First Encounters: One-To One Performance Part 2 featuring Berenicci Hershorn, Kenji Ouellet, Johnson Ngo, Aynsley Moorhouse and David Frankovich

You’ve read about them in Xtra!, The National Post, on BlogTO and Torontoist (just to name a few!). Starting tonight, you can be among the first to experience one-to-one performance at Rhubarb. At 5:00 we open the box office at the 519 Church Street Community Centre for first-come, first-served Pay What You Can (cash only!) appointment bookings with our one-to-one artists. Before your appointment, hang out and read a book or play a game in our waiting room or grab a Rhubarb –themed bite from our friends at Fabarnak. 

Did you know that you can start your one-to-one experience at home? 

If you have a smartphone, MP3 player or other headphone-equipped device at the ready, click here to download Walk With Me by Aynsley Moorhouse. Head to the Buddies Box Office, press play, and voila! Your walk to the 519 becomes an artistic experience not to be missed. If you’re reading this now and can’t make it to a computer in time, not to worry—we’ll have a laptop at the 519 where you can download Aynsley’s piece. 

You may remember reading our domino interview with five one-to-one artists. This week, we bring you part two, featuring Berenicci Hershorn, Kenji Ouellet, Johnson Ngo, Aynsley Moorhouse and David Frankovich.

BERENICCI HERSHORN

In Blue Light, you and Berenicci will exchange secrets. Don’t worry—she won’t tell. 

Kenji Ouellet to Berenicci Hershorn: 

What importance does telling the truth have for you generally, and what role does this play in your performance?

Berenicci: My very first artistic inspiration was a little onion that peeled away to nothing in my astonished hands. And I have been forever fascinated by the way we come to know things. The process by which we edge our way around the circumference of comprehension, working towards a centre we may never ever find. There’s such an exquisite rhythm to it.

“We dance around in a ring and suppose,

But the secret sits in the middle and knows”

JOHNSON NGO

Come and Make Your Own China Doll with Johnson Ngo as he shares his story with you. 

Berenicci Hershorn to Johnson Ngo:

Your work, as I know it, deals with identity albeit in a very visual, metaphorical and often tangential way. Looking back at the work I've done over the years, I see that work I thought was cooly cerebral and conceptual turns out to be very personal indeed. Given that we use our person as our medium, do you think that all performance work deals with identity whether the artist owns up to that or not?"

Johnson:  Since our person is used as medium, I feel that all performance inherently deals with identity, but there is a difference between works dealing strictly with identity (and politics) and those dealing with more dominant themes. Not to mention the works of artists, such as Cindy Sherman and Nikki S. Lee, whose works intrinsically deals with the performance of identity. 

I address the construction and fluidity of identity, specifically within a homosexual context. Prejudice and stereotypes are just some of the themes I am working with within my performances.

DAVID FRANKOVICH

Hungry and curious about your past, present and future? Come to Psychic Cooking Show where David Frankovich will cook you a meal and tell you your fortune. 

Psychic Cooking Show

Johnson Ngo to David Frankovich: 

Do you have a personal connection to mysticism or fortune-telling?

David: I'm really interested in rituals. With tarot, for example, every reading is different. It may consist of the same structure, the same set of ritual actions, yet will always be different. Performance is the same way. Once a performance begins it opens to any number of possibilities. Every time it is performed a performance changes and the performer in turn is changed by the performance. In a way, this can be thought of as a kind of magic. Transformation through ritual action. On a personal level, I come from a media arts background, so discovering performance was for me a profoundly transformative experience. It has changed and continues to change the ways that I think about art and make art. I definitely feel changed when I perform, and often when I experience a performance. I wouldn't call it a mystical experience in a literal sense, but it is very powerful, which is maybe why I'm drawn to the idea of a kind of ritualized performance practice.

AYNSLEY MOORHOUSE

Aynsley’s Walk With Me is a sound art journey through memory and perception. 

Walk With Me

David Frankovich to Aynsley Moorhouse:

What, for you, is the relationship between sound, memory and walking?

Aynsley: For me, the relationship is more about that between your memory and your perceptions. How you interact with the world and the way you travel through it depends on how your brain processes the things around you. I'm fascinated by what happens when you can't trust your perceptions, and the anxiety and disorientation that can result from this mistrust. If, for example, you can't navigate your way home from somewhere you've known your whole life, walking becomes something scary and foreign. Likewise, you can only trust what you hear if you understand the sound or have heard it before. Typically the brain creates and maintains a catalog of familiar sounds which can be used to categorize and interpret new ones. When this system breaks down, sounds can become disorienting and confusing, reinforcing that you can no longer understand or trust your perceptions, and then by extension, the world around you.

