SummerWorks officially opens the festival with a bash at the Theatre Centre.  Music by Dance Yourself to Death and other surprises.  Cash Bar. Free Food.  No Cover.

Also the official Launch of The SummerWorks Anthology with reading by some of the Playwrights.

LA GROSSE MERDE
Opening Night Party
August 5 at 8pm
Theatre Centre, 100-1087 Queen Street West
SE Corner of Queen and Dovercourt

Michael sits at a large desk, stroking his chin and patting down his jew-fro. Every few seconds he pauses to type something into one of the many facebook chat streams he has started in the last five minutes.

Michael: (talking to the camera…in his own mind) Hello Everyone, I’m Michael Rubenfeld, the Bruce Springsteen of SummerWorks. Nope, not born in the usa but the boss nonetheless. I am the boss of SummerWorks. You are most welcome to my festival. This is the best festival in the city. It not only has the best theatre (money and pad thai go a long way with a jury of Canadians), it also has cool bands. Bands I like and you should too because they are cool. Oh yes and a performance gallery at the cool Gladstone hotel. Cool huh? If you are in my festival congratulations on being cool and if you are attending my festival congratulations on recognizing cool. Happy SummerWorks Everyone. You know, Rubenfeld actually means Feld of the Ruben which is Hebrew for Super Cool.

(Michael gives this play two thumbs up….sort of)

A – So where do you think they got the name from? Is it like it’s summer and summer as a season works, like it’s good as a season or is it about works as in plays during the summer or as in we as artists are working for the summer?

B – Maybe it’s like summer personified works, like everyone works even summer. Like summer has a job.

A – Yeah like when you or I have a job for the summer but the opposite.

B – I bet you summer always gets the best jobs.

A – Probably because it works and we just smoke all day.

B – That’s profound dude. I am now sad for us.

Got a better stoner dialogue or a comment or a question or a ransom note? Send them to lindy@summerworks.ca and perhaps you will be granted blog fame.

I asked all the SummerWorks companies to tell me why I should see their show above all others? Some told me they were too busy writing their show to indulge me in idiotic exercises but the others, in no particular order, had this to say…

Madeleine Cross, just turned 18, about to hop on a plane ALONE to a country she’s never heard of (Honduras) that her Mother hates and her boyfriend thinks is crazy, but will get her the HELL out of her puke-hole prairie town-- Maybe Teenage Jesus Camp isn’t such a bad idea? Some Reckless Abandon

Montparnasse investigates the relationship between artist and model in Paris in the 1920s. That's right - we play nude art models in one of the sexiest periods in history.

The crush of beauty offers a rare glimpse into an unlikely friendship between an older woman and a teenaged girl. It provides an insightful look at how women across the generational divide both suppress and express their rage, and transform the restrictions that society places on them.

Hate amphibious rodents? Love fatalistic 60's folk poets? We fit the bill! Come see The Nick Drake Project this August at Factory Theatre!

Because actionable by bob wiseman will make your skin better and your hair shine. Because it is an experiment for summerworks to have a music guy be a theatre guy while improving your skin and hair.

Millions called her a "saint"...Christoper Hitchens called her a "douchebag". Either way, spend an hour exploring the missionary position and join Ecce Homo for some sacred cow tipping. The Ecstasy of Mother Teresa or Agnes Bojaxhiu Superstar

Remember that time you invited your best friend over for a blanket fort sleep over and one thing led to another and you headed up giving each other blow jobs? Well The Art of Catching Pigeons by Torchlight is pretty much that... except instead of your best friend it’s all of Toronto.

One of the biggest stories of 2008 is about to go to trial - but do you know what's behind the headline? If you dig deep enough into the murder of Lawrence King, the fifteen-year-old who asked another boy to be his valentine, you can still find tremendous heart. My Funny Valentine

To have something beautiful haunting your dreams for the next year, knowing that it was born of something terrible. Nohayquiensepa

Is your life infested with soul-sucking Middle East drama? You're in luck - the cure has arrived in comedy form. Come watch Apricots squeeze the shit out of every sacred cow in Israel/Palestine. It's funny.

To me, no other story has captured so truthfully the painful paradox of self-identity - what it means to create boundaries between ourselves and the ones we love the most in order to define and enable our own existence. The unconventional love story of The Piano Tuner is an existential experience - not only for twins...

