| The RED Letter, Apr 2006 |
Table of Contents
1. Words from Lisa Pijuan-Nomura
We have some great things happening at GirlCanCreate in April. I will take my one-woman show She Said Saffron to the Oh Solo Mio Festival in London Ontario (www.londonfringe.ca) on April 7 and 8! And then on April 19th we have a great lineup of artists for RED: A Night of Live Performance. And if you haven’t made it to Speak, An Afternoon of Visual and Verbal Storytelling, the last installation of this series finishes on the 9th of April! And if you are looking for some place to get inspiration, I will be offering Creativity Courses that start in the 3rd week of April and go till the end of May. These classes will be fun ways of jumping right in, getting your hands dirty, meeting new creative folks and exploring your self and your art. And just a reminder that April 29th is International Dance Day. So put on some funky tunes and shake your groove thing. Believe me, you will feel better. Have fun, jump in puddles and enjoy the springtime! Regards,
2. Interview with Multidisciplinary Artist Susanna Hood
This project began three years ago, when I decided to go into the studio to explore animals.... my embodiment of animals as a starting point for creation. This was a pretty open playing field, as is usual for my creative process. I just knew that I wanted to play between human and animal, using movement, voice, musical instrumentation and text. I knew that somehow I wanted to address more specifically the idea of character. This led me to choose someone from the theatre world to spend time with me in the studio. For round one, that was Leah Cherniak. In my work with Leah, the idea of story telling and narrative became more important, and that has had a profound effect on the rest of the process, even though I have worked with a number of outside-eye's since that time, ending up with director Jennifer Tarver. So in terms of what you might see now, I guess I would call it an abstract narrative (probably more narrative than usual for me). It's an intense little journey, quite sexual in nature, of a woman who's struggling with a cycle of animals to stay in her body. It's a pretty equal blend of high physicality, an interactive sound world (made of up my manipulated voice, musical instruments, and a variety of sounds), and text, all taking place in a surreal dream room environment. For the past seven years you have worked closely with Nilan Perrera as a collaborator. Could you tell us about your collaborative creation work together? Nilan and my working relationship has grown pretty organically since 1998. We began by improvising regularly with movement and prepared guitar, trying to find a way to make that relationship a true dialogue of equals, rather than one thing accompanying or leading the other. When Nilan came into the creative process for "still" (my first big solo work in 2000), he was inspired by the sounds that were coming purely out of what I was doing, by speaking and singing and interacting with surfaces in the space. So, through the use of a wireless microphone, and all his guitar effect pedals, we began a way of creating an integral sound world for performance that is now at the root of every project we've since embarked on. In "She's gone away", although we are still strongly connected through the method I've mentioned above, we are playing more with recorded and instrumental sound and separating and displacing some of the sound from me as a performer in the space so that the conversation between the two becomes maybe a bit more like our initial dialogue meeting of movement and music way back in 1998. Collaboration work is often difficult, yet much of your work has been collaborative! Do you have any advice for artists interested in multidisciplinary work and collaboration? My relationship with collaboration is a constant learning experience. For me it's very much about defining roles, and over time getting to recognize what level of collaboration is most interesting or fruitful for me. In general, I feel more comfortable when the collaboration is ultimately lead or directed by some kind of singular vision. That vision needs to be flexible and responsive, but at the end of the day, I need someone to be the overall architect for the work. That's not to say that pure collective work isn't also very fruitful and exciting. I think it's important to know, though, that the more collective and "truly" collaborative something is, the more time it takes. And I mean, a lot of time, and a real willingness on the part of all collaborators to both take charge and be willing to let go. Any kind of collaboration is going to push you further than you went yourself, and the more intense the collaboration, the more separate from you the project will be. I think what's probably most important is to experiment and to honestly figure out for yourself how much collaboration is interesting to you. The more people, the more clarity and communication needed by all. If you could meet anyone dead or alive who would it be? 3. Feature Show: She’s Gone Away
