if . . .

... listening to Ted Harrison interview on The Next Chapter he explains ... simplify the shapes & add more colour ... gradually the colour takes over ... the colour was a discovery ... ... strikes me Gabriel Josipovici follows this aesthetic in his novels I've recently read: conversations in another Room & Everything Passes ... ... in the theatre render the action & deepen concentration ... wonder on the pedagogical application ... - See: ArtistsSpeak :: note :: ... ? ...

66 Events #six_events in 2008 was performed by hundreds in 29 countries across the globe over 6 days #sixty_six_events is over a full 24 hour period and can be performed by anyone, anywhere. #freely interpret and perform any number of the 66 events within the given time #document your actions and send to info@sixtysixevents.com ( Crg Hill's poetry scorecard ) - See: events :: note :: ... missed it ... next year? ...

what theatre really is or princesses of the new moon they form a gentle circle on a darkened stage listening faces so seriously still desiring this ones gift & that ones voice they await the tone which releases them into the wild lights fade, seats empty, doors open as the future slides in. you'd think I'd tire of this endless seasonal come & go experience is brutal, generous & expansive a worthy loss. simply be faithful to the eternal visionary tradition of unovertakeable,tender loss. :: note :: ... end of term ...

I am wary of performance and attend when obligated yet often am aroused to write. I prefer description supported by action. I go looking, searching, asking, questioning, reacting to data, leaping in, constructing notes to [re]act on my responses instead of contemplating on them. I dislike a cursory summary of the narrative action and shy from offering judgemental impressions. I prefer to present details, referencing examples to illustrate an assembling attention. I try to situate the work within the context of the oeuvre of the playwright/director/ensemble or whatever seems appropriate: a close reading of content, form and working procedures, historical and biographical tidbits, the canonical vocabulary of theory, innovation or stated intention. I require an intelligence of feeling and academic rigour parallel with associative linking to create a complexity that blurs serious and playful thinking. My wish is to stimulate questions that encourage a working manifesto for all types of pra...

What are the artistic processes of performance & how to articulate how I witness the uncapturable in performance practice are questions that guide my exploration. I meditate on them from the vantage point of my own self-narrative, as a performance practitioner whose artistry, in many ways, relies on the willingness of others to disclose, to open themselves. I left my home and theatre practices turning twenty to immerse myself in another tradition. After an extensive stay within the Grotowski and Grotowski diaspora I returned home to dwell in the perceived place of my creative center. The work inexplicably led to the vocation of education & specifically playing in the territory education of the imagination. One of the frames through which I construct my research is a focus on the formal in practice: attention to the shapes of narratives, the physical intimacy that changes the time and space of an encounter, the fullness of the movements of touch and density (dancingness & si...

Opens with the King (Morgan) and Evil Queen (Sonia) fighting, the Evil Queen hands the king a mask. The King takes it and then banishes her from the kingdom and throws the mask after her. End Scene. Next: An old lady (Mary?) is walking along when all of a sudden a monster (Macy) attacks and captures her. While the monsters back is turned the old lady uses her magic to escape and attempts to run away. The monster sees her and a battle of magic begins between the two. The monster pushes the old women to the back of it's lair, when it seems the monster has won the old women grabs her cane and bashes the monster over the head. The monster falls down stunned, the old lady then uses her magic to remove the curse that has fallen on the monster. The monster wakes up and is transformed into a young girl. The old lady beckons the girl to follow her and the two begin their journey to the king by walking on water. Meanwhile: The Evil Queen is bored and is playing with her servant, she tosses t...

Bonne annee 2010, ouverte sur le monde, chaleureuse et fraternelle. Ouvrons nos fenetres pour regarder et apprecier la richesse et la diversite de ceux que nous rencontrons. Rejouissons nous de cette lumiere qui vient a nous. :: note :: ... greeting from Cised Paris an international student service for University Paris 8 ...

Wegman :: note :: ... walking by the river encountered a jogger with dog ... the innocent eyes & curious gaze captivated me ... " Wish I were a dog", I exclaimed ... partner responded "You are - You are!" ... finally found myself ...

He turned to jade and left the world. He danced death outside to no secret. He closed his blind eyes tightly shut and invited some close friends over. The friends lost their way somewhere. They reappeared inside the deep dark. Since his soul snapped and sunk, they held a magnifying glass inches away. :: note :: ... a pillaged poem ... Strangers by Annie Finch ...

