Harbourfront Centre, in partnership with The Theatre Centre, is pleased to host the third annual Culture Congress, as part of World Stage/Free Fall ‘10.

This event strives to bring together local, national and international cultural players in creative ways that promote authentic conversation and cultural exchange around a given topic.

How do we come together?

This year The Culture Congress poses the question How do we come together? — artist to artist, artist to presenter and artist to audience. Through a series of informal talks, roundtable discussions, post-show parties and game-nights, Culture Congress intends to break down the walls that can  separate artist, presenter, audience – all of whom are necessary to any creative work.

We have invited five Artistic Programmers from Ireland to join in this discussion. They will be asked to share and compare their Irish experiences – as a culture similar to ours and yet so profoundly different in its world perspective. Discussion topics include mentorship, the Canadian presenting ecology and building community.

The Theatre Centre and Harbourfront Centre acknowledge the support of Theatre Junction in making our Irish Delegation possible.

MARCH 24 – OPENING:    Harbourfront Centre - 10:00pm

Culture Congress opens with a Late-Night Stampede Breakfast in conjunction with Theatre Junction’s On The Side Of The Road (Calgary). 

MARCH 25 – 27: AFTERNOON SERIES:

Present Your City

Informal discussions around the presenting ecologies of different cities.

Mentorship Talks

Senior artists discuss the meaning of mentorship with a variety of artists they have mentored in their long careers.

POST-SHOW EVENTS:  Why Not Have A Party? & Games Night!

MARCH 28 – CLOSING:  The Theatre Centre / Cream Tangerine Café – 12 noon

As it began, Culture Congress closes with breakfast. This time, the public is invited to meet the artists of Free Fall over an Artist Breakfast.

For updates on Culture Congress, please email culturecongress@theatrecentre.org. 

The Theatre Centre’s FREE FALL ’10

in partnership with Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage

March 18 - 28, 2010

 Tanya Mars Six Images in Search of An Artist: Remix l Bob Wiseman + Becky Johnson The Bob and Becky Cabaret  l  Why Not Theatre I’m So Close… l  DNA Theatre Wit in Love  l  Theatre Junction On the Side of the Road  l  The Chop Theatre in association with Rumble Productions KISMET one to one hundred l Bill James/ Atlas Moves Watching with Old Men Dancing: Wiser and Still Gorgeous  

FESTIVAL EXTRAS:

L’Orchestre d’Hommes-Orchestres performs Tom Waits at The Music Gallery (Queen & John St.)

One Reed Theatre Little Iliad at The Great Hall (Queen & Dovercourt)

theatrecentre.org l harbourfrontcentre.com

Posted: February 9th, 2010 under Feb 2010 newsletter, Uncategorized.
Comments: none

It comes as no surprise when Ravi Jain of Why Not Theatr…e asks, ‘What the hell is time?’ Time is quite a big factor for Ravi who battles time zones and borders in collaborating with Katrina Bugaj of the US and Troels Hagen Findsen of Denmark. Poor Ravi, it’s Monday morning, he has just returned from a weekend away and he now faces a stranger over the phone who is anything but indirect. I dive right in and read a line from Why Not’s promotional material, ‘[The] ensemble takes you into a universe where the fabric of space and relationships tears and repairs itself.’ These are no small topics for a Monday morning but I ask Ravi how this subject matter came about. He, Katrina and Troels began their process by examining Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. (At this point I doubt my own ability for such conversations; I should have kept to small talk.) Ravi articulates his belief that time is getting faster and faster and sees technology as playing a key role in this. ‘I spend more time with my computer than with people.’ I agree with him.
Ravi is kind enough to simplify Hawking’s theory for me (and I still am probably missing something here). Either the universe is expanding and will do so until ‘the planets and stars sail away from one another’ or … … the universe will contract and ‘come together in a big crunch and slam together’. These opposite relationships with time and space are applied to the story of a couple in Why Not’s piece, I’m So Close…. The husband’s life is continuously speeding up more and more with his career while his wife, who stays at home, is experiencing an opposite shift in pace.

After their successful run at the SummerWorks Festival in 2008, the band of merry actors (to mention one of many abilities) have partnered up with writer, Nicolas Billon to balance the narrative with the abstract. ‘I’m So Close… is a love song drowned out by the hum of the technological landscape we find ourselves in.’

I am eagerly anticipating the show that opens on March 23^rd as part of the Free Fall Festival. In fact, I’d like time to speed up even more so that I could be sitting in the audience of the Theatre Centre tonight.

Posted: February 9th, 2010 under Feb 2010 newsletter, Free Fall '10 Blog, Uncategorized.
Comments: none