samedi 21 janvier 2012

Trois rencontres à ne pas manquer avant Noël !


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RENCONTRE/SIGNATURE
avec

Dominique Delvallée
auteur, metteur en scène Compagnie Anton TCHEKHOV
met en vente son ouvrage
LA DELIVRANCE
pièce de sensibilisation à la maltraitance
au profit du "Noël des déshérités"
Vendredi 16 décembre 2011
de 17h à 19h
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REPRESENTATION
CHAMBRES
de Philippe Minyanapar le Théâtre du dumme Kuh
Samedi 17 décembre à 16h

Avec: Christine De Ruyter, Yvonne Perrin, Yves Walle

Mise en voix de Pina Trunzo
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CONTES
Laissez-vous porter par la magie des contes d'ici et d'ailleurs...
Mardi 20 décembre à 16h à la librairie !
Ce livre débute par un long conte consacré à Lydéric, héros tutélaire, fierté de la ville de Lille mais aussi d'Aire-sur-la-Lys, puisque Le grand forestier de Flandre y aurait été porté en terre. On retrouvera aussi quelques-uns de nos personnages Légendaires dans des textes inspirés de Charles Deulin, Edmond Edmont, Henri Mayeur, mais aussi des plumes contemporaines telles Eugène Mordacque, Ti Fred, Philippe Valcq, Patrick Sautnier...
Quelques chants collectés au siècle dernier terminent l'ouvrage.
Le conte ne décrit pas, il suggère.., alors imprégnez-vous et laissez-vous rêver !

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Trois rencontres à ne pas manquer !
Entrée libre / Réservations souhaitées

CONTES


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Laissez-vous porter par la magie des contes d'ici et d'ailleurs...
et surtout d'ici avec les géants, sorcières et autres héros du Nord et Pas-de-Calais
Mardi 20 décembre à 16h à la librairie !


Ce livre débute par un long conte consacré à Lydéric, héros tutélaire, fierté de la ville de Lille mais aussi d'Aire-sur-la-Lys,
puisque Le grand forestier de Flandre y aurait été porté en terre.
On retrouvera aussi quelques-uns de nos personnages Légendaires dans des textes inspirés de
Charles Deulin, Edmond Edmont, Henri Mayeur,
mais aussi des plumes contemporaines telles Eugène Mordacque, Ti Fred, Philippe Valcq, Patrick Sautnier...
Quelques chants collectés au siècle dernier terminent l'ouvrage.

Le conte ne décrit pas, il suggère.., alors imprégnez-vous et laissez-vous rêver !
***
Rencontre suivie d'un goûter pour petits et grands !
Entrée libre / Réservations souhaitées

Speed acting


Speed acting

Quatre troupes amateurs vous présentent en 15 minutes le texte de leur choix !
Qu'il soit leur projet en cours ou un coup de cœur !
Prochaine séance :
Samedi 28 janvier à 15h et à 17h

Les compagnies :

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La compagnie des Scaphandriers d'eau de vaisselle < Contes pour enfants louches >
trois petites histoires de trois petits garçons hors du communs racontées par trois petites comédiennes, Bottiglione Nancy, Delrue Cécile et Mercier Mathilde

*
Steene Théâtre
< L’Homme des Bois de Anton Tchekhov >
La scène se passe dans la salle à manger de la maison des Sérébriakov. Entre une heure et deux heures du matin. L’orage menace. Sérebriakov a regagné sa chambre accompagné de Krouchtchov, le médecin venu le soigner pour une crise de goutte ou de rhumatisme. Voïnitski (le frère de sa première femme) et Elena (sa seconde femme) se retrouvent seuls. Avec Christian ALLARD, Brigitte DUBREUCQ, Guy CATRY, et Hélène MATTHYS
* Les Dissolvantes < RESET,
adaptation libre de Conseils pour
une jeune épouse de Marion Aubert >


Les Dissolvantes disponibles dans deux formats de flacons différents, le premier mesurant 176cm, idéal comme format familial et le second étant de 163cm, pratique, il vous suivra partout dans votre trousse de voyage. L’idéal est de réunir les deux formats pour un maximum d’efficacité. Avec humour et lucidité, elles abordent les rôles endossés ou subis par la gent féminine.
Avec Audrey Sauvage et Manue Delplace

