Live-In Time:

Playing, Mourning, and Suffering 

With the [elephants] collective

Looking for an unusual, out-of town theatre injection? Curious about depression? Pushing your limits? Time? Reserve your tickets now for three exciting events at the Live-In Festival.

We are excited to host the [elephants] collective from Monday, Oct 21st - Saturday, Oct 22nd. Thomas McKechnie. Jesse Byiers, Hannah Kaya, Michael Reinhart, andrew Gaboury, Nicole De Angelis, and Montgomery Martin will be coming to Halifax for the DaPoPo Live-In Festival.

This theatre-making collective was originally brought together by Theatre Passe Mureille's Emerging Artist Program in 2013, and have been creating work, consensus-based, ever since. This year, we are delighted to host them as part of the Live-In Festival: Working Together.

On Monday, Thomas McKechie reads his hour-long exploration of mental suffering 4 1/2 igNoble Truths, "a show for those times when you can't get out of bed", at the Bus Stop Theatre.

On Tuesday, also at the Bus Stop Theatre, Jesse Byiers leads The Actors' Gym a facilitated hour-and-a-half of high intensity play/exercise for actors (and anyone else), physical theatre training, partly inspired by the methodology of theatre visionary Jerzy Grotowsky, and the SITI Company.

From Friday to Saturday, the [elephants] will present their 24-hour durational game/ritual A Wake For Lost Time. Part ritual and part game, Wake is chance to meditate on the loss of time, but also how we know time at all.

What's in this for you? Theatre of exploration, theatre of ideas, theatre of ritual. A play about mental suffering, just back from the SummerWorks Festival. A facilitated hour-and-a-half of high intensity play/exercise for actors. A non-stop, 24-hour, interactive, and interdisciplinary performance.

All events by suggested donation. Reservation required for The Actors' Gym, and strongly recommended for 4 1/2 igNoble Truths and A Wake For Lost Time.

Monday, Oct 17 • 4 1/2 igNoble Truths • 7:30p • The Bus Stop Theatre
Tuesday, Oct 18 • The Actors' Gym • 6:30p-8p • The Bus Stop Theatre
Friday, Oct 21 • A Wake For Lost Time • 6:19p (sunset) • t.b.a.

Café DaPoPo/Opening Night

Sat, Oct 1st, 7:30p, Blue Apples Arts and Wellness Centre

5228 Blowers Street

The 2016 Live-In Festival (LIFe), running from October 1st through October 31st, kicks off with one of DaPoPo's most celebrated performances, Café DaPoPo. A handful of performers have prepared performances that are ripe for the picking to be delivered directly to your table, as a delicious counterpoint to Blue Apples' inspired vegan cuisine.

Margaret Smith, Kristi Anderson, and Emily Shute serenade a patron at Café DaPoPo. 

As with all LIFe events, admission and pricing is by donation – at this one, you may order individually priced performances, ranging from sonnets through songs to performance art, from a specially created performance menu.

Café ensemble Zach Faye, Andrew Chandler, Eric Benson, Ann Doyle, Amy Reitsma, Keelin Jack, and Matthew Peach entertain a table at the Freies Museum Berlin.  

A motto for Café DaPoPo? Expect the unexpected, as one patron remarked. Patrons can tailor their order to their taste: add a sock puppet, make it intimate, or queer your order. Ask for extra sauce. Add cheese. Or request cross-dressing. You choose how you would like your performances delivered.

Garry Williams with a sad sock puppet. 

If you would like to help us raise funds to cover Festival expenses, join us for this fantastic night out – bring a friend! – for a cover of $5.-, which comes with a theatrical amuse bouche. Then, you can order what you please!

CALL FOR READERS!

The DaPoPo Live-In Festival (LIFe) Live Script Series is calling for non-union readers to bring the words of our Live-In playwrights to life.

This 10-play reading series requires multiple readers for various nights from October 4th to 31st.

Interested? E-mail dapopolivein@gmail.com

Every year the Live-In Festival (LIFe) draws hundreds of participants. Every day of October there is something going on in various locales: the TNS Living Room, Plan B, The Bus Stop Theatre, 1313 Hollis, The Waiting Room, and other social hubs. Play readings, workshops, performances, special events… we hope, something for everyone.

Poster art and design by Trevor Poole. 

All of these events – yes, all of them – are run by volunteers who will work together with our volunteer Festival staff, accepting donations, managing the space, hosting events, and (at some events only!) providing snacks and refreshments.

Festival Coordinator Kristi Anderson introducing a facilitator at one of the LIFe Workshop Series events. 

If you would be interested in volunteering, please send us an e-mail at <dapopolivein@gmail.com> before Saturday, September 24th. Volunteers will be welcome at most events free of charge, subject to availability.

Coordinator Garry Williams welcoming audience to a LIFe event in O'Regan Hall. 

Volunteers will be invited to participate in a 2-hour training session to become familiar with our company history and the mechanics of LIFe.