“… a must see event – as precious, as rare, as that proverbial pot of gold… a dance work reflecting the dazzling prism of her jewel-like soul.” The Theatre Centre presents A moment of sexual suspension, caught in mid-flight, a woman in the fragmented home of her mind, battles to stay in her body. She spins us through a continuous cycle of animal states that simultaneously provide both the escape from and the clues back to her integrated self. This highly charged physical and emotional journey throws us into the depths of voracity, bravado, dread, despair, and release. “Hood rivets the eye, and her performances are like a primal scream.” Creator/Performer Susanna Hood leads an exceptional creative team: previews April 21, 22 Founded in 2000, hum, is an interdisciplinary performing arts company dedicated to the creation and dissemination of highly innovative, powerfully communicative, transformative performance. Artistic Director, Susanna Hood is recognized as a compelling and virtuosic performer in both dance and music. She began her career as a member of the Toronto Dance Theatre from 1991 through 1995. Independently, she has performed the works of various Toronto choreographers, created singing/dancing roles with Autumn Leaf Productions, acted on film for filmmaker Philip Barker, created music for the dance works of Louis Laberge Coté, Rebecca Todd and Eryn Dace Trudell, collaborated extensively with composers John Oswald and Nilan Perera, and performed widely as an improviser both in dance and music. Her collaborative projects as well as her own choreography and music compositions have been presented throughout Toronto, nationally, and internationally on stage and in film since 1991. In the fall of 1998, she was one of two recipients of the K.M. Hunter Emerging Artists Awards in Dance. Box Office: 416-538-0988 4. Feature Storytelling Events: Toronto Festival of Storytelling and Speak!Toronto Festival of Storytelling (This is one of my favourite events in Toronto. Often, people assume that storytelling is only for children. Well, the wonderful surprise is that this festival offers stories for adults and children. The magical moment when you find yourself listening to spinners weaving intricate webs brings you back to when you were a child listening to stories. Go and check out this wonderful event, curated by the wonderful Carol Leigh Wehking. Tellers from around the world will surprise you with stories to suit all tastes. You will not be disappointed! – Lisa)
March 31 to April 9 Festival Director: Carol Leigh Wehking Information: 416-656-2445 http://festival.storytellingtoronto.org With local and international tellers, including Special Guests Dale Jarvis, Melanie Ray, Judith Poirier, La’Ron Williams, Phil Thomas, Eirwen Malin, Mats Rehnman and Dan Yashinsky.
Speak: An Afternoon of Visual and Verbal Storytelling Curated by Ann McDougall, Noah Kenneally, Lisa Pijuan-Nomura, Melanie Gordon with assistance by Dave Pijuan-Nomura and Catherine Mellinger If you haven’t had the chance to attend our new storytelling series, come out on April 9th, as it will be the last installation of the series. We will feature three tellers and finish with a Story Jam where we invite anyone to share a story! Watch in the fall for the second series featuring new and established tellers. April 9th For more information: 416-591-0225 or www.girlcancreate.com
5. Feature Theatre Performance: Goblin Market!Equity Showcase Inaugural Artist’s Showcase
“We must not look at Goblin Men! We must not buy their fruits! Who knows upon what soil they fed their hungry thirsty roots” Morning and evening, Laura and Lizzie are lured further into the glen by the exotic goblin cry. What if one of the sisters was to succumb to their fruity proposals? For four nights, starting Wednesday March 29th at 8PM, Equity Showcase Theatre presents Goblin Market: a multi-disciplinary re-telling of the seductive Victorian poem written by Christina Rossetti. On the surface, Goblin Market is a fairytale. A deeper investigation reveals a complex allegory of temptation and salvation, a rich commentary on Victorian gender roles, and a vibrant exploration of erotic desire, sexual awakening and social redemption. Goblin Market is a work-in-progress and marks the first installment of the newly re-designed Artists’ Showcase at Equity Showcase Theatre. This presentation is the culmination of a multi-disciplinary collaboration between five artists over the month of March: an exercise in colliding disciplines with an equal emphasis on movement, music, image and text. The intention was to discover a process that would allow shared leadership by artists from distinct media. The outcome is a dynamic environmental performance piece, presented in the round in the beautiful Guild Room at Equity Showcase Theatre, which takes the audience into its beating heart and squeezes tight. Actor/Creators Maev Beaty & Erin Shields For reservations, please call 416-533-6100 ext *52. All tickets are PWYC. 6. RED: April 19th, 2006
RED: A Night of Live Performance April 19th Join us for a night of brilliant artists and exciting art! In the third season of RED, join curator Lisa Pijuan-Nomura as she welcomes returning and new artists to Lula’s stages! Featured Artists include: Ilse Gudino – Flamenco
RED NEWS!
7. Top10 with Performance Artist Shannon Cochrane Most recently, Shannon has completed a two yearlong series of performances called 100 People Performance. 100 People Performance is 5-act performance art play that presents projects, objects and possibilities designed for (and sometimes executed by) a group of exactly 100 people, through lecture, demonstration and instruction. 100 People Performance takes inspiration from Fluxus and the Guinness Book of World records in equal measures. 100 People Performance is a self-organizing system, part game etiquette and part cottage science alchemy. Singling out is not valued at 100 People Performance because the whole of the pattern is always greater than the sum of its parts.