On a hot summer day, a country in mourning, we each went our way to the very end. Awaiting her return, the day after winter solstice, anticipating footprints in the snow I close my eyes to perceive the airport kiss which like vapour disappears forever illusive. Have just replaced the calendar, surprised that 1998 matches 2010, acknowledge the ignorance of time, comforted by the ignorance, a better part of beauty, in the briefest of times charms the magic of the moment. Are we sharp-witted fools sacrificing cold blooded existence to a studied cultural fanaticism, artists out of desperation barricading ourselves from catastrophe, self-disciplined martyrs ruthlessly pursuing danger, exploiting the chance, the last compassionate chance towards a fatal & ambitious ideal nonsense. The mirror reflects the look of a wild man. Switch on the coloured festive lights as a beacon. How will she look? You don't have to be with a person in order to feel bound to them as to no other. Cross th...

The Urban Dictionary defines skit skit: "to cum or to want to be cummed on by either sex" and yet SKIT SKIT is a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based sketch comedy troupe composed (this time round) of Ashton Francis, Kristen Holfeuer, Matthew Keyes, Ed Mendez and Tara Schoonbaert. This wonderfully skilled group last performed @ The Refinery December 17, 18 & 19th. Cam Fuller of The StarPhoenix wrote they are "a big hit with the audience" & their Facebook page affirms this. No small feat in a genre that puts a high premium on novelty. A mix of video clips around Heritage Minutes & Sexy Singles flows seamlessly into live SNL type sketches boldly & exuberantly performed at a carefully crafted pace. The writing is paradoxically broad & concise at its best when they follow the comedy edge of making serious stuff humorous. Where the troupe shines most are their provocations at the arts. Matthew Keyes does a priceless Nichelback parody, Tara Schoonbaert...

With warning as lightning heralds thunder love rumbles my heart. Textwork is a practice, not a product. It is praxis, part and parcel of the critique of the everyday creative life act. It invites something out of nothing. A source. TextwUrk is not a metaphor, not metaphorical. It is creative work. A passion. It exists precisely in the obdurate interstice between body and voice. It exists in the arrow - the connection. It is memory. It is invisible to illuminate. It is not a set of procedures or perceptions. It is the crisis noise in the system. It is not the encapsulation or object of the crisis noise or the system. It is continuous; it is parasitic; it is thetic. It seeks obstacle. It is of no interest except as cultural residue: it is of great interest to the actor's studies. It is nothing more than the continuous reification, territorialization and rendering of the actor's work/etude - as if the etude were always already cleansed, available for the taking - as if the etude w...

Within the Penumbra By F. D. Schultz Most of what you see tonight is in the shadow, in silhouette, in twilight, dawn ... within the Penumbra. Most of life happens as T.S. Eliot writes in "The Hollow Men": "Between the conception / And the creation Between the emotion / And the response Falls the Shadow / Life is very long" We yearn for freedom. The freedom to seek the truth though truth is never what it seems. Conceived in a world of order, rules and laws we choose between friendship & betrayal, between security and adventure, between the authorities of love & wrath into hope & despair ... within the Pneumbra. Follow the cast & playwright caught in the eternal mysterious spirit world in the time of Pandora's Box on a journey towards that moment where nothing is left but to stand face to face in affirmation or regret ... yes or no ... within the Pnuembra. Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future, And time futur...

Dreamt a delightful dream last night; today received word from my beloved. Her voice a hundred times over rested on my chest; I fell asleep. The heart ecstatic at being ever so pressed warmed the cold, grey afternoon. - See: Writings :: note :: ... inspired by 30 Sijo Poems translated by Chung Chong-Wha ...

Eventually she stopped death outside. Never again would they add pillows to prop up her misunderstandings. No more negativity. Who had been more noble? Firmly rooted to the earth, one must act. I will transcend this way, where I lie, a miraculous mystery. - See: Writings :: note :: ... a counterpoint to this soon by Crag Hill ... find this type of juxtaposition/playing fun ... hope it doesn't offend ...

