Deborah Pearson

Maker of Live Things

Category: Performance

It’s All Made Up

Four people sit in a blue soundproof room, each with a blue table in front of them.

TEXT BROUGHT OVER FROM OLD SITE – Not visible – just for Sarah field entry purposes Deborah Pearson wasn’t very comfortable writing fiction.  To her, it felt like lying. As a result, she’s made her career in theatre by telling real stories about her life or her performers’ lives.  Designer and artist Chloe Lamford designed […]

Inside Bitch

Four people are sat at two round desks as if on a TV talk show. Behind them is a banner with 'Inside Bitch'

TEXT BROUGHT OVER FROM OLD SITE – Not visible – just for Sarah field entry purposes   A collaboration with playwright and performer Stacey Gregg. What is lost when we try to tell a story? “You’ve seen Orange is the New Black. You’ve seen Locked Up. You’ve seen Bad Girls.  So, what have we got […]

Made Visible

A white circle is obscuring a face, so only the long hair and neck are visible. Above are the words 'Made Visible' and underneath 'Who said anything about a racial lens'

TEXT BROUGHT OVER FROM OLD SITE – Not visible – just for Sarah field entry purposes March 15th – April 9th 2016, at The Yard Theatre in Hackney Wick How do you acknowledge the exceptional situation of being white, from the inside, without saying all the wrong things? For starters, you quote from a website: […]

Drifting Right

Deborah Pearson in a red hat and tartan scarf looks like she is rowing along a canal or calm river.

TEXT BROUGHT OVER FROM OLD SITE – Not visible – just for Sarah field entry purposes Drifting Right is a one-on-one in a canoe for an audience member who is also a right-wing voter. The piece seeks to engender a cross-political dialogue between my left leaning tendencies, and those who support the rightwards shift currently happening […]

InFORMING CONTENT

Two people are sat next to a table and a lamp talking to each other. In the background is a chalkboard with fairylights on it and the words 'What is Worthy of you CARE? in chalk.

TEXT BROUGHT OVER FROM OLD SITE – Not visible – just for Sarah field entry purposes inFORMING CONTENT is a three-day creation lab combining experimental approaches to theatre-making with academic research. Students and artists create site specific performance pieces.  Having previously worked at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Ethics and the Jackman Humanities Institute, […]

The Queen West Project

A man is sitting under a tree listening to something on headphones.

TEXT BROUGHT OVER FROM OLD SITE – Not visible – just for Sarah field entry purposes In collaboration with choreographer and artist Allison Cummings, I spent several months in Toronto in 2012 making The Queen West Project, which premiered Theatre Passe Muraille’s Theatre Beyond Walls season, funded by a special 50th anniversary grant from the Metcalfe Foundation.  The […]

A Synonym for Love

A woman in a black jacket and white shirt, is standing with her mouth open singing, there is a moose head on the wall behind her.

TEXT BROUGHT OVER FROM OLD SITE – Not visible – just for Sarah field entry purposes In 2012 I was commissioned by Volcano Productions and the Classical Music Consort  to write a modern English libretto for Handel’s first opera, Cor Fedele.  Volcano and CMC were staging the production at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, and wanted to separate […]

Like You Were Before

Deborah Pearson is sitting at a desk, there is a monitor on the right side of the desk, and another monitor behind her on the wall. There is a red pillar in front of the desk and the walls behind are all covered with photos.

TEXT BROUGHT OVER FROM OLD SITE – Not visible – just for Sarah field entry purposes “Deborah Pearson’s piece uses old video footage to explore the gap between the person she was in 2005 before she left her native Canada, and the person she is now. The person she was is a ghost behind the […]

CO-ED

Four people are putting makeup on a crying central figure - the make up is like a clown. They are all dressed in fifties outfits

TEXT BROUGHT OVER FROM OLD SITE – Not visible – just for Sarah field entry purposes  CO-ED (Or how to become your gender in 10 easy steps) was a double bill for the final year drama students at York University of an all male play directed by Ross Manson called Table Talk  that I wrote when I was […]

Music’s Been Ruined by Dating

Debbie Pearson sits crosslegged in a tent made from sheets and eiderdowns. She has a pile of CDs on her lap and a ukele is in the left of the image.

TEXT BROUGHT OVER FROM OLD SITE – Not visible – just for Sarah field entry purposes Music’s Been Ruined by Dating was an intimate piece for four audience members at a time, staged in a tent made of bedsheets.  Each of the audience members sat in the tent with me and was given a CD, with […]