World Telekinesis Competition

We are thrilled to announce that two Newfoundland based teams have been accepted as contestants in the first annual World Telekinesis Competition. The World Telekinesis Competition is a project of the Noxious Sector Artists Collective and Deluge Contemporary Art based in Victoria, B.C.

Two NF Teams are very busy with preparations and training. The Monster Psionics League and Team Rock Can Roll will both be telekinetically representing the island in this contest. These teams of three will compete with other teams around the world to psychically influence the behavior of a candle lit in a remote location.
To read more about the competition Guidelines and Competitors Please visit the Official WTC Website.

Team Rock Can Roll will be represented by the infamous Brigggs, who will be utilizing his power over electrical currents as well as his remote drawing talents in the competition. Master of sound and vibration, telekinetic superpower Ron Anonsen has also joined the team.
Rounding out the Rock Can Roll Trio is Anthony Brenton. Anthony has been working with the paranormal since experimenting with pyro-kenetics as a child and is busy poring over dictionaries and books of Satanism to prepare for competition.

The Monster Psionics League are also deep in preparation. The MSL can often be found touring their traveling medicine show around the coves and inlets of Newfoundland. Many do not know that this collective is actually a powerful think tank who's telekinetic abilities were forged in an alien laboratory. Liz Solo, Burt Everest and Gzorak's Alien Beard are looking forward to competition and are currently immersed in an intensive training regimen involving complex drinking games and mental exercising. Stay tuned here for news on our teams and watch the Official WTC Website for progress of the project, competition times and results.

Happy World Theatre Day

Happy World Theatre Day from Liz, Mike Steve, Jenny and all of us at I AM CO-OP. Image above from the Downstairs Mix-up taken by Meghan Solo.

World Theatre Day was created in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute (ITI). It is celebrated annually on March 27th by ITI Centres and the international theatre community. Many events take place around the world to celebrate WTD. One of the most important of these is the circulation of the World Theatre Day International Message. A theatre practitioner of world stature is asked for his or her reflections on the theme of Theatre and a Culture of Peace.

This year's message is very inspiring and resonates strongly with those of us pursuing new frontiers in performance. It comes from the Canadian theatre artist Robert LePage:

"There are a number of hypotheses on the origins of theatre but the one I find the most thought-provoking takes the form of a fable:

One night, at the dawn of time, a group of people were gathered together in a quarry to warm themselves around a fire and tell stories. All of a sudden, one of them had the idea to stand up and use his shadow to illustrate his tale. Using the light from the flames he made characters appear, larger than life, on the walls of the quarry. Amazed, the others recognized in turn the strong and the weak, the oppressor and the oppressed, the god and the mortal.

Nowadays, the light of projectors has replaced the original bonfire, and stage machinery, the walls of the quarry. And with all due deference to certain purists, this fable reminds us that technology is at the very beginnings of theatre and that it should not be perceived as a threat but as a uniting element.

The survival of the art of theatre depends on its capacity to reinvent itself by embracing new tools and new languages. For how could the theatre continue to bear witness to the great issues of its epoch and promote understanding between peoples without having, itself, a spirit of openness? How could it pride itself on offering solutions to the problems of intolerance, exclusion and racism if, in its own practice, it resisted any fusion and integration ?

In order to represent the world in all its complexity, the artist must bring forth new forms and ideas, and trust in the intelligence of the spectator, who is capable of distinguishing the silhouette of humanity within this perpetual play of light and shadow.

It is true that by playing too much with fire, we take a risk, but we also take a chance: we might get burned, but we might also amaze and enlighten."

Robert Lepage
Quebec, 17th February 2008

To read more about World Theatre Day please visit the International Theatre Institute site.