This has felt a bit like a "phone tag" week.
- I have engaged in multiple rounds of phone/email tag with various collaborators since last week. Good news is that we have stuff to talk about and want to talk about it. The tricky part is actually reaching each other on top of busy lives and a 3 hour time difference. I hope to actually have some substantive conversations over the weekend.
- I continued researching venues in earnest, and began inquiring about availability and fees. My working assumption is that I am looking for a venue that I can program for the Hollywood Fringe in June. Not necessarily exclusively, but that is the scope. One location, multiple presentatations within it.
- I drafted the following working "Problem Statement" (not that it's a problem, that's just my preferred method of attack) along with a Goals & Objectives/Timetable:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Project: MFA Final Project, Tentatively Collectively Titled "Elektra, Petie & Other Misunderstood Girls"
Problem Statement: Artists of multiple performance disciplines sometimes need a reason to reach beyond their comfort zone, to collaborate with other artists whom they might not have known or with whom they might not have imagined working. Audiences may not realize that they have an interest in new and experimental work unless something gives them a point of entry, and audience members tastes will vary. Will a variety of offerings stimulate their interest, and encourage their participation?
Questions I Seek to Answer: How can I as a creative producer jump-start new collaboration partnerships and set a tangible destination for a "work-in-progress"? What is a comfortable environment to create and present new work, and to invite participation from audiences at an early stage? And conversely, how can I program multiple performances by artists of different mediums in a "tasting menu" of sorts that an audience will find engaging enough to explore and visit repeatedly? Is this a presentation model that will encourage dialogue and participation across disciplines, backgrounds and the spectator-spectacle divide?
Goal: To commission and collaboratively develop new experimental performances through a workshop process, organized around a theme. To present these new performance pieces together as "works-in-progress" in a shared performance space, along with pre-show art installation and post-show musical entertainment to create a total experience for the audience. To use this informal workshop and presentation model as a means of encouraging interaction and dialogue between the artists working on different projects and between the artists and the audience, and give all a sense of participation in the ultimate event.
Objectives/Timetable:
- Commission of 3 Performance Pieces + 2 Performance Art Installations, Fall 2009-Winter 2010
- One workshop per performance piece to take place April-May 2010
- Inclusion of post-performance programming (Musical Acts), Spring 2010
- Presentation of All Pieces & Installations together in one venue (possibly as part of Hollywood Fringe), June 2010
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I continue to be a work-in-progress
-- Liz E
Posts
