December 21, 2009 – 4:55 pm
Image by Paul Ingles licensed under Creative Commons 2.0
This week praxistheatre.com was voted the #1 Culture and Literature Blog in Canada in the 2009 Canadian Blog Awards.
We are super-happy about this and really appreciate everyone who participates with the company digitally and in reality.
Thank you in particular to these people:
- Graham F. Scott, for coordinating and designing the great integration, when our website and blog were integrated into a single place on the interweb at praxistheatre.com.
- All of the contributors to praxistheatre.com in 2009:
Gideon Arthurs, Tara Beagan, Maev Beatty, Augusto Boal, Mark Brownell, Deanna Downes, Emily Farrell, David Ferry, Brendan Gall, Joel Grinke, Chris Hanratty, Christine Horne, Daniel Karasik, Ravi Jain, Richard Lee, Hayley Lewis, Bridget MacIntosh, Ian Mackenzie, Ross Manson, James Murray, Leora Morris, Tony Nappo, Simon Ogden, Simon Rice, Aislinn Rose, Michael Rubenfeld, Sarah Sanford, Adam Seelig, Samantha Serles, Rupal Shah, Caroline Sniatynski, Vinetta Strombergs, David Tompa and Aaron Willis.
- Celebrity Theatre creator Greta Papageorgiu and features writer Lindsay Schwietz, for producing regular engaging content in addition to their demanding schedules as arts professionals.
- Ian Mackenzie, for having the idea that we should use our website to engage with our community, and for creating an online culture around the company that put us in a position to succeed in the blogosphere in 2009.
- Everyone who took the time to vote for praxistheatre.com
- Praxis Theatre Board of Directors and Donors. Resources can make art, and arts-based websites, better.
- People and organizations that are kicking our ass in terms of achieving praxis through the confluence of ideas and internet. These inspirations include Mike Daisey, Naomi Klein, The Yes Men, Beautiful City, Avaaz, and Vote for Environment. There are a lot of folks setting the bar high out there by achieving concrete results though their internet-ing.
Happy Holidays to all!
Michael Wheeler
Editor
praxistheatre.com
November 23, 2009 – 11:01 am
Photo by coldpants licensed under Creative Commons.
It’s been almost a 1/2 year since we made big changes at praxistheatre.com with a new format that blended some of our best content from our blogspot blog with our company website. Inspired by a new commitment to integrate our creative process with our web presence, our goal has been to continue to be hub for discussion and analysis of independent theatre while increasing awareness of Praxis Theatre and the original theatrical works we are creating.
There has been mostly positive feedback about this switch, especially in terms of the high functionality of the new website and the potential inherent in an “open source” creative model. This tune-up addresses some consistent critiques from a number of readers regarding readability and organization and is reflected in three changes:
- A single sidebar column that runs down the right margin of the site amalgamates the two smaller columns that preceded it. The text size of these links have been increased.
- Hyperlinks are now underlined in red. If you pass the cursor over a hyperlink, the text will also change to be underlined in red.
- The Upcoming Shows page will contain the “open source” elements of our Section 98 creative process. This page will contain the “source code” of our production: information, discussions, examples, scripts and research we are engaged in. This page will be maintained by Aislinn Rose, Section 98 Open Source Project Leader.
Thanks for participating. We hope you continue to use this is site as a resource and a place for dialogue about indie theatre in Toronto and around the world.
Michael Wheeler
Editor
praxistheatre.com
November 5, 2009 – 4:50 pm
Praxis Theatre presents Section 98: an open-source, interactive, original theatrical creation.
Section 98 dramatizes historical and current events while incorporating modern technology to explore individual and civil rights in Canada. This stage of the creation process will be developed in the context of The Progressive Arts Club, The FLQ, and the present day. The production invites the audience to participate in this experiment through their cellphone, PDA, on their computer before and after the performance, in person, or to simply observe and not interact at all!
The suspension of rights has been a contentious issue throughout Canadian history. Section 98 uses theatre and technology to enable everyone to debate and discuss these issues in 2010. A single presentation of this work-in-progress presentation of this work will occur on will take place at Harbourfront’s Studio Theatre on March 13th 2010 at 8pm.
As an “open source” theatrical project we aim to keep our artistic process open, available and interesting through the use of this website. This production is a collective collaborative creation with all members of the creative team contributing to the process. That being said, we all have specific roles:
Director: Michael Wheeler
Assistant Director: Laura Nordin
Online/Script Coordinator: Aislinn Rose
Dramaturg: Alex Fallis
Sound and Lighting Design: Verne Good
Stage Management: Brittney Filek-Gibson
Performers: Margaret Evans, Jody Hewston, Melissa Hood, Greta Papageorgiu and Ben Sanders.
Click the image below to learn more about Section 98 and Open Source Theatre.
*Photography by Meredith Hanafi
Hello Gentle Reader,
Welcome to the new and improved Praxis Theatre Blog and Website.
As you can see we’ve integrated the whole thingamabob into one site here at praxistheatre.com. If you haven’t (re)bookmarked us yet, please take the time to do so.
What can you expect on this newfangled webpage?
- A brand new series that will focus on interviewing Artistic Directors from Canada and around the world by Praxis Theatre Co-Artistic Director Simon Rice. The first of this series will be launched Wednesday June 17th.
- Praxis Theatre Co-Artistic Director Michael Wheeler will continue his dialogue with artists involved in the creative process behind The Africa Trilogy, currently being created by Volcano Theatre, premiering at Luminato in June 2010.
- More artists participating in Praxis Theatre’s Variations on Theatre.
- Even more Celebrity Theatre posts by OCTP* Greta Papageorgiu.
- Increased long-form content by arts journalists like the piece Lindsay Schwietz just wrote on Eat The Street.
- Lots of other stuff we haven’t even thought of or can’t tell you about yet.
Please enjoy and give us your feedback. Special thanks to the many-talented Graham F Scott for his patience and skill bringing about this exciting new stage of online Praxisness.
* Original Canadian Theatre Paparazzi
The new address of the Praxis Theatre Blog is:
praxistheatre.com
Our integrated website with a much more functional blog on the homepage will be up and running June 16th.
Please take the time to update your blog rolls and bookmarks.
See you on the flipside!
Praxis Theatre will present two new original works in the summer of 2009!
1) Tim Buck 2 @ The Toronto Fringe Festival
Playwright and international security adviser
Andrew Zadel, author of the award-winning
Steel, returns to Praxis Theatre with his tale of UN forensic pathologists struggling to arrive at definitive answers in Kosovo.
We had to do a little bit of maintenance on this blog over the weekend. So if you noticed anything wonky in this space during the past 24 hours, that’s why.
Should be back to normal now. Thanks!
September 9, 2007 – 1:13 pm
A quick housekeeping note: Over the course of this past weekend, Praxis Theatre made a transition to a more robust email server. As a result of this process, any email sent to our praxistheatre.com email addresses during that time (approximately 5pm EST on Friday, September 7 until 5pm EST on Sunday, September 9) would have been lost to the ether.
In other words, if you sent us any email this weekend . . . we didn’t receive it. Sorry for any inconvenience. Please resend if applicable.
Thanks!
