Happy July! We’re less than a month away from the beginning of SummerWorks. Advance tickets for all shows are now officially ON SALE!
Propaganda Contents:
1. Live Art Workshop
2. Music Series
3. SummerWorks Soiree Roundup.
4. Mr. Marmalade Returns
5. Call for Housing
Making and Breaking: August 4th and 5th
The Great Hall, 1087 Queen Street West
A two-day workshop in contemporary performance led by Deborah Pearson with Tania El Khoury
“I breathe better doing something I don’t know how to do.” – John Cage
This workshop is about making up rules and making up work. It is about filling the apartments, offices and hidden corners of the Great Hall with performance – a building that housed a Polish refugee shelter during the second world war, a YMCA at the turn of the century, and an art school throughout the 1990s.
“Making and breaking” is a two-day workshop designed for emerging and mid-career artists with a strong interest in experimenting with form and deciding what “performance” means. No acting or theatre experience necessary. This is a workshop for those who are interested in interacting playfully and politically with the public – working quickly, engaging directly, and taking risks.
The first day will consist of a building tour, a presentation, a series of exercises led by Deborah, and a series of catalysts assigned to artists to assist them in making discoveries in their practice and work. Artists will be assigned a space to work and perform in at the end of the first day and an outside eye, and spend the second day “scratching” or trying out something entirely new somewhere in the Great Hall, with dramaturgical support from Deborah Pearson and Tania El Khoury. Selected work from this weekend will present at the SummerWorks Opening and Closing parties.
Deborah Pearson has led workshops on experimental theatre, intimate theatre and DIY producing for theatre companies, theatre training programs and universities in the UK and Canada. She is founder and co-director of Forest Fringe, a multi-award winning artist-led organization making space for risk and experimentation at the Edinburgh Festival and beyond. She is also an award-winning live artist who has toured her work throughout UK and Europe, and who makes work a wide range of work (installation, audio work, playwriting, solo performance) with an emphasis on formal invention and structure. In 2010, at age 26, she was named as one of the 100 most influential people in British Theatre by the Stage Magazine.
Tania El Khoury is a live artist based in London and Beirut. She creates immersive and challenging performances in which the audience is an active collaborator. Tania has performed in spaces ranging from the British Museum to a cable car and an old church once used as a military base during the Lebanese civil war. Her solo work has won awards in several international festivals. She is co-founder of Dictaphone Group, a collective using urban research and live art in order to reclaim public space. She is a Forest Fringe core artist. taniaelkhoury.com
To Apply – Application and participation in this workshop is free but space is extremely limited. To apply please send us your CV and write us a paragraph about why you are interested in taking this workshop and what you hope to get out of it. Please specify whether you would prefer to work in a small group (groups can be assigned or companies are welcome to apply together) or as an individual artist. Email applications by July 27th to applications@summerworks.ca
MUSIC SERIES (TICKETS ON SALE NOW)
For the first time this year, SummerWorks has paired three bands with performance makers in order to merge the worlds of theatre and music together.
“I’ve wanted to find a way to evolve the music series,” explains Michael Rubenfeld, Artistic Producer of the SummerWorks Festival. “Up until till now we’ve been paralleling the forms, programming music alongside theatre. This year, we’ve gone one step further to see what happens when you bring artists from theatrical/performance backgrounds and partner them with musicians as artistic collaborators. Often, with live music shows, I feel this desire for there to be some theatrical investigation and sometimes there is but unless you’re Madonna or Lepage, you don’t have the kind of budgets or time to dig deeper into the investigation; with this year’s music series, we’ve worked closely with the artists and bands to create very unique pairings.
Poetic MC Buck 65 will bring his narratives to life with the help of dancemaker Ame Henderson to enhance one another’s artistic forums in an avant-garde performance that can’t be missed on Wednesday, August 15.
Guelph-based pop band The Magic will work with film artist, Jordan Tannahill to create a memorable CD release for their debut album Ragged Gold that promises a dance party that will transport you to the glitz and glamour of the 70s and 80s. They will be joined by Ark Analog, a new project featuring Maylee Todd and Dan Werb (Woodhands) on Friday, August 10.
And lastly, Toronto’s Evening Hymns will also celebrate the release of their new album, Spectral Dusk, on Friday, August 17 in collaboration with design artist, Sean Frey. With Evening Hymns’ strong, introspective lyrics, Frey intends to take the band’s set to the next level with projections made specifically for each song.
In addition to those collaborations, SummerWorks will also be the third showing for Hawksley Workman’s one-man-band rock ‘n’ roll cabaret, The God That Comes. The Juno award-winning musician has teamed up with 2b theatre company director Christian Barry to come up with this concept which will include all new songs from Workman, telling the story of Bacchus the Greco-Roman god of wine. “We are really excited to have Hawksley Workman’s show this year,” says Rubenfeld. “Watching Hawksley concerts always felt like a piece of theatre and he’s constantly playing around with the evolution of his own identity as a performer, but with The God That Comes, we see him get even more specific about what he’s making. This is the first time he’s done anything like this, and its remarkable to have him partnered with a world-class theatre-maker like Christian Barry”
Also part of the the Music Series will be featuring performances by recent Polaris Prize Long List nominees Sandro Perri (Aug. 16) and Bry Webb (Aug.18) as well as Juno-nominated world musician Aline Morales (Aug.16). Joining Webb on Aug. 18 will be Doug Paisley.
Tickets are on sale now on Ticketwise. Shows vary from $15-20 and will be worth every penny!
SUMMER SOIREE: Money was raised and good food was eaten!
On Thursday, July 5, we will hosted our second annual VIP fundraiser dinner party and it was a smashing success! We were able to raise $8000 for the festival and were able to enjoy an incredible evening filled with food and entertainment. A huge thanks to Mark Cutrara and Alexandra Feswick, who will be opening their new Samuel J Moore Restaurant on the main floor of the Great Hall soon. Also, a thank you goes out to the entertainment provided by Bob Wiseman, magician James Alan the Brick Lane Advice Booth and Michael Healey for hosting the evening. And last but not least, thanks to everyone who donated money to the SummerWorks Festival.
Photos from the event are on our blog now – check them out!
If you were unable to attend the event, you can still make a donation either with Eventbrite or with Canada Helps through our website www.summerworks.ca/donate.
MR. MARMALADE RETURNS!
Outside the March’s successful and critically-acclaimed show, Mr. Marmalade will be returning this year. The show, about a young girl and her abusive relationship with her imaginary friend who’s a violent, sex-obsessed drug addict, will be remounted this July. Mr Marmalade sold out it’s run in SummerWorks 2011 so if you missed your chance then you can buy TICKETS now. NOW Magazine gave it a perfect rating, adding that it was “astonishing” and “witty”
HOUSING CALL
We need your help! Do you know anyone who can house a few artists during SummerWorks? We’re looking to house 7 artists in total (a group of 4, a couple, and a single actor) somewhere in the downtown area as inexpensively as possible from July 27-August 20. Please spread the word and let us know at (who’s e-mail?)
See you next month!
