Stage Door News
Stage Door News
2011 in review: Mammalian 4.0
We turned 18 in 2011! The first things we did as adults? Made a succession plan to pass the company to the youth of Parkdale in 2030, and launched an official Youth Wing, funded by the Metcalf Foundation until 2014, to make it happen. We realized that at 18 we know, like, pretty much everything, so we also launched a research and consultancy wing of the company, The Tendency Group, which released its first major publication, The Mammalian Protocol for Collaborating with Children, last month. We are strategic planning with Board member, Robyn Cauchy, to make plans for our future. And we even gained the "freshman 15(0)" - we increased our full-time staff from 2 to 3!
We toured Haircuts by Children to Nyon, Switzerland (FAR festival des arts vivants), Enschede, the Netherlands (Grenswerk Kunstenfestival), Prague, Czech Republic (Motus and 4+4 Days in Motion Festival) and Austin, Texas, USA (Fusebox Festival). The Children's Choice Awards had its UK premiere in Norwich at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival, and European premiere in Brussels, Belgium at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, followed by a presentation in Kuopio, Finland at the 10th anniversary ANTI Contemporary Art Festival. We presented new projects: Faith Exhange, at CAFKA's Survive.Resist. in Kitchener, Ontario, and Farmer's Market: 2050 at Toronto's Nuit Blanche in collaboration with the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, architect Kubo Dzamba and chef Nathan Isberg. Monster Makers premiered at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre in October, and Playgrounds on Fire was developed in Montreal, with the National Theatre School of Canada, and in Iceland, with the kids of Skagastrond, with Mammalian operative Jill Connell. The Best Sex I've Ever Had was presented in Oldenburg, Germany at the Pazz Festival, with the Oldenburg State Theatre and two of our favourite Toronto seniors, Dorothy and Bette. Darren presented at Creative Time in New York City this past September; you can watch his talk here. And one of our favourite collaborators, Lenine Bourke of Contact Inc., based in Brisbane, Australia, came to hang out with us for a few weeks this fall to develop a couple new shows with youth, 600,000 Years and These Are the People in Your Neighbourhood, which we're also working on with Toronto's Madeleine Collective, Dovercourt Primary School and R.H. McGregor Elementary School for 2012.
All the while, we've been working with The Torontonians, our Parkdale Teen Collective, setting them up with gigs, video screenings, performances and projects in Toronto and across the country. In August, they travelled to Inverness, Cape Breton via 12-seater van to hang out with local kids and star with them in Nightwalks with Teenagers; now they are well into The Producers of Parkdale, a year-long residency at the Gladstone Hotel. They hosted their first Dare Night at gallerywest in November, performed Dream, Baby, Dream: Interrogated by Teens at YYZ; screened How to be a Brown Teen at SAVAC's Monitor 7 and the University of Toronto; starred in Bob Wiseman's video for his song, Reverse This Curse, and led a Jane's Walk for the public through Parkdale.
What's up for 2012?
This winter and spring will be non-stop for the Mammalians; we're starting out with Eat the Street at the PuSH International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver, January 25 to February 4th. If you're around, join us as we and the kids of Bridgeview Elementary school eat at a bunch of the city’s most notable eateries in Gastown and surrounding neighbourhoods. For a schedule and more details, keep checking http://eatdastreet.blogspot.com/ - it will be updated with videos, photos and antics as the project goes down.
In Toronto, we'll have the Torontonians in-residence at the Drake Hotel for two weeks this February - they'll be performing what they develop mid-month, so stay tuned for an announcement. More Dare Nights are in the near future for you brave souls who came out last month - and those of you who chickened out the first time around. The Producers of Parkdale will continue at the Gladstone, and after 8 months of training from industry professionals across the city, the 10 producers-in-training will run their office at the hotel in July 2012, in preparation for a major event weekend August 10th to 12th. The young producers will curate and administer the whole 3 days, so expect... the unexpected. Mark your calendar!
Of course, we'll be back on the road again with Monster Makers at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa from March 24th to April 1st. We're excited that The Best Sex I've Ever Had will have its world premiere in Oldenburg, Germany this April at the Pazz Festival. We'll also present The Children's Choice Awards at Pazz and be featured in their inaugural "Pazz in Portrait" exhibiiton. Afterwards, we'll take off and spread the older-adult love across several continents - we'll have the details of our big tour for you soon. Plus, Haircuts by Children might go down under, and The Children's Choice Awards looks to head back to Europe for its biggest presentation yet... stay tuned!
To kick off the holiday season, and to give you a sneak peak as to what we're up to for next year, we are thrilled to announce a fundraising campaign to support the cost of our year-long project with the Gladstone Hotel, The Producers of Parkdale. These ten teenagers are getting hands-on experience in arts management and production from top people in the city, including Naomi Campbell, Yan Wu, Chris Lorway, Carrie Sager, Howard Mah, Nathan Isberg, Sarah Robayo Sheridan, Julian Sleath, Mathew Kensett and Lisa Duke, as well as the amazing Gladstone staffers, led by Britt Welter-Nolan, to create and manage a 3-day event to be held August 10 to 12, 2012 at the Gladstone - fully curated and organized by the teens themselves. They'll even run a full-time office at the Gladstone in July to prepare for the big weekend. But to make all this happen by August, we need help from all you Mammal lovers out there!
All donations (made in Canada) over $20 will receive a tax receipt. And remember - ANYTHING helps - $10 here or $100,000 there, it all matters!!
TO DONATE, and to read our full pitch, visit our OFFICIAL campaign fundraising page on indiegogo - it's easy, and you can choose whatever amount to donate that you want. Or go to our website and do it via PayPal, the old way. OR we're still cool with the REALLY old fashioned way - you send a cheque to us at our address below.
However you do it... we THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for your support!
2011-12-14
Toronto: Mammalian Diving Reflex looks back at 2011 and forward to 2012