Category: Your process is showing
Click to enlarge
[Co-Ed. Note: This piece was created in May while IXOK’ was part of Aluna Theatre’s Panamerican Routes Festival: performed by Mayahuel Tecozautla and directed by Beatriz Pizano. Please consider joining Aluna this Friday evening for the next installment of their very popular Aluna Cafe series in their gorgeous new studio. ~ Aislinn]
by Shira Leuchter
Last week I had the opportunity to sit in on a rehearsal of IXOK’. It was refreshing to witness a rehearsal that was happening in a language I can’t really understand; I was able to simply watch how the people in the room worked together and watched each other.
Materials: Copper etching, watercolour
Performed by: Mayahuel Tecozautla; Created by: Carmen Samayoa and Edgar Flores; Directed by: Beatriz Pizano
Shira Leuchter is an actor who also makes performance stuff and other art stuff. Earlier this month she performed in Cahoots Theatre’s production of Paper Series at Magnetic North in Calgary. She is an Associate Artist with UnSpun Theatre.
Mortified – click to enlarge
by Shira Leuchter
I’m a big fan of Harbourfront’s HATCH program, and the 2012 season begins this week with Mortified, a performance that “creates a sonic experience through movement and mayhem.”
Jenn Goodwin and Camilla Singh invited me into their jam session one morning late last month, and I was able to get a glimpse of their process as they rocked their drums for hours. Here’s a piece that reflects the work that I saw.
Check out the sole performance of Mortified:
Saturday April 14th
8pm
Studio Theatre
York Quay Centre
Materials: Wood Board, encaustic, oil
Shira Leuchter is an actor who also makes performance stuff and other art stuff. She co-stars in the short RUNG, which will be having its International Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival later this month. She is an Associate Artist with UnSpun Theatre.
The Debacle – Click to enlarge
The Aftermath - click to enlarge
by Shira Leuchter
As a follow-up to last week’s post, here are the two pieces that I created as a response to The Aftermath and The Debacle. The three workshop productions that are featured at the New Groundswell Festival this year are so incredibly different from one another – in content, style and approach. Nightwood Theatre’s New Groundswell Festival runs until Saturday December 10th. So you’ve still got time to get there!
The Aftermath Materials: Toy Bird’s Nest, Paint, Newspaper Text
The Debacle Materials: Mason Jar, Found Images, Tape, Music Box Blueprint
The Aftermath, by Lisa Codrington, is directed by Audrey Dwyer and features Lisa Codrington and Ijeoma Emesowum.
The Debacle is by Ann-Marie Kerr and Susan Leblanc-Crawford (Zuppa Theatre, Halifax)
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Shira Leuchter makes performance stuff and other art stuff. She recently worked with UnSpun Theatre on a new piece that was performed as part of Harbourfront’s HATCH program.
Her website is here and she collects all of her shallowest thoughts here.
Click to enlarge
by Shira Leuchter
Guess what? Nightwood Theatre’s Groundswell Festival opens today! This year, Nightwood has re-envisioned the festival as a national festival of contemporary women’s theatre. The festival offers masterclasses, workshops, readings and more, and it’s all about process, so it’s really fitting that I’ve been invited to sit in on rehearsals for all three workshop productions for this series.
To start, I sat in on a rehearsal for Jordi Mand’s Between the Sheets. It’s directed by Kelly Thornton and features Susan Coyne and Christine Horne. There’s some really lovely work being done here, and I’m not just saying that because Jordi is my cousin. This is the piece that I created as a response to their process. I’ll share the pieces I make based on both The Aftermath and The Debacle very soon.
Materials: Ink, Watercolour, Photographic Images
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Shira Leuchter makes performance stuff and other art stuff. She recently worked with UnSpun Theatre on a new piece that was performed as part of Harbourfront’s HATCH program.
Her website is here and she collects all of her shallowest thoughts here.
Click to enlarge
by Shira Leuchter
Last month I was able to spend an afternoon with Frank Cox-O’Connell and Evan Webber (and Christopher Stanton on the sound board) as they worked on their piece Ajax.
This intimate piece will be staged alongside Little Iliad this spring. I was able to watch them work through two sequences – the beginning and the end – of the piece. The show will only accommodate a very small audience so I’d urge you to book tickets really early – all of the tickets for this year’s World Stage season have just gone on sale on November 1st.
Materials: Vellum, Tape
About the show: Ajax & Little Iliad will play from April 4-8, 2012 as part of this year’s World Stage season at Harbourfront Centre.
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Shira Leuchter makes performance stuff and other art stuff. She recently worked with UnSpun Theatre on a new piece that was performed as part of Harbourfront’s HATCH program.
Her website is here and she collects all of her shallowest thoughts here.
Brothers – Click to enlarge
by Shira Leuchter
It’s SummerWorks! I can’t think of a better time to see some of the most innovative performance work around. And I’m so thankful that Philip McKee, Jeremy James and Rose Plotek invited me into their rehearsal room to watch them create a sequence of their show, Brothers.
If you’ve seen the show, feel free to let me know in the comments section if this image resonates with you in any way.
Materials: Paper, Plant Material, Wooden Dowels, Twine, Matches
About the show: Brothers plays at the Factory Theatre Mainspace as part of the 2011 SummerWorks Festival until Sunday, August 14th. You can get tickets here.
