Magdalena festivals are wonderful comming-together times, when women from all over the world converge for a short, intense period of performances, workshops, presentations, conversations and meals. There are reunions after many years, new encounters, and the pleasurable translation of knowing-by-email into physical meetings. But for every participant at a Magdalena festival, there are many more within the network who are not at the festival.
Following the opening we were treated to the performances "The Threat of Silence" directed by Jill Greenhalgh, and "Dream Through Your Singing Mouth" by Helen Chadwick.
How do we define professional when it comes to theatre or, more broadly, the performing arts in general?
It’s a question I’ve tussled with on many occasions and one where I find myself constantly refining and changing my answer. If we look to dictionaries, they tend to define professional as being the level or standard of competence expected of a professional, which means professional work in theatre is about the quality of the work.
In June, I went rather spontaneously to the Prague Quadrennial(link is external); i knew quite a few people who would be there, & when Suzon offered a free bed where she was staying, I decided to go. I'd never been to Prague before & the festival seemed like it would be a good time to discover it - and it was.
The theme of this year's Transit is peripheries - of all kinds, geographic, artistic, cultural, etc. in my presentation i talked about my own peripherical work, on the edge of theatre & also on the edge of digital art. i also talked about peripherals - things you attach to your computer to expand its capabilities such as a printer, web cam, external hard-drive, etc. periphical things have important roles to play in relationship to the centre(s) as well as to each other.
The festival has been going for a few days of workshops but this evening was the formal opening for the presentations and performances. I have tried to capture the essence of Julia Varley's opening address below:
packed festival days continue! after giving my own presentation yesterday, as well as helping with projection for gabi's show earlier in the day & eva's show the night before, i'm having a quiet day today to upload & offload rather than try to take more in.
