Kitimat quake!

Many have requested that I blog a bit about what it was like to be performing during the earthquake that hit the Queen Charlottes so I thought I’d speak about that a bit.

October 27, 2012

It was our last day in Kitimat, and an incredibly lax day at that. It began with a brunch that I could not be more excited about, Ruth’s homemade salmon quiche with pumpkin lentil soup and baked foccacia. AND  baby cheesecakes for dessert (that  had found her working on last last night). Afterwards, Alex, Karissa and I trekked off on a nature walk through some of the Minette Bay Lodge property, bear spray in tow.

 

We were off for the Theatre at 4 30pm for notes, class and an 8pm show. I don’t know how we could’ve been that lucky, but we were running a couple of minutes late come show time. At 8:02pm, we were about to begin when…

Jennifer was in her own dressing room preparing for Nail to House when she felt her knees sway under her and a wave of vertigo. She thought maybe she was really getting nervous about this talk... Or maybe these were sure signs of a stroke? Jennifer then noticed water sloshing about in the bottles on her dressing room table and thought “…well that’s not normal…”.

Out on the stage, Karrisa and Alex had been all ready to go. The ground beneath them began to move and the lights hung were eerily shivering about. Karissa, certain we were all going to die, grabbed Alex in a desperate embrace.

Lexi was out in the cafeteria at a table surrounded by a chatty group of young girls, set up to start the  Homewerk comic book colouring workshop. The table seemed to be moving all about and Lexi figured it was one of the girls kicking. She looked underneath and when she saw no one was doing any kicking, it occurred to her what was going on. When she uttered the word, “earthquake”, the girls shot up in a panic.

It really took me ages. I was sitting in the audience at the far back, waiting to usher kids into the Homewerk comic book workshop. I started feeling my entire row of chairs start swinging and figured someone was kicking the seats, but it was only an elderly man in a wheelchair behind me! I turned around and just sat there, feeling this very bizarre lurching of the space around me when all three hundred people in the crowd stood up and started exiting. People shouted, “ORDERLY!” and I thought it quite impressive how calmly everyone filtered out. I waited for everyone to leave before running up into backstage to check on the crew, who were leaving through the backdoor.  It was snowing, as the crowd waited outside for the fire department to alert us to the kind of damage that had occurred around the town and whether it was safe to head back inside.

It was at that point we were hearing, 7.1, 7.7… Apparently, about one-fourth of the audience headed home at that point to check on their houses and their family. I was already texting  family and friends to tell them of the latest adventures of the Mascall Dance tour, and that we were all safe. And that, the show must go on!

Forty minutes later, with no obvious aftershocks and with the safety of the building cleared, we all headed back inside to begin. But first! A Front of House speech about emergency exits in case of emergencies...which definitely got laughs from the crowd. I admit the piece felt differently that night, especially a section where we build up the cardboard sets two stories high and have them all come crashing down in a big “explosion”. The piece is about where and what is home, and what happens when our home or house is destroyed. It felt all too relevant given the circumstances and I wondered about how it was affecting the audience.

Flash forward to 11pm. Of course the earthquake had delayed the reception, but we finally found ourselves wining and dining at Anne Marie’s (our Kitimat host) beautiful house with dozens of members of the Kitimat Concert Association. They recalled the Mascall Dance White Spider cast doing some musical acts for them...so I hope they didn't expect us to do the same! The organization has been promoting and presenting performing arts to Kitimat for fifty years! The snow was really coming down then and it kind of made the whole night all the more surreal.  The evening ended off with loving food and loving people brought together by art and an earthquake.