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Shira Leuchter makes performance stuff and other art stuff. She recently worked with UnSpun Theatre on a new piece that was performed as part of Harbourfront’s HATCH program this April. She collects all of her shallowest thoughts here.
The Proust Project – Click to Enlarge
by Shira Leuchter
Canadian Stage’s Festival of Ideas and Creation began on Monday, and I’ve been able to observe two very different processes that are part of the New Creations section of the Festival.
Peter Fechter - Click to enlarge
There are free events almost every day until May 21st, and it’s a great way to see some really innovative work-in-progress.
As a response to the processes that I observed, I made pieces that reflect what I saw, but that share many common materials.
The Proust Project: modelling clay, acrylic paint, twine.
Peter Fechter: modelling clay, acrylic paint, wood dowel.
You can check out the entire schedule for the Festival by clicking here.
Both of these pieces – and others – will be exhibited in the lobby of the Berkeley Street Theatre as of Sunday if you would like to see them in person.
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Shira Leuchter makes performance stuff and other art stuff. She recently worked with UnSpun Theatre on a new piece that was performed as part of Harbourfront’s HATCH program this April. She collects all of her shallowest thoughts here.
by Shira Leuchter
Project 3/2/1 is an evening of dance that features three choreographies and a cast of six dancers, who perform all six roles on an alternating basis throughout the run of the show. I was very fortunate to have been able to sit in on a rehearsal of Ame Henderson’s piece, this body is another body, late in its rehearsal process.
As a response to the process that I observed, I made this piece using watercolour, ink, found text, a photograph of Philip Johnson’s Glass House, and an image of the night sky.
Project 3/2/1 runs from April 6 – 17, 2011 at Dancemakers Centre for Creation. You should probably go twice.
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Shira Leuchter makes performance stuff and other art stuff. She is currently working with UnSpun Theatre on a new piece that will be performed as part of Harbourfront’s HATCH program this April. She collects all of her shallowest thoughts here.
Click here to see “Your process is showing: an introduction”.
by Shira Leuchter
Click to enlarge
Earlier this month, the amazing women who created Montparnasse invited me in to one of their rehearsals to observe their process for this series. Just in time for their preview performances starting tonight, I’ve finished a piece that responds to what I observed that day.
I created this piece using transparent layers of vintage sewing patterns, paper ruffles hand-sewn with embroidery thread, wood veneer and ink tracings of an etching of St. Basil monastery c.1757.
It was a joy to be in the room with Andrea Donaldson, Maev Beaty, Erin Shields, Kristy Kennedy and the other folks who are bringing this piece together. I heartily encourage you to make time to see Montparnasse during its run at Theatre Passe Muraille.
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Shira Leuchter makes performance stuff and other art stuff. She is currently working with UnSpun Theatre on a new piece that will be performed as part of Harbourfront’s HATCH program this April. She collects all of her shallowest thoughts here.
Click here to see “Your process is showing: an introduction”.
(l-r) Mass [Cross-Section], Holy Vedas [Brain Scan], Savannah [Cellular Scan]. Click to enlarge
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by Shira Leuchter
I am going to try a little something here. It’s not often that I have the opportunity to unite my practices of performance-making and fine-art-making, but the Praxis blog seems like the perfect place to give it a go on a regular basis.
So, how am I going to do this? Well, the questions I’ve chosen to explore are: what does process look like? What kind of image would I make or select if I had to find a way to visually represent a process of creating performance?
Here’s what I’m going to do. It’ll be en experiment that I’ll share with you every month, right here. It’ll be a personal exploration that I’d love you to witness, respond to and try to figure out alongside me.
I’m going to sit in on some rehearsals. I’m going to watch all sorts of processes. I’m going to profusely thank those who let me in to their rehearsal rooms to observe what they do and how they make their work. Then I’m going to make something as a response to that particular act of creation. It could be any form of visual representation – a painting, a collage, a dress, a meal – I’ll let what I see determine what I make.
One Block - Click to enlarge
I’ll try my best to choose work that will be in performance close to the posting dates, so that you’ll have the opportunity to actually see the piece.
I know that this work will be personal to me, that you’ll have to see these processes through my eyes. My big hope is that, by taking a close look at How We Make Things, we can start a conversation about how different ways of art-making converge and deviate.
One last thing: I’m not going to write much about what I saw and how I came to make what I’ve made. Sometimes I may not write anything at all. But I will always tell you what materials I’ve used and what piece I’m responding to.
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Images:
- The Room asked me to make pieces for The Red Machine as a response to the brain’s temporal lobes, commonly thought of as the religious centre of the brain. The top images are personal photographs with found images (2009).
- A work-in-progress piece responding to One Block. I’ll probably keep adding to this as the process continues. Encaustic and oil with found archival photographs and images donated by anonymous Toronto residents.
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Shira Leuchter makes performance stuff and other art stuff. She is currently working with UnSpun Theatre on a new piece that will be performed as part of Harbourfront’s HATCH program this April. She collects all of her shallowest thoughts here.
Shira Leuchter is an actor who also makes performance stuff and other art stuff. Earlier this month she performed in Cahoots Theatre’s production of Paper Series at Magnetic North in Calgary. She is an Associate Artist with UnSpun Theatre.
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