Friday, 11 November 2011
Urmimala Podcast
The podcast interview with University of Warwick guest scholar, Urmimala Sarkar Munsi, is now available in three parts.
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Practice-as-Research: United States, Masculinity and the Death of an Empire
United States, Masculinity and the Death of an Empire
* Practice-as-Research based on a workshop presented by Warwick Teaching Fellow Jonathan Heron.
When the United States Empire falls, and it’s only a matter of time until the last unstable beams give way, what will be left? Who will be standing to aurally pass along the tales of a country created through a horrifically bloody process, a country which drank in consumer goods and burned through every resource at our disposal. In a post-apocalyptic future, perhaps fictional, in which the citizens of the United States are left decimated while the small scattered clusters of survivors reside in concrete tombs of bomb shelters, there remains one person with access to the last functioning piece of technology – a make-shift military radio transmission center in an underground bunker. His name is Chip Johnson, the self-proclaimed “last American patriot.”
This piece will explore political histories in the United States and the series of unfortunate human decisions leading to their ultimate demise: from the effects of a consumer-driven society stripped of the technological crutch which dominated their existence, to the high-profile figures in the United States embodying a hegemonic masculinity to be devoured by the passive, brainwashed American by way of muscular 1980s action figures (Rambo, Terminator) and idolized, juiced up athletes. Disguised as prophets, these hegemonic, masculine leaders play on a God-fearing America paralyzed by the unknown and willing to hand over their lively hoods to their claims (see Harold Camping, David Koresh, Marshall Applewhite.) Through the critical narrative of Chip Johnson, based in his underground bunker, his radio broadcast seeks to connect with potential survivors to regain a sense of ‘hope’ in a long lost "American dream."
This monologue sketch will be cultivated using methods introduced in Jonathan Heron’s practice-as-research workshop. Heron, a Warwick Teaching Fellow, introduced exercises exploring stream of conscious thought to the backdrop of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. As students we were each asked to begin speaking on a personally familiar topic, only taking breaks to breathe. We expounded upon our chosen keyword for several minutes before breaking and discussing the challenges with verbalizing our stream of conscious. These challenges ranged from self-censorship to not knowing what to say next.
We continued exploring the nuances of our stream of conscious using different levels. Our speech was taken from the height of the vocal scale, reaching as loud, fast and physical as possible, to the depths of minimalism resulting in the participants' lips barely moving with nothing but a whisp of noise escaping their vocal apparatus. The idea was to let thoughts out of your mind unencumbered, without self-censorship, in order that we make discoveries by trusting the creative processes of our minds, and letting each utterance build off of the previous.
This is the perfect tool for my own explorations into the development of text for my one-person show based on the following keywords and ideas...
United States, Masculinity, Death of an Empire, Consumer, Capitalist, Hope, End of the World, Fear, "god?", Concrete Tomb, Technological Crutch, Occupy Airwave Space, "If no one hears our cries for help, do we exist?", Queen (the band), Queen (her majesty), International Perception of a Dying Beast, Existential, Occupying the Void Between Now and Death
I will use the following process to engage this technique:
* Complete necessary research on the bedrock topics of my show: masculinity, United States' political histories, radio broadcasting, fallen empires, and relevant past and present world leaders of significance.
* Conduct video-documented stream of conscious workshops, using the foundation established from both research and artistic intuition. These 90-minute segments will begin with a warm-up to get my mind limber (15 minutes), followed by 30-45 minutes of videotaped stream of conscious speaking, and end with a debrief of discoveries made.
* Host a video viewing session upon the completion of each workshop to dissect the stream of conscious speaking and pull workable material to use in the script.
* The research will continue throughout the months working and documenting the stream of conscious speeches.
The process will be utilized in multiple ways. The first step, stream of conscious speech documentation will be used to create the working script for the performance piece and to formulate new directions in which the creative flow may move. Second, the research will not only provide the foundation for the stream of conscious exercises, but it will also be used to link the script with factual material needed to make this fictional world plausible. Finally, video from the workshop will be incorporated into a gallery exhibition to be shown before the show to provide transparency for the audience.
Annotation - Theatre Games, Language Games and Endgame by Helene Keyssar
Annotation of
"Theatre Games, Language Games and Endgame"
Theatre Journal, Vol. 31, no. 2 (May 1979), pg. 221-238
by Helene Keyssar
In the introduction, Keyssar reflects on a song she learned as a child, “Mairzy Doats”, and how nonsensical it seemed until she discovered a ‘recognition of the ordinariness’. Words first appearing to be an absurd rambling, “Mairzy Doats”, were now seen in a new perspective to reveal, “Mares eat oats.” This novelty song is linked to the psychology test of the “duck-rabbit.” From one angle the patient sees a duck and, when pressed to change perspective, they discover it can also be viewed as a rabbit. This “dawning of aspect” became Keyssar’s central thrust in her direction of Endgame.
Keyssar takes the reader through her rehearsal process of Endgame. She realizes that trying to find a single thematic or allegorical meaning would be futile and, instead, focuses a great deal of time on the language games of the play. Her search for language games was inspired by
a Stanley Cavell essay. Cavell states that the grounds of the play are the "ordinariness" of the events and the grammar’s "hidden literality". From this, the ensemble began to explore playing as a family and exploring ‘ordinary meanings’, rehearsing in a living room.
Through text work, they discovered numerous literary allusions within the play; Richard III, The Tempest, Jesus Christ, William Faulkner, and King Lear. Allusions were forming part of the hidden language Keyssar discussed earlier and raised questions about the intentions.
The director continued to follow the lead of Cavell with much effort being placed onto the unfixing clichés and idioms. They also discovered “new worlds” by playing with intonation and emphasis of the text Beckett had constructed for them.
The way in which the characters use language is highly important. We’re shown the characters’ wants, the power shifts, the language games and what they try and fail to say to one another. Keyssar puts it best when she says, “to deny our understanding of each other’s ordinary words is to remove ourselves from each other more completely than any physical exit could ever accomplish.”
The plays emphasis on behavior, making it a situational comedy as viewed by Keyssar, is conceived when the actors play against Beckett’s serious vision of the world. In fact, Beckett wrote in numerous slapstick routines, drawing inspiration from vaudeville bits. Keyssar worked with the ensemble to discover the routines and language games, both working to create the action.
The director concludes the essay with three discoveries made during the process; the actors were always in pain, there was a growing number of difference in tone between the English and the French performances, and that Endgame is an example of a new structure of drama because there are no recognition scenes.
This was a fantastic essay on the process of a director working on Beckett's Endgame. Keyssar takes the time to ensure that her cast of actors understand the language, and hidden language, of the play before taking it to the stage. She also adheres to Beckett's vision for the play while adding her own directorial mark.
Exploring the Inter/National in a Regional Venue
Exploring the
Inter/National in
a Regional Venue
Curating a Season for
ONtheBOARDS
“Founded by artists in 1978, the mission of On the Boards is to introduce audiences to international innovators in contemporary dance, theater and music while developing and presenting new work by Northwest performing artists.”
Upon arriving in Seattle, Washington in the summer of 2006, I was immediately immersed in a vibrant performance community. For my first two months in the city, I lived two blocks away from a recently refurbished brick building which is home to one of the country’s leading performing arts curatorial specialists, OnTheBoards. Since their founding in 1978, OtB has engaged the Seattle audiences with the most innovative minds in performance. The list includes Bill T. Jones, The Wooster Group, Zoe Scofield & Juniper Shuey, along with a collection of regional performers headlined most recently by Reggie Watts.
In my curatorial proposal, I’m staying true to the OtB mission statement by seeking ought the foremost pioneers in dance, theatre, music, multi-media performance and, in some cases, a combination of all four. As I outline the project and each selection, I will address issues regarding contextualization, mediation, selection, interpretation, navigation, synthesis and collaboration, discovering the perfect blend of international, national and regional works.
To give context, OtB is located in the neighborhood of Queen Anne, immediately north of downtown and placing it in an ideal central location. The neighborhood is teeming with the arts; home to two of the largest regional playhouses in the Northwest (Seattle Repertory Theatre, Intiman), Seattle Children’s Theatre, the Center House Theatre (Seattle Shakespeare Company, Book-It Repertory), Marion Oliver McCaw Hall (Seattle Opera, Pacific Northwest Ballet), the offices of Theatre Puget Sound and the Seattle International Film Festival Cinema.
