THUNDER BAY – The Tale of a Town – Canada is a nationwide theatre and media initiative aiming to capture the collective community memory of Canada’s main streets, one story at a time. This cultural project has been touring the country, visiting small towns and big cities alike, collecting oral histories through interviews with independent business owners, local heroes, community stakeholders, and neighbourhood residents. After visiting every province and territory, this summer the project tackles Canada’s longest main street, Highway 11. Their last stop is in Thunder Bay this September!
The Tale of a Town is thrilled to take a up this three-week residency at The HUB Bazaar in downtown Fort William, the project’s homebase while in Thunder Bay. This busy community and entrepreneurial incubator space will provide an ideal ‘hub’ space for gathering stories and creating and performing a multi-media performance that reflects the stories of this distinct neighbourhood, and of the City of Thunder Bay more largely. The HUB’s resident artist, Matthew O’Reilly, will be working alongside the Tale of a Town team to bring the Thunder Bay’s stories to life.
In partnership with the City of Thunder Bay and the Thunder Bay Community Foundation and The HUB Bazaar, The Tale of a Town brings their storymobile to conduct interviews about our memories of Thunder Bay’s downtown areas between September 13 and 21, 2017.
Stories gathered during these interviews will inspire the creation of a live performance installation that will incorporate audio, archives, music and soundscape on September 30 at The HUB Bazaar as part of the City of Thunder Bay Culture Days.
This initiative is made possible by local presenting partner the City of Thunder Bay, with the support of The HUB Bazaar, the Fort William BIA, Fort William First Nation, and the Thunder Bay Community Foundation and the Community Fund for Canada’s 150th, a collaboration between the Thunder Bay Community Foundation, the Government of Canada, and extraordinary leaders from coast to coast to coast. The Tale of a Town project receives support from the Province of Ontario through the Ontario150 program; the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and the Ontario Arts Council.
