Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Toronto, ON (*April 12, 2012) –––Harbourfront Centre’s unique performing arts residency programme HATCH, concludes its 2012 programme with Pantheon by Toronto cult queer band, Kids On TV. Pantheon takes place Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 8 pm in the Studio Theatre.
Combining bouncy house music, old-school hip hop, Liberace piano drama, mutant super-hero roller-disco battles, love songs between closeted 20th-century artists and epic choral arrangements, Pantheon celebrates the historical and fictional figures of Kids on TV’s personal and collective mythologies. This brand new work explores inspiring, strange and obscure figures of resistance and sexual revolution. Pantheon is a new focus on performance with reference to queer history, struggle and culture through music, dance, film, performance and politics.
Kids On TV emerged from the Toronto party Vaseline in the spring of 2003. John Caffery, Minus Smile, and Roxanne Luchak are the core artists and together they have collaborated with musicians such as Boy George, Man Parrish, Shunda K, Julie Faught, Gentleman Reg, Katie Stelmanis of Austra, Diamond Rings and Bruce Benderson. Kids on TV transform environments with projections of their film and video work. Over the years the party starting band has played in clubs, warehouses, schools, festivals, and bathhouses.
Pantheon aims to conceptualize and foster new material including choreography, photography, music and video and integrate the elements within their performance. “HATCH gives us the opportunity to further explore the mythology we’ve created,” says Kids On TV band member, Caffery, “And to develop innovative ways in which to bring the stories of those personalities within their myths to our audiences.” Since inception the group has focused on personalities that exist and thrive within the intersections of queer/trans, arts, academic, and activist communities.
HATCH 2012 runs from April 14 – May 5, 2012. Patrons can purchase a HATCH pass (includes tickets to all four productions) for $40, individual tickets for $15, or students/seniors/arts professionals $12. Visit harbourfrontcentre.com/hatch or call the box office at 416-973-4000 for more information. Following each HATCH presentation, there is a Q&A and opportunity to engage and interact with the artists, as well as a post-show reception.
ABOUT HATCH
Now in its ninth year, HATCH is a key initiative in Harbourfront Centre’s mission to develop local artists and their unique practices. HATCH mentorship provides resources and professional assistance to contemporary artists looking to explore a new element of their practice. By giving the space and time for this to happen, Harbourfront Centre hopes to develop and grow the best new work coming out of Toronto. This season’s guest curator is Toronto-based performance artist, Jess Dobkin.
HATCH has produced many projects which have gone on to presentations around the world and have garnered awards and professional accolades, including Hannah Moscovitch’s The Russian Play and Aluna Theatre’s Nohayquiensepa.
ABOUT HARBOURFRONT CENTRE
Harbourfront Centre is an innovative, non-profit cultural organization which provides internationally renowned programming in the arts, culture, education and recreation, all within a collection of distinctive venues on a 10-acre site it operates in the heart of Toronto’s downtown waterfront.
2012-04-12
Toronto: Toronto apocalyptic queer band Kids On TV premieres “Pantheon” at HATCH 2012