Edinburgh freeze update

February 24th, 2008 • improvisation

Various forums now report that the pre-game meet for the Waverley freeze will be by the Scott Monument at 2.30pm, with the freeze now taking place on Rose Street or in Princes Street Gardens at 3.30pm.

Apparently there’s concern that too many people are planning to turn up for it to work in the station (which pretty much echoes what I was saying about Trafalgar Square earlier this week).

Hopefully it’ll still work out - planning to be there with camera in hand.

metaLOL (or, I am really very hard at work)

February 20th, 2008 • comedy, research

There’s something wonderful about an entry in Wikipedia explaining a LOLcat image in which a cat is - in turn - explaining that he’s editing an entry in Wikipedia.

London Freeze videos and post-mortem

February 20th, 2008 • improvisation

Last week’s London Freeze offers up a few lessons for the Edinburgh edition.

The visual effect of the original US event seemed to come from the contrast between the realtively small number of frozen players and the steady flow of traffic (and, consequently, new “audience”) through Grand Central Station.

In contrast, Trafalgar Square was packed with people - with the seeming vast majority taking part in the freeze. So instead of frozen figures in a crowd, you get the image of individuals moving through a frozen mass. Consequently, the most striking moment in the video below is when the crowded square comes to a virtual halt.

I suppose the broader point is that the change in scale brings about a change in the audience dynamic - in Trafalgar Square, the “audience” were in the minority, out of the loop and out of the joke. It becomes less a spectacle for that audience, and more a collective event for the participants - inward facing, if you like. Not bad, still very cool, but decidely different.

Jump below the fold for a few more videos. Read more »

course information updated

February 14th, 2008 • teaching

Note to any students - the course pages for Activism and Performance have been brought up to date with extended reading lists and are accessible through the links in the column on the far left.

the big freeze hits the uk

February 10th, 2008 • improvisation

ImprovEverywhere’s latest project - bringing Grand Central Station to a halt, and applause from confused if delighted bystanders - has started to spawn UK copies. There’s a Great Trafalgar Square Freeze planned for London on 16th February, and an Edinburgh Waverley Big Freeze on 24th, both outside of the group’s global network.

ImprovEverywhere’s work doesn’t really fit the mould of many other improv companies. The scenes they stage - to generate public chaos and delight - are heavily structured and timed. The appearance of a spontaneous mass event (the hallmark of ImprovEverywhere’s work) requires careful planning.

It’s slightly more interesting to think of ImprovEverywhere’s work in the tradition of Augusto Boal’s invisible theatre - most infamously staged on the Paris Metro - though without the deliberate attempt to provoke and involve an unsuspecting audience. ImprovEverywhere’s pantless subway riding experiment in ten cities in January of this year would seem to look like spectacle rather than direclty political theatre (though, again, you could argue for a link to public happenings and the early work of The People Show).

It’s also true, though, that some of ImprovEverywhere’s “missions” do seem to invite a specific social comment. Read more »

going for a song

February 5th, 2008 • research, theatre

Found while carving through a mountain of research into arts funding in the UK - and while trying to put together a picture of the kind of theatre companies who lost out in the recent cull - here’s a snapshot of how money was distributed at the end of the 90s. Of the funding given to music by the Arts Council of England, about 80% went to opera; opera tickets were subidised per ticket to the tune of £12.07 in 1995/6, rising to £12.75 in 1999/2000.

For context, jazz - which has a rougly comparable audience size - was subsidised per ticket at 15p in 95/6, rising to an enormous 27p in 97/8, before settling at 25p in 99/00. Those figures are taken from a report produced for Jazz Services, an organisation funded by the Arts Council of England to promote the growth and development of jazz within the UK. Yes, the irony is evident.