For the last seven years, DaPoPo Theatre has been hosting a month-long professional development festival, The Live-In Festival (LIFe), based mostly out of the TNS Living Room space on Agricola. The Festival has provided many artists with an invaluable opportunity to try out new ideas; learn new skills; and develop new work and relationships. It has become a much-anticipated event in the Halifax calendar year.  

From October 1st - October 31st we bring together artists and diverse communities to share their work, skills, and passion for the arts. The Festival is run by volunteer coordinators – this year, our team includes long-time company member Kristi Anderson; founding member Steph Berntson; new addition to the crew Lara Lewis; member-of-our Board of Directors and associate artist Michael Lake; associate artist/designer Trevor Poole; associate artist Quincy Russell; and Garry Williams, Artistic Director of the Company.

Our Script Series is devoted to public readings of upwards of a dozen new scripts. Our Workshop Series features several professional development and skill-sharing opportunities. Our Special Events Series brings our communities together in fun and creative ways. And our Performance Series includes exciting new work by local artists, as well artists from out of town.

What is most extraordinary: the Festival is audience funded, and run almost entirely on suggested donations. Our theme, this year, is “Working Together”.

We would like to give you an opportunity to help us by purchasing our Festival Pass: The Live-In Key. At a cost of $100.-, the Live-In Key gives you free access to ALL of the Script Series readings and Special Events, as well as ONE free workshop (reservation required and subject to availability); and ONE free performance (2 tickets). The Live-In Key is also transferable.

If you choose to help us in this way, your money will go towards the overhead costs of the Festival, including venue rental and administrative fees. Indirectly, you will be helping us pay the artists, as 100% of our Box Office donations go to honoraria, once we have covered up-front expenses.   

We sincerely hope you will work together with us to not only make this Festival possible, but allow it to grow. To purchase your tax-deductible Live-In Key, please contact us: dapopolivein@gmail.com.

For the last seven years, DaPoPo Theatre has been hosting a month-long professional development festival, The Live-In Festival (LIFe), based mostly out of the TNS Living Room space on Agricola. The Festival has provided many artists with an invaluable opportunity to try out new ideas; learn new skills; and develop new work and relationships. It has become a much-anticipated event in the Halifax calendar year.  

From October 1st - October 31st we bring together artists and diverse communities to share their work, skills, and passion for the arts. The Festival is run by volunteer coordinators – this year, our team includes long-time company member Kristi Anderson; founding member Steph Berntson; new addition to the crew Lara Lewis; member-of-our Board of Directors and associate artist Michael Lake; associate artist/designer Trevor Poole; associate artist Quincy Russell; and Garry Williams, Artistic Director of the Company.

Our Script Series is devoted to public readings of upwards of a dozen new scripts. Our Workshop Series features several professional development and skill-sharing opportunities. Our Special Events Series brings our communities together in fun and creative ways. And our Performance Series includes exciting new work by local artists, as well artists from out of town.

What is most extraordinary: the Festival is audience funded, and run almost entirely on suggested donations. Out theme, this year, is “Working Together”.

We would like to give you an opportunity to help us by purchasing our Festival Pass: The Live-In Key. At a cost of $100.-, the Live-In Key gives you free access to ALL of the Script Series readings and Special Events, as well as ONE free workshop (reservation required and subject to availability); and ONE free performance (2 tickets). The Live-In Key is also transferable.

If you choose to help us in this way, your money will go towards the overhead costs of the Festival, including venue rental and administrative fees. Indirectly, you will be helping us pay the artists, as 100% of our Box Office donations go to honoraria, once we have covered up-front expenses.   

We sincerely hope you will work together with us to not only make this Festival possible, but allow it to grow. To purchase your tax-deductible Live-In Key, please contact us: <dapopolivein@gmail.com>.

CALL FOR ARTISTS

DaPoPo Theatre is seeking 2-3 actors, as well as an artist/technician/designer, who would be available to collaborate on an exciting theatre performance (A Wake For Lost Time) with some of this year’s guest artists (members of [elephants] collective) who we are delighted to welcome as part of the DaPoPo Live-In Festival 2016: Working Together.

Applicants must be available for rehearsals the week of Oct 16 - 20th, as well as a 24-hour performance from Oct 21 - 22nd. In addition, they will be expected to train and build content in preparation to rehearsals. There will be some compensation (minimum: profit share).

It is important to note that "A Wake For Lost Time" is an unusually physically demanding piece, both in terms of the content of the production (choreography and physical action) and the rigour of performing it for 24 hours straight. [elephants] collective is first and foremost committed to actor safety, and in-turn it is important that we highlight this to all prospective applicants.

We are particularly interested in artists who identify as members of marginalized or racialized  communities including, but not limited to, artists of colour; women; and artists over 30.

Applicants will have an opportunity to “meet” with the artists from [elephants] collective via “Skype”.

This is an amazing opportunity for local artists to collaborate with these exciting and inspiring artists. Upon expression of interest, DaPoPo will also be glad to supply a Company History and Project Description.

