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Islewilde 2011
Islewilde 2011
The 19th Annual Islewilde Performance Festival will be held from August 6th-21st at our Old Mill Road meadow camp. Performances August 19th (evening) and 20th (day and evening). For more information or call Doug Skove at 206-795-4344 or Adam Ende at 347-455-5558. For directions to the site, click the "How Do I Get Here?" link to the left. Islewilde is made possible by you and a grant from 4Culture.
Adam Ende sweeps back into Islewilde
The Janitor, as embodied by artistic director Adam Ende, previews this year's Islewilde:
This year is all about the Water Bucket Circus. But there will be no actual waterbucket circus. It will just be about the circus. Behind the big top. Backstage at the waterbucket circus.
We all know this story. It was the golden age of circuses. In it's hey day the great water bucket circus entertained thousands of happy children, toured the courts of Europe. As John Steinbeck noted, "the water bucket circus is change of pace--beauty against our daily ugliness, excitement against our boredom, Every man and woman and child comes from the circus refreshed and renewed and ready to survive. What doctor can do as much?" But this once thriving monarch of international amusements has been slowly dying since the time of the great depression, surrendering to its own inevitable obsolescence. Nobody is interested in the circus anymore. Of course not--we've got tv and video games and internet! But the waterbucket circus didn't die. It just continued because the waterbucket circus family didn't know what the hell else to do. Their driving axiom--the next town. "We all have to go on. This is our life. There is nothing else to do." So they continued to travel and perform, year after year, despite an indifferent, if not hostile public. They began to be thought of with suspicion, like gypsies, as low-lifes, criminal types, and be associated in the minds of the public, with crime, drugs perversion and prostitution. They continue to practice their art, to put on their shows even though they are so totally out of touch with the kind of entertainment that regular people will find enjoyable and acceptable.
So now the waterbucket circus is this bedraggled, down and out collection of clowns and freaks, lovable and charming in their own way, but a little seedy. They have this intense memory and passed down oral history of their glory days when the people would flock from all corners of the earth to see their shows at the old abandoned elementary school they called their home, the surrounding fields would be choked with tents where the public would camp out. But since then they have been driven out of one home and another, persecuted mercilessly. It wasn't enough that they were driven out of their homes, no! The local community didn't feel satisfied until they had bulldozed everything, and razed every nearby structure to the ground, leaving only a pile of rubble. Every time they thought they had found a safe haven, they were forced to leave in disgrace among sod scandals, and increasing debts and fines. Until finally they are just a handful of freaks, a skinny elephant, and a couple of tired poodles, huddled together in a damp field with no amenities and no fire. But the show must go on! This is where we find them.
This is not a story about triumph. It is about happy failure. About survival in a world of *bleep*. They have lost everything, but they are together, the waterbucket family, continuing to perform, sharing wine and food cooked with love, singing around the fire with the people they love, except for the fire eater, who has been thrown in jail for his alleged involvement in some sort of illegal salt trade. Let us raise our glasses in a toast! A toast to survival! To celebration! This is our success story.
Something like that.
We will all be the characters in this world. The clowns and freaks and artists and storytellers. The camp that we will live in for 2 weeks will also be the set. Backstage at the circus. Our tents will be our tents! Our camp kitchen the "Gut Foundry." We will create a magical little run down gypsy camp, a world that the public (should there prove to be any public, aside from my brother as the indifferent if not hostile community) will enter and be immersed in. A lot of the time between august 6-21 will be spent finding a character, or several characters for yourself. Playing with costumes and doing character building exercises and stuff. In fact, the more we can all just be in character constantly while at islewilde for 2 whole weeks, the better. This might just mean being ourselves, or amping ourselves up a bit, which is always fun when we are together anyway, right? We can all learn something about this from Lipke, I think.
So besides getting into our characters we will spend two weeks working on shows, and masks and puppets and costumes as usual. The pageant will be as big or as small as it needs to be depending on who is around and what they want to make. Parts of the story can be told in cantastoria, in cranky, with giant puppets, with small puppets, shadow puppets, cute kids in costume singing and dancing, drumming, music, singing, stilt walking, abstract object theater, whatever. Whatever storytelling technique you like, whatever part of the story grabs you, or whatever part of the story you want to invent and can get people excited about. I'm pretty interested in the story of the guy who is arrested by the salt police, but maybe I'm crazy, I don't know.
Also everyone is invited to bring your own shows and bands. You've all got shows up your sleeves, right? or some shows you've been fantasizing about that you'll have a chance to develop with all the eager participants. This is once again a fun chance for us together and make shows for each other and share skills, not to mention food.
The basic rule of Islewilde is "Yes."
Islewilde is a community of amateur and professional artists: makers of eye-catching, often large-scale stuff; puppeteers; actors; jonglers; fools; dancers; musicians; costumers; riggers; illuminators; unnameable wonders. Initially created by and for Vashonites, the festival now regularly attracts participants from around the world. Everyone is welcome.
Islewilde is a scrappy, do-it-ourselves, let's-put-on-a-show kind of affair. A week of workshops lead up the festival where we forge in the smithy of our souls a lot of beautiful and weird stuff. "Out of chaos, love, stress, art, panic, garbage, and close quarters come magic and communal bonding for some, complete burnout for others."
If you have a vision and energy and an ability to rally people to help you, you can use the festival to manifest that vision. If you are more of a helper, a follower, a plug in-er, you will find no lack of opportunities and people wanting to utilize you and your skills. Teach what you know; learn what you can; try new stuff; keep papier macheing.
Islewilde is sponsored by no one.
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