Stage Door News
Stage Door News
The Mammalians have grown the team with new additions to staff and board. We've talked love and sex with seniors in Germany, Switzerland and Singapore, locked down Toronto's Gladstone Hotel for an all-night horrifying dare-filled sleepover, solved your problems in Manchester and cut hair badly in Australia. We've given out awards in Germany, we're eating our way through Italy and Saskatchewan, getting our 'zine on at Toronto's Nuit Blanche and walking with teens in Hamilton.
Money
It's cheddar time again, and we've got some cheese to give, but we're only allowed to give it if you apply to the Theatre Creators' Reserve, funded by the Ontario Arts Council (and only if you live in Ontario).
Deadline: November 30, 2012. Applications will be considered in the context of how your project intersects with Mammalian's interests and approach to art making. Please refer to the information sheet here for more detals. We generally distribute two awards of 2Gs and one of 1G to a total of five.
What we are prioritizing:
We are interested in work that addresses our mandate and is in line with our artistic mission. Mammalian is currently focused on formal innovation and work that engages the viewer, inviting participation. A commitment for the company is a dedication to racial and age diversity, with many of our projects occurring in collaboration with children and youth and particularly young people who are immigrants to their current country. We are especially interested in projects that are in collaboration with the children and teens in the neighbourhood of Parkdale, Toronto, and Toronto's 13 priority neighbourhoods. Your work does not need to have a public presentation component; it can be considered research or an activity simply for the interest and benefit of the participating parties. We’re looking for exciting mash-ups of different individuals working together and doing interesting, unusual, thought provoking and fun things.
What we are not prioritizing:
Currently we are not as interested in script-based work, no matter how engaged the content is with politics or the social sphere. Feel free to send us scripts but know that they will be given a lower priority.
If you have questions about whether or not your project aligns with our interests, contact: darren@mammalian.ca
Please review the applicant eligibility details. Application forms can be found here: http://www.arts.on.ca/Page86.aspx
People
Mammalian is thrilled to introduce our new Young Mammals Director, Annie Wong. Annie is a writer, interdisciplinary artist and sound poet, the Youth Coordinator for Broken Pencil Magazine, and now, the fearless Young Mammals leader. Annie's position is supported generously by the Metcalf Foundation's Strategic Initiatives programme and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
We are also beyond excited to introduce our new Young Mammals Programmer, Alexandra Hong. Alex is a photographer, curator, and a co-founder of The Madeleine Collective. Annie and Alex will together guide the youth wing, expanding the Young Mammals from Parkdale to beyond. The addition of Alex to our team has been made possible thanks to support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. The Ontario Trillium Foundation is an agency of the Government of Ontario.
We've also added some fresh meat to our fantabulous Board of Directors, which is now comprised of (President) Jenn Gaudette, our long-time Treasurer Sarah McCoubrey, (Secretary) Yi Luo, Marie Axler, Robyn Cauchy, Sean Craig and Sukhmani Dev. A big welcome to Annie, Alex, and our new Board members... we're thrilled to watch Mammalian grow!
Walks
In June, The Torontonians traveled with Artistic Director Darren O'Donnell, and OISE Professor and Mammalian education advisor, Stephanie Springgay, to the Psi#18 Conference in Leeds, UK to present Nightwalks with Teenagers. They met up with teens in Leeds and pounded the cobble stones with the local community. The Torontonians are back at it again in October, but this time they'll be walking closer to home in Hamilton, Ontario with The Hamiltonians, which includes members of a local arts group that recently changed its name to NGEN (New Generation). Presented by Hamilton Artists Inc. The walk will take place on Saturday, October 13. To get in on the action, meet at 9:30pm at Hamilton Artists Inc., 155 James St. North (at the corner of James and Cannon Streets). This presentation is generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Program. The Ontario Arts Council is an agency of the Government of Ontario.
Eats
Nom nom nom, the Mammals have eaten our way through Italy and will soon be chomping down on Saskatchewan. Eat the Street just wrapped up with the students of Scuola Elementare G. Matteotti at Up To You International Festival of Contemporary Creation in Terni led by Artistic Producer Eva Verity and Operative Donna Soares (check out pics here), and in October, we'll be dining with Curtain Razors and the students of Regina's Arcola School as part of The Movable Feast. Eat the Street involves a group of 10-12 year-olds who make stops a bunch of the city’s most notable eateries. They are feted and fed, and charged with offering their brutally honest, uncensored opinions on the food, the service, the décor, the state of the washrooms and the charm of the dishwasher. For the mere cost of a meal, the public is invited to sit amongst the kids for a front-row view of the youthful connoisseurs in action. It's the most fun you’ve had since you sat at the kids table. Find dates and locations here, and follow the shenanigans at eatdastreet.blogspot.com. The presentation of Eat the Street in Regina has been made possible in part by the Ontario Arts Council's National and International Touring Program.
Zine
Mammalian and The Torontonians participated in The Madeleine Collective's hot new project: 12 HR Zine Machine this past Saturday at Toronto's Nuit Blanche. 12 HR Zine Machine featured Toronto artists and zine-makers, all challenged to create a hand-made "zine" art book every hour inspired by ideas submitted by Nuit Blanche participants. Participants were also invited to join in the hands-on zine performance as zine-makers themselves. Check out the finished products here.