Rabbit Rabbit is a daring play that navigates through ugliness in an attempt to reach a place both human and beautiful. Discover the inner truths of two people hiding from a world that condemns them as quickly as they condemn themselves.

A romantic thriller that will make you quiver. This is your only chance to see both the French and the English productions of this hot Parisian play! I will always be there to kill you

Sum of its Parts is a snapshot of the aftermath left in the wake of a naive attempt at teenage utopia. Betrayal, love, God, sex and death pollute this otherwise simple story of truth and the lives that follow behind it.

When someone in your social circle becomes so melancholy that they stop moving, it is your duty to go find them! People experiencing melancholy have been turning into almonds on the street--do not eat these almonds, but bring them directly to the theatre to see Melancholy Play...it is part of the social contract!

Faustwork Mask Theatre guarantees that you’ve never seen a show quite like Carnival Knowledge. Audience members will improve their sex lives and laugh out loud, not necessarily at the same time, but perhaps.

Val Campbell and Gail Hanrahan take their clowns to the land of Tennessee... Williams. This Auguste and Joey like their play "southern style" as they weave the great playwright's poetry and pain into their own recipe for peace...under parrot/over tennessee

Seven Days Seven Days is a suspension of text, sound and 7 dancers! A dream becomes a movement, a movement becomes a dream.

Underneath a veil of noble intentions, ambition and lust cloud the truth in post-war Kosovo.

"Brecht in Lederhosen and an accordion singing about Hitler and the Nazis. This is not a history lesson." Fear and Misery of the Third Reich

7 fabulous women of colour performing a collective creation. Where else can you find this? The Centre

Acrobatics and incredibly high heels. Worn by a guy. Waiting for the Dawn

stop. breathe. stop again. breathe. sleep. breathe and sleep. wake. stop. breathe again. do the one thing we all must do. die. with love. benu

security is not for we. security is a billion dollar billion dollar billion dollar industry. security is not for we. security is not for we. we sketch'in toronto.

Old Peculiar is the Extravaganza Eleganza of Summer Works. We have flamboyance, darkness, cabaret…AND YOU… send in the clowns!

The National Theatre of the World's Impromptu Splendor is completely Improvised play that's based on an audience suggestion. So if the audience doesn't like it, it's their fault!

"Why wouldn't you wanna live in a house with 29 other people your same age?" The Middle Place is like a killer episode of "Big Brother" directed by Alan Dilworth.

For the mask giveaway and the highly suggestive, all over the map, oops, I mean universally eclectic, insanely hummable, fun, elegant, oh-so-dramatic new operatic tunes including the most erotic opera duet EVER. So, dress up, put on a mask, come to our masquerade, if for nothing else, just to see if we are making ridiculously false claims. La Señorita Mundo, an operatic allegory

"I really liked that part with the singing, but what does it all mean?" Never seen an Alex Wolfson show? It's time you did. Windows

Daniel has performed at The Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), The Rotterdam International Film Festival, The Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), and the Gene Siskel Film Center (Chicago). He is the 2007 winner of the Canada Council’s Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton award, the 2008 winner of the Images Festival’s Images Prize.

1) What are you excited about and/or dreading in your impending trip to Toronto and the SummerWorks festival?

I'm excited about the idea of encountering a new audience in Toronto. I've performed many times for the art and film communities in TO but never specifically for a theatre crowd.

2) Why the use of Obsolete Technology?

Mostly because it complements my working methods. Also because, like many people, I am intimidated by technology and all of its implications. I like to use technologies that can be easily understood and assembled. It allows me to be comfortable in my process, and to stay focused on drawing and storytelling. It allows the audience an intimate observation of my process, which maybe lets them know that I trust them. I also like all the pedagogical references that an overhead projector carries. My performances at least pretend to be educational.

3) I love the healing snowglobe on your website but why a snowglobe? Where did this idea come from?

I tripped across an online community of mostly women, I would assume, who traded templates of snowglobes and animated snowglobe giffs. I guess the idea was to insert a picture of one's grandkids in the snowglobe and post it on your personal website. I was intigued and wanted to participate. I have plans to expand the snowglobe page - making it more interactive and narrative.

4) What would you like people to know about your show?

