Backer pulled out - flight needed
Donation protected
UPDATE - I had my backer lined up but due to an unforseen family tragedy they have had to pull out their funding. This leaves me with very little time to recoup that funding - please help!
My name is Scott-Patrick Mitchell and I am an award winning performance poet from Perth, Western Australia. My credentials include winning the Talus Prize for Poetry (1999), PressPress Chapbook Award (2009), Perth Poetry Slam (2010) and Creatix Poetry Award (2015). I have two minor collections published through Fremantle Press (New Poets 1 & Performance Poets: Fremantle Poets 3) plus chapbooks published through PressPress, Mulla Mulla and Black Rider Press.
The 24 Hour Performance Poem has been an impossible dream of mine since its inception in exactly three years ago this month. Impossible, that is, until now.
This crazy idea of a show first sprung into my mind during a month long residency in August 2012 at the iconic Mattie Furphy House as part of a Fellowship of Australian Writers Western Australia (fawwa.org) Emerging Writer-in-Residence program. Located just out of reach from the beach in Swanbourne, the heritage listed house was a marvel of Old World dwelling. It came complete with a basement, balcony, and veranda. On this veranda I found the most quaint closet they used for storing chairs. Fortunately, it was empty, and in my eye I saw it as a booth.
'How marvellous would it be if I could set up a chair facing a laptop and livestream myself reciting poetry to the world, non-stop, for an entire day,' I mused.
Since I lacked a laptop at the time, I filled the space with balloons and stuck a label on the door (you can peruse an album of photos of this room on my Page, facebook.com/scottpatrickmitchellpoet).
However, I did proceed to challenge myself and see how long I could improvise and spontaneously perform a narrative, moving through characters and rooms. I lasted 7 hours. This was the birth of THE 24 HOUR PERFORMANCE POEM.
Jump forward to 2015 and I'm plotting opportunities and applications, asking for a show development grant and a feature spot at a leading poetry festival. A voice in the back of my head tells me that I should have a back-up plan. I remember seeing a callout for Crack Theatre Festival in Newcastle, so I check their website for the deadline. It was a good job I did too: applications closed in 30 minutes. I submitted this show proposal, thinking it was so crazy and out there that NOBODY would ever pick it up.
But I needed a back-up plan...just in case.
Good job I did too, because what I had my heart set on was denied - in both instances. I was distraught, calculating how to salvage my enthusiasm. And then Crack Theatre Festival emailed me, saying they would love to have me as part of their line-up this year.
I rang them immediately, to make sure it wasn't a hoax. Nope, they were genuine. I was gobsmacked. I've always had a tenacious luck, which seemingly kicks in at the 11th hour, and here it was, waving my craziest concept of a show in my face, giggling to itself.
So now it’s time to make this crazy concept a reality. Crack Theatre Festival kicks off in Newcastle this October as part of This is Not Art (TiNA), an umbrella festival that includes Crack Theatre, National Young Writers Festival and Critical Animals. It’s an experimental explosion of the most outrageous shows around, including mine.
THE 24 HOUR PERFORMANCE POEM is basically an endurance art piece that mixes cabaret, spoken word and physical theatre to create a sonic love letter for the world. The aim is to push myself and language to the limits, all the while acknowledging the poet’s traditional role in society as a bard, storyteller and healer. It’s a shamanic ritual that sets out to transform me – in full view of the public – from the poet I once was into a person who has a greater understanding of how language can change the individual and the world.
There is scripted content as well as a capacity for improvised and spontaneous poetry. I have a whole heap of material and characters that I will be moving through. I am also using it as an opportunity to explore the achetypes of the Tarot’s major arcana, the research and material from this show going on to provide content for a future show I am hoping to develop with my brother – a visual artist – that will see us create the 22 cards of the major arcana of our own Tarot.
But that’s after this show. Until then, I need your help in getting me over to Newcastle to do this show.