Awards
Awards: we love getting them, we love giving them. The Children's Choice Awards continues to gain momentum, following our April presentation in Oldenburg, Germany, as part of the Pazz International Performing Arts Festival. We just wrapped up another CCA in Deutschland at the Rhurtriennale for a triple-threat: THREE schools saw over twenty-five performances across four cities (Bochum, Duisberg, Essen, Gelsenkirchen), led by Project Coordinator, Jana Eiting, and Managing Producer, Jenna Winter with Artistic Director Darren O'Donnell tagging along to make sure we got into trouble. It was the biggest Children's Choice Awards yet. Check out the winners here. CCA is an intervention into international arts festivals that features a jury of kids chauffeured to all of the shows, where they are welcomed with a red carpet and standing ovation. The project culminates in an awards ceremony where the kids let the world know what they like, don't like, and who has the best moustache.
Problems
Problems. We've all got them, teens can solve them. This summer adults in the UK and beyond discovered that all they had to do was Ask a Teenager, presented and commissioned by Abandon Normal Devices. Teenagers are famously complex and emotionally unstable. Their limbic systems are on overdrive, their hormones are running amok, they're prone to staying up late, sleeping well past noon and taking crazy risks. It's no accident. Scientists believe that teen brains are particularly alive, active and sensitive. Their behaviour is an evolutionary feature: it's how teens define and distinguish themselves; it's how they get shit done. Teen brains are fast, risk-taking blobs that make creative and sometimes bizarre leaps and associations, giving them an adaptive edge. This is a scientific fact. This summer, Mammalian and Manchester's AND Festival invited you to submit your problems to be passed on to a panel of teens who used their highly adaptable brains and responded with their advice online and during a live performance accompanied by a video installation featuring footage from from the teens' deliberations. In case you missed out, you can get some answers HERE and HERE.
Haircuts
Following a super presentation at the Behaviour Festival in Glasgow, Haircuts by Children went tropical; this time Bi-coastal Operative Extraordinaire Hazel Venzon and Mammalian Artistic Producer, Eva Verity, realized the performance at Australia's Darwin Festival. Hundreds of Darwinians came down to African Beauty Salon and Stone Island Hairdressers to get fresh, free 'dos courtesy of the fab stylists from Millner Primary School (check pics here). The haircuts just keep on happening. In case you still haven't heard: we train kids to cut hair, we rent a salon, we pay the kids, you arrive looking like you and you depart looking like a supastah. Like us on Facebook to see new haircuts as they happen. The presentation of Haircuts by Children in Darwin was made possible in part by the Ontario Arts Council's National and International Touring Program.
Dares
In August, The Torontonians came back with another Dare Night, and the stakes were higher than ever. This time they did dares all night long - Dare Night: Lockdown was the most frightening, eerie event of the summer. By the end, the Gladstone Hotel floor was full with brave souls who proved they did have the 'gongdoh' to make it through the night. Thanks to everyone who came out! Couldn't make it? Check The Torontonians on Global News and a review of the event in The Grid.
Dare Night: Lockdown was part of the Summerworks Live Art Series and was funded by the Ontario Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Cultural Strategic Investment Fund), the Gladstone Hotel, the Hal Jackman Foundation, the Metcalf Foundation and donors from across Canada who supported The Producers of Parkdale. Mammalian and The Torontonians would also like to thank the Gladstone Hotel staff and all the Toronto-based professionals who generously donated their time and expertise to the project: Naomi Campbell, Lisa Duke, Nathan Isberg, Mathew Kensett, Chris Lorway, Harold Mah, Sarah Robayo-Sheridan, Julian Sleath and Yan Wu.
Sex
This April and May, we headed off to Pazz International Performing Arts Festival in Oldenburg, Germany, the Auawirleben Festival in Bern, Switzerland and the Singapore Arts Festival in Singapore to present (the newly titled) All the Sex I've Ever Had. We had an amazing time with more than 30 seniors whose stories moved audiences to standing ovations and received rave reviews. The show was generously supported in its development by the Pazz Festival and Oldenburg State Theatre, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Stay tuned to find out where it will tour next...
Next
Next up after Deutschland and Saskatchewan, we'll all be back in the nest in Toronto, to focus on a few big things. A new website! We're aiming to have it for you by the end of the year. We'll send you a postcard when it's ready. Artistic Director Darren O'Donnell is deep in the books part-time, finishing a MSc in Urban Planning at the University of Toronto, with the plan to take social acupuncture's aesthetic of civic engagement to new levels. His focus is on the performative power of young people and the cultural industries within real world community development, with Mammalian's work in Parkdale, Toronto as a case study. We've also got new interns! (let us know if you know anyone who loves us and who we'd love). New tours! Plans are in the works. And last, but far far far from least, a new Toronto-based youth program: HOW TO HOOK UP! Yo, remember, we're Mammalian!
Image by Michael Barker.
2012-10-09
Toronto: Application deadline for the Theatre Creators’ Reserve and other news from Mammalian Diving Reflex