KENJI OUELETT

Kenji flew all the way from Germany to bring you Klangkorper, in which a choreography is played out on his audience member’s body.

Aynsley Moorhouse to Kenji Ouellett:

Can you describe the challenges of conveying narrative through touch?

Klangkörper, the performance presented at the festival, involves no narrative in the sense of what is usually understood as storytelling. 

Its structures are related to those used in instrumental music or dance (when dance is abstract rather than narrative).  For a musician, musical structures (like, say, a sonata form) can be experienced as a kind of narrative, but this might not be the experience of the average listener of a piece of music.

A sound and a touch component interact and have a dialogue within Klangkoerper, creating other types of dynamics, so those similarities can only say so much anyway. 

Parts of Piece touchée no 2, another piece [of mine], deal directly with story-telling, and more generally touch and language. Generating meaning with touch (through similarity, relation or convention) can be challenging, but I felt that the most difficult thing was rather to find or create texts that could be set to a touch score in an interesting way.

One-to-one performances run from Friday, February 10th through Sunday, February 12th. Fridays from 6PM to 10 PM (last performance at 9:30) and Sunday from 2-5 PM (last performance at 4:20). PWYC, cash only, first-come first-served. Box office opens one hour prior to performances. 

PERFORMANCE ORDERS #3 AND #4: Neck Ties and Witchcraft for the YCU

From the young blood at Rhubarb we've taken two more performance orders.  Here we talk to Michael David Lorsch of As In Happy and cassy walker of satan in me.  Both artists are members of the Young Creator's Unit, part of the Queer Youth Arts Program at Buddies.

PERFORMANCE ORDER #3 - taken from Michael David Lorsch

What do you want the dance/performance to be about?
Where we look for happiness

Describe the movement and sound of the dance/performance.
Hysteric yet determined. Sustained energy. Colourful. Comical.

What should it look like?
There should be a lot of space as I think we always see happiness as something far from us or perhaps something we don't currently have. I sense of clown should be felt. 

Costumes?
For some reason I feel we need neck ties. I'd like to see the performers change the piece by what they find in their search - removing clothing, adding debris, whatever's in the area.

Site/Setting?
Corner of Alexander and Church on the Zodiac street mural. Though I imagine they can leave it.

Lighting?
Natural lighting

Any thoughts on Music (a particular piece of music, or genre)?
Anything with "Smile" in it. Smile by Charlie Chaplin (MJ), Smile, You Make Me Smile by Aloe Blacc

Is there a mood or theme you would like the piece to communicate/explore?
How happiness runs and controls our lives.

How many performers?
Two

Any other ideas or thoughts to share?
NOPE

Who are you?
Michael David Lorsch

What do you do?
Theatre artist and Boylesque T.O member

Age?
24


PERFORMANCE ORDER #4 - taken from cassy walker

What do you want the dance/performance to be about?
magic. witchcraft.

Describe the movement and sound of the dance/performance.
solemn. flowing. sharp. chaotic. contorted. like possession. the sounds are rhythmic, and should only be coming from the bodies.

What should it look like? 
it should look like a ritual. i see a steady crescendo. from order to chaos. silence to noise.

Costumes?
white. nothing but white. flowing white dresses for everyone.

Site/Setting?
around a table covered in white. everything happens around the table.

Lighting?
only candles and lamps set on the table in a symmetrical fashion.

Any thoughts on Music (a particular piece of music, or genre)?
everything comes from the bodies on the stage. they are the music.

Is there a mood or theme you would like the piece to communicate/explore?
like the spectators are watching something they shouldn't be. something private. secret.

How many performers?
five.

Any other ideas or thoughts to share?
do feel free to offer your blood. :)

First Encounters: An Opening-Night Imagined Conversation with YOU

An imagined First Encounters with you, dear blog reader:

Us: Hey, what’s the most exciting thing happening in Toronto tonight?

You: Easy question. Opening night of Rhubarb at Buddies, obviously.  Everyone is going.

That’s right, tonight is the night! The evening kicks off at 8:00 PM with a double-header of The Little G8 that Could in the Cabaret and Bleed in the North Chamber. Stick around for The Failure Show, Sea Foam Blue, Night and Day, Please Forever Please and 33. Also be sure to visit Trust My Gut in the Mezzanine and place your performance order at our Made to Order café.

