Saturday June 2, 2012
Performances by:
ManChyna
Patsy Cline (Keri Latimer)
Lizzy La La
Ian Mozden & Coral Maloney
*** DJ Sigourney Beaver ***
StagPanther
MonkeySparrow
Dress code: Country
more details to follow…
Mia Van Leeuwen writes: “ok! a big THANK YOU to all that came out to the opening tonight! we are now RESERVED FULL for the entire run BUT have added an additional show for FRIDAY MAY 11th at 11pm. ALL TIX for the late show are 10 BUCKS. please FACEBOOK us or email info@outoflinetheatre.com or call me at 291.9066. xoxoxoxoxoox”
… so if you don’t have your tickets yet, you now have one last chance! Don’t miss this amazing show!
Do you have your tickets yet?
Reservations & Info: info@outoflinetheatre.com or 204.291.9066 or FACEBOOK Out of Line.
Oh cool! I just spotted this now…
… amazing! The attic has never looked so dreamy =-)
Imagine taking a bite of a sandwich and having everything change.
From the wonderfully warped minds of Out of Line Theatre co-artistic directors Mia van Leeuwen and Ian Mozdzen comes The Sandwich: Transforming Consciousness Bite By Bite, a neo-psychedelic performance work inspired by Albert Hoffman’s serendipitous discovery of LSD. Billed as “part Alice in Wonderland, part Requiem For a Dream, part Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the piece, as van Leeuwen explains, “explores altered states as mind-opening experiences in which we may find some truth.”
The Alice-on-acid concept was planted in van Leeuwen’s mind three years ago. “I was talking to someone about the discovery of LSD, and he told me a bit of a wrong story,” she explains. “He was like, ‘Hey, did you know there was this scientist and some LSD fell onto his sandwich and he ate it?’ That concept blew my mind. As I researched it, I learned he got it sort of right and sort of wrong.”
Here’s the real story: in 1943, Hoffman, a Swiss chemist, absorbed a small amount of an unknown substance through his fingertips while attempting to re-synthesize ergot, a fungus that grows on diseased rye (“hence the sandwich reference,” van Leeuwen says). Hoffman’s resulting hallucinatory experience went down in the books as the first-recorded LSD trip.
“What I was fascinated by was what happened after its discovery,” van Leeuwen says.
Indeed, LSD didn’t just alter minds — it altered an era. In the western world, the ’60s and early ’70s were an exciting, revolutionary time both politically (see: second-wave feminism, the civil-rights movement, the free-speech movement, the anti-war movement, the gay-liberation movement) and culturally (see: the rejection of mainstream values and the American dream; sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll). LSD, of course, played a not-so-minor role in opening minds to brave new ideas. (See also: Roger Sterling’s memorable LSD trip on a recent episode of Mad Men.)
Still, “this isn’t a Woodstock piece,” van Leeuwen cautions, adding that no actual drugs will be taken. “It’s based in current time. I’m looking at it from a neo-psychedelic perspective. One of the many things I’m pulling from it is the idea of opening doors and opening minds. I think about 2012 and how conservative things have become. Have we forgotten that era? Where did it go? There’s a lot of discussion and criticism, certainly, and it’s easy to romanticize a certain time. But it gets so complicated because we’re still using drugs but depression is the epidemic.”
With contributions from local luminaries such as Julia Ryckman (This Hisses, Slattern), choreographer/contemporary dancer Natasha Torres-Garner, actor/photographer Delf Gravert and video artist Richard Altman, The Sandwich is an experiment that draws from theatre and performance art, as well as live singing, dance and video.
What it’s not is a play.
“There’s a narrative but, much like an LSD trip, it follows a dream logic — or Alice in Wonderland logic.”
Mozdzen, then, is our Alice. “You’re introduced to this character who is inundated by TV,” van Leeuwen says. “He’s depressed. He calls out to the cosmos for help and the sandwich appears.”
Van Leeuwen hopes audience members are willing to follow Mozdzen on his trip.
“Politically and intellectually, it’s so important to stay open,” she says. “It’s like that Einstein quote: ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ We’ve gotten so caught up in text and intellectual ideas. Where has the imagination gone? We’re so passive. We go home and we watch TV and we let things happen to us instead of being active participants in our lives. I worry about that a lot.”
It’s a good thing, then, a little game of telephone led van Leeuwen down the rabbit hole.
“It doesn’t matter that he got it wrong — what an interesting premise to work with,” she marvels. “Someone eats a sandwich and everything changes.”
THE SANDWICH: TRANSFORMING CONSCIOUSNESS BITE BY BITE
Out of Line Theatre
May 9 – 12,
Atomic Centre (167 Logan Ave.)
