Photo by Shawn McPherson. 1) What the fuck is going on? Well, as we choke on the ubiquity of war, pollution, crumbling social structures and global malaise I am preparing a solo show. How dandy! Here is the more polite, less misanthropic answer. I am finishing a master of fine arts program at The University […]
Author: Ian Mackenzie
Not just for laughs
“After a close examination of the existing literature on performance art, it is remarkable to see how much of the emphasis has been placed on the grim, the intense, and the masochistic. Indeed, performance audiences have come to expect to be shocked, to witness artists being covered with bodily fluids, pierced, hung, confined, and/or mutilated. […]
Script submission guidelines?
Here’s a quick link to an interesting post at Mr. Excitement News on script submission guidelines for smaller theatre companies. Check it out here. Further questions:Do most small theatre companies have firm script submission guidelines? What works? What doesn’t? Any tips? UPDATE:More further questions:What works for playwrights? How do you prefer to send your scripts […]
10 questions: Frances Shakov
STAF staff (L-R): Erica Reuter, Jackie McApline, Frances Shakov, Felicia Bana. 1) What the fuck is going on?We ask ourselves this on a daily (actually, hourly) basis. We love our clients and we love the work we do – but it is demanding and everyone wants something right now, damn it. Can’t they bloody well […]
George Hunka’s 95 sentences about theatre
George Hunka over at Superfluities started this great project back in March ’07 . . . and finished it a couple of days ago. A sampling: 20. In taking into the theatre the languages of mass culture, of advertising and marketing, we prove we have fallen in love with our screens. 30. The language of […]
Miss Marker at SummerWorks
For more info on this SummerWorks show, click here. And if you get a moment, check out this production’s awesome press stills gallery. Wow! It’s great to see so much care taken with the media materials – and is it just us, or are these images so clearly not digital? Here’s the company’s mandate statement: […]
Lift up your shirt!
Essential Collective Theatre Co.’s Hard Ways at SummerWorks.Click here for more info.
SummerWorks in Toronto
Here’s the festival’s Artistic Vision statement: “SummerWorks supports work that has a clear artistic vision and explores a specific theatrical aesthetic. It encourages risk, questions, and creative exploration while insisting on accessibility, integrity and professionalism. SummerWorks is the place where dedicated, professional artists are free to explore new territory and take artistic risks. Rather than […]
New political theatre
Ok. We already know that the good people at The Wrecking Ball are wicked smart. (Click here for ample evidence.) The even better news is that they’ve put together a special SummerWorks show for this Saturday night. (Click here for more info.)
ontarioartist.ca
We’ve just learned of a new provincial government website for Ontario-based artists: “[The Ontario government has] created this website to provide information about a range of programs and services specific to the needs of artists in all disciplines. “This site provides links to important information on how you can get grants. It can help you […]
10 questions: Kate Cayley
1) What the fuck is going on?Ask me in ten years. I will have it all figured out by then. 2) What is it about the story of the Diggers that inspires you to tell their story in public parks?The way that the content of their story (a struggle for the right to own and […]
A piece of NY-centric bigotry?
This is why we love Scott Walters and his awesome Theatre Ideas blog. In his latest post, he calls bullshit on our previous post and the show it “apparently recommends”, Iowa 08. Click here for more great and interesting discussion led by one of America’s great theatre bloggers.
If you happen to be in NYC . . .
“Produces the most pork. Predicts the presidential nominees.” IOWA 08 “Once every four years, Americans turn to Iowa – our thirtieth most populous state and the birthplace of John Wayne – for the earliest indication of who the nation’s presidential candidates will be. But who are these Iowans, who export pigs and tractors and influence […]
A people without narrative
“The narratives of the world are numberless. Narrative is first and foremost a prodigious variety of genres, themselves distributed amongst different substances – as though any material were fit to receive man’s stories. Able to be carried by articulated language, spoken or written, fixed or moving images, gestures, and the ordered mixture of all these […]
10 questions: Matthew Romantini
1) What the fuck is going on?Well, I just returned from a week in Prague, followed by 24 hours in London. I went to Prague to attend the Quadrennial, which was totally fascinating, and I kept randomly running into people I knew. None of the picutres of any of the exhibits turned out, unfortunately. Good […]