My Top 10 Favourite Anythings of all time 1. Every conversation I have ever had with my dad
8. Classes, Workshops and Conferences
Two workshops with Denise Fujiwara Embodiment: Butoh-based dance training and improvisation A dance-theatre workshop to train the body and the imagination by working from vivid internal conditions expressed through intense physicality. Using Butoh, the modern Japanese dance form as a foundation, we work to reveal the dance's inner life of authenticity, depth and paradox, and to express one's humanity in all of its irrationality, ugliness, beauty and mirth. April 4–7 Contemplative Dance Workshop Sun. April 30, May 7, May 14 To register for either course and for more information please call 416-593-4710 or e-mail info@fujiwaradance.com Denise Fujiwara has worked as dancer and choreographer for 27 years. In her youth she was an accomplished athlete, earned an Honours BFA in Dance from York U., and has since worked intensively with a number of dance masters. Her dance works have toured to critical acclaim from coast to coast in Canada and internationally to the U.S., South America, Europe and Asia. Ms. Fujiwara has had the privilege of studying Butoh intensively under the tutelage of master artists, Natsu Nakajima and Yukio Waguri. She performs and teaches workshops and master classes across Canada and internationally. Creativity Classes with Lisa Pijuan-Nomura She Can Create: Women and Creativity Tuesdays from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Creativity Journals: An Essential Tool. Wednesdays from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Join Lisa Pijuan-Nomura as she teaches two new creativity classes from her studio in the Historical Distillery District. Well known for both her work as a curator and multidisciplinary artist, Lisa has also facilitated many creativity classes in journaling, dance and storytelling. She has worked with Wild Women Expeditions, Rio Caliente Hot Springs and Healing Centre in Mexico, and is active as a Creativity Coach in Toronto. To register for either course and for more information please call 416-593-4710 or email lisa@girlcancreate.com Series 8:08 announces a two-week summer intensive with TOM STROUD! Central Focus: An Intensive Exploration in Theatrical Improvisation June 19th - June 30th, Central Focus: Central Focus is an approach to Theatrical improvisation developed by Tom Stroud over his twenty-five years of creating and training actors and dancers. Each day allows for a period of skill development and the application of those skills to theatrical, movement-based improvisation. Skill development is designed to enhance concentration, relaxation, and sensitivity, integrate voice and gesture, and to increase the individuals' spontaneity and range of expression. Performance skills will focus on developing awareness of the source and flow of creative impulse, exploring artistic boundaries, using text in improvisation, and supporting the development of an improvisation. Individual attention will be give to assist in identifying personal patterns and challenges. Care is given to develop a safe environment for exploration where each participant is encouraged to respectfully push their own boundaries while creating solid foundation and understanding of the improvisational techniques and their application to performance and/or choreographic exploration. To register (and please do so quickly as space in this intensive is limited!):
9. Calls for Submissions
HATCH: emerging performance projects At the Studio Theatre, Harbourfront Centre Harbourfront Centre is currently seeking proposals from Toronto-area artists and companies working in the field of performance for HATCH: emerging performance projects for the 2006/2007 season. Now heading into its fourth year, HATCH: emerging performance projects is designed to incubate and foster invention and innovation in the local theatre and performance scene and is quickly becoming an important element in the ecology of local performance development. While the primary focus of the programme is on projects from emerging theatre artists, we also welcome and strongly encourage proposals from more established artists engaging in new collaborations or entering into new artistic territory as well proposals of an interdisciplinary nature, including physical theatre and dance theatre. We are particularly interested in proposals that can demonstrate how HATCH will be of benefit to the project or the artist at this particular point in development. Companies selected to participate in HATCH will receive a one-week residency in the Studio Theatre, located at Harbourfront Centre. The Studio Theatre is an intimate, 196-seat proscenium venue featuring a full lighting grid, raked seating and sprung stage floor. Use of the residency period is at the discretion of the artist and needs of the project (i.e. workshop, rehearsals, performance, etc.) but there must be at least one public presentation of the work at some point in the week. The residency package includes:
The full application package will be available online at www.harbourfrontcentre.com/hatch. For more information, or to receive an application package via email or post call 416 952-7969 or email hatch@harbourfrontcentre.com . We are unable to accept applications sent by fax or email. HATCH proposals Deadline: 19 May 2006. All applications postmarked by Canada Post or a courier company no later than 19 May 2006 will be accepted. Applications may also be hand-delivered Harbourfront Centre until 9 pm on 19 May 2006. ARCfest 2006 ARCfest is a Social Justice Arts Festival that will be held from October 23rd-29th in multiple venues in the Queen West Art and Design District and Parkdale neighbourhoods in Toronto. As a multi-disciplinary festival, ARCfest features art events, panel discussions, speakers, and workshops addressing local social justice issues. We are looking for provocative, radical, inspiring, empowering, innovative and/or enlightening works from across the artistic media (i.e. film, poetry, performing arts, music, visual arts and anything else you consider art). Proposals must address local social justice/activist/human rights issues. Our multiple venues allow for projects of diverse size and scale. We encourage projects that are co-created or co-produced by an artist together with an organization involved in social justice pursuits (though this is not a requirement) ARCfest Goals: Who We Are ARCfest encourages artists and curators at any stage in their career to submit a proposal. All chosen artists will receive honorariums. Submission information can be found at www.arcfest.org ARCfest is committed to supporting equity and embraces submissions from diverse communities. SEND TO: Face in The Crowd Collective DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: JUNE 12th, 2006 Face in the Crowd will not accept responsibility for damage/loss to support material. For more information: email info@arcfest.org or visit our website www.arcfest.org
10. Websites I likewww.artomat.org - This is a brilliant idea! www.creativityday.ca - Did you know that April 15-21 is Creativity and Innovation Week? Check out this website for information and events during this great week! www.highfloater.com - Occasionally, I come across a website that I don’t fully understand. This is one of them. I think it’s a collection of cool sites. Nevertheless, it has links to some truly unique and inspiring sites. If you have some time to surf, check it out. It’s quite cool. www.move-me.com - In celebration of International Dance Day check out this cool idea. I think one of the most exciting things about the web is the inspiration it provides as you see others work around the world. Truly cool!
