Theatre Performance

Call for participants/presenters in a panel presentation and round table discussion, with possible breakout sessions at Scenofest, PQ2011

Roundtable Information

10am  21st June

Considering Sustainable Design: expanding the possible by rethinking the way we create

In their book, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, William McDonough and Michael Braungart argue that we will never sell sustainable practice by pitching cutting back, but rather through creating products that are beneficial to the earth. As Braungart points out, ants have a greater biomass than humans, and have been industrious for millions of years, yet unlike humans, their industry nourishes the planet. This panel will consider the benefits of sustainable design practice beyond the ‘it feels right’ motivation. By Rethinking the Way We Create Things, might we be opening up to a whole new and exciting world of design possibilities?

If you are planning to attend PQ2011, are interested in this aspect of design, and feel you would be interested/available to participate, please send your proposed presentation topic (abstract), and a short bio to William Mackwood:  mackwood@yorku.ca

2pm 21st June

Sites of Performance – Theatre out of frames

This years Scenofest sees two major performance projects happening outside of a theatre building, so what is it that this form of theatre achieves that cannot be achieved through other means ? Over the last ten years there has been a real surge in the interest in making work in unorthodox spaces from garages, botanical gardens, intimate apartments to massive industrial units.  Increasingly this work seeks out intersection with other collaborators, historians, cultural geographers, urban planners as the work seeks to map hidden histories. Street theatre performance too has developed in sophistication and scale and artists are employed as a catalysts to re-imagine their futures. Work by pioneering artists like Meredith Monk, Ariane Mnouchkine, Peter Brooks and companies like Dogtroep, Skewed Vision, Wilson+Wilson, La Machine all shaped the form, but what does the future hold ?

This roundtable considers the unique opportunities offered through this work and explore sites of performance potential for spectacle / community engagement / regeneration / as text / scenographic material.

If you are planning to attend PQ2011, are interested in this aspect of performance, and feel you would be interested/available to participate, please send your proposed presentation topic (abstract), and a short bio to Peter Reed at peter.scenofest@gmail.com

ashdenizen: flowers on stage: the daffodil

In the second in our summer series of blogs, the artist Sue Palmerwrites about the daffodils and the desk fan in Mary Southcott’s ‘Let’s get some weather in here’

One moment – a movement – remains with me. I can remember none of the content now – it is about 8 years since I saw the theatre performance and the stories are blurred, fleeted. What I do remember is Mary performing her solo show, and one moment within it has fused itself onto my memory.

Just off centre in the performance space is a window box, a white plastic window box, and facing the audience are a row of daffodils, yellow and bright in the studio lighting. They are looking perky and buoyant as only daffodils can, and very yellow, the trumpet variety. At one point in the performance, Mary switches on a desk fan that stands behind the daffodils and a deeply satisfying event takes place.

As the fan turns its automated 120-degree span, so the daffodil heads respond – bobbing, nodding. The bobbing heads in the breeze are met by collective warmth and delight from the audience – our attention is absorbed by the responsive movement of the flowers that is so familiar, so recognisable.

Mary’s simple creation of a small ‘weather system’ in the studio is utterly captivating: the outside is suddenly on the inside. The relationship between the wind and the flower is placed at the centre of my attention, so I can see in absolute detail the architectural brilliance of the flower at being able to both receive and resist the wind. Due to the travel of the fan, the breeze interacts with the flowers over an arc of time so the daffodil heads respond to the beginning of the wind touching them, nodding vigorously as the full fan passes over them, returning to a small stillness before the process loops to a return.

The articulation of the flowers and their ability to work with the wind ‘speaks’; their ‘heads’ work with receptivity, capacity, intelligence. The daffodils have performed for us.

At ‘Presence’ Festival, Dartington College of Arts, Devon, June 2002

Photo: Ed O’Keefe

See also flowers on stage: the poppy. Next: flowers on stage: the lotus.

via ashdenizen: flowers on stage: the daffodil.

The Schuylkill Center – Elemental Energy: Art Powered by Nature

Elemental Energy: Art Powered by Nature
May 1 – September 26, 2010

Joe Chirchirillo
Jason Krugman & Christian Cerrito
Mark Malmberg
Patrick Marold
Moto Ohtake
Tim Prentice

Opening Reception
Saturday June 5, 2010
The trails will be open all afternoon for self-guided tours

6 pm
Refreshments available in the Gallery and at the Widener Trail Bird Blind
6:30 pm
Exhibition Introduction in the Gallery

7 pm
Artist Talk and Tour on the Trails

8 pm
Miro Dance Theatre performance of generate.degenerate in Founder’s Grove
tickets $5

Elemental Energy: Art Powered by Nature is The Schuylkill Center’s 2010 On The Trails exhibition. Six artists or artist teams from around the country will present outdoor sculptural installations that engage a natural element – wind, water, sun – to create a dynamic or kinetic artwork. Each piece creates sound, movement, or both, using only the energy they harness from nature. These exciting works will be installed for visitors to The Schuylkill Center to discover along Widener, Woodcock, and Grey Fox Loop trails.

Rain Machine by Joe Chirchirillo Sun Birds by Mark Malmberg
Rain Machine by Joe Chirchirillo Sun Birds by Mark Malmberg
Solar Drone by Patrick Marold Aero 2010 by Moto Ohtake
Solar Drone by Patrick Marold Aero 2010 by Moto Ohtake
Solar Thumpers by Jason Krugman and Christian Cerrito
Yellow Zinger by Tim Prentice Solar Thumpers by Jason Krugman and Christian Cerrito

Solar Bugbots workshop by Elemental Energy artists Jason Krugman and Christian Cerrito
May 12 at 6 pm
Hosted by Art in the Age
116 North 3rd St, Old City Philadelphia

Solar Bugbots Workshop
In this workshop, participants will learn how to construct a circuit that gathers solar energy and releases it in bursts, and then use it in the creation of a small, light-powered, vibro-bot. TheseBugbots will respond directly to the intensity of the light that they are exposed to, using solar energy to power two vibrating pager motors. On a sunny day they will skitter about frantically…On cloudy days they will move intermittently as they build up energy.

During the course of this workshop, participants will be introduced the basics of solar electronics and circuit construction. Each participant will solder their own circuit board and build a Bugbot of their own to take home. Participants need no prior experience in this field. Just come with a willingness to learn!