Here's my synopsis:
Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry combines overhead projection with video, music, and live narration to tell the story of a garbage man with a vision to create an independent phone book. In the late hours of the night, he sifts through garbage, collecting personal information and then traces a portrait of each citizen through the windows of their homes as they sleep. What he doesn't realize is that a deranged killer is trailing him, murdering each citizen he includes in his book, thus rendering his cataloguing efforts obsolete. The garbage man is a failed artist who fears becoming subject to the grip of something overwhelming. This overhead projector animation traces his attempts to slow down and creatively reflect, in a process of coming to terms with his own self-loathing and fear.

5) Will you be bringing any of your amazing t-shirts or planes to sell to the SummerWorks audience?

not this time. :-)

Check out on Daniel’s website www.danielbarrow.com and check out his show Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry at Theatre Passe Muraille

Our Music Guy Eric Warner said that this years music series draws a nice picture of the Canadian landscape of music…I am paraphrasing terribly but he did say draw and music and Canadian and I thought what if we took that literally.

Here is a drawing by Tomas Del Balso from DD/MM/YYYY. DD/MM/YYYY are playing with Think about Life on August 7th.

Dear Diary
I make my first entry of the SummerWorks Intern Diaries on this beautiful July day in my sunny and colourful Beaches apartment. While I love this building, I just received a notice from my landlord today regarding the infestation of bedbugs in an “anonymous unit” in our building. However, despite the attempts at ambiguity, my roommate and I know to which unit these deliriously terrifying little insects belong. “Cricket”, our neighbour at the end of the hall (a strung-out curly-haired woman, who makes up one half of a married couple with the sketchiest living style ever) made the decision to come and anxiously tell us herself. We’ve received numerous knocks on our door at various hours in the day/night from “Cricket” with invitations to parties, the venture of breeding their ugly yapping Chihuahuas, or request for “any scrap of alcohol we may have in our house” (at 7:00 AM no less) because she’s been partying all night and “needs to get to bed”… Alrighty…. Over the past year we’ve grown used to these small disturbances, and it’s just added to the colourful reality of our lives. I digress, I simply bring up this fact because it strikes me from time to time how hilarious it is that we are living in a building that appears charming and beautiful, but is truly filled with a big bunch of crazies, and now, the arrival of bedbugs.

As artists, we look around us and use our experiences as a possible seed of creation. Whether it be inspiration for a short story based on a walk to your local coffee establishment, observation of an eccentricity of which there are multitudes, or discovering a piece of metal found on the side of the road, which just HAS to be brought home to involve in a potential painting. I am very guilty of this, and thank goodness that I have an understanding boyfriend who will drive across the city with me because “I saw the most amazing piece of rusted scrap metal hanging on a fence! I need it!” All we can say about the oddities of our creative processes is that it had to be done. We artistic ones are endlessly soaking up our environment and forever piecing together the framework of our next project based on our everyday lives. Call me nationalistic, but in my humble opinion I believe some of the most incredible art is rooted in Canadian talent. This is why our extraordinary theatre festivals make me exhilarated and grateful to be living in a country that allows self-expression. If (as I am sure all other artists feel to some degree) I were not allowed to throw paint at a canvas, or step on stage and explore aspects of the human condition, I would probably be currently sitting in an asylum with my hands tied screaming “I just want to dance!”

It is with this sentiment and heartfelt excitement that I have been given an opportunity to try my hand at some administration and creativity involvement with the remarkable festival that is SummerWorks. I am so grateful to be once again surrounded with creative minds that have the drive and talent to lift groundbreaking music and theatre off the ground. Flatly stated, I don’t make any money doing this internship. I, like many other artists (20 something’s, or otherwise) are obligated by the necessity to eat and sleep under a roof, to make money working shitty and heart-wrenching jobs while we are waiting for our dreams to manifest. My trade is pulling draft and cracking beer cans for baseball fans; and flatly stated again, I hate it. So this little position with these wonderful people has put a beacon of happiness back in my artist-soul.

As I await the chemical spray of bedbug obliteration, I will also continue to follow my compulsion to collect wonderful pieces of scrap metal, and other beauties from highways or back-alleys, and my endless journaling of sheer bewilderment as I observe outrageous neighbours. You never know when and where your next inspiration will present itself, and for these reasons I find myself in anticipation to see what life experiences and stories are about to grace our inspired stages by our fervent Canadian talent.
FUCK YES SUMMERWORKS!

Until next time fellow observers,
Perrie

Perrie will be posting more entries on our blog during the festival. Stay tuned.