Like text threads of yearly “Happy Birthday friend!” with nothing in between, this list of shows is also evidence of a neglected space. Here are the shows we’re seeing and you can follow along on instagram
Sibiu Schedule
I’m headed to Romania with UBC’s Go Global to watch a bunch of shows at FITS here’s the partial list of the shows we’re seeing:
Enough in endless growth…
We could, some say, build a society that pays everyone “enough” in the model of endless growth.
“Industries” exist to collapse.
“Leaders” in the arts have long fought to have them thought of as industries. (I guess they wanted to be Leaders of Industry.)
Congrats, we’ve proved it! Industrial collapse!
To take the waves of lay-offs and closing personally is to ignore the social and economic systems we are entangled in.
Less Visible Privileges
Most of my life I’ve spent loving and standing with people as we demand the state do better.
3 non-linear phases
[Context note: Written in the summer of 2020 – early months of COVID 19 and a “racial reckoning” sparked by the murder of George Floyd in the USA and the confirmation of mass graves of children at Canadian residential schools.] Sparking, collecting, sharing. In the “shock” of the new perspective, we come to understand our […]
Keeping it simple.
There is a ladder of expectations that are so engrained into the culture I grew up in – Canada 80’s – that even my radical parents were only able to complicate – not remove them entirely. (And the way that they’re complicated aren’t always helpful.)
Fragments of fragments
I notice that the ensembles are best able to respond in this moment.
Category Error: Box office
The revenue problem is a side effect of a relevance problem. The relevance problem is a side effect of experience problems.
Designing the Organization of small groups?
We need more organization and social wisdom and grace because of the small scale – often precarious and messy but also specific and invaluable. (us cool kids call it “emergent”)
And almost entirely ignored by the “thought leadership” / globalized consultancy of OD – because, as above, there’s no “market” there.
It takes everyone for a quiet yes and only one for a loud no
I wrote in the desire for a quiet improvisation
a desire for non-vocal informed consent to quiet.
Types of teams
I want a group of weirdos who have chops, care and have played the game, but also still know how to be human and playful.
“Traditional Theatre”
People getting together and making each other delighted by behaving a little odd… that’s traditional theatre.
“Traditional theatre” isn’t people sitting in 1 direction with only half the room lit. That’s the radical theatre of Empire.
“What’s next” … of many
This is how theatre started and there’s little risk of that going away.
Emotional inspirations
Boredom, anger, aspirations, love, curiosity are all possible inspirations.
Notes from a call
What else could be true? For me, this is not an “art for art sake” / “follow your heart” thing that ignores the relation with context and community but the opposite – an admission of the entanglement and complexities.
Planning for things to change
we, who believe in the touch and the present body / and the potential for exchange and transformation / how will we, locally and in networks, / contribute to that return
Theatre history poems
The lights are just an expression of the philosophical position.The forth wall has been wrapped around the heart and mind of the actor.She may know that other people are around her on stage and off. But she has been directed not to see them anyways, to spend most of her acting energy on pretending that the current conditions are different.
My Questions Include / Our Metaphors
How to build up from:
“There is a community of people called to
and expert at
sharing and practicing something
that brings value and meaning to their lives and the lives of others.”
EVERYTHING AFTER THIS IS FROM 2014 or early.
Just a little time jump.
Puppets are great, but not enough
In making big fun shows, it matters what’s underneath. Daedalus, Icarus, Oppenheimer and Aaron Swartz.
Histories of fire and microphones
Before microphones and ties, there was body paint, fire and stilts.
Ethics and intent – map
Thinking about making a show that involves historical people, especially recently passed ones, means there are some things to think about and articulate. Part 1 of that for The Summer Spectacular is sharing this map. also – a movie about Aaron Swartz is at Hot Docs – I’m looking forward to seeing it.
Equity and Helen Lawrence. Going Meta. Going forward.
