Hello everyone!
How are you all doing today? I have a day of tax returns and universal credit meetings so, even though I’m writing this on a Sunday night, I imagine I’m feeling a little stressed. January is a fairly stressful month and with Lockdown 3 : Turbo eXtreme edition hitting the UK over the past week, more stress is being piled on.
But! Theatre! Yay! It seems like a few theatres and festivals across the globe are starting their new programmes for the new year and there are lots to delve in to. Some of these selections this week are from festivals and some are primers for performances taking place later on in the year. This month there are TOO MUCH stuff to get through but I’ve chosen a handful that I think stand out.
I find writing the weekly etude a soothing experience. It helps set up my week, I’ll look for shows, discover new artists, figure out my diary of shows I can see and then slot in all my work stuff around it. I then create the little gifs, where I can, hit send and done! This week has been a little difficult though becuase there are some details I just can’t find which I think would help audiences.
I’m still settling in with etude, the format on the page to what I include, and one thing I want to do is make this as accesible as possible. I’m still figuring out the best way to audio describe that suits the needs of those who require it and I’m also figuring out best ways to present it for those with dyslexia and other reading related access needs. These points of access are on me. If they aren’t good or up to scratch, they are on me. I have been wondering how I best present content warnings. I remember being told off by a director for asking for them to one of their shows becuase they thought it’d ruin the impact of the show and although I disagree with that point of view it is one I respect. When curating this weeks list I did think that some of the shows may have some triggering content, this is based on the title, copy , image and reputation of the artists. However, looking on the theatres websites, there were non. A lot of these shows are premieres so I wasnt’t able to watch them to add content warnings to etude.
Should this impact the suggestions I make? Should I include shows that don’t have trigger warnings on their site? I’m not too sure. There is a responibility that I take when suggesting shows and it is a grey area when suggesting shows in this context. Although I recognise a few names on the subscribers list, I don’t know everyone. I don’t know peoples opinions on content warnings and I don’t want to turn people away from shows that I think look great becuase of a lack of content warnings.
Going forward I want to put content warnings alognside these shows. If they don’t work then you can tell me. If the formatting doesn’t work, tell me. I usually write etudes on Sunday evenings and this means that I’ll just give you the information that I see on a theatres website and not do much more digging than that. Moving forward, I will do more digging and contact theatres to see if I can get any content warnings. If I don’t find any content warnings and non are offered when contacting theatres, then I won’t include them.
January is stressful enough and a tigger creeping up on you when you’re watching a nice bit of theatre can add even more stress. I’ve been knocked out by something that has triggerd me in a theatre before for about two days, it’s not a nice feeling.
With that in mind, if you do watch something this week that feels like it could become triggering, turn it off. This is the wonders of streamed theatre, you can walk out a lot easier. Turn it off and do the things you need to do to bring you back into a safe space. There is no pressure.
Below are this weeks suggestions, I’m really excited by this selection of work and I can’t wait to watch them. I hope you enjoy them!
Free
13th-15th January
After going deaf in her twenties, Sophie, aged 39, was activated as a real-life ‘cyborg’.
She was welcomed back into the hearing world and even able to stream music directly to her brain.
This energetic one-person show brings Sophie’s real experiences to life.
It explores the impact of her ‘activation’ on her sense of self and on her very closest relationships.
As we begin to understand her journey, Sophie invites us to consider the transformative power of technology. Is her experience a blueprint for the future of humanity?
Instagramming the Apocolsypse by Bryon Vincent
Free
15th - 17th January
Vincent has an anxiety disorder – but with dying icons, impending climate catastrophe and that bloke from Home Alone 2 in charge of the world's largest nuclear arsenal, isn’t blind panic the only sane response?
It’s a glib, postmodern world in which cynicism is cool, modern life is rubbish and sincerity is for suckers.
As concepts like truth, peace and hope become risible anachronisms, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate our perspective.
In a post-satire age, what’s so funny about peace, love and understanding? This is a premiere screening of a new film developed from the stage show Instagramming the Apocalypse.
God Stock on the Dimension Floor : an Opera by How DoYouSayYamInAfrican?
Friday 15th
£5
“What happens to the Black body when it is haunted by a ‘Blackness’ outside of it?”
Both dizzying, kaleidoscopic prayer and tenacious ode to Black selfhood, we open LSFF 2021 with a rare presentation of HowDoYouSayYaminAfrican?'s 35 part filmic opera.
The Black and predominantly queer art collective, an evolving line up of poets and artists from across the world, abstracts and reimagines opera in any traditional conception, with compositions contributed by TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone, cellist Kelsey Lu amongst its 38 members.
Set to hip-hop, blues, noise, R&B and electronica, the piece uses the voice (chanting, singing, screaming; written by award-winning poet and activist Dawn Lundy Martin) as its primary tool, verbalising centuries of alienation, vulnerability and protest in the global African diaspora through its disruptive libretto.
Through visual trickery and production design by visual artist Sienna Shields, the work disrupts the linearity of time and with it, homogeneity, offering non-normative alternatives to both white supremacy and the insularity of the art world.
Feel Yourself, A Techno Meditation Lisa Vereertbrugghen
Ongoing
Free
“Dear listeners,
I would like to share a new practice I am developing called techno-meditation. It’s simple: I make a mix of one of my favourite techno tracks with a meditation that I find online. Different variations of techno, some hard, some soft, with different kinds of meditation. These techno-meditations are dance-meditations for people who, like me, have difficulty sitting still. I invite you to listen and dance, in whatever way, shape or form. If you do not have the possibility to move in space, then perhaps the dance can take place in your imagination.
I warmly invite you to listen with headphones or speakers.
Have fun dancing and truly hope to see you soon."
— Lisa Vereertbrugghen
The Murder of Halit Yozgat by Ben Frost and Daniela Danz
10th - 16th January
Free
21-year-old Halit Yozgat was assassinated in broad daylight, in his immigrant parents’ internet cafe on April 6, 2006 in Kassel, Germany. Five witnesses were present in the 77 square metre space when Halit was shot twice in the head. With his unconventional combination of sound art, electronics, and dark metal, Frost brilliantly and sensitively musicalizes the structural racism and institutional blindness that affects the country’s immigrant communities.
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Hope you have a lovely week and talk soon!
Josh x