Whew.

Messapotamia LeFae is here to take your order

Did we mention that there’s also a party?

Stop by our Kick-Off Bash! Starting at 10:00 PM, get your groove on to tunes spun by the dynamic DJ Phil V (if you haven’t seen it already, check out Phil’s response to Ellen’s dance challenge here) with special guest performances by MC Jazz and Messapotamia LeFae.

MC Jazz

Here's a sneak peak of Messy's unparalleled lip sync prowess:

You: So, wait, my ticket covers all of these amazing things?

Us: You bet.

You: That’s a bargain!  See, I told you it was the place to be.

Us: We’ll see you tonight.

PERFORMANCE ORDER #2: Another order up from Wives

Continuing to take performance orders from Rhubarb artists for our blog, we caught Wives (Leah Fay Goldstein, Emma-Kate Guimond and Julia Thomas) rehearsing Sea Foam Blue and took their ultimate performance order.

PERFORMANCE ORDER FORM

What do you want the dance/performance to be about?

Be honest.

Play with belly fat.

Make me aware of my body.

Get us out of our seats.

Text message.

Staring contest.

Licking contest.

De-sacralize female bodies.

Do a magic trick.

Describe the movement and sound of the dance/performance.

The sound of flab-slapping without hands.

Syncopation

Boy band.

Life cycle.

Jiggly.

What should it look like?

Time Warp.

Falling in love.

Fluid dancing in zero gravity.

 

Life is much better down where it's wetter

Costumes?

Naked OR Inorganic materials (ie styrofoam)

Not saran wrap

Site/Setting?

The bathroom.

Existential Darkness.

Post-Apocalypse.

A baby's crib.

Lighting?

Lightning.

A black hole.

  

FOAM PARTY! Dance number. 

Any thoughts on Music (a particular piece of music, or genre)?

Jamaican Dance Hall

Arabic Dabke

Siberian Throat Singing

Is there a mood or theme you would like the piece to communicate/explore?

Epiphany

Recycling

Colonization of Mars

How many performers?

2

Who are you?

We are WIvES


What do you do?

We make body-based intermedia love songs.

Age?

75 (together).

Catch Sea Foam Blue, “a live analogue-projection and dance fanta-sea of inter-species love and its evolutionary consequences.” During Week 1 of Rhubarb which is coming right up!

Landwomen return to sea

Revisit the blog's previous PERFORMANCE ORDER FORM 

Morsels: Rachel Steinberg interviews Maggie Hutcheson and Dan Watson

Early on in the curatorial process, it became clear that history—personal history, political history, local history—was going to be a major theme in this year’s festival. Both The Department of Public Memory and The Little G8 That Could explore the history of two communities—Toronto and Huntsville, ON, respectively, and the direct impact of governmental initiatives and policy on both. In creating their pieces, both Maggie and Dan went straight to the heart of the communities, gathering thoughts, impressions and opinions from the residents themselves. 

We were curious to find out more about the artists’ relationships to the places they visited, their own memories, and what they’ve learned about community so far.

Maggie, you’ve traveled to a number of different and diverse Toronto communities for this piece, some which may not have been places you frequent. Dan, you’re from Huntsville, but you live in Toronto. In researching for/creating your pieces, did you consider yourself outsiders? Why or why not? How were you received in the communities you visited? Was the reaction to you always the same, or did it vary?

Maggie: Toronto is often described as a city of neighbourhoods. As downtown-west residents we’re very aware of our outsider position when we travel to other parts of the city to speak with people about services they value. The surprising thing, though, is that, so far, response to our project has been the same wherever we go. People are friendly, willing to talk and very generous with their time. We still get nervous each time we head out to a new site but return again and again feeling really good about the conversations we’ve had.

Maggie Hutcheson

Dan: Yes and No.  I don’t feel like an outsider because I grew up [in Huntsville], and I continue to have a presence there through my work, and because I spend a good deal of time there.  Having said that, I don’t live there full time so I have a certain sensitivity when it comes to what I can say about the place.  I consider it my home, and when people ask me where I’m from, I automatically respond Huntsville without really thinking about it.  For most of the people that I have encountered during this project, it wasn’t really an issue where I’m from because it was never really a question.  Most knew me, or had heard about me, and knew that I am from Huntsville.  Now that I’ve made this piece about Muskoka, which could be seen as critical of some of the things that happened in the lead up to the G8, I’m interested to see if it does become an issue.  I’m wondering if people will bring that up.  There’s been a lot of interest in the piece, and people asking if I’ll do it in Huntsville, and I want to, but at the same time, I’m nervous how people will react.  It’s more immediate for that audience, and I have a long history with many of them.  So I guess it’s complicated. 

