One day last winter Ellen was working at her traffic control job near Granville Island in Vancouver. Several theatre companies are based there. She was approached by a group of people who identified themselves as members of a theatre production company. They asked if they could film her while she worked. After a while they gave her their cards and asked her to contact them about a production they were working on. By the time she got home, they had already called her and asked for a call back. They said that her calm demeanor while she worked impressed them.
The company’s name is Rimini Prottokol and they are based in Berlin. They are well known enough to have been commissioned to produce a play for the PuSh festival here. They use professionals, rather than actors in their productions. What impressed them the most about this area was the number of flaggers at the many construction sites in the city (apparently not common in Germany) and the video gaming industry, which is very big here. The result is an interactive play named “Best Before” and Ellen is in it.
The play ran here from January 29 to February 6, just a week before the Olympics began. The real surprise came when they began talking about touring. Here are the tour dates:
Week of City
May 3 Seattle
May 10 Berlin
May 17 Brighton, UK
June 14 Toronto
June 21 Cork, Ireland
June 28 London, UK
July 5 Mexico City
Fall dates still being finalized include Geneva, Torino, Leipzig, and Paris. The company is still working on other engagements. If you have a local theatre festival, you could try to lobby them to bring “Best Before” to your city.
You can google “Ellen Schultz Best Before” for reviews or go to the Rimini Prottokol web site to see pictures.
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