In Circles and Squares – Project Outline

Partners and Key Participating Artists (resumes required, 4 pges max)

David Cassel                         Producer Director

Iwona Gilarska                     Chreographer, Family Dance Facilitator

Circus Paletti                        Circus training and presentation facility, Mannheim Germany

Vancouver Parks Board     Community Network

A selection process will be implemented to access the appropriate talent.

From the Grant Guidelines

“It will result in inspiring works that interpret the world we live in and envision our shared future. These works will encourage public engagement in the arts and will promote outreach locally, nationally and internationally.”

The purpose of the program is to:

•offer all Canadians a wide array of powerful, daring, and exceptional artistic experiences
•provide artists, artists’ groups/collectives and arts organizations with means to take greater risks and develop projects on a greater scale and scope than their usual activities. These one-time projects will serve to advance their own development and that of their arts practices.
•strengthen the presence of the arts in conversations about the future of the country, locally, nationally and internationally. The Canada Council encourages projects inclusive of youth, First Nations, Inuit, Métis, culturally diverse, regional, and official language minority communities, and people who are Deaf or have disabilities.

Project Description

1.0 Project Description (1000 words)

“In Circles and Squares” is an inter arts production that will bring together a vast network of arts practitioners from a variety of communities in an integrated array of performance based disciplines, styles, genres and techniques to realize the story of the inhabitants a small village and the challenges that it endures as it exists through time .

Elements of circus, dance, acrobatics, physical theatre and spectacle will combine with local and international community outreach to present an epic installation that is performed by a multi-cultural ensemble of children, parents, students, trained artistic professionals and senior members of the performance community.

The project will culminate in the presentatio of a 90 minute stage performance that will tell a simple story about the pursuit of the human condition. The story will be told in 18 to 20 scenes.

2.0 Exceptional Qualities (500 words)

It is the objective of this project to bring together a group of 64 performers, ranging in age from 7 through 70, and have them participate in a collective choreography as part of two key scenes and the finale of the show.

Central Ensemble

Central to the concept, is a group of 24 highly trained professional performance artists. 8 are to be drawn from the circus community, 8 from the dance community and 8 from the theatre community. This ensemble of performers will train together so as to become skilled in disciplines that are not their own, creating a company of multi-skilled artists who can rise to the chalenge of performing a high powered, physically based, visual presentation .

Satellite Ensemble

In addition to the Central Ensemble, it is envisioned that 8 students will be drawn from each of 5 different community areas by way of workshops in performance creation that will be presented by each of the community centres facilitating this aspect of the project. These additional 40 performers will be amateurs. Young students and members of the senior community will be encouraged to participate. There will be no age limit.

Visual Style

This produciton will find it’s identity in the hybridization of form. Circus artists and their acts will be placed in a context that helps to further a story. Each member of the ensmeble will be a character that willl experience some sort of transformation. Set pieces will be minmal, there will be no text except for random bites contained in soundscapes or music. It is the objective of this project to explore, develop and implement devices containing maximum theatrical effect with minmal effort and expense.

Skill Development

The project will source and engage with those artists who excel in their field and who regard the pursuit of benchmarks and pinnacles as central to their creative aspiration.

In additional to the advancement and development of exisiting skills, several new skills are expected to emergae from the process resultiung in never before seen performnce events, apparatus and techniques.

It is the objective of this project to expose new and developing talent to the professional talent in a collective training environemnt from time to time so as to impress the importance of training, dedication and commitment upon younger participants who have professional artistic aspirations.

3.0 Organizational Benefits (250 words)

From 2010 until 2014, The Dusty Flower Pot Cabaret (DFCP) worked along side with Vancouver’s Public Dreams Society to produce the annual “Parade of Lost Souls”. During this parade, the audience travels a path and are exposed to a feast of visual delights created and installed by individuals and communties from the greater Vancouver area in that pathway. After the disolution of Public Dreams in 2014, The DFPC maintained the production of the

In addition, The DFPC has produced numerous in house productions using casts both large and small. The organisation has experience working with budgets and currenty operates a

small theatre near downtown Vancouver that can be used for the development of some aspects of the production.

This project allows The DFPC to expand its operations to incude larger scale productions that reacher further into the community and produce a higher quality of result. It will allow our organsiation to develop a world class performance project that we can market and implement in other communities around Canada and abroad as the future unfolds. This sort of development program allows us to put a performanve and workshop plan in place that could see this project continue to tour for 5 to 7 years as we integrate other communties in to the outreach portions of the show.

