supporting what we do

October 26th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

with Small Wooden Shoe,
We’re making a different sort of theatre company.
We like putting on shows a lot, but we also like teaching, research, talks, meetings and we do a Christmas concert where we sing the 3penny Opera as a choir. We like bringing things together: Things like people and the pleasure and commitment of a sharing a room. The rigour of good work and delight.

Right now, we’re working on Antigone: A Clean House for the Dead Season
by Evan Webber (who’s also our playwright-in-residence)
with a remarkable cast including: Maev Beaty, Lindsey Clark, Frank Cox-O’Connell, Brendan Gall, Sky Gilbert, Liz Peterson and Philip Shepherd.
It’s an amazing group of people.

It’s a new telling of an old story with stunning language and complex, thoughtful, excruciating, politics - both personal and social.
We’re treating it as staged radio play, as a ghost story. And we’re going to make a night of it.
The way that Small Wooden Shoe does: with big ideas, with grace and fun and probably some music.
That will be in the fall of 2012

Now – in a few weeks actually – we’re doing a five day workshop
experimenting with sound and recorded voices, playing with timing and radio acting, refining relationships and emotions,
making connections.

but first we need your help
these are challenging times and we’re a little short on cash.

If you can contribute $20 it could make all the difference 
CLICK HERE TO DONATE

If $20 seems too little feel free to give more .

And if you fear missing out on future shows
You can buy a life time subscription - CLICK HERE TO BUY
for just $500 (installment plan available)
You can see every show, anywhere, forever.
Getting a lifetime subscription supports and inspires the work we’re doing.
And we appreciate that.
thank you.

Hope you’re well,
Jacob

smallwoodenshoe.org

an outline of populism talk

October 25th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

While I continue to work on the material from the Fringe populism talk, I wanted to share a link to the text version of the outline to accompany the video.

I will be flushing out the idea’s and references over the next few months here, and any thoughts / discussions would be welcome.

Here’s the text file (RTF): Populism-Fringe-talk-outline

Enjoy.

Better Questions on Populism

October 24th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

I had the honour of being the first Toronto Fringe Festival Research Chair – part of the amazing work that Gideon and the people at the Fringe are doing to support the theatre scene year round in the city, including the new and exciting Creation Lab (I’ll be at the Open Jam tomorrow – maybe see you there?)

My proposal was to look into “A populism I could stand behind” – a topic that fit well with the Fringe and has become a bit of a slow burning question for me.

On Wednesday I gave a talk that marked the end of my term, but certainly not the end of my thinking on themes and questions on Populism.

Over the next while, I’ll continue to write on the idea, but first here’s the talk.
At the beginning I say it while be 20 minutes. That’s a lie. It’s around fifty minutes.

Sandbox: Some thoughts on Realism

August 22nd, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Gall looking up

Brendan Gall during rehearsals for Galileo.

thanks to Sky Gilbert for prompting me to write this by thinking I had written it before. It is something I’ve been thinking about performing again in Perhaps in a Hundred Years.

***

“Realism” in theatre is often used to mean “realistic portrayal” – a style of acting in which the actor really seems like this other person. This style is dominant in film and TV and as such tends to dominate acting training. This is the “realism” that might be almost interchangeable with “naturalism.”

Another style of realism might be “dealing with the reality of the situation” – where in the situation is being in a room, performing for others who are watching. The performing that is being done could even include the “realistic portrayal style” of acting – but with an added realism of acknowledging the basic event going on.

It is this second style that I’m most interested in these days, though I am much less dismissive or judgemental of the first kind than I used to be.

The second kind of realism is NOT more authentic. The kind of the appearing-casual, appearing non-performing performance that I am often involved in shouldn’t make “authenticity” claims. I am not in the position to judge anyone elses authenticity, especially in trying to turn that judgement into a power play. I am, in being casual in front of a bunch of people, very much performing. If I were being authentic in that situation, I would run and hide. Or try desperately to tap dance in order to at least be doing something. This performing isn’t a bad thing. It’s what people might have come to see.

There is an honesty I appreciate in admitting we are in a room together, doing this funny thing called performing. I like that it doesn’t ignore or deny the audience performer relationship – but I don’t think this equals “authenticity.”