*
L'Atelier
< Les Mangeuses de chocolat de Philippe Blasband >


ne thérapie collective pour personnes addictes au chocolat ; trois femmes font la démarche auprès d'un thérapeute (homme) et très vite, chacune d'entre elles découvre ce qui se cache derrière cette problématique, y compris le thérapeute qui lui est piégé par sa propre méthode...avec Cécile Berny, Sonia Daene, Marie-Simone De Bruycker, et Bruno Loiseau

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Rafraichissements/grignotages entre les deux séances.
Entrée libre / Réservations souhaitées

Arlene Goldbard on the NCRP Report


Arlene Goldbard's outstanding book
I was tempted to call this "Occupy Wall Street (part 5)," but arts consultant and thinker Arlene Goldbard, author of the powerful book The New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development (which I think every artist ought to get as a Christmas present), has written a powerful post in reaction to the Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change report as well as the discussion going on at Grantmakers in the Arts Forum on Equity in Arts Funding. Please, please go read it. It is entitled: "Equity in Cultural Funding: Let Them Bake Pies."

Here's a taste: Goldbard's conclusion:

An Idea That Everyone Will Hate


IN A COUPLE POSTS on Parabasis, Isaac Butler has contributed two commentaries concerning the increasingly blurred lines between the profit theatre and the nonprofit theatre. This is an issue upon which Rocco Landesman has repeatedly commented quite powerfully, both as head of the NEA and long before. This is an issue that intersects with many of my own concerns about the increasing centralization of the theatre in New York as well as the centralization of arts funding in large theatres, many of whom rather regularly transfer their productions to Broadway.
    While I was thinking about this issue and how best to address it, I came up with an idea that absolutely everybody will hate which, if I were an avant garde artist, I would see as proof that it is an excellent idea. And while I acknowledge its likelihood of universal horror, and also the complicated details that would be involved, I am going to share it anyway as a "modest proposal"" offered to provoke thought if nothing else.
    So here it is -- for simplicity's sake, I will give it a narrow focus:

  • Any theatre that transfers a production to a commercial venue automatically loses its non-profit status.
Actually, this wasn't the radical idea. Rather, it was the next step that was radical, because it makes this prohibition work both ways:

  • In order to maintain its 501(c)3 status, a non-profit theatre is not allowed to produce a play that has been done on Broadway or employ an artist who has worked in the commercial theatre, television, or film.
Yeah, that's the kicker.
     This would have the immediate negative effect of reducing artist income and, indeed, would likely substantially reduce the theatrical workforce. In fact, it might seriously cripple the theatre scene, at least for a while.
   On the other hand, it would draw a bright line between the nonprofit world and the commercial world, eventually creating a workforce focusing all of its artistic energy on developing the theatre. No longer would the nonprofit theatre be a stepping stone for playwrights, actors, directors, and designers to make a jump to commercial art forms. No longer would regional theatres across the US produce, cookie-cutter-like, the latest Broadway hit. No longer would we have articles in American Theatre making excuses for playwrights heading to Hollywood to write TV shows. No longer would theatre actors spend their time trying to land a national commercial or a bit spot on CSI. Theatre artists would have to commit, and if they wanted to do a TV series, film, or Broadway show, they would know that there was no going back.
   Imagine the amount of great theatre the world might have seen if the Steppenwolf actors had been doing play after play year after year instead of spending most of their time doing movies and TV series. Imagine if Tony Kushner had focused his enormous talent on writing play after play for Magic Theatre instead of trying to figure out a way to make a smart Broadway musical.  Imagine the richness that might have entered the theatre if the only people working in it were those who had committed their lives and talents totally to it. Imagine the collaboration that might happen between regional theatres looking to share the work of their playwrights. The nonprofit theatre world would be immeasurably enriched by being populated only by theatre artists who have committed their careers to its development.
   Yeah, I know -- the free flow of labor.
   But unless something like this happens, the nonprofit theatre will continue to be used as the minor leagues for commercial art forms that contribute to the cultural sludge that pollutes our nation. We need to quarantine the corporate values that have infected the commercial theatre. It isn't good for the art form; it isn't good for our culture.