1. Doksu To Labor Pomp & Protest 28/7/09 We catch the last moments of the splendid changing of the guards at Doksu Palace. Colourful flags of Dragon & Phoenix snap in the procession. Protesters camp outside city hall while bored police stand ready with sheilds.A long white proclamation banner heralds discontent. From the human rights office hangs a stark multi-storied banner demanding the Premier fulfill his election promise to make Seoul more handicapped accessible. A stately building surrounded by wooden benches & a spacious courtyard is the Ministry of Labor. Two mythical beasts guard the entrance & Harubang watches over the parkade. The gorgeous night sky illuminates the tranquil clouds. For the sake of memory peace reigns for all the silhouetted foot soldiers of the night. 2. Insects on Line 6. 29/7/09 Have you ever had a huge snake wrap itself around you or held a blue silvered beetle in your hand or watch a gecko climb up your arm. I have and wonder how the snake...

1. Gyeongbok Palace 20/7/09 Six-Fold Screen of the Sun, Moon and Five Peaks. Eight-Fold Screen of Peonies and Rocks. Ten-Fold Screen of Shelves Full of Books. Faint sounds of Royal Court Music dispell past affairs of guilt & torment like visionary footsteps echoing in the cavernous hollow Palace building new consciousness of the old. 2. Seonyu Island 21/7/09 Frogs random croaking tickles the strolling couples amourous desires. Gentle waterfalls soothe the weight of time wrinkles on faces of three older woman friends. Men gamble & fish freely in the wind playing to catch treasures of leisure. We descend steps disappearing into the Han under the arced bridge sweeping all cares to the warm night sky on heavenly swings. 3. Seowon Temple in Maputo 22/7/09 Climb to the top not to look down or out over but look on the golden hand. Prayer gesture Imploring tomorrow for yesterday's gratitude. I saw the newsroom today. What a lucky man. 4. Odusan Unification Observatory 23/7/09 At th...

1. Dangsan: Day One 12/7/09 the green & wood embrace & edge tongues of form reach for expectant joy 2. Dangsan: Skies open 13/7/09 Hard rain through night. Tiny districts folded within each other like streams pouring souls to the Han. 3. Mapo-gu, Sungsan-1-dong (Family visit) 14/7/09 Rabbit wanted to eat tiger. Brother tiger had been kind showing pictures of when they were babies. Instead rabbit climbed his mothers back & clung tightly most of the night. 4. Insa-dong (Inner district) 15/7/09 Shadow birds converge on blue pots as red women divulge secret worlds. The trickster monk cries "Come, come hold the paper." Sketches a show - we are all poor artists. 5. Insa-dong (Inner district) Part 2 16/7/09 Be free whisper all the quiet places of beauty. We are serious & socially responsible. We scream in tender silence our love for our community. We are the outliers. Share the dream. Outside people jostle for every inch in the heat. 6. North Korean Studies (Gyon...

... the movement of an artist from the world of practice often comes with great mourning & even greater reflection ... Pina Baush preserved her dignity and spirit with considered if not miraculous attention ... others not so ... ... the present media frenzy surrounding MJ allowed me to reflect on an aged post : "it is impossible not to contemplate with a shudder the shadowy line between art, ecstasy and psychosis." . . . Cox in his “documentary” about the Russian born dancer Nijinsky The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky is quoted: “Nijinsky was a beautiful spirit. He went mad because of his love of mankind. We live in a world that has gone crazy – it is no wonder that souls like Nijinsky go mad.” Words as if spoken towards any artist humbled by their own demons & excesses of a hungry sensibility, extreme traumatic periods & victim of time and place. ... further darker evidence: "Once we commit ourselves to a passion, noble or sordid, it is of no importance, ...

John Ralston Saul makes the declaration we are a "métis nation" pointing as much to national identity as to a roadmap for our future. CBC Radio rebroadcast (originally aired in April '09) the 2009 UBC-Laurier Institution Multiculturalism Lecture The Aboriginal Peoples and New Canadians: The Missing Conversation (available for four weeks as July 13 podcast ). His coterie: "It's crucial that all Canadians cultivate an understanding of our Aboriginal heritage, and the role Aboriginal people played in the development of Canada," says Beverly Sabourin, Vice Provost (Aboriginal Initiatives) at Lakehead University. "Understanding our common history and our respective roles will help guide us into the future, allowing all of us to collaborate in building a "fair country." ( Lakehead U Talk ) "In one of the strongest and most convincing passages in the book, he argues that the 'single greatest failure of the Canadian experiment, so far, has...