For more information or to express interest, please contact us at dapopolivein@gmail.com. If possible, please include a short bio, headshot, and/or resumé. If this does not interest you, but you know of someone who might enjoy this unique opportunity, please help us by forwarding this announcement.

Submission Deadline: Friday, August 26th

Every year we bring in a few guest artists to be part of The Live-In Festival. Last year we welcome Haley McGee with her exceptional one-woman show "I Am Doing This For You", now touring Europe, and internationally renowned Canadian playwright Sharon Pollock.

This year we are lucky to be welcoming Jay Whitehead, known to Halifax audiences from "Unsex'd" and, more recently, "Castrati: An Electro Drag Opera!", as one of our guest artists. For the past two years, Jay had collaborated with us on DaPoPo's The Drinking Game in Lethbridge, Albert with the bold and beautiful artists at Theatre Outré. Here he will be working on a new script, Tab & Landon, tis October.

In advance of the Live-In Festival, Jay Whitehead will be offering a Meisner Acting Intensive workshop.

We encourage you to register for this workshop, and keep your eyes peeled for other such outstanding professional skill development opportunities coming to Halifax this Fall.

Every year the Live-In Festival enjoys the support of many individual participants and attendees whose donations at the door make this festival possible in all of its breadth and diversity.

We would, however, also like to acknowledge the support of a few arts organizations without whom our Script Series, with an emphasis on professional development and community outreach in the area of playwriting, would be far less varied and exciting.

These organizations have generously helped us cover travel costs and provide reading fees for guest artists, attending the DaPoPo Live-In, including Guillermo Verdecchia (2012), Sky Gilbert (2014), Sharon Pollock, (2015) and Haley McGee (2015).

Guest artist Guillermo Verdecchia reading The Art of Building a Bunker, co-created by Guillermo Verdecchia & Adam Lazarus at the DaPoPo Live-In Festival 2015: Further to the Left. 

This year, we are again delighted to announce the support of these organizations – The Playwrights Guild of Canada, Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre, and the Canada Council for the Arts – in working together with us to bring in guests artists from across the country, as well as play readings and playwriting/development workshops for the DaPoPo Live-In Festival 2016: Working Together.

DAPOPO THEATRE is requesting NEW PLAYS for its octennial play reading series. 

The workshop turns the pages of KAMP, a new musical, book by Jamie Bradley, at the DaPoPo Live-In 2015.  

Submissions will be reviewed by a curatorial committee of DAPOPO CORE ARTISTS and presented throughout October as part of the LIVE-IN FESTIVAL 2016. Works relating to this year's theme, WORKING TOGETHER, are especially encouraged. Preference will also be given to writers able to attend their reading in October.  

High students read Insomniac Society by Stacey Lane at the DaPoPo Live-In 2015.  

We are interested in UNTRIED IDEAS: One-acts, works-in-progress, third drafts, total revisions, and detailed project descriptions (as-yet-undrafted) are welcome. DaPoPo champions style-mashing, genre-hopping, unusual perspectives, and all manner of diversity.

Kim Parkhill leads a talk-back after The Library of Missing People by Kate Cayley in collaboration with Zuppa Theatre
at the DaPoPo Live-In 2015. 

Winning submissions will be notified in SUMMER 2016. Script analysis and talkback sessions are available to interested writers.

DEADLINE: JULY 31 2016.

Please submit to dapopolivein@gmail.com as word-compatible (.doc.docx) or (if formatting/typography is non-standard) .pdf files.

Questions are also welcome.

DaPoPo's LIVE-IN FESTIVAL is a community-focused, socially-charged, month-long jamboree mostly in North-end Halifax. Venues include Theatre Nova Scotia's LIVING ROOM and multiple cultural hubs in and around Gottingen street.

Every year as the summer rolls in, we start getting excited about October. For the month of October, we bring together a troupe of local and visiting artists to work together in our play reading, workshop, performance, and special event series. We host premiere readings of new works; offer skill-development workshops; present workshop performances; facilitate panel discussions; create pop-up community hubs.

2015 Live-In panelists Kathryn MacLellan, Sharon Pollock, and Tessa Mendel. (Not pictured: Juanita Peters, Lee-Anne Poole, and facilitator Colleen MacIsaac.) 

This year, we are working together once more to provide challenging programming, unique opportunities, and creative spaces. The Live-In Festival seeks to remain an affordable platform for professional development and creative exploration.

2015 Live-In guest artist Haley McGee in rehearsal for a workshop performance of I Am Doing This For You. 

We invite you to be part of the process, join us on our amazing art journey, and build at least some of your life around the Live-In Festival 2016.

From Steve Cloutier's Live-In 2015 illustrated lecture on the plays of Clifford Odets: (from left) Kyle Gillis, Kim Parkhill, Ira Henderson, Jeff O'Hara, Andrew Chandler, Maggie Hammel, Daniel Gervais, and Garry Williams in O'Regan Hall.