NET Summit: Thursday, June 18th

Thursday, June 18th

Early Morning Warm Up = Crunches and Headstands

Morning Session:
Traveling Jewish Theatre performed two solo pieces from their ensemble. A charming old woman who no one wanted to look at because she’s old and reminds us that death comes to us all eventually. Then there was a rap about an old childhood game the name of which I can’t remember. It’s the wheel that you hit with a stick and you have to run with it and keep it going. Next to perform was Dell’Arte International with a new show about three people who get the pink slip. Then the San Francisco Mime Troupe performed their work-in-progress about how credit and debt; set in Africa.

At lunch they have Regional Breakouts on different days where you can sit and have lunch with other artists from your area and chat. Our region wasn’t that day but we sat with them anyways.


Early Afternoon Session: Case Studies and Conversations: Our Field Now and in the Future.
For this session we broke up into groups. The group I went to discussed partnerships outside the arts and ho we can create fluid and sustainable relationships with non-arts organizations. We mainly focused on working with non-arts entities in terms of creating a piece – like working with health care organizations and human rights groups. We also discussed working with groups to help them create (i.e. working in jails and with at-risk teens, etc.). Then we all got back together and quickly stated idea about ways to help ensembles become stronger and sustainable.


Late Afternoon Session: Collisions.
Collision is an option for the late afternoon sessions were there are three groups that explore the theme of Revolt. It’s a chance for everyone to get together and share the ways their ensemble works and for us to fuse those ways together. My group first went through and introduced themselves and then how they do things. Then we shared a personal story to do with Revolt. After that we each created gestures to go with that story. Then we partnered up and shared out gestures and melded them together to share with the rest of the group. We had a little time left and realized we didn’t remember anyone’s name, so we played a name game.


Shows:

Bond Street Theatre and Exile Theatre: Beyond the Mirror
This was a collaboration between Bond Street from New York and Exile from Kabul. The play was about the live of Afganis durning the past 30 years of conflict in their country. It was an interesting collaboration. It was a bit to slow for me, however there was some beautiful moments. Unfortunately for me those moments weren’t enough to keep my interest.

foolsFury: PORT OUT, STARBOARD HOME
This is a work-in-progress about the company’s experience and discoveries on a cruise. Apparently all you do is eat and drink on a cruise – sounds like something I’d like. I enjoyed their performance and I’m interested to see the finished product.


After
Went to the Haight area and hung out at a bar with Matt, Bellamie, and Farrah. (Bellamie is from Quest: Arts for Everyone in Maryland/D.C. And Farrah is one of the main American Sign Language interpreters for the weekend.) Matt learned how to sign hamburger. He also learned a few other signs that I don't think I'll mention on this blog!