Performing | Shearwater Productions

Arts in Community: creating a smoother process flow

June 29, 2012

Whether you are directing a show or putting together a community pageant, you need a smooth process flow. Without one you’re likely to encounter major stress and early onset balding (or maniacal laughter…), not to mention a less positive outcome for all involved. Here’s a few tips to help it go well! Schedule Number one arch nemesis. Everyone has other things to do, there are different skill sets represented (and so, of course, different members of each subgroup have different needs), people forget, and things come up at the last minute. What are some steps you can take so as

Performance as Protest

June 22, 2012

As I consider a recent production “The Pirates of Penzance” and the commedia masks I’ve made, I am reminded that the Performing Arts have been a form of protest since people gathered around a campfire and a storyteller wove critique into his or her tale, since the first time homo erectus cracked a joke at the expense of someone with more social power. Although the Performing Arts certainly include music (and I would count the haunting soundscape of the Casserole Protests, with their conscious ‘symphonizing’ of rhythm, volume, and melody, in this category), my emphasis here will be on protest

Holly Adams in her studio recording an audiobook

Pirates! In praise of swordplay

June 3, 2012

I love pirates. Not, of course, modern real-life pirates, but the pirates of history and fiction with whom I fell in love as a girl. I still remember the thrill I felt when I met my first wild and adventurous pirate, Sinbad the Sailor from 1001 Arabian Nights. I was a shy, bookish, wandering girl of 8 who spent long afternoons alone in the woods to recover from school where having both too much energy and an agile, hungry mind made me ….. well, let’s call it “less than popular”. My discovery of the swashbuckling, adventurous narrative saved me. To

Three clowns in a hospital in Tuscany, Italy

A Mime is a Terrible Thing to Waste

May 25, 2012

(Sigh.) Let’s face it. I’m gonna let the truth be known. YES, I studied as a mime. I loved Shields and Yarnell (start with “The Breakfast Show”), Marcel Marceau, and the Mummenshanz, so it seemed natural to have intensive mime training as a part of my career development. I took workshops and courses, and enrolled in the renamed Dell ‘Arte School of Physical Theatre. As the official website beautifully frames it, “Originally called the Dell’Arte School of Mime and Comedy, the School’s name was changed to The International School of Physical Theatre in the late 1980s as a result of

A boy puts makeup on a girl getting ready for her clown therapy session

Clown Therapy Projects: love at first nose

May 20, 2012

Many projects in the expressive arts have a built-in lifetime, and a part of the pleasure arises out of the pre-knowledge of the project’s life expectancy. Clown Therapy, projects, however, are not wrought, like a performance, but rather exist as a process, like the water cycle, where beings are drawn together, change, affect and are affected by their environment, are lifted up, then are quite literally expressed. Like water, the process itself does not need to have the same exact people in it all the time to feel continuous, although like water, repeated action in the same place and close

A group of kids paints on the floor of a hallway

Theatre for Discovery & Transformation: Prince Ahmed and Peribanou

May 4, 2012

For many years, the Canada Centre for Faith and Social Justice held monthly open meetings, and at each meeting, they would go through four phases in order to bring the social forces and ‘pre-scribed’ relationships into greater transparency. The four phases are: Identifying Ourselves and Our Interests Naming Issues Assessing Forces Planning For Action Why is that important? Many of us in Arts and Arts-in-Ed do work based in an idea of social awareness and justice, of remembering that ART is the great equalizer and singular opportunity to newly understand and re-imagine what is and what could be. Below is

All of us in a fourth grade figuring out the gestures together!

April is Autism Awareness Month

April 9, 2012

This is a call to parents, caregivers, and educators with children on the Autism spectrum to encourage and embrace performance practices, and to Teaching Artists to tweak their practice to maximize the success of these students. Theatre is a terrific way for children with Autism to have a structured environment in which to learn and practice interactive social behaviors. Moreover, the process of learning basic performance concepts revolves around unpacking and identifying gestures, body language, and subtext. The ideal environment for any kids working to memorize social cues (‘cues’ is a theatre word) in a safe, scaffolded context where they

Fun and Dreams: the creation of “Last Stand at Sunset Pass”

April 4, 2012

This week I have decided to sing the praises of doing something crazy and seemingly beyond reach for the love of doing it. And somehow making it work out. A couple years ago was a particularly stressful time in my life, and I wanted more than anything to be in an action-adventure film, to play a part in a movie where, after the going got tough, my character found a way to save her damn self instead of being rescued. Preferably after an awesome fight sequence. Yeah, and I’d also like a pony and world peace, right? My awesome husband,

Performance for Discovery & Transformation: Bali Intro

March 29, 2012

As you probably know, I believe profoundly in the ability of performance to spark and facilitate discovery and transformation. As artist and teachers, sometimes our own arts practices need a boost of Discovery & Transformation as well! I recently came across a Bali module I had created for schools, and looked at the introductory concepts with my “right now” eyes. Although I continue to use large paper and topical imagery in my regular practice, I had forgotten the importance of ‘the swirling river of spirit’ and the idea of everyone as participant, even those we do not see, even those beings

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