The importance or emotional attachment to place feels like a running thread through both of your pieces. What is the first place you remember being especially important or meaningful to you? Can you describe it?

Maggie: I grew up in an old house that had a narrow little set of stairs from the kitchen to the second floor. I loved bringing paper, pens, books, toys into that staircase and setting up on the third or fourth stair up. It was cosy and dimly lit. I spent a lot of hours dreaming there.

Dan: There are lots, but one of the most special places for me was summer camp.  I went to a place called Big Doe Camp which is north of Huntsville, just outside a little town called Burks Falls.  It was an all boys’ camp with wooden cabins, canoe trips and all kinds of activities.  It wasn’t fancy, things were run down a bit, but that’s what was great about it.  We celebrated its roughness.  Cabins were haunted, names written all over the walls, the canoes and sailboats had been patched with fibre glass too many times to count.  It was a place that felt like it was from a different time, with these crazy traditions like the portage race where people ran a kilometre with a canoe on their head.  The director was a guy named Aubrey Rhamey.  He was old school, really tough and stern.  He was close to eighty when I went there, and was still doing one armed push ups and giving people hell.  He taught us lessons about helping each other, and getting the most for you money (I remember straightening rusty nails for him to be reused).  When he died, the camp kind of died with him.  They sold off the cabins and the equipment.  The property is still there with the main lodge and one of the log cabins.  I’ve thought of going to check it out, but I can’t bring myself to.  I guess I want to keep it the way I remember it.

Now that you’ve seen and talked to members of the community about spaces, what are some words you would use to describe your ideal community space? What would the building look like? What would people do there?

Maggie: What I love about my work with Department of Public Memory is that we get to learn about the specific and different elements of each service we research. Each  has its own very distinct feel and that’s what we want to illustrate when we eventually make our site-specific memorials. So I can’t describe an ideal community space based on this work. But I can say that my own ideal space would involve a lot of meaningful conversation amongst strangers. Toronto doesn’t tend to be good at this and I crave it.

Dan:  It’s really different for different communities.   I guess that’s the big thing which is that a space should be in service of what happens in it.  I think that gets overlooked in how we envision a lot of community and public spaces.  We want to see things that last, so we invest in buildings, and hope that things will happen in those buildings.  Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t.  I think maybe sometimes it’s a way for us to feel like we have contributed something great without having to make the long term commitment of engaging with the place and the people.  To build a community space takes years and years of commitment and work, and a willingness to put yourself in the shit of the community and deal with it.  It’s not for everyone.  It’s hard to make that commitment, but when I see people that do it, it’s magic, and it seems to work seamlessly with that community.

Dan Watson

Rachel is one of this year’s Festival Interns. Catch The Little G8 That Could Wed-Sun at 8:00 PM during Week One (Feb 8-12). Join The Department of Public Memory on a mobile mission on either Saturday, Feb 11th at 2:00 PM or Wed, Feb 15th at 5:30 PM (locations listed on Rhubarb’s website http://buddiesinbadtimes.com/festival.cfm?id=13) or at their Annual General Meeting on Sunday, Feb 19th at 3:00PM in the Buddies Cabaret.

Morsels: Trust My Gut - a high-camp, soap-operatic surgery

Marisa Hoicka as Uncle Wink and Johnny Forever work with themes of love and labour through drag aesthetics in their performance, Trust My Gut. 

Documentation was film at FADO's 2011 Emerging Artists Series.

Hoicka and Forever will find humour in tender and confidential moments on the Mezzanine in the Cabaret but you only have two chances to see it!  Trust My Gut happens on opening night of Week 1 (Wed, Feb 8) and Week 2 (Wed. Feb 15) of the festival.

Stay late and party with us on the 8th for Rhubarb Festival’s Kick Off Bash at 10pm and on the 15th for Tom & Gary’s Decentralized Dance Party converging at Buddies at 10pm.

Check out more on Trust My Gut here.

First Encounters: One-to-One Performance at the 519, Part One

This installment of First Encounters is a little bit different. Instead of having two artists interview one another, we're doing something that we like to call a domino interview. One artist poses a question to another artist who answers it and poses a question to another artist who answers it and... you get the gist. This week, we hear from Melissa D'Agostino, Jona-nah, Claude Wittmann, Evan Vipond and Heather Hermant.

