Saturday, November 3, 2012

Countdown to Questions and Declarations

I had small hopes of chronicling the rehearsal process (because I am, at heart, a process person) of working on Jill Alexander Essbaum's Necropolis for my HopeWerks Residency showing, Questions and Declarations.  Those small hopes included typing something every couple of weeks.

So of course, it's been a couple of months since last I typed into this particular blog spot.

What can I say? It's been a busy month, not only with work on Necropolis but also with other performance events, clearing off my freelance writing slate, writing a grant and sometimes I eat, sleep, and go to my day job.

So, how's it going, you ask?

Well. It's going well. I'm really excited to show what Cassandra Shaffer-Permenter, Donna Meadows, and I have been working on. Cassandra and Donna have been great to work with, willing to try most anything I asked (within reason---and it's true, not everything I've asked is reasonable) and for some performance about death and grieving, I think we've created something with no little beauty.

I've been asked what we're doing is dance or theater or what. I think it's mostly or what. Cassandra and Donna are both dancers and I've taken dance, so there's definitely a movement style---what I tend to refer to as expressive bodies. There are elements of theater---we're speaking text for an audience and if it's a dance studio rather than a stage, it is definitely akin to being in a black box theater. And perhaps that's the closest "thing" we can claim. Theater. But I tend to just call it "performance." That covers it, despite confounding some people. Add to the fact that it's not exactly in the bounds of what is known as "performance art," the confounding in compounded.

(That just happened, unplanned. I'm going to have to use that somewhere else . . . )

This is what happens when a farm boy from Paige goes off to Chicago to get an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts. Definitions get muddy.

But, I begin to ramble, so I'll just leave with this:

Questions and Declarations
new performance work by Donna Meadows and Neil Ellis Orts
Friday, November 16, 2012 7:30pm
Saturday, November 17, 2012, 7:30pm
Sunday, November 18, 2012 at 6:00pm. 

Hope Stone Studio
1210 West Clay, Suite 26
(entrance faces Van Buren) 
 $5 admission at the door. 

We don't have reservations, but space is limited and if you're on Facebook, you can let us know you're coming via the event page

While I'm at it, I should also add this little bit of information about HopeWerks:
HopeWerks is a space grant offered to emerging choreographers and performance artists to assist them in the early stages of their artistic journey. Artists are given three months of unlimited rehearsal time at Hope Stone Studio to create their work. At the end of the three months, the artists present a "work-in-progress" showing to the public at the Studio.


And  I might also add thanks to St. Stephen's Episcopal Church for the use of additional rehearsal space.

Yeah, this didn't all just happen by itself. There's been a lot of help. I must remember to be grateful for all this help . . .


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