My understanding of this second realism is strongly related to the influences on me of Brecht, The Wooster Group, Jacob Wren, Nadia Ross, Darren O’Donnell, Forced Entertainment, relational art and “postdramatic theatre” . As well as the work I’ve done in collaboration with Dustin Harvey, Ame Henderson and Chad Dembski. All of us make different choices around these realisms but I feel like there are shared questions. Viewpoints and Clown-through-mask are also training strategies that have shaped the way I understand the doing of this – even though the work I do is distant from those practices.

The second realism, in my understanding, is also very present in more entertainment/commercial performing styles – vaudeville, stand up, sketch, musical. These are also clear and significant influences on my work and I am ever trying to run back and forth between these two paragraphs of influences.

I’m not sure what the question or even the polemic is here.
Maybe I am trying to clarify my thinking – move it along, past assumptions of what my position should be.

Not sure I’m there yet. Better questions – always looking for better questions.

Loose thoughts at the end.

Even the most spectical vocal-track pop superstar concert has a moment of turning out to say “thanks for coming out.” This acknowledgement is a form of realism.

It’s also part of what I like about readings. The realism of reading aloud and music stands is undeniable.

This realism is the realism of task-based performance.
Performing a “realistic portrayal” is also a task.

This realism has less to do with “naturalism” (a term that can only make me think of Brechts’ prologue to The Exception and the Rule:

We ask you expressly to discover
That what happens all the time is not natural.
For to say something is natural
In such times of bloody confusion
Of ordained disorder, of systematic arbitrariness
Of inhuman humanity is to
Regard it as unchangeable.

–

What other people have said

August 11th, 2011 § 4 comments § permalink

I already posted what people said

about Perhaps in a Hundred Years six years ago here and here

And thought I’d do the same for the SummerWorks run as we enter our last 4 shows. [details here]

Mooney on Theatre

Perhaps In A Hundred Years is not a conventional theatrical narrative. It is a wonderful insight into this group of artists’ struggle with the issues that concern us all: why we are here, where we are going, why we do what we do, how we relate to each other, and what the hell is wrong with the world? - Dorianne Emmerton

I like the openness and thoughtful nature of the writing in this. She is dealing with the show in the spirit it was created in and she’s ok with standing behind her experience and questions. The length is also great – it came out pretty quick, but doesn’t feel abrupt. Really living up to the potential of blog based criticism.

NOW

It’s a meditation on isolation (the three are ostensibly lost in space), friendship and ways of thinking about the future. The trio’s understated, ultra-casual style is still refreshing and thought-provoking - Jordan Bim

A good review up to the last sentence where some doubt seems to creep in. While it’s true that the show maintains a fairly consistent tempo and energy, that’s clearly a choice, and one that, my feeling reading was, he was ok with. He just worried that other people (that uber-fictional “average audience”) might not be.

It’s not uncommon that I get the impression that people like Small Wooden Shoe performances “in spite of themselves” and worry that other people (usually in the abstract) won’t, or that the reasons aren’t right. It’s a problem I wrestle with.

As is the degree of pre-knowledge required. All things take different amount of pre-knowledge, but in the theatre climate, there seems to be extra fear of not knowing how to approach “different” work. We work hard to ease the anxiety with a casual and welcoming preshow, humour, songs and a way of being with the audience so we can all relax. (Conversation starter #6: “When doing something strange, it’s best to be relaxed”)

But clearly something to keep working on.

Also, dear NOW – why the short online reviews? I doubt short summations of complex responses takes that much less time than adding a graph or two of reflections. I imagine way more people are reading online than in print, where I understand about space restrictions. It seems a real shame to cripple your writers that way.

Swimming Lessons for Shut-Ins

Endearingly simple and painstakingly casual, Small Wooden Shoe’s Perhaps In a Hundred Years is less a play than an experiment to recreate that unique feeling of being contently bored with people you like. - Robert LaRonde

Again, my feeling is that he had a good time, but is suspicious of it.

Also, the use of the word “hipster” causes a lot of furrowed brows around the Small Wooden Shoe campfire. It implies a lack of sincerity. While the definition of exactly what constitutes a hipster is fluid and subjective, it almost always, at least to me, contains an implication of ironic posturing. Which is not what we’re try to do.