Melissa D'Agostino

In her piece, all the things we should have said that we never said,  Melissa will be reliving conversations from audience members' pasts.

Heather Hermant to Melissa D'Agostino: If someone has a long list of conversations she wants to have with you, what advice would you give her to help choose?

Melissa:  I would tell her to use the ancient instinct game as seen on many a sitcom:

Step One: Call a friend.

Step Two: Have her friend make the decision for her.
Step Three: Witness how, magically, she gets fully behind the conversation she truly wants to have.  The heart wants what it wants.

If she's still unclear as to how to proceed after Step 3, I would encourage her to put all the types of conversations in a hat, pull one out, and let the fates decide.

And if by this point there is still a question of which discussion to dive into, I would pass along this song by the Lovin' Spoonful. If this doesn't drive her madly into making a decision -- I don't know what will!

Can't wait to start talking!

Jonah-nah

In Crossways, Jonah-nah will be taking audience members on a walk through the Village.

Melissa D'Agostino to Jonah-nah: What song best reflects your artistic approach?

Jona-nah:  'Many Moons' by Janelle Monae.

 

Ill make it rain ain't a thing and ill make it fall
Lets put it all in your hand and the voice leading up
And when the truth goes vain, the shouts splatter
And when we're growing down, instead of growing up
Tell me are you fool enough to reach for love

Settle up, settle down, hood rat, crack whore
Care free, nightclub, closet drunk, bathtub, outkast,
Weirdo, step child, freak show, black girl, bad hair,
Broad nose, cold stare, tight squeeze, Broadway, tuxedo
Holiday, creative block, love song, stupid words, erase song
Gun shots, porn channels, dead men walking with a dirty mouth,
Spoiled milk, stale bread, welfare bubonic plague, ...,
Breast cancer, common cold, HIV, lost hope, overweight,
Self-esteem, misfit, broken dream, fish tank, small bowl,
Cyber-girl, joint control, microphone, one stage, tom boy,
Outrage, street fight, bloody war, instigators, third floor,
Broken heart, STD, quarantine, paraplegic, coke head,
Final chapter, death bed, plastic sweat, metal skin,
Metallic ears, manikin, care free, nightclub, closet drunk, bathtub,
White house, scarecrow, dirty lies, my regards.. 

Claude Wittmann
Part of Claude's piece Betterave Rouge/Red Beet involves Claude and Claude's audience member feeding one another portions of beets.

Jona-nah to Claude Wittmann:  I'm curious about the parallels between beets and gender, both of which can come with a lasting stain or imprint, are multilayered and have a rich depth of tonal values. To me, it feels like there a number of ways, symbolically and historically, in which beets and gender seem to work in parallel. Can you elaborate on the relationship between beets and gender in your work? 

Claude Wittman:  January 18: i know that there is a relationship between gender and beets, but i do not know what it is. beets are beautifully red, they are part of my everyday diet, i love them, i eat them raw and sometimes i cook them and that way they deliver immense amounts of comfort. beets lift my shy liver energy. they bring warmth. sometimes too much in my gut. my grand-mother drank beet juice every day after she had surgery to remove her cancerous uterus. my mother drinks beet juice every day. i did not like beets at all when i was a kid. beet salad would make me very cranky. but, as i had to to finish my plate, i would start with the salad and then eat the foods that i liked.

January 21: beets. their juice does not stain permanently but it colors our pee and our stools. sometimes, for a fraction of a second, i think that i am bleeding from my kidneys when i look at the the colour of my pee. then, i remember that something from the outside world has gone through me. beet juice is blood with lots of oxygen.

what about gender? i still do not know. maybe beets are a food that i have consciously chosen as nourishing as opposed to other foods that feel more like hurting or killing me. am i trying to find a gender that will be nourishing? that will be uplifting instead of repressing? does not sound right. beets feel more like a transition, an in between, something in between dirt/death - and blood/life. something for a passing through.

beet red liver oxygen mother grand-mother no yes choice nourishment choice blood pee gender. hmm, pee and gender.

addendum January 22nd: i have just read in the newspaper that municipalities use a mixture of sugar beet juice and brine to keep roads from icing when the temperature goes under minus 8 degrees celsius.

Evan Vipond
In Gender Me, audience members become stylists as they choose what Evan gets to wear.

Claude Wittmann to Evan Vipond: "If I say 'body, memory, death and gender...' what do you say?" 

