Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Germany, Switzerland & Singapore:
This April and May, we're heading 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 Best Sex I've Ever Had. We visited Singapore in March to find an all-female group of seniors, who are more fun, smart and sexy than we ever could have imagined - they took to the streets to judge local men, designed a red light district for women, and even hijacked a bus to recruit boys toys to work for them. In Europe, we're working with men and women over 65, most of whom we've now known for over two years. Through workshops and field trips, participants share with us their insights on the evolution of sexuality over the course of a lifetime - and what it takes to still make it happen. There will be stories and conversations, videos, girl-talk, music, urban planning, kissing, arm wrestling, karaoke and (of course) dancing. In our youth-obsessed culture, The Best Sex I've Ever Had re-establishes a community of wise elders to whom we can turn for advice gleaned from their vast wealth of expertise.
After three years of development, we're thrilled to officially premiere this show at Pazz on April 24, 2012. The Best Sex I've Ever Had is directed by Darren O'Donnell, with Konstantin Bock, produced by Eva Verity and Jenna Winter, and features nearly 20 non-actor performers, starring as themselves. The show has been generously supported in its development by the Pazz Festival and Oldenburg State Theatre, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
Scotland:
Haircuts by Children continues to tour; this time Hazel Venzon and Mammalian producer, Jenna Winter, will make it happen in Glasgow, Scotland at Behaviour 2012, presented by The Arches. Come by for the performance days on April 28 and April 29 to Alice Rocks Hairdressers if you're in the area. The haircuts just keep on happening. We hope the next stop will be at the Darwin Festival in Darwin, Australia this August. 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. There are loads of pictures in our website archives if you're dying to see; like us on Facebook to see new haircuts as they happen.
Toronto - Walks:
Taking the title from the segment on early Sesame Street shows, These are the People in Your Neighbourhood is a neighbourhood fortification and positive street-proofing exercise where children are introduced to business owners and other adults who work in their neighbourhood. We've been collaborating with The Madeleine Collective in Toronto (Ladan Ali, Nicole Bazuin, Alex Hong and Cheryl Hsu) as well as children from Ms. Brougham and Ms. Furdyk's grade 4/5 classes (Dovercourt Public School) and Ms. Jen's grade 4 class (R.H. McGregor Elementary School) who have met business owners and operators in the city's east and west ends. Now that they know all about them, the kids will lead neighbourhood walks as part of Jane's Walk (May 5) and Art of the Danforth, (May 27 and June 10) and will introduce the public to their new friends. These are the People In Your Neighbour-hood creates a real utopian experience where the neighbourhood is a village, not just a place to live.
These are the People in Your Neighbourhood received seed funding through Toronto Arts Council's Incubate program which is funded jointly by the City of Toronto, Toronto Arts Foundation and Luminato, Toronto's Festival of Arts + Creativity.
Toronto - Dares:
The Torontonians, Mammalian's collective of Parkdale teens, has been deployed in The Producers of Parkdale, a year-long mentorship residency at the Gladstone Hotel, where they have been learning all the ropes of event production: curating, budgeting, marketing, production management and hospitality. They've done a bunch of Dare Nights at gallerywest and the Drake Hotel and they've got another upcoming at gallerywest in May. The Gladstone residency will culminate in Dare Night: Lock Down, an all-night, overnight, scary, daring sleepover event at the Gladstone - created, managed and hosted by The Torontonians. August 10-11, 2012. Be there or be square. Stay tuned for more details as the publicists in-training get their business hats on this July, when they hit the ground running with a full-time office at the Hotel.
The Producers of Parkdale is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture's Cultural Strategic Investment Fund, the Hal Jackman Foundation, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), via our fabulous collaborator and Producers of Parkdale mentor, Professor Stephanie Springgay.
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Photo: Haircuts by Children. ©John Lauener & Darren O’Donnell.
2012-04-23
Toronto: Mammalian Diving Reflex travels to Europe and Singapore and reveals plans for Toronto