Symposium Notes: Kristy Edmunds, James Yarker and Bruce Gladwin get site specific.

Under the Radar Festival Artistic Director, Mark Russell sounds the morning gong- as we all take our seats for the Symposium. He ushers Reggie Watts to the stage- who proceeds to pump up the crowd with massive beats and killer comedic stylings. His voice warbles from baby talk to gregorian chant and then devolves into beat box spasms. I could feel the crowd of presenters, funders and other members of the field all come awake at once- the moment was electric.

It's 10 am and you could not ask for more, although the mini bagle I grabbed in the lobby is not enuf' to soak this up.

The Public Theater’s Artistic Director Oskar Eustis is next to take the stage, we are after al- in his house. He welcomes us with a few powerful words that advocated for art that refuses to be categorized and that is the synthesis of different aesthetics. He talks about what it means to have a festival like UTR at the Public a space that has had many incarnations and a rich history - a place in which work can happen that defines our time.

Sandra Gibson. President of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters now takes the stage and describes how the festival came to be- based on the needs of artists it was a decade in the making and exists to support the work of new ensemble theater. It has had major support from the Ford, Duke and Mellon Foundations, as well as project support from Altria the British Council and many more. She praises the Artistic leadership of Mark Russell whom she describes as having a deep "love and devotion to the work"

Speaking of love and devotion for the work - Russell reclaims the stage and introduces Kristy Edmunds the Artistic Director of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Although jet lagged from her flight, Edmund's does not miss a beat as she leads a discussion with Bruce Gladwin of Back to Back Theater and James Yarker of Stan's Cafe.

Edmunds describes their site specific work as "teasing out issues" and mentions that although both pieces take place out In the world and not on stage they come from a theatrical form. She asks them to describe their company's missions and history.

Bruce describes that Back to Back has been working for 20 years and currently consists of 6 performers with intellectual dissabilities. After 1997 and de- instutionalization - people moved out of victorian institutions, an initiative was started to develop collaborations with artists and people with dissabilities. They produce one new show each year. Two decades later they must push against becomig an institution themselves as they continue to present an idiosyncratic view of the contemporary world.

James Yarker formed Stan's Cafe in 91- straight out of university- with the expectation that theater is a plaything. Their ideas strayed further away from the stage and towards the outside world. However, he does take issue with the term "site specific work" as he regards all work as site specific- including that that takes place on traditional stages.

Kristy asks both artists to talk about why they have decided to house their companies outside major metropolitan areas.

For Bruce it was not a choice, he inherited the community which is one of declining industry outside Melbourne, the work the company makes generally tours outside of the region and they operate a separate community arm which develops outreach work in the community in which they live.

Yarker describes his company as "childern of margaret thatcher" they resisted the gravitational pull of London, and its obscene cost of living. They put the energy it would take to survive there and put it towards making new theater in the post industrail city of Birmingham which Yarker describes as wanting to re-invent itself. He also half jokingly confesses that Birmingham was the biggest city with the smallest amount of people doing what he was-the classic big fish small pond theory.

Kristy who had- presented both works then went into the compex logistics of presenting projects which put forth unique logistical challenges. In the case of the world premiere of small metal objects- they had to secure a train station in the center of Melbourne - there are permits and security and endless other details- to which she replied "why let that stop you"

Bruce describes how the new work he makes answeres questions raised by the previous work. In the case of Back to Back the conventions of theater do not sit well with artists he works with - who have had no formal training - and their own communication style. How do you teach people to instantly project their voices etc and so forth. For their project Soft the company constructed their own inflatable theater... and with small metal objects they give the audience headphones to take in the dialogue- both have liberated them from the traditional modes of presenting. He describes theater as separating you from chaos- it is blacked out from the world- inhabiting a public space like a train station places their work in the spaces that people pass through.

Kristy then spoke about the tenderness in both pieces - she talks about the common ground- there are abstract narrative in each as well as an audience which become implicated as performers.

Bruce talks about the script for small metal objects which was based on a friendship one of the artists had with a drug dealer. It addresses the question "what is the relationship between human value and economics" They had a theory about the audience as participants - the abstraction comes in because the accidental audience (those passing through the station) add a second narrative, as they mirror, rebel or support the actors movements through space as well as the dialogue heard through the intended audiences headsets.

Kristy speaks of Stan's support through British Council and how she presented "All the people of the world. (Pacific Rim). She was affected by how Stan's installation of statistical data turns information that normally leaves us stone cold- into poetry. Here a single grain of rice is related to a population... for the installation in Melbourne close to 90, 000 tons of rice were used.

Yarker speaks about the inspiration for the project, he calls the UK a "small island". Having lived their all his life he never had a sense of the scale of the world. His company had a hit show and started touring, and he was hit with the notion that the world was bigger than he could possibly imagine. He faced this terrible existential moment - and thought " what is my place in the world" he thought to himself if he could look at 6.2 billion things and pick one up and say this is me - and this is everyone else he might start understanding the implications of being a part of something that complex.

He lived in an area of Birmingham where people from all over india had settled and when passing the shops and restaurants he started to think of the rice as that thing that could quantify the population. He went home and measured out 100 grams of rice and tediously counted them out he figured out that they needed 104 tons of rice for the world. Stan's Cafe had just gotten their fist arts council grant and while it was a big boost- they decided they could afford to do "all of the people of the word. (UK).

The company quickly found someone to present the piece- although when the company had requested to use the institutions gallery- they realized that the divide between the performance and visual art worlds was vast- and that dealing with that divide was not worth pursuing the space- the director lead them to a expansive foyer where people passed through each day- this was the space that the project came to life. It was about the public- it was about everyone - the public must be there to see it.

Kristy ends the discussion calling for questions and thanking the artists for their work which activates an audience with a sense of adventure allows them to seize upon the curious and does so with both poignancy and humor.

The crowd disperses, each of us grabbing a box lunch and heading to a breakout session in which presenters, producers and artists huddled together to break down important issues in the field- from the New Burlesque to International Collaborations. Later we will return to the theater or to the street to take in more of the festival - where art and life collide.

Kristan Kennedy, PICA