Monday, December 31, 2012

Tooting My Own Horn on NYE

As we close out 2012 in a few hours, I just spent an hour or so putting together a CV of my writing and performing from the past year. I often feel lazy and unproductive so doing something like this is a good exercise to remind myself that I did do something this year. (Add to it the fact that all this was accomplished around a full time day job and I feel a little better about myself.)

The biggest thing for this year was that I started talking about Breath & Bone/Orts Performance as an actual, forming (and re-forming) entity. Hopefully, next year if I do this, there will be more than just two entries that note BB/OP as the company behind an event.

This list also highlights my array of obsessions. Dance, comics, religion . . . yep, it's pretty much all there, often with an LGBT flavor (thanks to OutSmart Magazine). Where I could, I included web addresses. (I'm copying and pasting this from a word processor, so I didn't do the hot link thingie this time. Hope it all still works.)

Needless to say, posting this is also to let whoever might see this know what I do, my interests, and that I'm always looking to do more . . .

Without further ado, my 2012 CV:

January

PUBLISHED (COMPETITION WON) "Always June," DiverseWorks Slinging Ink fall 2011 competition. http://diverseworks.org/2011/slinging-ink-online-fall-2011-%E2%80%9Calways-june%E2%80%9D-neil-ellis-orts/

February

DIRECTED Staged Reading of When the Stars and Moon Collide, a one act play by John Cash Carpenter for Unhinged Productions' DramaRamaThon, February 2, 11

PERFORMED is/not a performance loop for The Art of Sacrifice, a lenten art show at St Stephen's Episcopal Havens Center, February 24-26.

March

PUBLISHED "The Little Dog Laughs" (profile of Brazos Bookstore) in Arts + Culture Houston
http://artsandculturehouston.com/the-little-dog-laughs/

April

PUBLISHED "Shepherd to Homeless Sheep" (interview with the Rev. Megan Rohrer) in OutSmart Magazine http://outsmartmagazine.com/2012/04/shepherd-to-homeless-sheep/

PERFORMED: "All the Ways" (original song/chant) at the Houston Fieldwork Showcase, April 15.

May

PUBLISHED Review for CORE's In the Mood 2 . . . Dance! on Dance Source Houston http://www.dancesourcehouston.org/Writings/20112012Season/42012COREsIntheMood2Dance.aspx

PUBLISHED "Kevin Keller Conquers Comics" (interview with Dan Parent) in OutSmart Magazine http://outsmartmagazine.com/2012/05/kevin-keller-conquers-comics/

PUBLISHED "Hologramps to the Next Generation" (part one of an interview with George Takei–-web exclusive posted May 15) for OutSmart Magazine
http://outsmartmagazine.com/2012/05/hologramps-to-the-next-generation-an-interview-with-george-takei/

June

PUBLISHED "Internment Camps and Other Musical Ideas" (part two of an interview with George Takei) in OutSmart Magazine http://outsmartmagazine.com/2012/06/internment-camps-and-other-musical-ideas/

PUBLISHED "Called to Break Rules" (interview with the Rev Amy DeLong) in OutSmart Magazine http://outsmartmagazine.com/2012/06/called-to-break-rules/

PUBLISHED "The Three Beginnings of a Texas Poet Laureate" (profile of David M. Parsons) web exclusive on Arts + Culture Houston http://artsandculturehouston.com/the-three-beginnings-of-a-texas-poet-laureate/

July

PERFORMED in reading of Wolf Cry Wolf by Kevin Kautzman (Production Assistant; read stage directions and provided sound effects) New American Voices Play Reading Series, Landing Theatre Company

August

PUBLISHED "The Adults Around" in Letters to My Bully, edited by Ifalde Ta'Shia Asanti and Azaan Kamau

September

PUBLISHED Review of NobleMotion Dance and David J. Deveau's Spitting Ether on Dance Source Houston http://www.dancesourcehouston.org/Writings/20122013Season/83112NobleMotionSpittingEther.aspx

October

PUBLISHED "Transposing to the Key of Queer" (interview with Dylan Edwards) in OutSmart Magazine http://outsmartmagazine.com/2012/10/transposing-to-the-key-of-queer/