I (like most of us) have no inside information on the reasons behind the cancellation of Helen Lawrence at the FTA beyond what is in the Globe article and the statements Arden Ryshpan and the Canadian Actors Equity Association (CAEA) have posted and comments on Facebook. But (like most of us) the headline alone was […]
Conte D’Amour and self-aware problems
Conte D’Amour – which ends it’s run tonight at Harbourfront Centre has been the cause of much chatter on the internet. From a zero-star review in the Globe to reviews not worth linking to, with lots of Facebook stuff thrown into the mix. If you like this discussion, you might like the CopyCat Academy that’s […]
Public Funding – Mixing stability and agility p2
I’ve got some interesting feedback / questions for clarity from the last post in the comments and off line. Thought I’d post some more thoughts here, on whether 5 years is too long… The reason I like 5 is that I think it’s hard to know (sometimes) whether something is going well or not until year […]
Public Funding – Mixing stability and agility
A little twitter back and forth with Praxis folk plus a desire to respond to Shannon Litzenberger’s Metcalf report, Choreographing Our Future: Strategies for Supporting Next Generation Arts Practice has inspired me to post some thoughts on public funding models. I’ve been thinking lots about this and below is an edited version of some writing about this for a […]
Letter: We need transparency in the Department of Canadian Heritage
[see also Policy, Politics and Rhubarb] from: Jacob Zimmer <jacob@smallwoodenshoe.org> to: andrew.cash@parl.gc.ca cc: shelly@shellyglover.ca, shelly.glover@parl.gc.ca, stephane.dion@parl.gc.ca, Brendan Healy <brendan@buddiesinbadtimes.com> date: Fri, Nov 29, 2013 at 2:39 PM subject: We need transparency in the Department of Canadian Heritage
Policy, politics, Rhubarb
The Rhubarb Festival did not receive Department of Canadian Heritage (DCH) funding. Read the letter and response here. Nothing New The DCH is an arm of the government in power. That was true under the Liberals and PC’s when it was used to promote “Canadian” culture abroad and in Quebec. (oh for the ¿golden age? […]
I don’t actually want Batman.
A day after reaction to the Summerworks Shoptalk debate from August 14. There were other triggers as well, but I think those will be integrated into later posts. There’s a fantasy about the rich guy (and sometimes his friends) with the great heart, skills and all the best toys who protects the rest of us […]
7 responses to 7 Important things
I cried. Not a common thing in the theatre. And as is mostly the case, it is the kindness that made me cry. It is a remarkably generous show.
2 things on The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic
1. The formal in conversational formalism Seeing Robert Wilson’s The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic (LADOMA) reminded me of his influence on my theatre. I’m interested in the smile of complicity and in the immediate, the rough, cheap and the fast but I also love the beauty and precision, the rigour and evocation of […]
Hammer OK/OK/OK – Intimating the Intimate
A few Fridays ago, I went to Hub 14 to see Chad Dembski and Cathy Gordon’s Hammer OK/OK/OK. Both were vulnerable and generous, honest and raw. Both Chad and Cathy are great performers, artists who have a wealth of experience and skills at being vulnerable and generous, honest and raw. They have the internal dramaturgy […]
Otherwise it’s not a change.
I just returned from participating in a meeting convened by the Edmonton Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council that had fifty of us discussing the future of arts research, advocacy and topics spreading out from there. It’s the beginning of a conversation. Here are the notes I spoke from. Who has a relevant voice […]
Images Festival: Material surprise
I caught two programs at the Images Festival this weekend and wondered if –The nature of surprise is different in analog and digital (for the sake of a very digital either/or I’m including live performance in analog and – importantly for my experience at Images – including film as opposed to digital video) maybe In analog, […]
Story Structures for Learning Creative Learning
As part of MIT’s free online course on Creative Learning that I’m taking, they assigned us to learn something and teach something to the online community. After taking a helpful Project Management 101, I decided to give a Freemind talk on Story Structures in a way that could be useful for people across a broad spectrum of backgrounds.
Adding Desire to the Viewpoints.
I’ve started regular idiosyncratic Viewpoint workshops. More hereWhat follows is some thoughts on the nature of those idiosyncrasies. Overlie included “Emotion” and Bogart took it out.1 And I’ve been missing something, in the eyes and at the fingers. In the centre and in the lips. Objective, intention and action are all words that might try to […]
The right blend: formal/informal learning
Without form, I have no space for the informal. I’m looking for a fluid space where slipping from craftsperson to hacker to philosopher to entertainer and back again is possible. Very formal structures help me avoid the anomic paralysis produced by the gap between the “infinite becoming” of what is possible and my clearly finite human nature.
Slow down with those numbers.
For the record: I believe that going out can have a positive effect on a persons life. I believe that going out to meaningful and delightful things should be part of peoples lives. I believe a function of art might be ease alienation without denying complexity or difference. I belive the simplifying tendancy of lobbying […]
Artist as Producer pt3
The problem with DIY is the singularity of “yourself.” Theatre has never been an individual pursuit for me – it’s been an excuse, a need and a generator of working with other people to get something done. This means artistic collaborators, advocates and advisors, producers, teachers, and (very important) audience. All of these people invoke […]