Dear Friends, Supporters, and Performing Arts Lovers:
I’m never good at making these calls. I can only count my blessings that I’m not on the telephone: otherwise, few if any calls would be made. But I’m not on the telephone. I’m on a blog post, and I’m asking for money. Why? Because I’m very excited by the new direction that The Sanctuary Theatre is moving. Yes, the bad news is—The Sanctuary Theatre, as you might have known it for years, is no more. The good news—The Sanctuary Theatre announces The Performing Knowledge Project, where theater and education meet.
After almost 30 years of involvement in theatre and education in the greater metro area, my co-founder Elizabeth Bruce and I are taking the theatre in an exciting new direction. The Performing Knowledge Project will challenge traditional distinctions between aesthetic and educational forms and objectives, both in the classroom and on stage.
On stage, The Performing Knowledge Project offers performance pieces that synthesize techniques from a variety of disciplines, creating a new aesthetic approach that blends artistic goals with educational objectives. From poetry to dance to visual art to theatre, these performances will explore the world, language, and people from unique and exciting perspectives.
Performing Knowledge’s inaugural production is in July at the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival. Entitled Embodying Poe: Poetry in Performance, the piece explores Edgar Allan Poe’s poetic persona, weaving original biographical text, music, and visuals with seven of Poe’s poetic pieces. Michael Oliver is the author and performer. Look on this website for more information about the show.
In the classroom, to poets and performers at all levels, Performing Knowledge offers Poetry in Performance Workshops that explore and inspire the art of writing, listening to, and presenting poetry. To educators and students, the project offers workshops on all aspects of education that are enhanced by performance.
The first Poetry in Performance Workshops were held at CentroNía, March 5, 12, & 19, 2011, with funding from the national organization, Poets & Writers, Inc. The first round culminated in a poetry presentation at Pigment Art Studio on Saturday, March 26. Beginning in April, workshops will continue on Saturdays, once a month, with regular early evening literary events at Pigment beginning in early September 2011. So stay tuned.
Whether on stage or in the classroom, performing artists and educators share goals and challenges: to engage audiences in transformational experiences. Be it an audience of weary onlookers in an auditorium or leery young people in desks, the educator-performer must overcome inertia or suspicion. He or she dares others to look at the world an at themselves from new perspectives. The Performing Knowledge Project strives to meet those challenges head-on.
We are bringing educators, artists, designers, and interested people from many different communities together, to explore the world with new eyes. Join us in this exploration. Through this website we will keep you abreast of all future workshops and performances and invite your participation and outreach. Soon we will also be entering the realm of the social media.
Contribute to The Performing Knowledge Project and know that you make this work possible. We deeply appreciate your support and collegiality.
If you would like to designate your contribution to a specific venue—the classroom or the stage—or if you would like to bring The Performing Knowledge Project to your organization or community, see this attached form.
Sincerely,
Michael Oliver
Tags: aethetic, education, knowledge, Performances, Poe, poetry-in-performance, theatre