Event: Vote to Create a New Canadian Musical Theatre Work, Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts

The Randolph Academy has submitted a proposal for the AVIVA Community Fund grant competition. This competition allows non-profit organizations to submit an idea that will have a positive impact in their communities. Aviva doesn’t define community as just surrounding neighborhoods, but as a bigger picture; for example, in our case, the Canadian arts community, theatre community, etc. The competition is decided by public vote and using social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Canadians choose the 90 semi-finalists in three rounds of voting. The top 30 semi-finalists move on to the finals. Then Aviva’s panel of judges decides final winners and allocates funds.

Our idea is to commission the creation of a new one-act Canadian musical with an end-goal of performing it at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. You can read more about it at http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf11158 or go to www.avivacommunityfund.org and search for Idea #ACF11158.

Please consider voting — and asking others to vote — to helping the Randolph Academy’s idea proceed to the next round. Voting ends October 19.

Announcement: Canadian Pre-Selection Tour, The National Circus School

The National Circus School embarks on a pre-selection tour of some 20 cities, a cross-Canada quest for talented young people between the ages of 9 and 17. There will be stops in close to 20 cities from October 28 to November 12, 2011. The tour heads to Toronto on October 30, Hamilton October 31 and Ottawa November 3.

During the tour the School’s teaching staff will hold workshops, with exercises designed to assess the aspiring circus artists’ calibre and potential to integrate into the School’s programs. In particular, they will be tested for spatial orientation, coordination, flexibility, strength, stage presence (acting ability), movement and musicality (dance).

In addition to this opportunity to be evaluated by circus arts professionals, young aspirants will attend a briefing on the School’s training programs and learn more about the career of a circus performer.

This pre-selection tour also makes the entrance procedures more accessible to all young Canadians who wish to follow their dream of being a circus artist. To participate in the pre-selection, applicants must select the city closest to their home town and register at nationalcircusschool.ca.

Workshop: Playful Interventions Engaging Our Urban Environments with Sean Martindale A Hart House Annual Hancock Lecture Presentation, Hart House

“It is important to insistently re-imagine public space and allow for multiple voices. Creative contestation signals the vitality of a healthy society.” – Sean Martindale, 2011

DETAILS:  On October 27 at 7:00 pm, experience art and design as public intervention with artist and activist Sean Martindale in this unconventional presentation of Hart House’s Annual Hancock Lecture. Learn how to peacefully disrupt space in a workshop leading up to the event. Consider the implications of who shapes your community, whether conscious public interventions equal public good, and what kinds of insights are gained through interventionist art and design. Reception immediately following the presentation. Hart House Theatre, 7 Hart House Circle, University of Toronto. FREE ADMISSION: please reserve your space at UofT Tix (www.uofttix.ca / 416.978.8849).

WHEN:     Thursday, October 27 at 7:00 pm
WHERE:   Hart House Theatre
COST:      FREE — please reserve your space with UofT Tix (www.uofttix.ca / 416.978.8849)
ONLINE:  Hart House – Playful Interventions
About Sean Martindale:

This year’s lecturer is a prolific interdisciplinary artist and designer whose propositions and provisional solutions encourage people to reinterpret their surroundings. Sean’s interventions – primarily sculptural – engage people in their own environments and show that we do not have to accept the status quo; things can change. There is potential for us all to more consciously and creatively influence how our societies and shared spaces are shaped. These ideas can be accepted, rejected or adapted in other ways – they are yours to evolve.

See Sean’s work at www.seanmartindale.com

Hancock Lecture Series Vision:
This series aspires to ignite public conversation and debate. Organized by students and launched in 2001, it features original thinkers, provides a forum for new voices and presents innovative themes to expand our imaginations and challenge our preconceptions.

Hart House is a living laboratory of social, artistic, cultural and recreational experiences where all voices, rhythms and traditions converge.  As the vibrant home for the education the mind, body and spirit envisioned by its founders, Hart House encourages and supports activities that provide spaces for awakening the capacity for self-knowledge and self-expression.