To check out more visit http://cracktheatrefest.com/events/24-hour-performance-poem/
My name is Scott-Patrick Mitchell and I am an award winning performance poet from Perth, Western Australia. My credentials include winning the Talus Prize for Poetry (1999), PressPress Chapbook Award (2009), Perth Poetry Slam (2010) and Creatix Poetry Award (2015). I have two minor collections published through Fremantle Press (New Poets 1 & Performance Poets: Fremantle Poets 3) plus chapbooks published through PressPress, Mulla Mulla and Black Rider Press.
The 24 Hour Performance Poem has been an impossible dream of mine since its inception in exactly three years ago this month. Impossible, that is, until now.
This crazy idea of a show first sprung into my mind during a month long residency in August 2012 at the iconic Mattie Furphy House as part of a Fellowship of Australian Writers Western Australia (fawwa.org) Emerging Writer-in-Residence program. Located just out of reach from the beach in Swanbourne, the heritage listed house was a marvel of Old World dwelling. It came complete with a basement, balcony, and veranda. On this veranda I found the most quaint closet they used for storing chairs. Fortunately, it was empty, and in my eye I saw it as a booth.
'How marvellous would it be if I could set up a chair facing a laptop and livestream myself reciting poetry to the world, non-stop, for an entire day,' I mused.
Since I lacked a laptop at the time, I filled the space with balloons and stuck a label on the door (you can peruse an album of photos of this room on my Page, facebook.com/scottpatrickmitchellpoet).
However, I did proceed to challenge myself and see how long I could improvise and spontaneously perform a narrative, moving through characters and rooms. I lasted 7 hours. This was the birth of THE 24 HOUR PERFORMANCE POEM.
Jump forward to 2015 and I'm plotting opportunities and applications, asking for a show development grant and a feature spot at a leading poetry festival. A voice in the back of my head tells me that I should have a back-up plan. I remember seeing a callout for Crack Theatre Festival in Newcastle, so I check their website for the deadline. It was a good job I did too: applications closed in 30 minutes. I submitted this show proposal, thinking it was so crazy and out there that NOBODY would ever pick it up.
But I needed a back-up plan...just in case.
Good job I did too, because what I had my heart set on was denied - in both instances. I was distraught, calculating how to salvage my enthusiasm. And then Crack Theatre Festival emailed me, saying they would love to have me as part of their line-up this year.
I rang them immediately, to make sure it wasn't a hoax. Nope, they were genuine. I was gobsmacked. I've always had a tenacious luck, which seemingly kicks in at the 11th hour, and here it was, waving my craziest concept of a show in my face, giggling to itself.
So now it’s time to make this crazy concept a reality. Crack Theatre Festival kicks off in Newcastle this October as part of This is Not Art (TiNA), an umbrella festival that includes Crack Theatre, National Young Writers Festival and Critical Animals. It’s an experimental explosion of the most outrageous shows around, including mine.
THE 24 HOUR PERFORMANCE POEM is basically an endurance art piece that mixes cabaret, spoken word and physical theatre to create a sonic love letter for the world. The aim is to push myself and language to the limits, all the while acknowledging the poet’s traditional role in society as a bard, storyteller and healer. It’s a shamanic ritual that sets out to transform me – in full view of the public – from the poet I once was into a person who has a greater understanding of how language can change the individual and the world.
There is scripted content as well as a capacity for improvised and spontaneous poetry. I have a whole heap of material and characters that I will be moving through. I am also using it as an opportunity to explore the achetypes of the Tarot’s major arcana, the research and material from this show going on to provide content for a future show I am hoping to develop with my brother – a visual artist – that will see us create the 22 cards of the major arcana of our own Tarot.
But that’s after this show. Until then, I need your help in getting me over to Newcastle to do this show.
To check out more visit http://cracktheatrefest.com/events/24-hour-performance-poem/
Organizer
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
Organizer
Kallaroo WA
