What is this?
Hi! Shared Rituals Across Spacetime is an artistic experiment created in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. It's sort of a message in a bottle (a bunch of messages, in a bunch of bottles), or maybe a theatrical walkie-talkie. I'm a theatre-maker in New York City, and in the absence of my beloved rehearsal room, I'm creating a space where artists might play with asynchronus collaboration. That is--we can't be in the same room together, getting our breath and our brains in sync. So, we're finding new modes of expression, and that's really exciting and cool! But you know that thing about Zoom fatigue? I feel it (maybe you do, too), and sometimes the almost-ness of the presence we can achieve in that virtual chat box, makes me want to run in a totally different direction. So. Maybe there are ways of collaborating that embrace how far apart in space we are--that embrace the way time has become strange. These days, my creative brain moves differently--slower, usually! So perhaps an asynchronus creative exchange will give the space for new thoughts to emerge. Maybe the invitations contained in this site could create sparks for your brain, too.
Sounds weird. How does it work?
Thanks! So, it builds through three steps. First, on the Ingredients page, you'll find really simple creative tasks. Each one takes about 10-20 minutes. Those generate some text, which will probably be really cool! You could stop there. But second, is Cauldron. On that page, you'll use your ingredients in a new creative prompt, to build on what you made in step one. And then, if you'd like, you can share the results of your Ingredients and Cauldron creating, for the Potions page. Once (if!) this thing gets going, we can really #ensemble it, create some back-and-forth, and see how we might build off of each other's work.
About me.
My name is Emily Hartford. I live in Brooklyn and make theatre. I’m a Creative Partner with Flux Theatre Ensemble. You can find more about me here and Flux here.
Attributions and Inspirations
The creative structure of this project comes from my own devised theatre making practices (especially with Flux Theatre Ensemble), which has been informed and shaped by training, workshops, and knowledge from Flux, Pig Iron Theatre Company, The TEAM, Frantic Assembly, SITI Company, and more. Specifically, I came to use the practice of list-making as a creation tool through both The TEAM's Devising in a Democracy workshop, and knowledge-sharing sessions with my fellow members of the 2017 Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. (I specifically recall UK-based director Nohar Lazarovich sharing great list-making exercises.) The spirit of this project has been greatly influenced by Yoko Ono's 'instruction' works--particularly those shared by the Centre Phi in Montreal, in their 2019 special exhibition of her work (The instructions of Yoko Ono).