From Festival to Full Show
The performance schedule for The Unfinished Work of Camille Claudel has been quite different from PCT’s typical production schedules which has offered interesting opportunities and challenges. Because we create original work, we always make time in our production calendar for the creation of new shows which already sets us apart from many other companies.
In addition to our work-in-progress last Fall, we had the good fortune of being invited to present The Unfinished Work of Camille Claudel at Club Fugazi this April as pat of the San Francisco Circus Festival. Because this was 2 weeks before our already scheduled world premiere, we added this as another work-in-progress/preview. The unusual shape of the Club Fugazi stage pushed us to develop the choreography and staging in a way that would be easily modified for spaces with different dimensions. We decided to do a shorter version of the show due to the accelerated timeline. We still wanted the audience to experience the full story, so we selected some scenes in the middle to exclude. It worked quite well and ran about 75 minutes in length.
As we prepared for our world premiere at Dance Mission as part of the San Francisco International Arts Festival (SFIAF), we decided to stick with the abridged version. SFIAF is a big festival with tons of shows, so we had to adhere to a strict show length. For anyone who saw the show at Club Fugazi or Dance Mission, we consider that the Festival Version of The Unfinished Work of Camille Claudel.
We are currently preparing for our limited run at ODC Theater. We are excited to finally be showing the Full Version of The Unfinished Work of Camille Claudel. We are adding back in the missing scenes! Hint: The new content is focused on one of Camille’s most famous works, The Waltz. This has led to an interesting debate over whether or not to include an intermission. Spoiler alert: there will be an intermission. For returning audiences, you’ll see the new content right after intermission. Ultimately, we feel this Full Version tells Camille’s story more completely. In addition, we’re excited to include a couple of acrobatic tricks that we weren’t able to use at Club Fugazi and Dance Mission due to either height or width.
We have grown a lot as a company throughout this production. It has been wonderful to have the opportunity to engage audiences throughout the process, learn from the performances, and then refine between shows in the rehearsal room. Being adaptable is always a great skill for a performer, and our ensemble has become quite expert in this area. They are able to quickly adjust the show for new spaces. They have become excellent at setting up and striking quickly as well as doing efficient warm ups. We hope this show will have a long life into the future, but for now, we are just excited to unveil the Complete Unfinished Work of Camille Claudel.