Internationally renowned actress Sarah Jurgens is not only distinguished by her achievements as a leading lady on major film and television projects like the award winning shows Covert Affairs Republic of Doyle, Lost Girl and others, as well as the film Let Go of The Future, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, but she happens to be quite the genius when it comes to theatre as well.
Aside from performing on stages across continents, Jurgens also co-founded The Blood Projects theatre production company with Sasha Singer-Wilson in 2009. The talented comrades, who met while attending York University’s theatre conservatory program, created the company in their last year of school after the unions affiliated with the university went on strike leading to the cancelling of many classes and shows.
“It completely altered our final year,” Jurgens said, “We really felt the loss of that creative time, so we decided we were going to create our own work.”
The Blood Projects differs from other companies in that they focus on original works. The staging of these works also sets them apart, as the company specializes in what is known as “immersive theatre,” bringing the audience directly into the scene with the actors. Instead of being staged in traditional theatres, productions will be in site-specific areas.
In describing The Blood Projects, Jurgens said “we are dedicated to creating immersive performances in unlikely places and re-imagining more traditional spaces; uniting emerging and established artists and managing the company and production of our work with ecological awareness and integrity.”
In the types of projects the company selects, audience members find themselves free to move from room to room, able to choose where to view one of several simultaneously occurring scenes.
The play Little Tongues, for example, was staged in a downtown Toronto loft. “When scenes happened in the kitchen,” Jurgens explained, “the actors were really preparing food and the audience could smell the dinner being made. It engaged with the audience on an intimate, sensory level.”
Julie Tepperman (Outside the March Theatre Company) and Aaron Willis (the Convergence Theatre) co-wrote the following review: “Little Tongues embodied… an intimate and immediate experience with the audience and performers only a breath away from each other… Inviting the audience to position ourselves wherever we wanted… encouraged a kind of voyeurism that made the experience of Little Tongues all the more visceral.”
The Blood Projects have produced many additional titles that have received similar acclaim. In This Is It, written by Singer-Wilson and staged entirely in bed, Jurgens dazzled audiences in the leading role of Eve.
“Athanasopoulos and Jurgens have believable chemistry from the start,” said Now Magazine in their review of the performance: “Kostas talks a lot, and Eve is less inclined to put her feelings into words, and when she does it usually involves ‘fuck’… At any one moment, Singer-Wilson nails the state of their relationship.”
The production of Inside explored the public presentation of self and the private experience of self. The crew staged three shows per night, only allowing five audience members inside for each show. What’s more, audience members were only given the location of the apartment where the performance was staged the evening before the show.
“Are you intrigued?” the brochure for Inside asked readers: “We can’t wait to meet you. Really. You’re the missing piece.”
In addition to her contributions to The Blood Projects, Jurgens is also involved in many other acting projects. Beyond her roots in theatre, she also has extensive experience in television, film, and even commercial work.
Most recently, she was nominated for Best Actress in the horror film, The Man in the Shadows, which was also nominated for Best Feature at the 2015 Scare-a-Thon film festival.
Whether it be a Blood Project or not, Sarah Jurgens plays a tremendous role in whatever project she is involved with. As she continues to push the limits of convention, audiences will long consider both the impact and meaning in each performance she gives.