Evan:  From birth, we are gendered based on the interpretation of our bodies. We are taught, and learn to embody this gender. Our bodies  memorize the script, the actions and reactions, until our gender becomes second nature, trapped in our bodies until death. But, what if we can change the memories in our bodies? Can we transform and transcend gender?

Evan included a couple photos in his response.  Check them out here and here.

Heather Hermant

Heather's "Aujourdhuy 15e septembre 1738..." explores the story of Esther Brandeau,  who became the first "known" Jewish person to arrive in Canada after working as a young man in Europe for five years. Esther was outed, interrogated and  later deported after she refused to convert to Christianity.

Evan Vipond to Heather Hermant:  Does our current political climate inform your historically-based work?

Heather:  Absolutely. I don’t see the past as distinct from the present, nor time as a linear progression. I experience bodies as historical records, and that’s what I’m trying to highlight with my piece. I was drawn to this story because it was the first time I read a so-called “piece of the past” and felt a whole multitude of resonances of recognition for myself. That personal resonance is the entry point. So telling “historical tales” in the present is also about the teller.

As for the present political climate, I can’t see an 18th century historical tale of a gender and “race” transgressor, who undergoes attempts at normalization for the sake of empire, as separate from the ways in which immigration policy here today is racialized, and the ways in which it forces folks to perform their queerness in very prescribed, readable ways in order to gain entry, all in the context of ongoing indigenous sovereignty struggles. So the “past” is always present, and the present “out there” is always present right here in the performance space.

I’ve just read Julia Paoli’s curatorial essay about “The Rest is Real", video works by Aleesa Cohene, who reconfigures history in amazing ways. Paoli quotes Helen Molesworth on the relationship of the past and the future: “To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize ‘the way it was’, but might mean instead to present it as crucial for recalibrating the effects of the new.” These are the kind of things that I wonder about all the time.

I’ve  long wondered why the story I’m working with is not broadly known. I also know that the reason I’m able to work with it in a way that honours my whole self is because people before me have opened the discursive space for me to be able to do so. Documentation of “the past”—even if in the form of a harsh colonial record—allows us to see where we are and why.

Morsels: Keith Hennessy- Performance and (free!) Workshop

Dance and performance artist Keith Hennessy will be here during Week 2 of Rhubarb to present his internationally acclaimed CROTCH, and to facilitate a free 2-day workshop, Performing (queer) Failure, presented in association with Hub 14.

Keith works within tensions of intimacy, spectacle, rhetoric, ritual, the personal and social, and failure.  Working in relationship to queer - as perspective, practice, tactic, handicap and identity - participants will spend two days investigating failure.  Acknowledging and then exploiting the gap between ideal and real.

“We’ll move, talk, improvise, scheme and make stuff for each others' delight and provocation.”

We are thrilled to offer this workshop for free, but space is limited.  All dance, performance, visual and conceptual artists are welcome to apply.  Send a brief paragraph (maximum 1-page) introducing your work, experience and any questions or ambitions you are currently exploring to laura@buddiesinbadtimes.com - applications are due Tuesday, January 31.

Connecting with his investigation into failure, recently Keith has been busy with collaborations and residencies across the globe to create Turbulence (a dance about the economy). The piece is a bodily response to economic crisis and an experiment not only in performance, but also in developing alternative modes of producing performance.  This video gives a taste of what was accomplished from only a series of short residencies.

More rants, raves, reflections and revisions on Keith’s blog

A little more on Joseph Beuys

Some suggested reading from Keith:

Performance Theatre and the Poetics of Failure  by Sara Jane Bailes
The Queer Art of Failure by Jack Halberstam
Institute of Failure

Also, if failure's your thing revisit Sarah Garton Stanley's PERFROMANCE ORDER FORM on the Rhubarb blog.

First Encounters: Adam Lazarus with Nika Mistruzzi & Aurora Stewart de Pena

Throughout the next few weeks, we’ll be posting a series of interviews between artists who we felt shared something in common but might have initially been unfamiliar with one another. Welcome to First Encounters!

Today, Bleed’s Adam Lazarus and the ladies of Birdtown & Swanville (Settlers) talk about collaboration, being vulnerable and the stuff of their childhood nightmares.

Adam: I used to have nightmares stemming from Return to Oz where my friends and family turned into rock people, would grow 20 feet and be forced into child labour making wire hangers.  I think the wire hanger thing was from the movie Mommy Dearest…  Anyhoo, they say that media can have an effect on the youth.  Maybe even fucks us up.  Um, obviously, right?  Thoughts? 