For my second Carl Wilson link in as many days, his post, A Spectre is Haunting Culture -The Spectre of the Hipster, from 2009 holds up well as a thinking through of the term.

It may also be that we’re over-sensitive to the word and/or associate it with a specific Toronto scene (Queen West) that we’ve always been close to (at least geographically with Hub 14) but also very separate from.

Again the question of the pace of the show is paramount. Which is true, the show is differently paced than most shows, because it wants to propose/do something that is different from some other shows.

Maybe we go to far or not far enough, but we’re ok with the question.

@nestruck has said some nice things on twitter and Facebook, but hasn’t committed in print or more official interwebs.

Hope to see you soon – we’ve been full but not crazy full, so tickets are available if you stop by Hub 14 (14 Markham St) an hour before – then you can grab a drink in the neighbourhood.

Surprisingly timely

August 10th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

I wanted to take some time on our day off yesterday to write a little more about the show. The pressures and mode of presenting at a festival mean that I spend a lot time yelling “Come see us” and I end up feeling disconnected from any interesting conversation about what we’re doing. At least online. We’re having great conversations after the show.

When Chad, Ame, Kilby and I decided to return to Perhaps in a Hundred Years we didn’t know if the work itself would feel dated. It was one of the mysteries of doing a show from 6 years ago.

Now, a week into the run, the show feels absurdly of the moment. As if we might have been out-of-time the first time we did it. It’s a show about friendship and tender resistance in isolation. It’s about three people, stuck in a time and place trying to make it through together.

When we made the show, Torontopia was in full swing. We weren’t a part of it – or at least nobody knew we wanted to be – but the energy was in the air. We were poor, in various states of unemployment, but it seemed possible that performances in little rooms could be a part of a new city and part of a new life for us.

We haven’t changed the material in the show (though we’re better at performing it) but things have changed around us.

Harper and Ford and the threat of a three level love-in have brought the hard-right turn in Western politics to Canada and Toronto; the world economy is falling apart, there are riots in England – not to mention all the things we don’t hear about. And there we are. Holding out and holding on together with a small group of audience members in a small, sweaty room, finding a way to sing together, be vulnerable and keep moving..

Of course an intimate performance in a summer festival in Toronto isn’t going to change voting patterns or fix tax systems or massive class inequality – that’s a different, important kind of work.

But it might do something – to the people in the room at the time. A step enroute to action must be that we come together, and come together with openness, pleasure and silliness and other important shared values.

I’m looking for both a community theatre and a populism I can stand behind. It can be hard to reconcile this search with the “alternative” theatre scene. But it’s present or can be, if we want it. Carl Wilson wrote a great piece for the Toronto Standard on “Torontopia in the Age of Ford” that I keep returning to, including comments by Dave Meslin and Darren O’Donnell.

These responses offer possibility – a possibility I also feel at Hub 14, performing the show and talk with people after.

Writing this post in the middle of the festival feels as scary as doing the show does each night. I fear it’s too grand, to “serious” “sincere.” Oh well. If I don’t start here, there’s nowhere we can go.

3 other things that open tonight

August 4th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

SummerWorks opens tonight in Toronto
And instead of just trying to get you to see Perhaps in a Hundred Years -
I thought I’d tell you about three other shows I’m excited about that aren’t getting all the attention:
(though props to our friends at Praxis and everyone else for the attention.)

  1. Express Yourself. We’re sharing Hub 14 with this great show from Events in Real Time. Liz Peterson is a star (or should be if the world was a fair place) and with Sean O’Neill she’s made a wonderfully personal and over-the-top show. Like us, there’s limited seating, so you should come early in the run and buy tickets in advance to make sure you see it. If you liked big musicals as kid (as I did) there’s a special treat for you.
  2. The Physical Ramifications of Attempted Global Domination. I never miss a show by Birdtown and Swanville. Or at least I deeply regret not getting my ticket early enough when I miss a show by Birdtown and Swanville because they sold out and I was an idiot. Don’t be an idiot. Funny and theatrical and so smart. Just what a person wants.
  3. Kaspar and the Sea of Houses. In Summerworks 2009 I saw Birgit Schreyer Duartes’ translation and direction of The Piano Tuner with Miranda Calderon. It was an under-celebrated production in the festival that year – striking translation and a performance that drew me in. I asked Birgit to do the translation of Life of Galileo and Miranda to act in it. I have high hopes for their collaboration (also with other people I assume are talented) this year.
  4. Ok I said three, but this is a one night only thing (tonight in fact.) Nobu Adilman organizes a wonderful choir named Choir!Choir!Choir! – they sing tonight at the opening party (Facebook event) at MoCCA. Here’s a video:

