Category: Research

Crash Course Theater has arrived. I was so excited for this. One episode in and I am not disappointed. Add it to the syllabus.

Here is a round up of things I am using or liking or proud of right now. Click around or have a listen.

•Recent accomplishment I’m proud of: Seth Compton (VI)’s IMDB page. Yup. I finally got a credit.

•Funniest video I watched this week: While it was a disappointing finish to the Super Bowl this guy’s preparation is hilarious.

•Podcast I’m listening to this week: Interview with Scottish professor at Brown University. Mark Blyth State of the Union from Open Source Radio. This podcast kind of rocked me. Maybe it was his accent. Open Source is consistently fantastic.

•How I map the Internet: Remember that website you were looking at last week? It was loaded with all that good “information?” Did you write it down? Did you email it to yourself? Or bookmark it (which computer was it?)? Bookmarking services solve this problem. I used del.icio.us for a long time. I loved it. Along with an RSS reader it basically mapped the Internet for me. When the creators of YouTube bought it I thought it would someday be the center of everything somehow. But they lost interest. And sold it. And it started breaking bit by bit. I was aware of Pinboard back when it was free. But I am a Larry-and-Magic kind-of-loyalist so I resisted. Then Pinboard added a subscription, and then I really dug my heels in. For the past year or so I haven’t added anything to my bookmarks (or been reading many blogs for that matter). Just this year I realized it had been bought. By Mr. Pinboard himself. So now, I’m in. I like the minimal design. I like the business model and the pricing is fair (this service is not going away and I bought a 5 year subscription). I haven’t imported my old links yet (since they probably need a lot of weeding).  I also like his sense of humor. From his blog: “I know there are lots of rival bookmarking services out there. I will consume them, one by one, like I consumed the pie.” Read the blog here.

•Handy web tool if you looking for that perfect emoji: Emojipedia.org helped me formulate this for my 6 and 7 year old Shakespeare Fun students. Note to self: never use Eggplant emoji unless you really mean it.

Storytelling, music, theater fun, games.

After collecting hundreds of donations of great chapter books, the American School and Aardvark Arts is opening the library on the weekends. I will be telling stories and doing theater activities. Then if families would like to sign up they can pay a fee of 30zl and deposit of 20zl and borrow up to three books. (The fees are waived for ASW families.) We are opening this weekend. Books every child should hear.

Christmas Wreaths by Wiki Tiki. I was at a family event in the fall and saw this wreath making activity. I spoke to Monika, the woman in charge and a few months later she brought her team to ASW for the Holiday Performance. Aardvark Arts sponsored the event. It is awesome seeing people get into it. Putting a wreath together makes you to think creatively and make aesthetic decisions. It is a beautiful idea and a big success at family events.

A Door In the Wall – this is a book set in Medieval England. It is… slow. Not much happens. A boy has an illness and loses the ability to walk. It is about his recovery and his growth. I’m in a moment in my life when I am jamming on a keyboard, tapping on tablet, and swiping on my phone constantly. When I come home from work and want to go deeper with my projects, I have a hard time focusing and committing extra effort. This book is an excellent reminder that patience is a good teacher and hard work is a virtue in itself. I told my mom about this book and she remembered reading it over 40 years ago. 

Creative Summer / Kreatywne Lato is a Summer arts program for 8-15 year olds next summer in Wroclaw (creativesummer.org). Last week a landing page went up where I’m collecting email addresses for anyone who is interested. In January, I will be releasing full details and plans and opening up enrollment. #bigproject

Concourse. I have been a long time fan of Matthew Butterick’s Practical Typography for years now. It is a constant inspiration for me. I finally bought his sans serif font Concourse. It is beautiful. With such a generous license it will feature heavily in Aardvark Arts posters (see above), web design and newsletters.

Recaps, highlights or summaries of NBA, NFL and NHL on YouTube allows me to watch a sports game in under 10 minutes. This is perfect amount of time. These video channels are sparking a renaissance for my interest in American sports. For NBA games it is almost exclusively offense. So it’s frustrating when your team is losing because you don’t see if the other team is making great defensive stops or your team is just missing. Also in these NBA edits I miss the commentary which fills in a lot of info about players and the season they are having. The NFL and NHL game summaries are the best because so much exciting action is not just touchdowns and goals. Also, no commercials!