And now Atomic lays down for a mini snooze… at least it will appear that way from the outside! Behind the scenes, the multi-purpose room is PUMPING with action: theater, music, and contemporary dance are swirling together to produce the yummiest live art trip you’ll experience this summer!
The Sandwich opens on May 9!
Directed by Mia Star Van Leeuwen and Starring Ian Mozdzen with special guests Julia Ryckman, Delf Gravert and Natasha Torres-Garner and video by Richard Altman…. don’t miss this Out of Line production!
With generous support from the Winnipeg and Manitoba Arts Council.
The Sandwich is a neo-psychedelic performance work inspired by Albert Hoffman’s serendipitous discovery of LSD. In 1943, the Swiss chemist absorbed a small quantity of an unknown substance through his fingertips while attempting to re-synthesize the molecule ergot – a fungus that grows on diseased rye. Hoffman’s hallucinatory self-experimentations would go on to radically change how people experience the world.
out of line theatre invites audiences to witness and participate as the doors of perception open up for a modern character named Person.
Person is being eaten up by a culture of idleness, consumption and loneliness.
Finally, Person cries to the cosmos for help …
Did someone order a rye sandwich? Let the trip begin!
Part Alice in Wonderland, part Requiem For a Dream, part Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Sandwich is a transformative journey through a mindscape of altered states that will uncover the incredible and find new particles of truth floating in an ocean of insignificance.
May 9 – 12 at 167 Logan Ave with shows beginning at 8:00 p.m sharp
$12 (student/artist/underemployed) and $15 (regular)
For info and to book a reservation, please call 204.291.9066 or send an email to info@outoflinetheatre.com
Thank you **so** much to all the amazing people at Canada Palestine Support Network (Winnipeg) for bringing this incredible exhibition to Winnipeg. The featured artwork by children ages 7 – 14 will surely move any viewer. Like official war artists and/or photo journalists, these children have captured profound detail about the reality of conflict. They absolutely understand what is going on around them, and in seeing this work, we all learn just a little more about what is happening in Gaza and its surrounding regions.
Here are a few photos from last night’s opening reception… Please stop by any time during the open hours of this exhibition to bear witness to the experiences of these children in person. The exhibition is available as follows:
Saturday April 14 – 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m
Sunday April 15 – 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Monday April 16 – Closed
Tuesday April 17 – 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday April 18 – 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. (with art activities for kids!)
Thursday April 19 – 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
PALESTINIAN CHILDREN, living under Israeli Apartheid, have drawn images from their lives in the wake of Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead” — known to the rest of the world as THE GAZA MASSACRE (December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009). The images displayed were created by artists aged 7 to 14, and portray the pain of life under militarized occupation and daily, collective punishment by the Government of Israel and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
A Child’s View of Gaza: Cross Canada Art Exhibition
Atomic Center (167 Logan Ave)
Opening Reception: Friday, April 13 from 8:00 – 10:00 p.m.
Exhibition runs from April 14 – 19, See open hours as follows:
Saturday April 14 – 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m
Sunday April 15 – 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Monday April 16 – Closed
Tuesday April 17 – 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday April 18 – 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Thursday April 19 – 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
All welcome!
www.wcaia.ca
www.atomiccentre.net
Organized by: The Canada-Palestine Support Network (Winnipeg)
With Support from: Independent Jewish Voices and Winnipeg Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (WCAIA)
This exhibition is taking place across Canada at venues in Antigonish, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Hamilton, London, Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Regina, Sackville, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Yellowknife, and elsewhere…
Loosely based on Hamid Naficy’s concept of “accented cinema” – the filmmaking of various members of Diasporas living in the West – “Accented Video & the Autobiographical” is a program of seven short films by contemporary Canadian artists that investigate the autobiographical through video. Although the diasporic experience and affiliation varies from artist to artist, the videos in this program exhibit related thematic concerns, such as notions of exile, migration, Diaspora and identity.
Featuring work by: Sobhi al-Zobaidi, Jamelie Hassan, Sebnem Ozpeta, Jayce Salloum, Sarah Shamash, and b.h. Yael
Programmed by: Aisha Jamal and Sarah Shamash
Date: April 5, 2012
Location: 167 Logan Ave (at Martha St.)
Doors: 7:00 p.m.
Screening begins: 7:30 p.m.
Duration: approximately 45 minutes, preceded by a talk by Aisha Jamal and Sarah Shamash
Admission: PWYC with all proceeds toward the artists
Image credit: Sarah Shamash, “Ariadne’s Thread”, 2009. Video still.