11. Read this Book! With Book Lady Sarah SeleckyI’ve been loving Toronto, lately. All the books I read this month have a little bit of that Toronto-love in them, too:
Norman Bray is the worst kind of actor: he’s egotistical and self-absorbed, plagued with illusions of grandeur, has a selective memory that serves only himself, and he’s unable to listen to any other human being with anything that resembles sincerity. It is to Trevor Cole’s credit that you are compelled to keep turning the pages of his novel when he has created such a seamlessly unlikable protagonist. How does he do it? Humour. This book is funny. And it’s touching, but without being sentimental (also to Cole’s credit). Norman, struggling with poverty and a failed career, finding himself alienated from family, friends and colleagues, eventually discovers what it means to be a human being. But not in the way you might expect.
I devoured this novel. Not only did I find it hard to put down, but Susan Swan’s description of food also made my mouth water. This book is lush and expansive and sexy. It will probably make you want to travel the world and fall in love. This is an historical novel – a love story told in part through letters and journal entries in the tradition of Possession by A.S. Byatt – that takes you from Toronto to Venice, Corfu, Athens, and Istanbul (preparing meals and eating delicious food along the way). Unlike other novels I’ve read with parallel narratives, both plotlines were full of captivating characters, and I was pleased every time Swan flipped back to the present, back to the past. I recommend it because it’s thick and juicy, and when I closed the back cover, I sighed out loud. I read it in a few days, but I felt like I’d just been traveling for months.
Remember Paul Quarrington’s Whale Music? When was the last time you read one of his novels? If, like me, you’d forgotten how much you loved him, I think you should go find Galveston now and remind yourself. This book is about a massive hurricane that hits a small tropical island, and it follows the story of everyone involved in the storm. A few people are there because they’re storm chasers – they get a charge out of it, they collect hurricane stories like others collect stamps. Two twenty-something girls are on their vacation. And then there are the locals, the people who have always lived on the island, the ones who run the resort itself. What happens when they all get together and the power goes out? Quarrington is a sharp, funny writer who pays acute attention to detail: he will make you believe everything he says at the same time as you’re laughing out loud because it’s just so absurd. He has a knack for coming up with killer-perfect metaphors. And in this book you will find the most electrically charged sex scene in Canadian literature. It’s hot. Sarah Selecky's stories have been published in Geist, Boulevard, Forget Magazine and The New Quarterly, and she won first prize in the Prairie Fire Fiction Contest in 2004. She is completing a collection of short fiction called This is How We Grow as Humans. Sarah lives in Toronto.
12. Upcoming Performances of InterestApril 1 to April 9 April 1 and April 2 April 1 April 1 April 1 to June 24 April 3 April 4 to April 8 April 6 April 6 to April 8 April 6 to April 8 April 6 to April 16 April 9 April 15 April 15 April 25 to April 29 April 26
13. What is it? Contest
The first two people to respond correctly to this contest win a pair of tickets to RED: A Night of Live Performance on April 19th at Lula Lounge! Good Luck!