Aurora: Of course. I used to have horrible nightmares about the monsters from the Muppets. Also because of the Muppets, I thought that dogs didn't talk or play the piano around me because I was doing something that made them feel they couldn't be themselves. That I was offending them into silence and barking. That being said, the media provides a useful guide for social interaction and hairstyling. I wouldn't know anything, otherwise.

Nika Mistruzzi and Aurora Stewart de Pena

Nika: I wasn't really allowed to watch TV as a kid, but I did have a recurring nightmare about a giant bird that would swoop in my window, steal my family and leave me behind. Regardless of access to the media, fear is inherent; it must just take form within the limits of our imagination. That is what our play is about!

Now I hate that my dreams take the form of movies - with wide-angle shots and close ups and such. Unless of course it's a dream about Billy Madison or something. Underrated movie.

Adam: Where do you start when you begin a new project? Collaborators, form, content, a dream in this case…? How do you know, or rather, when do you know, that an idea is worth pursuing?

Aurora: I think we pursue almost every idea we have. Personally, I am terrified that I'll run out. I think Nika is more considered.

Nika: I think that usually we don't even realize we have started working on something until much of it has been formed by just hanging out and talking about things that fascinate us both - like for instance, WWE wrestling and pioneers....

Adam: Best part of the creation process, and the worst part?  (Or highlights/lowlights)

Aurora: My favourite part is when I'm alone writing in my apartment with lots of clementines and Kraft Singles at my disposal. That's when I feel like I'm really on to something, something good. Before anybody ever sees it. After that I have a nervous bile taste in my throat until we close. My other favourite part is when Nika and I and our collaborators have meetings where we discuss all of the hilarious things we won't do, like having an entire play scored by fart noises.

Nika: There are so many bests. The worst is the stress of worry I suppose. Luckily the bests always outweigh the worsts when it comes to making things you love with people you love.

Birdtown & Swanville: Do you encourage students from your workshops to come and see your work? Why? Why not?

Adam: I love students seeing my work.  I think it’s important for both them and myself.  In a class, students are asked to be vulnerable and open and that is a very difficult demand.  They open up to me and I should do the same in front of them.  Good show, bad show, average show, I'm working it out, just like they are. Only difference is a few more years of experience.

Also, a practical application of a method is exciting for a student to see. Sometimes grasping a concept like bouffon or character can be confusing if you're only learning it in the confines of a class. These concepts take on new meaning in the realm of professional theatre.

It's so different being a teacher and being an artist.  Both are extraordinarily difficult.

Birdtown & Swanville: Do you think there is contentment in loneliness? Are people who are relentlessly self-sufficient that way because they don't trust other people to take care of them?

Adam: With regards to me, I am not a content man when I'm lonely.  I'm quite melancholy.  That being said, I need my lonely times.  I appreciate the dark.  Perhaps not while I'm in it, but I don't think I would be challenged without them. 

I have no idea why people are the way they are, but I do like showing a slice of human trauma on a stage.  We're all fucked up, let's celebrate!  We do things for all sorts of reasons, and there is never a clear reason why.  Humans are very complicated.  I don't think relentless self-sufficiency is mutually connected with a lack of trust.  I think self-sufficient people are independent and exciting and great collaborators.  I think people who don't trust other people are assholes, are hard to work with, and even harder to have dinner with.  I think people's stories are fascinating.  Also, that an audience judges a story is fascinating; specifically, what an audience determines as appropriate.  I monitor my judgment and tolerance a lot lately.  I try not to say that so and so did this and that because of this and that which is why they act like this or that.  It takes all kinds. No one is normal. 

Adam Lazarus and Phil Luzi

At the core, this is what Bleed is about.  ‘Normal Norman’ is about to do something quite awful.  You'll want to label him as nuts, stupid, fucked, or inappropriate, and you're right and you're wrong.  He is all those things and just a guy who wants to die the way he wants to die.  He's the captain of his own ship.  He takes the reigns and is happier for it.  Norman is the lucky one.

Made to Order

PERFORMANCE ORDER #1: I'll Have What They're Having

“The Made to Order dance project is built around my ongoing search for people to describe their ideas for dance pieces; but here, the visions become reality.” – Lady Janitor (AKA Eroca Nicols)

Made to Order works like this: stop by the Made to Order Cafe, in the Buddies Ante Chamber to complete and submit an order form.  Indicate your preferences regarding as many variables in a dance as possible (for example, music, site, lighting, costumes, mood, movement quality, etc).  It's your chance to place an order for your dream performance: however sweet, sour or salty you'd like it.  Then, each Saturday night at 10 pm, Lady Janitor and crew will follow the recipe, make the dance, and present the finished product as live improvisation in the Chamber.

