CALL FOR PERFORMERS!

Project! FOR SUMMER 2012 PHASE OF “ADISI WORKS / OLD STORIES IN NEW WAYS” PROJECT

• Nature of project: theatrical work on three old stories adapted for the stage.
• First Week of July – July 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th: Workshopping of scripts for the stories, for part of three of those four days
• August 20 to dates of performances on August 29, 30 and 31: Rehearsals
• July 9 to August 20: Rehearsals on individual stories and with individual or select performers as needed and depending on availability of performers.

Seeking a team of flexible, versatile and energetic performers from diverse cultural backgrounds for a first phase of a project named “Adisi Works / Old Stories in New Ways”. This first phase of the project consists of theatrical work on three old stories that have been adapted: a story from East Africa, one from Haiti, and another from Japan. The work culminates in performances at Second Playing Space at Timm’s Centre for the Arts (http://timmscentre.ca/timms967/ ) for StageLAB, a maiden festival of new experimental theatrical work in progress.

Dates of performances are August 29, 30 and 31. The venue is Timm’s Centre for the Arts located on the main University of Alberta campus.

While details are worked out, this is the general timeline for the work prior to the festival:

• First Week of July- 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th: Workshopping scripts of the three stories, part time, in three of the four days.
• August 20 to opening performance: Rehearsals.
• Between First week of July and August 20: Preparatory work continues here and there over the summer, with individuals stories and select performers, as needed and in a schedule to be determined, depending on necessity and availability of all involved.

If you’re available and interested, please contact one of the following:
John Battye – battye@ualberta.ca
Jan Selman — jselman@ualberta.ca
Tololwa Mollel — tololwamollel@ymail.com

MORE ON “ADISI WORKS / OLD STORIES IN NEW WAYS” PROJECT
“Adisi Works / Old Stories in New Ways” is a Story Performance project which will evolve over the next 3 – 5 years. It starts with story teller, writer and performer Tololwa Mollel who is creating and recreating a suite of stories, originating in various traditions of story telling (e.g Tanzania, where he grew up, Haiti, Japan and others). He is moving his work from story through story telling, to what he calls Story Performance. Stories are transformed into ‘scripts’, then workshopped, rehearsed and tested with audiences as performances. Jan Selman – long time theatre director, University of Alberta professor and former of chair of the University’s drama department and who is conducting long term research and creative work on ‘Old Stories in New Ways’ – joins Mollel to bring these stories into various forms of performance through Music and Physical expression along with a blend of Story telling and Theatre. ‘Adisi’ is a hybrid word for ‘story’ from the Kiswahili language spoken mainly in the East African countries of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, and somewhat in a few other areas adjacent to East Africa, such as Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern Congo.

APPROACH
Selman and Mollel hope to include music and song at the heart of story performances. They also hope that whatever styles they develop for presentation, derive and stay rooted in story telling, yet stretches out to other dramatic/theatrical forms as needed, within an understanding of the company as storytellers/performers driving the stories and their performance. This calls for a team of flexible, energetic performers, who can reach out to the audience, inviting them in imagining and inhabiting the world of the stories….. Mollel and Selman envision performers, and performance technicians when available and necessary, presenting the stories in narration, enactment, sounds, images, masks perhaps, music certainly, poetry, and multimedia, in a manner that propels the stories forward; with the performers in turn or simultaneously as storytellers, performers, actors, or characters.

Performed stories then would be like some kind of fabric, the team of performers, multimedia imaging – music above all, acting as threads that can assume different colors, hues, and texture as needed, in the service of weaving nuanced, rich, and rainbow-coloured story performances.

Intercultural/Diversity
Selman and Mollel, for the long term beginning as soon as possible and whenever possible, also aim to use a culturally diverse company of performers in each of the phases. This would reflect their desire for a body of stories developed out of intercultural sources, backgrounds, inspiration and outlook, and within an interdisciplinary framework.

TIMELINE FOR THE SUMMER 2012 PHASE OF “ADISI WORKS / OLD STORIES IN NEW WAYS” PROJECT

• First Week of July- 3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th: Workshopping scripts of the three stories, part time, in three of the four days.
• August 20 to opening performance: Rehearsals.
• Between First week of July and August 20: Preparatory work continues here and there over the summer, with individuals stories and select performers, as needed and in a schedule to be determined, depending on necessity and availability of all involved.

If you’re available and interested, please contact one of the following:
John Battye – battye@ualberta.ca
Jan Selman — jselman@ualberta.ca
Tololwa Mollel — tololwamollel@ymail.com

For more information, contact
Tololwa Mollel — tololwamollel@ymail.com
John Battye — battye@ualberta.ca
Jan Selman — jselman@ualberta.ca