14. Last Thought Table of Contents
1. Words from Lisa Pijuan-Nomura
We have some great things happening at GirlCanCreate in April. I will take my one-woman show She Said Saffron to the Oh Solo Mio Festival in London Ontario (www.londonfringe.ca) on April 7 and 8! And then on April 19th we have a great lineup of artists for RED: A Night of Live Performance. And if you haven’t made it to Speak, An Afternoon of Visual and Verbal Storytelling, the last installation of this series finishes on the 9th of April! And if you are looking for some place to get inspiration, I will be offering Creativity Courses that start in the 3rd week of April and go till the end of May. These classes will be fun ways of jumping right in, getting your hands dirty, meeting new creative folks and exploring your self and your art. And just a reminder that April 29th is International Dance Day. So put on some funky tunes and shake your groove thing. Believe me, you will feel better. Have fun, jump in puddles and enjoy the springtime! Regards,
2. Interview with Multidisciplinary Artist Susanna Hood
This project began three years ago, when I decided to go into the studio to explore animals.... my embodiment of animals as a starting point for creation. This was a pretty open playing field, as is usual for my creative process. I just knew that I wanted to play between human and animal, using movement, voice, musical instrumentation and text. I knew that somehow I wanted to address more specifically the idea of character. This led me to choose someone from the theatre world to spend time with me in the studio. For round one, that was Leah Cherniak. In my work with Leah, the idea of story telling and narrative became more important, and that has had a profound effect on the rest of the process, even though I have worked with a number of outside-eye's since that time, ending up with director Jennifer Tarver. So in terms of what you might see now, I guess I would call it an abstract narrative (probably more narrative than usual for me). It's an intense little journey, quite sexual in nature, of a woman who's struggling with a cycle of animals to stay in her body. It's a pretty equal blend of high physicality, an interactive sound world (made of up my manipulated voice, musical instruments, and a variety of sounds), and text, all taking place in a surreal dream room environment. For the past seven years you have worked closely with Nilan Perrera as a collaborator. Could you tell us about your collaborative creation work together? Nilan and my working relationship has grown pretty organically since 1998. We began by improvising regularly with movement and prepared guitar, trying to find a way to make that relationship a true dialogue of equals, rather than one thing accompanying or leading the other. When Nilan came into the creative process for "still" (my first big solo work in 2000), he was inspired by the sounds that were coming purely out of what I was doing, by speaking and singing and interacting with surfaces in the space. So, through the use of a wireless microphone, and all his guitar effect pedals, we began a way of creating an integral sound world for performance that is now at the root of every project we've since embarked on. In "She's gone away", although we are still strongly connected through the method I've mentioned above, we are playing more with recorded and instrumental sound and separating and displacing some of the sound from me as a performer in the space so that the conversation between the two becomes maybe a bit more like our initial dialogue meeting of movement and music way back in 1998. Collaboration work is often difficult, yet much of your work has been collaborative! Do you have any advice for artists interested in multidisciplinary work and collaboration? My relationship with collaboration is a constant learning experience. For me it's very much about defining roles, and over time getting to recognize what level of collaboration is most interesting or fruitful for me. In general, I feel more comfortable when the collaboration is ultimately lead or directed by some kind of singular vision. That vision needs to be flexible and responsive, but at the end of the day, I need someone to be the overall architect for the work. That's not to say that pure collective work isn't also very fruitful and exciting. I think it's important to know, though, that the more collective and "truly" collaborative something is, the more time it takes. And I mean, a lot of time, and a real willingness on the part of all collaborators to both take charge and be willing to let go. Any kind of collaboration is going to push you further than you went yourself, and the more intense the collaboration, the more separate from you the project will be. I think what's probably most important is to experiment and to honestly figure out for yourself how much collaboration is interesting to you. The more people, the more clarity and communication needed by all. If you could meet anyone dead or alive who would it be? 3. Feature Show: She’s Gone Away
“… a must see event – as precious, as rare, as that proverbial pot of gold… a dance work reflecting the dazzling prism of her jewel-like soul.” The Theatre Centre presents A moment of sexual suspension, caught in mid-flight, a woman in the fragmented home of her mind, battles to stay in her body. She spins us through a continuous cycle of animal states that simultaneously provide both the escape from and the clues back to her integrated self. This highly charged physical and emotional journey throws us into the depths of voracity, bravado, dread, despair, and release. “Hood rivets the eye, and her performances are like a primal scream.” Creator/Performer Susanna Hood leads an exceptional creative team: previews April 21, 22 Founded in 2000, hum, is an interdisciplinary performing arts company dedicated to the creation and dissemination of highly innovative, powerfully communicative, transformative performance. Artistic Director, Susanna Hood is recognized as a compelling and virtuosic performer in both dance and music. She began her career as a member of the Toronto Dance Theatre from 1991 through 1995. Independently, she has performed the works of various Toronto choreographers, created singing/dancing roles with Autumn Leaf Productions, acted on film for filmmaker Philip Barker, created music for the dance works of Louis Laberge Coté, Rebecca Todd and Eryn Dace Trudell, collaborated extensively with composers John Oswald and Nilan Perera, and performed widely as an improviser both in dance and music. Her collaborative projects as well as her own choreography and music compositions have been presented throughout Toronto, nationally, and internationally on stage and in film since 1991. In the fall of 1998, she was one of two recipients of the K.M. Hunter Emerging Artists Awards in Dance. Box Office: 416-538-0988 4. Feature Storytelling Events: Toronto Festival of Storytelling and Speak!Toronto Festival of Storytelling (This is one of my favourite events in Toronto. Often, people assume that storytelling is only for children. Well, the wonderful surprise is that this festival offers stories for adults and children. The magical moment when you find yourself listening to spinners weaving intricate webs brings you back to when you were a child listening to stories. Go and check out this wonderful event, curated by the wonderful Carol Leigh Wehking. Tellers from around the world will surprise you with stories to suit all tastes. You will not be disappointed! – Lisa)
March 31 to April 9 Festival Director: Carol Leigh Wehking Information: 416-656-2445 http://festival.storytellingtoronto.org With local and international tellers, including Special Guests Dale Jarvis, Melanie Ray, Judith Poirier, La’Ron Williams, Phil Thomas, Eirwen Malin, Mats Rehnman and Dan Yashinsky.