Shakespeare Club is back in 2018. We are expanding to open activities up for younger students (6-7) in Shakespeare Fun and we will be creating a space for adults to come and learn a bit about Shakespeare through The Bard Book Club… And we will be taking an international field trip…

What: Two drama groups for 6-7 year olds and 8-15 year olds. The older group will present an original adaptation of a Shakespeare play and will travel during spring break to Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon.

When: 8-15 group Tuesdays 4:30-6:00 6-7 group Thursdays 3:00-4:00

Where: the American School of Wrocław, Partynicka 29-37, 53-031

Why: Lots of reasons. Shakespeare can be fun and lead to a whole lifetime of enjoyment. Giving primary students the mindset that they can read and understand Shakespeare before they get to higher grades gives them a head start and builds confidence. Performing is a great outlet for students with lots of energy and even for those who are more timid but want to take safe risks. And finally, imagine your six year old quoting Shakespeare on a bus. Bragging rights.

How much: 50zl per session.

Contact: Interested families should send an email to hello[at]aardvarkarts.org

In order to really feel in charge of my days, weeks, and months, I need to start making clearer goals for myself. Bullet Journaling perhaps? Gratefulness meditation? I’m going to have to come up with something.

Art Making

This month a teacher brought in some sculptured dolls she made which were inspired by Alice In Wonderland. She said I could play with them. So I made a 20 minute performance which had a moral of treating other people with kindness.

Teaching

Neutral Masks. I am not sure how this unit is going. But my middle school students have had real physical breakthroughs.

Producing

The wheels are turning on a Commedia work. It surrounds a Polish company who are sent to Empress Anna of Russia in honor of her coronation. Loosely base on Jan Potocki’s “Pageantries.”

This week I saw five outstanding performances. Four of these shows were a part of the Dialog Festival 9th edition and the fifth was from Los Angeles at the invitation from the Grotowski Institute. Here are just some brief notes and impressions from these shows:

“En avant, marche!”

les ballets C de la B (Ghent, Belgium)

Dir. Alain Platel, Frank Van Laecke

What sweet music. I want a playlist of these songs. It was the story of a man who was dying and had to come to terms with leaving his brass orchestra in the hands of younger artists. This was presented in several languages and joyfully enlisted the help of local musicians. The movement was fabulous. A drum solo became a two man expression of the manic life of a young artist. So much joy and vitality in this story about facing our end.

An Enemy of the People

Dir. Jan Klata Poland

The director says he does not reenact classic plays but rather makes “remixes and covers of literature.” I have never seen this play and have been recently keen on Ibsen. The production had plenty of reimaginings that fit perfectly with the original themes. The show features pop music interludes and a heavy metal loving Morten Kiil. The updates of both music, set, and costuming were perfectly tuned. In the middle of the show the main actor, the brilliant Juliusz Chrząstowski, takes liberty to speak on the current political situation in Poland (and the world). Even with the knowledge that he may be preaching to the choir, this show brought urgent attention to the fact that the mechanisms Ibsen wrote about over a century ago are still at work. It was a perfect fit in this festival as the theme of this year is: “Onward – but where to?!”

“nicht schlafen”

les ballets C de la B (Ghent, Belgium)

Dir. Alain Platel

This was the most challenging of all the performances I saw. It was a dance piece set to the music of Gustav Mahler. The director vaguely points to a vision of an apocalyptic future. There are elements of violence and ritual but there are very few answers. It is a reminder for me to be present and to appreciate each movement in isolation. I love shows that allow me to have my own experience, that let my imagination wander. Whatever it is about for me is what it is about. The ability of a company or director to create these conditions, like Teatr Zar, is part of the reason I am in Wroclaw. Though I couldn’t help but feel a certain discomfort with how les ballets C de la B appropriated the culture of the black dancers and enacted violence upon the one woman dancer. While these are examples of my “contemporary fear, uncertainty [and] omnipresent violence” I felt like much of it was unexplained, unexplored and unresolved. I like being challenged to question my needs as an audience member (the need for story, character and context for example) but the movements by themselves were unfulfilling. If it is going to be about movement, and the thread of relationships or story will be constantly snipped, then why have a dead horse as your scenographic centerpiece?