See you around the festival.
Jacob

p.s. we really are looking forward to sharing Perhaps in a Hundred Years with you.

 

To start to talk about genres

August 1st, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Perhaps in a Hundred Years

Ame and Jacob singing "Space Boys." Jacob is "floating in space" There is reverb.

I like genre pieces. which shouldn’t be surprising.
I learned to read and imagine in the worlds of pulp fantasy and slightly better science fiction. Even now, when I read fiction, it is usually some clear genre – sci-fi and fantasy have been joined by mysteries (the harder boiled the better), spy novels and historical fiction.

I’m not an expert in any of these genres, which is maybe why I don’t identify them as influences as much as maybe I should. But writing about up-coming work recently, there were two science fiction projects (Upper Toronto and Perhaps in a Hundred Years [opening at Summerworks on Thursday]), one ghost story and I had just received an email about a hard-boiled radio show I had done 10 years ago. Dedicated to the Revolutions is a science vaudville – not a common genre, but I think still a genre.

Genre obviously gives a frame and some distance that allows for different stories to be told, for a different kind of thought experiment or “what-if.” This observation is nothing new, but in theatre it’s less talked about.

It’s certainly not part of the critical discourse or “legitimate art”* theatre.

Why is that?

*I’m not even show what I mean by that, but I still think it holds true.

More coming on this subject. I would love to hear thoughts or get links.

Voices from the past about the future

July 28th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

cross-posted with the Summerworks blog

I’m riding around the city listening to voices from six years ago. The voices of Chad, Ame and I performing Perhaps in a Hundred Years at Cafe Esperanza in Montreal at the end of our Eastern Canada mini-van tour in the winter of 2005.

Over the years since, we’ve talked about bringing the show back. About wanting to spend that time together again, wanting people to see this thing that meant so much to us. And now we are. Original venue, original cast.

Perhaps is so optimistic, so gentle and vulnerable. Three friends alone in a room together, stuck in a heat wave, making a play about three friends alone in a room together, stuck in outer space. There’s a lot of music. There are interviews, aliens, Linus Pauling and tricks involving fire and tea bags. There’s an earnestness that is nerve-wracking to return to. It’s a little bit Godot, a little bit Dedicated to the Revolutions, a little bit freezie induced sugar rush. It’s the beginning of something.

We’re going to play it as a period piece, where the period is 2005 and a science fiction show made by three people fighting isolation in Toronto. A time probably not so distant from now.

- Jacob Zimmer, Artistic Director of Small Wooden Shoe

@Hub 14 – 14 Markham St.

Thursday August 4 — 7pm
Friday August 5 – 9pm
Saturday August 6 — 5pm
Sunday August 7 — 5pm

Monday August 8 — 7pm
Tuesday August 9 — NO SHOW
Wednesday August 10 — 7pm
Thursday August 11 — 9pm
Friday August 12 — 7pm
Saturday August 13 — 7pm
Sunday August 14 — 3pm

I have some questions for you

July 8th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

As well as being the director of Small Wooden Shoe. I’m also the inaugural Toronto Fringe Festival Research Chair.

I’m very interested in the relationship between people who make performances and the people who go to see it. The motivations and perceptions that underlie what we like and what we go see aren’t often talked about and so there are unexamined assumptions and prejudices.

So, I’d like to ask you some questions.
With some humour and good will to this discussion – acknowledging that these kinds of surveys are more about find individual connections over scientific data.

 

Take the survey

 

The whole thing will take around 15 minutes.

Thanks so much for taking part.

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