Speak: An Afternoon of Visual and Verbal Storytelling Curated by Ann McDougall, Noah Kenneally, Lisa Pijuan-Nomura, Melanie Gordon with assistance by Dave Pijuan-Nomura and Catherine Mellinger If you haven’t had the chance to attend our new storytelling series, come out on April 9th, as it will be the last installation of the series. We will feature three tellers and finish with a Story Jam where we invite anyone to share a story! Watch in the fall for the second series featuring new and established tellers. April 9th For more information: 416-591-0225 or www.girlcancreate.com
5. Feature Theatre Performance: Goblin Market!Equity Showcase Inaugural Artist’s Showcase
“We must not look at Goblin Men! We must not buy their fruits! Who knows upon what soil they fed their hungry thirsty roots” Morning and evening, Laura and Lizzie are lured further into the glen by the exotic goblin cry. What if one of the sisters was to succumb to their fruity proposals? For four nights, starting Wednesday March 29th at 8PM, Equity Showcase Theatre presents Goblin Market: a multi-disciplinary re-telling of the seductive Victorian poem written by Christina Rossetti. On the surface, Goblin Market is a fairytale. A deeper investigation reveals a complex allegory of temptation and salvation, a rich commentary on Victorian gender roles, and a vibrant exploration of erotic desire, sexual awakening and social redemption. Goblin Market is a work-in-progress and marks the first installment of the newly re-designed Artists’ Showcase at Equity Showcase Theatre. This presentation is the culmination of a multi-disciplinary collaboration between five artists over the month of March: an exercise in colliding disciplines with an equal emphasis on movement, music, image and text. The intention was to discover a process that would allow shared leadership by artists from distinct media. The outcome is a dynamic environmental performance piece, presented in the round in the beautiful Guild Room at Equity Showcase Theatre, which takes the audience into its beating heart and squeezes tight. Actor/Creators Maev Beaty & Erin Shields For reservations, please call 416-533-6100 ext *52. All tickets are PWYC. 6. RED: April 19th, 2006
RED: A Night of Live Performance April 19th Join us for a night of brilliant artists and exciting art! In the third season of RED, join curator Lisa Pijuan-Nomura as she welcomes returning and new artists to Lula’s stages! Featured Artists include: Ilse Gudino – Flamenco
RED NEWS!
7. Top10 with Performance Artist Shannon Cochrane Most recently, Shannon has completed a two yearlong series of performances called 100 People Performance. 100 People Performance is 5-act performance art play that presents projects, objects and possibilities designed for (and sometimes executed by) a group of exactly 100 people, through lecture, demonstration and instruction. 100 People Performance takes inspiration from Fluxus and the Guinness Book of World records in equal measures. 100 People Performance is a self-organizing system, part game etiquette and part cottage science alchemy. Singling out is not valued at 100 People Performance because the whole of the pattern is always greater than the sum of its parts.