Build a New Model


The arrival of a new year often leads to reflection on what has passed, and as a result points to new directions for what is to come in the future. For a theatre blogger who has been writing over 6 years, this is particularly true.

For a few weeks, I was considering discontinuing Theatre Ideas. Over the time I have written it, I have questioned many aspects of the theatrical status quo, and proposed ways to make it better. I have participated in important discussions, and written a few posts that have garnered  thousands of hits. And I have received several invitations to participate in convenings and submit grants as a result of writing this blog. As a result of writing this blog, my own ideas have come into greater focus.

What was getting me down is that nothing seems to really change. A topic rises to the forefront of everyone's consciousness, there is a certain amount of heat, a much smaller amount of light, and then -- pffftt! The discussion is over, and everyone goes back to talking about how to use Facebook and Twitter to market their productions, as if the only thing standing in the way of a vibrant theatre scene is just finding a way to get the word out. We're all for diversity -- yay! -- except don't ask us to do anything different. We're all for theatre for everyone -- yay! -- except don't ask us to do anything to promote it. We're all for new plays -- yay! -- but don't ask us to give up our classics. We're all for a more even distribution of funding -- yay! -- but don't actually take any money away from the richest institutions. The power of inertia seems to be bred in the bone.

It is time for me to take seriously the Buckminster Fuller quotation in the sidebar of this blog: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." I have spent six years fighting the existing reality, which regardless remains stubbornly unchanged. My focus must now be on building a new model.

As many of you know, I have received funding to create a CRADLE pilot program in Bakersville, NC (pop 357), where I will be moving within the next few months. That is a concrete attempt to create a new model. I will blog about that process on the CRADLE blog.

I've also decided to organize my thoughts and ideas into a book with the working title "Small is Artful," which I may create a separate blog for. The book will address issues of scale in theatre as it impacts everything from location to business model to aesthetics to production methods. Whether I will publish this book myself or through a traditional publisher remains to be seen. Hell, whether I find the time to write it remains to be seen. Suffice to say that it is time to bring together the research and ideas that I have expressed over the years on this blog and put them into a more formal, organized, and portable format.

I'll continue to write here and on the CRADLE blog (where my absence has gone on for too long), but my thoughts will be focused forward to a new model, rather than engaging the current one.

In Honor of Martin Luther King


While there will be many tributes today to the vision and determination of Martin Luther King, from artists and non-artists alike, I think the best thing the arts as a field could do would be to take seriously the Fusing Arts, Culture, and Social Change report and address the inequities that are built into the non-profit arts infrastructure.

Lately, we have seen the enormously negative effects of Big Money in politics through the creation of Super Pacs and the lifting of limitations on corporate political contributions as a result of Citizens United. Well, this situation has long been in place in the arts. The wealthy and powerful dominate governing boards, and major institutions court major donations from rich individual donors and their foundations. And then we wonder why the money is centralized in elite, white, urban institutions and why those institutions present art that appeals to that demographic.

It is important that CRADLE not fall prey to this pattern. Local CRADLE organizations should have boards comprised not only of town leaders and elites, but of people representative of the population as a whole. This means choosing board members not for their ability to contribute and raise money, but for the value of their viewpoint and wisdom.

In the book The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods, authors John McKnight and Peter Block call on citizens to create powerful and competent communities based on three "universal properties":

  • The Giving of Gifts -- The gifts of the people in our neighborhood are boundless. Our movement calls forth those gifts.
  • The Presence of Association -- In association we join our gifts together, and they become amplified, magnified, productive, and celebrated.
  • The Compassion of Hospitality -- We welcome strangers because we value their gifts and need to share our own. Our doors are open. There are no strangers here, just friends we haven't met.
The latter is particularly important, as it promotes what Block calls a "welcome at the edge." It isn't only the rich and powerful who have gifts to offer, but those who have been traditional ignored or marginalized. And those must be actively sought out and celebrated.

We must not continue to waste the talents of our people. We must not continue to ignore the stories of our people. We must celebrate the richness that exists in all people. And we must create an artistic infrastructure that promotes these values.