The Made to Order Cafe will be open for business from 7-8 daily in the Buddies Ante Chamber throughout Rhubarb. 

Here we've adapted the Eroca's order form for Rhubarb artists to dream up some performances.  It's called PERFORMANCE ORDER FORM and we'll be filling them regularly leading up to and throughout the festival and you might just see them performed too!

Today's order was taken from Sarah Garton Stanley of The Failure Show or: A Thirteen-Point Manifesto for the Consideration of Failure

PERFORMANCE ORDER FORM
Filled by: SARAH GARTON STANLEY

What do you want the dance/performance to be about?

Failure

Describe the movement and sound of the dance/performance.

A lot of words. A Bit of Silence. Laughing and scratching.

What should it look like?

Like Detroit on a rainy afternoon.

Costumes?

Intermittently.

Site/Setting?

A think-tank.

Lighting?

Yes.

Any thoughts on Music (a particular piece of music, or genre)?

Sigur Ros and something else.

Is there a mood or theme you would like the piece to communicate/explore?

Holding Failure.

How many performers?

2.

Any other ideas or thoughts to share?

There will be dancing.

Morsels: Decentralized Dance Party!

Toronto welcomes back Tom and Gary's Decentralized Dance Party as part of 2012 Rhubarb Mobile Works series.  Mobile Works infiltrates public spaces with performance, and this year features a mad open-source dance party.  On Wednesday February 15, we'll start dancing at a secret meeting meeting spot (revealed day of right here on the blog) and continue the party at Buddies late into the night.  So what is a Decentralized Dance Party?  Basically, it is a party in a public space, with the sound provided on boomboxes carried by participants. The sound originates from a transmitter in the DJ's roving backpack, and partiers are decked out with costumes, props, portable light and sound equipment.  But Tom and Gary describe it much better:

What do you need for the Decentralized Dance Party?
Just the drive to reach your own Party Potential.
Read Tom and Gary's Party Manifesto to seal the deal.

What does Rhubarb need for a Decentralized Dance Party?
BOOMBOXES

How many?
LOTS

Rhubarb needs all boombox donations, loans or leads.
Any FM portable radio will work.
It needs to be battery operated.
If the battery ports are corroded, we don't care.
We want it anyway.
Give it up.
rhubarb.boombox@gmail.com

Morsels: Introducing One-to-One Performance

New to the festival this year is the One-to-One Performance Series, performances designed for one performer and one audience member at a time.

Our friends at The 519 Church Street Community Centre, where these special performances will be taking place, shared this link with us: a profile on intimate theatre and performance for one happening around the globe.  We thought it was a great intro to this type of work.  Have a listen.

Curious?  Adventurous?  We hope so.  You can experience the one-to-one performances at Rhubarb February 10th-12th.  You'll find a wide selection of intimate works that involve ritual, participation and sensory play.

Welcome to the 33rd Rhubarb Festival

Welcome!  I'm thrilled to be able to share with you the programming for the 33rd Rhubarb Festival: a year of unparalleled raw, radical, performance.  From now until the end of February, with the help of Rhubarb interns Kari Pederson and Rachel Steinberg, we'll be taking over the Buddies' blog to connect you with the festival artists and projects; giving you a taste for what's to come as well as a little insight into what's happening behind the scenes.

One of the special things about Rhubarb is the range of work you are able to experience back-to-back in one night.  Below are some videos featuring artists who will be presented during week 1 of the festival:  Justin Vivian Bond and Yamantaka//Sonic Titan.  They are two very different sounds and aesthetics, that both exemplify the energy and attitude vibrating under this year’s festival.

Cabaret superstar and performance legend Justin Vivian Bond last graced our stage over a decade ago as part of the performance duo Kiki and Herb.

We're pleased to have Justin return to perform new work from the Dendrophile album and readings from Justin's book Tango.

Yamantaka//Sonic Titan will bring together elements of Noh-opera, anime and industrial rock for their new work, 33 (nice timing for our 33rd festival). This ambitious new Canadian group is already making waves internationally.  Here's a look at some of their earlier work to get you warmed-up:

Countdown to Rhubarb = 24 days.

-- Laura Nanni, Rhubarb Festival Director