My Top 10 Favourite Anythings of all time 1. Every conversation I have ever had with my dad
8. Classes, Workshops and Conferences
Two workshops with Denise Fujiwara Embodiment: Butoh-based dance training and improvisation A dance-theatre workshop to train the body and the imagination by working from vivid internal conditions expressed through intense physicality. Using Butoh, the modern Japanese dance form as a foundation, we work to reveal the dance's inner life of authenticity, depth and paradox, and to express one's humanity in all of its irrationality, ugliness, beauty and mirth. April 4–7 Contemplative Dance Workshop Sun. April 30, May 7, May 14 To register for either course and for more information please call 416-593-4710 or e-mail info@fujiwaradance.com Denise Fujiwara has worked as dancer and choreographer for 27 years. In her youth she was an accomplished athlete, earned an Honours BFA in Dance from York U., and has since worked intensively with a number of dance masters. Her dance works have toured to critical acclaim from coast to coast in Canada and internationally to the U.S., South America, Europe and Asia. Ms. Fujiwara has had the privilege of studying Butoh intensively under the tutelage of master artists, Natsu Nakajima and Yukio Waguri. She performs and teaches workshops and master classes across Canada and internationally. Creativity Classes with Lisa Pijuan-Nomura She Can Create: Women and Creativity Tuesdays from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Creativity Journals: An Essential Tool. Wednesdays from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Join Lisa Pijuan-Nomura as she teaches two new creativity classes from her studio in the Historical Distillery District. Well known for both her work as a curator and multidisciplinary artist, Lisa has also facilitated many creativity classes in journaling, dance and storytelling. She has worked with Wild Women Expeditions, Rio Caliente Hot Springs and Healing Centre in Mexico, and is active as a Creativity Coach in Toronto. To register for either course and for more information please call 416-593-4710 or email lisa@girlcancreate.com Series 8:08 announces a two-week summer intensive with TOM STROUD! Central Focus: An Intensive Exploration in Theatrical Improvisation June 19th - June 30th, Central Focus: Central Focus is an approach to Theatrical improvisation developed by Tom Stroud over his twenty-five years of creating and training actors and dancers. Each day allows for a period of skill development and the application of those skills to theatrical, movement-based improvisation. Skill development is designed to enhance concentration, relaxation, and sensitivity, integrate voice and gesture, and to increase the individuals' spontaneity and range of expression. Performance skills will focus on developing awareness of the source and flow of creative impulse, exploring artistic boundaries, using text in improvisation, and supporting the development of an improvisation. Individual attention will be give to assist in identifying personal patterns and challenges. Care is given to develop a safe environment for exploration where each participant is encouraged to respectfully push their own boundaries while creating solid foundation and understanding of the improvisational techniques and their application to performance and/or choreographic exploration. To register (and please do so quickly as space in this intensive is limited!):
9. Calls for Submissions
HATCH: emerging performance projects At the Studio Theatre, Harbourfront Centre Harbourfront Centre is currently seeking proposals from Toronto-area artists and companies working in the field of performance for HATCH: emerging performance projects for the 2006/2007 season. Now heading into its fourth year, HATCH: emerging performance projects is designed to incubate and foster invention and innovation in the local theatre and performance scene and is quickly becoming an important element in the ecology of local performance development. While the primary focus of the programme is on projects from emerging theatre artists, we also welcome and strongly encourage proposals from more established artists engaging in new collaborations or entering into new artistic territory as well proposals of an interdisciplinary nature, including physical theatre and dance theatre. We are particularly interested in proposals that can demonstrate how HATCH will be of benefit to the project or the artist at this particular point in development. Companies selected to participate in HATCH will receive a one-week residency in the Studio Theatre, located at Harbourfront Centre. The Studio Theatre is an intimate, 196-seat proscenium venue featuring a full lighting grid, raked seating and sprung stage floor. Use of the residency period is at the discretion of the artist and needs of the project (i.e. workshop, rehearsals, performance, etc.) but there must be at least one public presentation of the work at some point in the week. The residency package includes:
The full application package will be available online at www.harbourfrontcentre.com/hatch. For more information, or to receive an application package via email or post call 416 952-7969 or email hatch@harbourfrontcentre.com . We are unable to accept applications sent by fax or email. HATCH proposals Deadline: 19 May 2006. All applications postmarked by Canada Post or a courier company no later than 19 May 2006 will be accepted. Applications may also be hand-delivered Harbourfront Centre until 9 pm on 19 May 2006. ARCfest 2006 ARCfest is a Social Justice Arts Festival that will be held from October 23rd-29th in multiple venues in the Queen West Art and Design District and Parkdale neighbourhoods in Toronto. As a multi-disciplinary festival, ARCfest features art events, panel discussions, speakers, and workshops addressing local social justice issues. We are looking for provocative, radical, inspiring, empowering, innovative and/or enlightening works from across the artistic media (i.e. film, poetry, performing arts, music, visual arts and anything else you consider art). Proposals must address local social justice/activist/human rights issues. Our multiple venues allow for projects of diverse size and scale. We encourage projects that are co-created or co-produced by an artist together with an organization involved in social justice pursuits (though this is not a requirement) ARCfest Goals: Who We Are ARCfest encourages artists and curators at any stage in their career to submit a proposal. All chosen artists will receive honorariums. Submission information can be found at www.arcfest.org ARCfest is committed to supporting equity and embraces submissions from diverse communities. SEND TO: Face in The Crowd Collective DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: JUNE 12th, 2006 Face in the Crowd will not accept responsibility for damage/loss to support material. For more information: email info@arcfest.org or visit our website www.arcfest.org
10. Websites I likewww.artomat.org - This is a brilliant idea! www.creativityday.ca - Did you know that April 15-21 is Creativity and Innovation Week? Check out this website for information and events during this great week! www.highfloater.com - Occasionally, I come across a website that I don’t fully understand. This is one of them. I think it’s a collection of cool sites. Nevertheless, it has links to some truly unique and inspiring sites. If you have some time to surf, check it out. It’s quite cool. www.move-me.com - In celebration of International Dance Day check out this cool idea. I think one of the most exciting things about the web is the inspiration it provides as you see others work around the world. Truly cool!
