where the fearless dreamers reside

Notes from our retreat last weekend -- where we talked about everything from new new projects to ideal touring locales to what we'll be doing in September 2013. 

At some point we were discussing what initially drew everyone to working with Hand2Mouth, and why they kept on -- and here is what people said:

• creating new work with a personal style and voice
• people first, artists second
• the thought that all original imagistic work can hit on a deeper than intellectual level
• felt like the only game in town that was making work with rigor
• the people, challenged artistically
• Jonathan and Faith, now all the people involved
• chance to put myself, stories, and ideas on-stage
• long-lastingness of the people and the work
• City of Gold, keep on because I love everyone and believe in work with own voice
• because the fearless dreamers reside in h2m
• the energy, the now, the you
• important work was being done, not bullshit
• chance to try new things and be involved

Wooster inspiration

Via Culturebot -- an interview with Ari Fliakos about the making of Vieux Carre:

The performers, sound, video people, we’re all there in the beginning, and we’re all material until Liz has a chance to edit it down. It’s kind of a muddy soup. It’s a slow accumulation once you start rehearsing of things that stick to the wall. You keep throwing things against the wall, again and again and again, and then things start to stick. Sometimes you tear it all down, and then you come back to it and you know where it fits. We tend to work in four- or six-week chunks, which is a tremendous luxury. If we’ve been working on a show for 2-3 years, it’s really much less than that. To be able to leave something and come back to it isn’t something people usually have the opportunity to do in the theater.

H2M on retreat

We all went on retreat last weekend so we could check in with each other, talk about the next three years, play board games, stage crazy dance offs and take turns imitating Erin in My Mind Is Like An Open Meadow.

One of my favorite things about Hand2Mouth is how, when the party is right, we tend to turn it into an unofficial rehearsal / long form improv / dance off (except a bit wilder & more drunken).

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of our dance offs... but I do have shots from our more sober & reasoned discussions:

 

Collaborating

To toot our own horn for a moment, congrats to H2M and our amazing Uncanny Valley Dramaturg Kate Bredeson on receiving the 2011 Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas Residency Grant. Kate will use the support to continue and deepen her relationship with Hand2Mouth and Uncanny Valley.

From the LMDA blog:

The Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2011 Residency Grant: Portland, Oregon, theatre company Hand2Mouth and dramaturg Kate Bredeson. LMDA offers a $2,000 stipend for a dramaturgical residency within a theater project, program and/or community that seeks an on-site dramaturgical presence but is unable to fund a dramaturg at this time. This round of grants saw fifteen applications, and the selection process was overseen by the Chair of LMDA’s Committee on Programs, Stephen Collela, along with committee members Joanna Falck and Diane Brewer. LMDA’s Residency program is designed to foster partnerships between dramaturgs and theater communities that will grow into strong, well-defined, ongoing dramaturgical relationships and positions within the world of theater at large.

More on us and Kate here.