4.0 Target Audience

This projected will exist in two realms, outdoors and indoors, and cater to a general audience. In its early incarnation a Compact Version will be presented outdoors in locations where communties have gathered to celebrate. Later in 2017, appearances of show, in short segments at festivals, will be pursued as well as inclusion in Gala events. The production is versatile and can be presented in a wide range of venues. This sort of small scale touring will help to increase the profile of the show and allow for the marketing of the larger production to smaller groups, thereby increasing workd of mouth.

Owing to the overall complexity of the project, a period of 18 months will be required to properly coordinate the project, train the artists, make contact with, and train, community groups that will be invited to participate. The the first phase of the project would begin on April 3rd, 2017

The first short outdoor versions of the show would take place on and after July 1st, 2016 after a 90 day rehearsal period. This period of development will create a 2 part interactive “sub” show, or “extract” that can be taken around to all appropriate outdoor events across Canada in a lead up to the final fully expanded creation taking place from July 2018.

5.0 Project Plan

The artistic team on this project will be comprised of members of the creative community who have a pro active and successful approach to community engagement. The plan will be rolled out in the following manner as the collaborators are added.

Phase 1 –  April – June 2017

The first task is to seek out 4 professional artists who will be retained by this project as a full time artists through a general national announcement for expressions of interest. For this, a series of workshops will take place, free of charge, over the course of 30 days as a means by which to access the general local talent network and make selections.

The primary objective for the first 30 days will be to finalize casting of the professional artists and implement the administrative and acounting support plan.

The second 30 days will be dedicated to the creation and rehearsal of The Compact Version for presentation at events both locally and nationally .

The last 30 days will see the presentation of developed scenes at local performance events for fine tuning before the Canada Day Presentation on July 1st.

Phase 2 –  July – September 2017

Touring of The Compact Version to festivals and events locally and nationally for the purposes promoting the larger production to come in the following year. Engagement in one overseas trip to collaborate with German counterparts.

Phase 3 –  September 2017 thru June 2018 Roundhouse Community Centre

Introduction of a variety of workshops to 5 community centres in the Vancouver Community Centre network with a view to training 8 workshop attendees in choreogrpahy required to participate in the show taking palce July 1, 2018.

The workshops will be offered to all ages levels with a view to casting children as young as 5 and adults as old as they can be.

Parent Child Dance Component

Iwona Gilarska has been working  with Dancing the Parenting, under the direction of Julie Lebel, for the past 3 years.  She has been part of the development of a legacy of parent child interaction on stage that has introduced children and their parents to the world of dance. The project would seek to develop 3 scenes with a “family Dance”  group for inclusion in the final production. The group will meet once a week and is all about the empowering of the children. Development would take 32 days over 8 months.

Core Ensemble Development – Group “A”

During this same period, the Core Ensemble will train, work on the development of new scenes, advanced skills and the presentation of small performance milestones leading to the launch of the “The Extended Version” of the performance on July 1, 2018.

Circus Paletti – German Attachment

During these months, work will be completed with a group of artists working at Circus Palletti in Mannhiem, Germany to further develop scenes and skills originated by the artists of tGroup “A”. At the end of a 3 week period of rehearsal and development, 2 or 3 members of Circus Palletti will be selected to participate in the premiere performance on July 1st, 2018 and the 4 week rehearsal period directly preceeding that show.

6.0 Competency

I have been producing events since my introduction into the word of live and screen based performance in 1980. Over my career I have installed multimedia performance works at National Museums, International Festivals and Civic Celebrations on four continents. I have produced over 40 stage, festival and film productions that have used as many as 100 personnel.

I believe that, in order to create a fully integrated concept, the planning stage of any undertaking must break the entire project down into compact modules that can then be logistially implemented on a flexible time line that allows for unforseen obstacles.

7.0 Artist Fees

As this production is cross disciplinary, all performance artists, design, production and support staff will be paid professional fees and bonds posted as put forward by the following documents:

7.1   2015-2018 Canadian Theatre Agreement

7.2   Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists.

For the 18 months of the project, in most instances, artists of the Core Ensemble will be retained on a full contract that allows for periods of hiatus while other elements of the project are pursued.

On some occasions, the services of production staff, engineers. Designers, musicians, administrative staff and other free lance artists needed to realize the final objective, will be retained offered shorter term contracts of 3 to 4 weeks depending on the level of involvement.

As the production will contain original musical compositions, royalties for any music or video used will have to be paid to the appropriate organization, where applicable.

Project Summary (50 words)

“In Circles and Squares” celebrates community, diversity and the pursuit of new heights in the creation of visual spectacle. a fast moving, highly mobile energy infused visual adventure for outdoor and indoor settings featuring the talents of professional and non professional performers of all ages and backgrounds.

Financial Information – Detailed Budget Expenses

See Project Budget