11. Read this Book! With Book Lady Sarah SeleckyI’ve been loving Toronto, lately. All the books I read this month have a little bit of that Toronto-love in them, too:
Norman Bray is the worst kind of actor: he’s egotistical and self-absorbed, plagued with illusions of grandeur, has a selective memory that serves only himself, and he’s unable to listen to any other human being with anything that resembles sincerity. It is to Trevor Cole’s credit that you are compelled to keep turning the pages of his novel when he has created such a seamlessly unlikable protagonist. How does he do it? Humour. This book is funny. And it’s touching, but without being sentimental (also to Cole’s credit). Norman, struggling with poverty and a failed career, finding himself alienated from family, friends and colleagues, eventually discovers what it means to be a human being. But not in the way you might expect.
I devoured this novel. Not only did I find it hard to put down, but Susan Swan’s description of food also made my mouth water. This book is lush and expansive and sexy. It will probably make you want to travel the world and fall in love. This is an historical novel – a love story told in part through letters and journal entries in the tradition of Possession by A.S. Byatt – that takes you from Toronto to Venice, Corfu, Athens, and Istanbul (preparing meals and eating delicious food along the way). Unlike other novels I’ve read with parallel narratives, both plotlines were full of captivating characters, and I was pleased every time Swan flipped back to the present, back to the past. I recommend it because it’s thick and juicy, and when I closed the back cover, I sighed out loud. I read it in a few days, but I felt like I’d just been traveling for months.
Remember Paul Quarrington’s Whale Music? When was the last time you read one of his novels? If, like me, you’d forgotten how much you loved him, I think you should go find Galveston now and remind yourself. This book is about a massive hurricane that hits a small tropical island, and it follows the story of everyone involved in the storm. A few people are there because they’re storm chasers – they get a charge out of it, they collect hurricane stories like others collect stamps. Two twenty-something girls are on their vacation. And then there are the locals, the people who have always lived on the island, the ones who run the resort itself. What happens when they all get together and the power goes out? Quarrington is a sharp, funny writer who pays acute attention to detail: he will make you believe everything he says at the same time as you’re laughing out loud because it’s just so absurd. He has a knack for coming up with killer-perfect metaphors. And in this book you will find the most electrically charged sex scene in Canadian literature. It’s hot. Sarah Selecky's stories have been published in Geist, Boulevard, Forget Magazine and The New Quarterly, and she won first prize in the Prairie Fire Fiction Contest in 2004. She is completing a collection of short fiction called This is How We Grow as Humans. Sarah lives in Toronto.
12. Upcoming Performances of InterestApril 1 to April 9 April 1 and April 2 April 1 April 1 April 1 to June 24 April 3 April 4 to April 8 April 6 April 6 to April 8 April 6 to April 8 April 6 to April 16 April 9 April 15 April 15 April 25 to April 29 April 26
13. What is it? Contest
The first two people to respond correctly to this contest win a pair of tickets to RED: A Night of Live Performance on April 19th at Lula Lounge! Good Luck!
14. Last Thought |
After an insanely busy two months of teaching, traveling and performing, I am carving out some time for myself to refill and simply be. As an artist and a coach, I am always amazed at how busy most of us are with work, home and family. It’s difficult to find time for friends, let alone oneself. In order to create important and essential work we must take the time to play, create and cultivate our desires! So take yourself on a date, go for a walk and feed your artistic self. It’s important!
Your show She's Gone Away is coming up in April at the Theatre Centre. Could you tell us a bit about the history of the piece and what we might see?
Norman Bray in the Performance of His Life by Trevor Cole
What Casanova Told Me by Susan Swan 
Galveston, by Paul Quarrington