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Sobhi al-Zobaidi is an independent Palestinian filmmaker, artist and scholar. He made a number of award winning documentaries, short fiction, art videos and multi-media installations. He studied film production and cinema studies at NYU, and since 1998 he has been an active member of the new and independent film movement in the occupied Palestine. He taught film and media at Birzeit and Al-Quds universities, published reviews in both English and Arabic of Palestinian cinema, art and politics. Since the year 2000 he worked as a writer for the Swiss weekly WOZ writing on Palestinian culture and politics. Currently he is working on doctoral research on issues relating to dispossession and memory.
Jamelie Hassan is born in Canada, of Arabic background, and is based in London, Ontario. She is a visual artist and activist and since the 1970s has created a body of work that is intensely driven by an engagement in both local and international politics and cultures. Her interdisciplinary installations, writing and curatorial projects explore personal and public histories. Her works are in major public collections and she is the recipient of numerous awards including the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2001). Hassan’s engagement with film, arguably more than any other medium, demonstrates the importance of community in her practice. A film program curated by Miriam Jordan and Julian Haladyn contextualize her film projects and includes a publication The Films and Videos of Jamelie Hassan edited by Julian Haladyn and Miriam Jordan, with essays by Laura U. Marks and the editors published by Blue Medium Press (2010). A survey exhibition of her work, Jamelie Hassan: At the Far Edge of Words organized by Museum London, London, Ontario and the the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia, Vancouver is circulating nationally (2009-2013), accompanied by a publication (2010).
Aisha Jamal is an independent Toronto-based filmmaker. She is Assistant Professor of German cultural studies at Trent University and a Media Arts Instructor at Sheridan College, Ontario. Born in Kandahar, Afghanistan she moved to Canada at the age of eleven. Jamal spent her high-school years in Vancouver, Canada and moved to Toronto, Canada to complete her PhD in contemporary German cinema. During this time, she shot and directed her first documentary Dolls and Bombs. Since then, she has made several short length films. Currently, she is working on her first video and sound installation with Vancouver-based media artist Sarah Shamash. Her main interest, academically and artistically, lie in conceptual and theoretical issues of migration and Diaspora.
Sebnem Ozpeta is a Vancouver based independent filmmaker / editor. She studied Graphic Design in Turkey, where she was born and raised. She also completed the Digital Film Program at the AI in Vancouver. She has been producing short experimental films and working as an editor/camera operator and collaborating with artists, performers, storytellers, dancers and filmmakers for more than six years.“I believe that everybody has a story and we all want to share our stories. Visual storytelling is only one of them. My projects focus on different aspects of ‘loss’, ‘isolation’, and ‘adaptation’ in cultural diversity.”
Jayce Salloum is an internationally renowned media artist, cultural activist and curator. He has lectured pervasively and has exhibited his videotapes, installations and photographs at the widest range of local and worldwide venues possible. The grandson of Lebanese immigrants, he was born and raised in Canada, went to art school in the US, and in 1978 commenced exhibiting his productive and many-sided oeuvre. Salloum’s work is found within and between the very personal, quotidian, local and the trans-national. It engages in an intimate subjectivity and discursive challenge. He moved to Vancouver in 1977 and has been based there ever since.
Sarah Shamash is a media artist working in documentary, film, installation, video, web and mobile medias. Born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1977, Shamash completed a BA in Film Production at the University of British Columbia. She moved to Paris in 2001, where she lived, worked and studied for five years; completing an MA in Cinema, and an MFA in Fine Arts at Paris VIII, University of Saint Denis. While in Paris she began exhibiting her work in art venues and film festivals while pursuing her creative production at artist residencies, including Vancouver, Toronto, Banff, Salvador (Brazil), Sao Paulo and most recently in Amman, Jordan. Informed by cinema, her research and process based practice engages socio and psycho geographies through the exploration of specific places, people and mapping strategies that convey personal and experiential knowledge through everyday life. As a recipient of the Vancouver city live/ work studio award for 2012 – 2015, she is currently based in Vancouver, Canada.
b.h. Yael is a Toronto based video and installation artist. She is Professor of Integrated Media at OCAD University. Yael has received many arts awards including a Chalmers Fellowship Award. Yael’s work has exhibited nationally and internationally and has shown in various settings, from festivals to galleries to various educational venues. Yael’s work, such as Fresh Blood, A Consideration of Belonging has dealt with the many intersections of identity while at the same time addressing the fragmentary nature of memory and belonging, including its racialized aspects within Jewish culture. Palestine Trilogy is comprised of three videos that focus on Palestinian dispossession and the repercussions of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and lives. Trading the Future addresses apocalypse and environmental issues and won the ‘Audience Award’ at the Ecofilms festival in Rhodes, Greece. Yael has worked in collaboration with Johanna Householder on the Approximations series and in a number of artist collectives.