PUBLISHED "A Blessing Ceremony for Same-Gender Relationships" (interview with the Rev. Lisa Hunt) in OutSmart Magazine http://outsmartmagazine.com/2012/10/a-blessing-ceremony-for-same-gender-relationships/

PERFORMED in Wanderland a dance for film by Ashley Horn, opened October 12, 14 Pews

PERFORMED in Richmond Hall a site specific performance by Deborah Hay, Richmond Hall, The Menil Collection, October 13

PUBLISHED Review of Vault's Thread in Dance Source Houston http://www.dancesourcehouston.org/Writings/20122013Season/101912VauLtDanceCompanyThread.aspx 

November

PUBLISHED "A Texan, A Japanese, and a Missippian Walk into a Dance Studio" (profile of Jesus Acosta, Shohei Iwahama, and Nick Nesmith) in OutSmart Magazine http://outsmartmagazine.com/2012/11/a-texan-a-japanese-and-a-mississippian-walk-into-a-dance-studio/

DIRECTED/PERFORMED in Jill Alexander Essbaum's Necropolis as part of Questions and Declarations (performance ending a HopeWerks Residency at Hope Stone Studios) November 16, 17, 18 (Breath & Bone/Orts Performance)

PUBLISHED "Five Degrees of Separation Diverging from One Commonality" in Blue Rock Review (reading presented at Blue Rock Studio, November 24)

December

PRESENTED Long Night, Joyous Light: A Winter Solstice Happening, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church and surrounding neighborhood, December 21 (Breath & Bone/Orts Performance)

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Long Night, Joyous Light: A Winter Solstice Happening

This began as a desire to do something performancey without a lot of planning, that would be fun for participants and be easy for non-performer participation. I thought, "aha! A Happening!"

So here's the deal. On Friday, December 21st, we're going to gather at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Houston's Montrose neighborhood (corner of Alabama and Woodhead) at 7:00pm. Everyone will bring flashlights and glow sticks and other light-making thingies (although no open-flame thingies---safety first!). By 7:15, we'll head out into the night, en masse, and take our light out into the surrounding neighborhood. We're not caroling or anything like that, just taking an evening stroll with our lights shining on the longest night of the year. People can visit as they walk, or dance about making swirly light trails with their flashlights---well, it's just best not to plan too much. Part of the fun of a Happening is that you don't plan it, you let it happen.

Well, except that I will have a route planned out, to try to avoid the common dangers of Houston's sidewalks. We'll keep within the perimeters of Shepherd, Richmond, and Alabama, so we don't cross any major traffic (safety first!). I want families to feel safe bringing children along---it's a family-friendly sort of Happening!

(If "Happening" is a new term for you, Wikipedia has a pretty good article on them. As you'll learn, we're going to be one of the tamer Happenings in Happening history, but that's okay. It's going to be fun anyway.)

I'll make up some small flyers for a few of us to carry so that if we get asked what we're doing, we can hand out a brief explanation---and invite them to join us!

After we walk for 45 minutes to an hour, we'll be back at St. Stephen's for cookies and wassail or something like that. Hopefully, we'll have people from various circles and we can visit and get to know one another, expand our community connections a bit.

So, in brief:

Bring light making objects and, if you can, some cookies or other snacks to share.

Arrive at 7:00pm.

Locatoin: St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 1805 W. Alabama, 77098.

Be ready to have fun. It's just that simple.

Additional information: Filmmaker Ashley Horn has asked to film this event with the intention of turning it into a short film. So, you get to be a movie star as well as bringing light to one neighborhood. And if you're camera shy, we'll work out something so that maybe there's a section of the group that sticks together and Ashley won't point her camera in that direction.

Also, for those of you who are the praying type and want a religious dimension to the evening, St. Stephen's will be having an Evening Prayer or Vespers service at 6:00pm. It's a brief, ancient service that acknowledges the setting sun and might be an added dimension to the evening. But no pressure---if you'd rather not, just show up at 7:00 for the stroll!

If you can, please let me know you're coming, either in the comments below, on the Facebook event page, or by emailing me at neilellisorts (at) yahoo (dot) com. If it gets to a certain size, we may split up into two groups that head off into separate directions.

Also feel free to ask questions via any of those means.

We're not cursing the darkness! We're getting our glow on!