OtB’s source of funding comes from various sources and they receive a large portion of their backing from some of the largest corporations in the world (Microsoft, Boeing, US Bank) allowing them financial flexibility to bring in some of the most high profile names in the international performing arts scene.
OtB divides their season into three sections; Inter/National Performance Series, Northwest Performance Series and 12-Minutes Max. The Inter/National Performance Series includes work from both international and national performance groups. In my deliberations, I sought to have representation from every continent and through a variety of performance forms and to supplement this with some of the finest work being done in New York City at the moment. The Northwest Series seeks to expose audiences to the next frontier of performance artists in the region, while 12-Minutes Max is a incubator for talent on the rise and allows groups an opportunity to demonstrate their work in a showcase setting.
Having exposure to cutting edge international performance is such a vital part to understanding the world outside of our immediate periphery and, in the process, discovering new lenses through which to view our own landscapes. The space OnTheBoards provides is not only a platform for innovation in the arts, but a call to artists to be in a constant state of exploration and discovery.
OCTOBER & NOVEMBER
– Dancing with Josef and Crystal, Seeking Out New Northwest Talent
JOSEF NADJ • SHO-BO-GEN-ZO
OCT 6 - OCT 9 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* The season begins with the work of international dancer Josef Nadj. In his piece, Sho-Bo-Gen-Zo, Nadj takes on one of the major works of Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher, Master Dogen. Two dancers, along with two musicians, explore time and the metaphors of great poetic power. Seattle is inhabited by a highly experimental dance community and this would be a fantastic piece of intercultural dance to bring to the city. When I was assembling the season there was no question that Josef Nadj would be included. The only question was, “What piece?” I chose Sho-Bo-Gen-Zo, created in 2010, because Josef took a piece of literature from outside his own culture and provided a new, inter-cultural adaptation of the famous Zen work.
OCT 23 - OCT 24 • 12 MINUTES MAX
Curated by Chris Bell
* 12 Minutes Max is a program runs several times throughout the course of their season in an effort to provide performance artists in the Pacific Northwest with a stage to experiment with new works. Each performer is given 12 minutes to present a piece which can be dance, theatre, music, multi-media or a combination of the aforementioned. The selection of the performers in 12 Minutes Max is done through an audition process and would include myself and one other curator making the final decisions.
KIDD PIVOT FRANKFURT RM • DARK MATTERS
NOV 17 - NOV 20 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* The Inter/National series continues with the work of Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite and Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM. Combing dance, music and puppets, Pite’s recent work explores the ideas of creation and destruction, the conflict in manipulation and the question of free will. Dark Matter brings a cutting edge mix of dance, music and puppetry to the city of Seattle.
DECEMBER & JANUARY
– Redefining Masculine, Experimental Approach to Opera & Mr. Bold
DEC 1 - DEC 4 • NORTHWEST SERIES
* The Regional Performance Series begins with The Ritualistic Performance Ensemble. The ensemble was formed in 2008 by Seattle artist Shawn Belyea and is comprised of six male performers who deconstruct and reconstruct what it means to be masculine in today's America using a creative mix of monologues, music and video. This is a highly humorous and touching exploration into the emotionally vulnerable masculine world.
THEATRO DE CIERTOS • EL GALLO
JAN 19 - JAN 21 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* We return to the Inter/National performance series with a performance by the Mexico City based performance group, Theatro De Ciertos. Their production of El Gallo offers insight on the intensity of the creative process as performers push the boundaries of their bodies and minds to create “art”. El Gallo is also an interesting selection because of the cross-cultural collaborative efforts with British composer Paul Barker.
JOSE BOLD • SEATEETH
JAN 26 - JAN 28 • NORTHWEST SERIES
* The end of January concludes with Seattle’s own Jose Bold. Recent Stranger Genius Award Winner for his production of Spidermann, Bold’s newest work, Seateeth, is inspired by the writing of Haruki Murakami and the tale of Moby Dick. This work is important because it showcases a true interdisciplinary artist in the Seattle scene who draws from various cultures to inspire the creative process.
