The Wrecking Ball

Wrecking Ball 10: Directors and performers announced

Wrecking Ball 10:
Gee? 20!

Recovery and New Beginnings (and a Sense of Manufactured Wellbeing and Calm Based on the Desperate Hope that the Worst of the Economic Shitstorm that Nobody Saw Coming is Over Please Please)

Monday June 21, 2010
8pm @ The Theatre Centre, 1087 Queen St. W
Tickets PWYC @ door only. Box office opens at 7pm
All proceeds go to The Actors Fund of Canada.

The Plays:

Painting Face by Marjorie Chan
Directed by Lynda Hill

FUCK! by Sky Gilbert
Directed by Sky Gilbert

Experience Canada! by Melody Johnson
Directed by Rick Roberts

Bandeja Paisa by Beatriz Pizano
Directed by Anita La Selva

The Lion and the Lamb by Roland Schimmelpfennig
Directed by David Jansen
Translated by Jutta Brendemühl

The Performers:

Stewart Arnott, Marjorie Campbell, Dmitry Chepovestsky, Mark Crawford, Luis Delgado, Pippa Domville, Diana Donnelly, Colin Doyle, Susanna Fournier, David Fox, Carlos Gonzalez-Vio, Tyson James, Haley McGee, Brandon McGibbon, Araya Mengesha, Beatriz Pizano, Gord Rand, Jonathan Sousa

The Wrecking Ball is brought to you by:

Alan Dilworth, Nina Lee Aquino, Michael Healey, Ravi Jain, David Jansen, Ruth Madoc-Jones, Ross Manson, Weyni Mengesha, Julie Tepperman, Michael Wheeler, Aaron Willis

thewreckingball.ca

Wrecking Ball #10: Gee! 20?

Recovery and New Beginnings (and a Sense of Manufactured Wellbeing and Calm Based on the Desperate Hope that the Worst of the Economic Shitstorm that Nobody Saw Coming is Over Please Please).

From the closing communiqué, 1995 G7 summit, Halifax:

“… international financial institutions have shown flexibility in responding to the changing needs of the world economy; there nevertheless remain a number of areas where improvements are desirable to better prepare the institutions for the challenges ahead.”

As the globe’s politicians gather to congratulate themselves on heading off what could have been a rather tricky financial crisis, the Wrecking Ball asks: sure, things went great, but is there anything we could have done better? Okay, they saw it coming, our leaders, and they took steps years ago to mitigate a potentially difficult time, and, like, kudos, but was it enough? Is there anything they failed to do? Anything at all? It may seem niggling, but it’s the artist’s job to niggle. Let’s face it: with the world’s economy, environment, and various ideologies all being managed so effectively, niggling’s all we have left.

Join us at the Wrecking Ball, to see if there’s anything left to worry about.

Writers engaged to examine the current political scene in all its glory include:

Marjorie Chan, internationally produced author of China Doll, a nanking winter, and The Madness of the Square

Melody Johnson, co-creator of Mimi, or A Poisoner’s Comedy, An Awkward Evening with Martin & Johnson, and creator of the upcoming Miss Caledonia

Bea Pizano, founder of Aluna Theatre, creator of the Dora-winning trilogy La Comunión, For Sale and Madre

Schuyler (Sky) Gilbert, founder of Buddies in Bad Times, actor, playwright, author and disturber of enormous amounts of kaa since the 70’s

Roland Schimmelpfennig, one of the most prolific and heralded dramatists in Europe. His plays, translated into 20 languages, have been performed across Europe and around the world to great acclaim. Currently the most produced living playwright in the German language

Your Wrecking Ball crew, now with added youngness:

Ross Manson, Ruth Madoc-Jones, Michael Wheeler, Julie Tepperman, Nina Lee Aquino, Michael Healey, Aaron Willis, Ravi Jain, Alan Dilworth, Weyni Mengesha, David Jansen

The Wrecking Ball Ten: Gee! 20? is ONE PERFORMANCE ONLY

Monday, June 21, 2010
The Theatre Centre
1087 Queen St West
Toronto
Box Office opens at 7:00pm
Show starts at 8:00pm

Pay what you can. No advanced sales. Proceeds will go to the Actors’ Fund of Canada

Fugard Writes America

For the first time in his long and tremendous career, South African Athol Fugard has written a play that is NOT set in his homeland. Have You Seen Us? looks at racism and the lives of four immigrants in the USA. It runs at Yale Rep through to December 20, 2009.

An amazing departure for one of the world’s finest playwrights…

Articles here:

New Haven Register
New Haven Advocate
Hartford Courant

A November of Wrecking Balls!

Two down, two to go…

This November, we’ve already seen Wrecking Balls in Toronto and Montreal.

Still to come..

OTTAWA

Monday, November 16, 2009 / Lundi 16 novembre 2009
Saint Brigid’s Centre, 7:30pm / 19h30
more… / plus…

VANCOUVER

Monday, November 23, 2009
Vogue Theatre, 8pm
more…

Check this space for details. We’ll post them as they come.

10 points to address common misconceptions about the cultural industries

by Kate Armstrong

1. Artists are not spending their time at champagne soirées at the taxpayer’s expense. Artists are among the most underpaid professions in our society.

2. Culture is an industry, not something that just “happens.” You’re thinking of people who make pictures of owls using bottle caps.

3. Art is not about artists-it is about communities and culture. This discussion is not only art, it is music, dance, film, heritage, publishing, video, media, sound, design, theatre, creative youth programs, social outreach, community festivals, animation, fashion.

4. Culture is not a hobby. Running the Children’s Festival or arranging an international visual art exhibition is not something we can do in our spare time.

5. Just because you usually experience the effects of our work in your spare time doesn’t mean we produce it in our spare time.

6. Artists are not “fancy.” Art is a hugely important part of our shared culture. Were the cave paintings fancy? Do you like written language? Have you ever seen a movie or worn a nice shirt or walked through a public space?

7. Even if you don’t like the art, understand what the art is, or know what is involved in making it, that doesn’t mean it has no value, or that it isn’t part of an economy, or that the person who produces the art should do it for free. Most people’s jobs are a mystery to people outside their industry, and no one questions the validity of those jobs or suggests that their children could do them better. Do we raise those questions about people who work in helium detection, vine training, or indoor advertising management?

8. The provincial grants we’re discussing do not entirely pay for the operations of these cultural associations, so extract the word “parasite” from your economic counter-argument. These grants represent a small but crucially important portion of total support and income for a range of organizations. The amount of money being cut from the provincial budget that will be so crippling to the arts community represents only 1/20th of 1 percent of the total provincial budget. To put it in perspective, the contingency fund for the 2010 Olympics is more than twice this amount.

9. People in these industries work hard, hold jobs and have families. Artists support themselves through their art and their work.

10. Was there a reason you chose to live in a city and not in a closet? Do you want to be from somewhere?

Write a letter. Send a fax. Email.

Premier Gordon Campbell
Fax: 250 387-0087

MLA: Hon. Kevin Krueger
Fax: 250 953-4250

MLA: Hon. Rich Coleman
Fax: 250 356-7292

Links to further information: www.stopbcartscuts.ca