“Jeden gest” (One Gesture)

Dir. Wojtek Ziemilski Poland

This was a highlight of the week. It reminded me of how Teatr Kana’s “Projekt: Matka” (Project Mother) simplified all of the avant-urges swirling about the Theater Olympics Last Year. One Gesture was a refreshing breeze of simple storytelling. It opened my eyes wider onto the deaf community in Poland and invited me to question the nature of Deafness and performance. There are debates which divide the Deaf community and this performance was a call to unite. There was an outstanding moment in the show when a deaf actor was rigged with body microphones and created a soundscape which then scored a mash up of anime videos.

The director of the show has a very healthy attitude towards theater that I fully embrace: “When I go to the theatre, to a place that is supposed to be different, that has laboratory conditions and can study the world, I expect to see in this space something that is an experiment, an event. And what will emerge as a result is not supposed to happen only on stage but also – above all! – within me as a spectator. That I, by experiencing this, experience something that places me elsewhere in the reality. […] It’s not that a theatrical performance has to be a religious experience for me. It does not have to be great, but evidently should change something. Make the spectators feel. It is enough for me to feel as if I were getting to know someone or something new. And theatre has excellent conditions to do just that.” -“Eksperyment dzieje się w głowie” [An experiment takes place inside the head”], Agnieszka Kobroń, an interview with Wojtek Ziemilski, Afisz teatralny

“Theatre, a place that… can study the world.” I love that.

“Asyerion”

Ghost Rad Company (Los Angeles, USA)

Dir. Katharine Noon

Last but not least, Asyerion by some new friends from Los Angeles. I lived in LA for seven years and did not see any work by Ghost Road Company. They are a devised theater company  who create their works over time. From everything I have heard about them and their own point of view on cultural production, they are a wonderful example of the kind of Small Art Theater I relish. I was extremely excited to see their touring production “Asyerion” which was based on the myth of the Minotaur. (Lucky for me I had just finished Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth, so I was imaginatively prepped.) The show was swift and powerful. There was a relentless quality about the piece and overall, the story, the characters, and the movement all felt heavy. Not finessed. There were of course, exceptions peppered throughout, moments of relationships, tenderness, blended with dynamic and subtle movement. This is not a prescription about the work of the company or of this production. I liked it. The shows I typically like the best are those that give me something to critique and talk about. “Asyeron” left me with appreciation for the work where it is in its life cycle and left me wanting more. I met with the lighting designer Brandon Baruch before the show and got caught up on LA theater scene. I can honestly say it was the best lighting design I have seen in the Grotowski Institute. And the music which was introduced in the most recent phase of development was beautiful. Thank you Ghost Road for bringing your style to Wroclaw. We need more of it!

Two websites that shocked me this week: How Many Slaves Work for You? Click here to find out.
Not one of the richest people in the world? Me neither, See where you fit in the global rich list. Click here and you might be surprised.

Best comedian I just discovered: James Veitch. I love his storytelling style. I asked him what tech he used to make his presentations and he said it was Keynote. Now if I could only find the sweet tech for a clicker… Watch this bit on Conan and if you like it, look up his Ted talks!

Quote about the future that got me thinking: Richard Branson said in a recent interview “I suspect … we’ll actually look back on the wholesale slaughter of animals, and the way we did it, and be slightly embarrassed about that.”

What podcast I’m listening to: This interview on Democracy Now! with Muhammad Yunus. He was the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Winner and he talked about his new book, The World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Carbon Emissions. His response when asked what we need to do to effect change caught my ear – “We have to teach our children in school that … we [can] live in a way so that our enjoying life will not harm the enjoyment of life of another country or other children… Then children will learn what are the things that I do harms and affects negatively on the children of other countries and so on, so that I become aware that there’s a link between what I do, what I consume, what lifestyle I have, on the other people’s lifestyle.

New You Tube channels I subscribed to: Nerdwriter, Just Write, and Swoozie

 

Next week a special edition of Five Bullets will be Five Plays. I am attending the Dialog Theater Festival in Wroclaw. There is some juicy art-money-politics background on this event that I will try to write down.