FEBRUARY & MARCH
– International, National and Regional Explorations
SANKAI JUKU • KARA-MI
FEB 9 - FEB 12 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* Sankai Juku, a Butoh dance company, has been doing exceptional work since their beginnings in 1975. Bringing this multiple award-winning group to Seattle would be a boon to the arts scene for multiple reasons. The first would be an already existing Butoh following in the city. The second being to expose more audiences to the form of Butoh. Kara-Mi is the newest offering and explores the circulating of the bodies interior.
“AWESOME” • BEEHIVE SESSIONS
MAR 1 - MAR 3 • NORTHWEST SERIES
* “Awesome” is one of the first performance groups I was exposed to when I arrived in Seattle in 2006. “Awesome”, known for highly visual performances, combines music and theatre, but is in no way “musical theatre”. Rather, they take elements from both to explore the human condition. In Beehive Sessions, “Awesome” explores humans as worker bees. Working and working and working until they die. This is a humorous examination of our own mortality and the routines filling the void between now and death.
FAUSTIN LINYEKULA • MORE, MORE, MORE... FUTURE
MAR 15 - MAR 18 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* Faustin Linyekula is a Congolese choreographer and dancer. His works are based on the dance form Ndombolo and are inspired by war, terror and fear. This is an intriguing selection because Faustin was brought up in a multilingual, multicultural environment. His piece, more, more, more... future, was first shown in 2009 and has been touring the world ever since.
CHRISTA BELL • COOCHIEMAGIK
MAR 29 - APR 1 • NORTHWEST SERIES
* I first met Christa Bell in 2009 when we were both performing pieces in a collection of one-person shows. Christa’s work explores women’s sexual and spiritual self-esteem through comedy, spoken word poetry and audience engagement. She has such a powerful and eloquent voice as a feminist and as an African-American woman. CoochieMagik shows a woman’s exploration in discovering sexuality and spirituality.
APRIL & MAY
– Showcased local talent, Jan Fabre and the other side of Steve Jobs
MIKE DAISEY • THE AGONY AND ECSTACY OF STEVE JOBS
APR 19 - APR 22 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* Mike Daisey writes and performs monologues which challenge and question institutions, people in power and the consumer American being. In his most recent show, The Agony and Ecstacy of Steve Jobs, Daisey takes on the recently deceased innovator of cutting edge technology. The question Daisey raises is, “At what cost?” Through stories of his experiences of undercover investigation at factories in China manufacturing the parts for Jobs' gadgets, Daisey exposes horrific truths about Apple and the exploitation of overseas labor.
JAN FABRE • ORGIE DE LA TOLERANCE
MAY 3 - MAY 6 • INTER/NATIONAL SERIES
* Jan Fabre is a multi-disciplinary artist from Belgian and his piece, Orgie de la Tolerance, will conclude the Inter/National performance series. This is a high energy dance/movement experience, exploring the connection between raw human emotion and the raw human body.
ELIZABETH KENNY • SICK
MAY 17 - MAY 20 • NORTHWEST SERIES
* The season concludes with Elizabeth Kenny's one woman show, Sick. Sick is, not only performed but also, written by Elizabeth Kenny who tells her experience as a healthy 32 year old woman who went in for a routine check-up and ended up in a psyche ward. This is a harrowing exploration of the faulty healthcare system in the United States and one woman's survival in the face of medical mistakes.
There were a number of absolutely fantastic archives on-line which I used to research the performance artists I selected for this hypothetical season. They are:
http://mcachicago.org/performances/now/all
http://www.festival-avignon.com/en/
http://flavorwire.com/227915/10-contemporary-performance-artists-you-should-know
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/art-of-africa-the-50-best-african-artists-426441.html
http://www.sankaijuku.com/sankaijuku_e.htm
http://www.josefnadj.com/
http://www.ontheboards.org/
http://11.performa-arts.org/
Monday, 7 November 2011
Nedko Solakov - An Artists' Curatorial Conceits
Recently I took a day trip to the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, England to witness the Nedko Solakov exhibit, All in Order, with Exceptions. The spectator is taken on a fascinating journey that displays the career of an artist and gives glimpses into the process behind the work. Attached is the link to a Prezi presentation which will provide you with some insight on the "curatorial conceit" of Nedko Solakov.
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