a field of crowns

field notes.01 // A Man Walks Into a Bar

Happy New Year!

I look back on 2015 fondly; it was a formative year for a field of crowns. Seasonal Activities completed it’s first full-year of exploring intimate, multi-disciplinary performance. On&On&On was revived in a variety of incarnations, partnering with both TOES for Dance and the Night\Shift Placehacking Festival in Kitchener. An idea I was toying with found a home at the Etobicoke Lakeshore Culture Days under the name Myths of My Town, and I refined and retooled my performance of Under Hill & Harbour.

I look forward to 2016 with excitement; not only will Seasonal Activities be coming back for another full season, I’m rethinking myths while working on a few others too early to really talk about in any definition.

Oh, wait, I can talk about this one.

A couple years ago I had every intention of beginning a podcast. Listening to podcasts was part of my daily routine and I wanted to bring my enthusiasm for them to the Toronto live performance scene. I even bought a really good microphone. And played with it. A bit. And got scared by it. A lot. And, really, put it away. My enthusiasm, at that point, was then applied to a different, non-podcast, project: my dossier series of blog posts. I am proud of the dossiers, but at heart, I always wanted them to be podcasts.

Well.

Here we are. A couple years later and I am excited to announce the launch of

Ravine.

field notes.
episode 01 // A Man Walks Into a Bar
a conversation with Blue Bigwood-Mallin

Dec. 28th, 2015
4pm
Pauper’s Pub

Blue messaged me early in December, asking if I would interview him for the Next Stage production of Rachel Blair’s A Man Walks Into a Bar. I helped promote the show in the summer for Fringe, so the idea of continuing a relationship with this show was appealing. I had a day and an afternoon in Toronto between Christmas celebrations in Oshawa and leaving for Pennsylvania to spend New Years at Polymath Park. Luckily, our schedules matched.

Blue Bigwood-Mallin & myself

A Man Walks Into a Bar opens January 6th @ 7:45pm and runs until January 17th.
Click the banner below for all the show information you’ll need.

Thoughts are always welcome! Please leave a comment or, if you have an idea for a future episode, send an email to afieldofcrowns@gmail.com

You can (read: will be able to) find field notes. on the iTunes Store (hopefully by tomorrow once it passes review).

If you enjoyed, you’ll be able to subscribe through iTunes or (I believe) at Soundcloud.

Enjoy!

Performer Profile: Colleen Snell & Andrew Gaboury

artists:

A dancer and an actor who also write things.

abstract:

They’re going to read some writing, maybe move some writing. Three segments, many pieces.

portals:

Colleen can be found through her award-winning, site-specific performance company Frog in hand.

Andrew can be found right here.

Performer profile: Damian Norman & Patrick Dilkie

damian norman i

artist:

Damian Norman is a dance artist based in Toronto; past performances have included company works with “Frog In Hand”, “Form Contemporary Dance Theatre”, and the “Chimera Project” showcased at the Harbourfront Center’s Next Steps series in their ContemporaryFlamenco fusion, Bird Bee Bat Attack. He is a dance instructor at The Living Arts Center and a ballroom instructor at Arthur Murray Dance.

A holder of a B.Mus from Humber College and alumni of the Toronto All-Star Big Band, Patrick Dilkie is an active member of Toronto’s music community as a keyboardist, singer and composer. Patrick has performed in Japan, Chicago and New York.

abstract:

This work is an improvised exploration influenced and driven by my own personal relationships. The work is intended to explore the ways we connect to others, how we manage our own predispositions and expectations while negotiating the very same with the people around us. This piece is about the self; how to let go of our attachments while navigating our own sense of authenticity.

poster with hub

Performer Profile: We’re From Out West

we're from out west

artists:

Jesse Byiers and Thomas McKechnie are hetrosexual life partners who make plays together with [elephants] collective and Katzman Contemporary Working Group and also play in this shitty band called We’re From Out West that they created in the first lonely depressing winter together in Toronto.

abstract:

Shitty Songs for Shitty Kids is a music-play that uses the music that Jesse and Thomas have written together, their semi-autobiographical accounts of a road trip through eight of the ten provinces in this country, Jack Keraouc’s semi-autobiographical novel On the Road and whatever else is at hand to explore how we create ourselves as individuals. You have to get out and to come back in.

extras:

These are some pictures of Jess or [us] doing shit that may or may not be in the play. I (Thomas) took both.

portals:

https://werefromoutwest.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/WereFromOutWest/?fref=ts

we're from out west ii

Catch Shitty Songs for Shitty Kids at:

poster with hub