5 performance creators with a particular dramatic question or thesis they are interested in developing will be invited to participate in this exciting new initiative from Suburban Beast from November, 2009 to May, 2010. Part dinner-party lecture series, part performance laboratory, THE PARLOUR will meet bi-weekly to hear a wide variety of guest speakers discuss, around a pot-luck dinner, a series of radical, playful, and thought-provoking topics. At each session will be at least one respected member of the Canadian theatre community whose practice has some relation to the topic at hand. THE PARLOUR participants will also have the chance to go on several fieldtrips to unique sites throughout Toronto and break bread with the individuals who work there. These series of relaxed but challenging investigations are all in an effort to spark exciting and innovative ideas from non-fictive source material. Prior to every dinner (and the arrival of the evening’s guest speakers), THE PARLOUR participants will meet to discuss how their original dramatic thesis/question is evolving. During these intimate brainstorming sessions, participants will begin to conceive of what form the final articulation of their thesis will take. Each participant will be given one-week in an equipped studio space (TBA) at the end of the process. The final articulation of their thesis could take any form, from a lecture to a dance piece to an intervention. The one criteria is that the participant must ‘hold the space’ for at least one hour. The five pieces will be presented publically on five consecutive nights as THE PARLOUR GAME, which will feature a large pot-luck meal and discussion following each showing. Each participant will also be provided with a $200 production budget for their investigation and presentation. THE PARLOUR participants will be chosen both through application and invitation. If you wish to be involved please send a résumé, headshot, and cover letter outlining who you are and the dramatic question you wish to explore to: Suburban Beast – The Parlour We will be accepting applications from September 1st, 2009 to October 1st, 2009. THE PARLOUR members will be announced October 10th, 2009. THE PARLOUR: Discussion topics for 2009/2010 November, 2009 First dinner: Second dinner: Part Two: Canadian sound poetry December, 2009 Third dinner: Fourth dinner: January, 2010 Fifth dinner: Sixth dinner: Part Two: In the Belly of the Beast: a brief look at the history of whaling, its cultural impact, and the ‘swallowed by the whale’ archetype from various mythologies February, 2010 Seventh dinner: Part Two: The City as a Body: an urban planner and an anatomist compare notes Eighth dinner: Part Two: Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic, Dancing Plague of 1518, and Penis Panic: mass hysteria and what performance intervention can learn from it March, 2010 Ninth dinner: Part Two: Robert Flaherty, his bastard son, and the tragedy of Inuit relocation: where documentary, cultural appropriation, and personal history collide Tenth dinner: Part Two: Anchorages, hermits, and loners: isolation throughout history and its impact on ideology and art April, 2010 Eleventh dinner: Twelfth dinner: |
