortunately is was less well attended than I had planned but ultimately that gave Dave and I the chance to connect less formally. I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship…
- Still teaching sketch comedy and improvisation (aka SKIMP) at Arts Umbrella, still being very weird. I’m glad they let me stick around. The kids I mean. I don’t think they really need me but I have first aid training and access to the keys for the props and costume room so it’s good that I’m there to help out with that. Come see their show L.OV.E. on June 6th and 7th!
- An utter next level highlight: having my kids (among several other very talented and enthusiastic youth) perform a reading of my new play in development at the Brave New Play Rites Festival in March. The play is an adaptation of a series of children’s novels by Astrid Lindgren (think Pippi Longstocking) set in a co-operative housing community in my own neighbourhood of False Creek South. The biggest success of course is that the kids had fun!
- Got to reconnect with my fabulous friends at Some Assembly Theatre for their 25th anniversary presentation of the Roundhouse Youth Theatre Action Group’s performance, Our Last Tree. The show this year centred around climate activism and mental health, featured a big team of vastly talented young people and included a new display celebrating RHYTAG’s 25 years of creating community through theatre. Congrats and thanks for having me!
- Did you know that there are like 47 libraries on campus at UBC Vancouver? It’s AMAZING. I used as many as I could and I only had like six books overdue at the end of the year. Also I damaged one accidentally from enthusiastic overuse but was graciously let off the hook by the Koerner’s librarians (the book was Manon van de Water’s Theatre, Youth, and Culture: A Critical and Historical Exploration if you’re wondering) and I began the unravelling of a mystery in the archives and special collections at Irving K. Barber (where is the copy of Neva Boyd’s Play and game theory in group work; a collection of papers? Or did it simply never exist?). Libraries create access to unlimited social and personal development. Protect libraries. Respect research. Word.
- Had the spectacular privilege of reading narration alongside the jaw dropping dancing and world class orchestral music at the Chan Centre’s Carnival of the Animals Reimagined in May. Some gigs you just utterly luck into and everything makes total sense. It was fun to exercise my voice-over and storytelling skills and to play to a full family audience including a wide range of ages. I think the audience enjoyed the show! The level of talent I shared the stage with was beyond humbling. I tried to take it all in!
- “… the friends you make along the way.” This school year has brought an overwhelming amount of joy, discoveries, excitement and inspiration thanks mainly to my wonderful little cohort in the MACL program (Master of Arts in Children’s Literature), who are each pursuing their own meaningful research into the experience of young people and literature and indulging me deeply while I nerd out bigtime on Theatre for Young People. Thank you Dakota, Sally and Nicky!
I’m very excited to say that there are definitely some awesome new LML developments coming up for 2026/27… Stay tuned! See you soon!
– Matt
