Image by Wellington Grey - Click to enlarge

by Michael Wheeler

Here are 3 internet/performance-related things I am up to. They’re all completely different and have me thinking about how different people – playwrights, young artists and audiences – can interact with the the internet and performance.

Also, I still like to direct plays and will talk about that from time-to-time too.

1

Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC) has asked me to give a seminar on – wait for it – Social Media in the Arts.

Today, as part of ‘PLAYWRIGHTS: Getting Down to Business’, a day of professional development workshops for playwrights organized by PGC, we will discuss social media as it relates to the Canadian playwright. What advice would you give playwrights about how to use social media these days? Leave your advice in the comments before 3pm and maybe we will end up discussing it.

2

This summer I am leading a FREE program for youth at The Theatre Centre on – you guessed it – online tools and performance.Dates: Monday July 25 – Friday July 29 Time: 10pm -2pm Age: 15-19

This FREE program includes free LUNCHES and a TRANSIT subsidy in an exploration of what tools are available on online, what stories the participants are interested in telling, and how to tell them on the stage in new and exciting ways. Throughout the week, resident companies at The Theatre Centre will join the workshop giving participants a rare window into how cutting-edge artists are working with the newest technologies to create their work. Click here to sign up or learn more.

3

Work is ongoing with Theatre Smith Gilmour as they move ever closer to their North American premiere of the first ever Sino-Canadian co-production Lu Xun Blossoms at Luminato.

The latest post explores who Lu Xun was (Western audiences can understand him as having many parallels to Chekhov). Luminato has also launched their own Smartphone Ap to keep track of everything that is going on when the mega-festival hits town, which means you can now also buy tickets instantly via the small computer many of us keep in our pockets.

4 (the outlier)

This weekend I will be participating in Directors Lab North, which fosters a national and international exchange between a community of emerging, mid level and established career directors created by alumni of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab in New York City.

My involvement is contributing to a panel that also includes Obsidian Theatre Artistic Director Philip Akin and Modern Times Artistic Director Soheil Parsa. We will NOT be discussing the internet. Mostly we will be talking about theatre, aesthetics and identity. Although Philip has been an early adopter of the The Blog, so you never know. Also I guess my aesthetic in some way involves the internet. Never mind.

Theatre Smith-Gilmour Online is live at theatresmithgilmour.com

by Michael Wheeler

A number of new blog-based websites have hit the Canadian theatrosphere recently:

1 Theatre Smith-Gilmour Online

Over the past few months I have worked with Theatre Smith-Gilmour  to create a new portal that much like our site here at Praxis, runs a blog and social media tools off the home page, while also acting as the main website for the company. This project will be generating a lot of content leading up to Theatre Smith-Gilmour’s presentation of the first ever sino-Canadian co-production LU XUN blossoms at Luminato in June 2010.

2 Art Threat

If I imagine this site as more journalism, with less of a focus on theatre, I guess it would look something like this.  With a staff of writers and editors from across Canada, it looks alike a national online conversation on the confluence of culture and politics is in he mix. From a design standpoint it is impressive how clean and simple it is too.

3 Chesterfield Productions

Andrew Zadel has written three and performed in two Praxis Theatre productions over the years. Recently he returned to Canada after working with Solidarites International abroad and re-established his Montreal-based company Chesterfield Productions, which he runs with this sister actress Lydia Zadel. With a new production planned for fall/winter 2011, this is the company’s new site.

4 {The} Original mb

This is a personal blogspot blog run by Marie Beath (pronounced Mary Beth),  a theatre artist living in Toronto who uses her site to communicate, “a collection of lovely, quirky, spicy intersections”. She was likely unaware of our unofficial policy that anyone who posts grade five diary entries about the Toronto Blue Jays is welcome to free promotion on this site. (P.S. Mary Beath – Brett is his last name: You were most likely writing about George Brett.)

*Interesting sidenote: In his final at bat, George Brett hit a single of long-time Blue Jay closer Tom Henke. (What? Sue me. I have like 4 boxes of this stuff from back then.)

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnaMyqyGTls