Whimsy-School project...thoughts

 

 

A project named Whimsy-school designed to facilitate social and cultural agency in the population and inner city of Christchurch NZ as part of it's rebuilding after earthquakes and terrorism.

My name is Martin Ewen, originally a Christchurch native I have spent the last 30+ years as a successful international Clown soloist. I was privileged to travel extensively and my focus has always been the pan-cultural and sociological ability of street theatre to enhance and enrich cultures although I have also worked commercially in NZ Australia Japan China Canada Singapore the US and Europe.

I'm a layman in the strictest of terms not having any formal tertiary education however I have travelled to many cities internationally and as part of my occupation I gathered local populations and initiated play with them and gained a collective sense of their cultures as it related to playfulness. I was personally convinced that whimsy had a collective cultural value. This would be evidenced to me via occasional personal profound admissions by deeply depressed individuals who braved admissions of gratitude at rediscovering laughter and also occasional letters written by people who had watched me over days and were compelled to anonymously leave me their thoughts on what they thought about a collective illumination my work produced.

Further I was aware that there was a range of performances internationally only some of which contained this type of comic incandescence and over 30 years I tried to discover and befriend as many of these strange wonderful practitioners as I could.

NZ and Australia among english speaking countries has always harbored a certain public reticence which, presenting a challenge was always all the more rewarding when this reluctance to participate collectively and publicly was overcome. I dedicated time and energy into helping evolve the street theatre festivals in Christchurch,Wellington and Auckland in the late 90's and also was the first international resident street performer in Perth Australia for 4 years during that period.

Ideally I wanted to base myself in Christchurch and did attempt to do so but the population seemed simply not large enough to support ongoing street theatre.

Personally I have spent the last decade based in Hawaii however last year was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and with a couple of months to live returned home because I was told that's what you do in these situations. Now a year later due to the superior state of NZ health services I am cancer free and recovering from a major operation. As such I have decided to focus on NZ in my last years.

Commercial viability and cultural viability are distinctly unique and a point I wish to make is that the cultural worth of whimsy in my opinion in it's ability to rejuvenate and empower and help communities celebrate themselves outweighs in large part immediate profit and loss considerations in favor of longer term goals inclusive of rebuilding the heart of a physically broken and sociologically injured city.

The impact of having a collective shared space in which communities celebrate themselves I believe is integral to community and cultural wellbeing and I further believe that an exercise in which international merchants of laughter from Clown and Variety performance and Circus and international arts festivals apply themselves to enhancing and enriching a local communities ability to overcome it's adversity is a project worth my energy. I further believe that a communities ability to celebrate itself via laughter is a direct indication of it's collective mental health and there is a window of opportunity available at present to harness international goodwill towards NZ and Christchurch specifically.

Christchurch has suffered 2 major earthquakes, over 5 years of aftershocks and an unprovoked terroristic outburst. It has a generation of children for whom the earth shuddered daily for the first 5 years of their lives. There is no doubt the entire population to some degree or other has degrees of post traumatic shock.

The inner city is no longer a cultural hub. It's been reconstructed but not yet culturally repopulated.

To this end I have compiled and am poised to reach out to an initial 60+ international performers from the US, Belgium, Japan, Britain, France, Israel, Australia, Mexico, Argentina, Germany, Holland, Iceland and Canada [and obviously NZ]

With two primary inquiries.

1; do they have any small outdoor shows they would be willing to travel to Christchurch with and produce at cost as a gesture of cultural goodwill?

2; Do they have workshop material that they could teach at schools and/or other institutions locally and/or national institutions like Wellingtons Drama school to maximise any potential return on the personal expenses and time spent in visiting NZ and to invigorate local drama production over a wide range of their collective disciplines?

Christchurch has always had a strong relationship with the whimsical.

The Bird-man

The cheerful Cross dressing Asian from the 50's on who wore a kilt and woman's underwear

The Wizard and the subsequent 'Alfs Imperial Army'

The Circo-arts and free theatre and Arts center nurturing grounds of eccentricity.

This however is not about nostalgia.

'This' is a multifaceted community led exercise that celebrates a particularly Christchurch response to adversity.

'This' is an international/national and provincially based response and exercise in the rebuilding of a cities communal character.

Briefly, a project in which some of the worlds best merchants of whimsy, clown, circus, street theater and variety performance collaborate with schools, local theater, the city council, local and international sponsors to produce ongoing exhibits of whimsical production to reinsert character and heart into a culturally bruised city. Targeted to reach a goal in which Christchurch once again celebrates it's own eccentricity and recovery.

Provisionally I am thinking in terms of 'Whimsy-School' as a working label.

My vision is that initially I can leverage a lifetimes worth of social capital in casting and curating an ongoing series of public performances and workshops.

I see funding potentially being sought via traditional sponsorship means but also International crowdfunding in the development stages.

I also envisage that this project exists as a pan-cultural expressive experiment and as such have dedicated audio-visual channels so the works produced were broadcast either via streaming or cheaper post digital production.

Metrics I'd like to explore via this project are;

Sociological.

Participation, passive inclusion [audiences] active inclusion [workshops and subsequent local projects]

Quality of cultural symbiosis, urban expression, inner city 'ownership'.

Baseline survey and staggered updates.

Digital Promotion/Marketing

Sister city and other international affiliations defined and explored.

Media channels created and content for them produced and online audiences monitored, grown and curated.

The Usual

Paid promotion and Press traction

I'm aware that alone the idea is doomed and whats more I'm aware that it would take a skilled team to even gauge it's feasibility let alone it's production.

I sometimes think it could be simply a feeble attempt by myself to regain some relevance presented with the unusual challenge of having my death postponed.

But immediately I first articulated an outline after the shootings in Christchurch I was offered free accommodation for performers by a Ch-ch hotel owner and so am encouraged to continue trying to better articulate this project.

I've been advised to start small and simple. It's no credit to me that this 1000+ words is my attempt at this. I find unattractive the idea of starting an afterschool program called whimsy-school and growing it but at the same time I'm aware for better or worse I have grandiosity issues.

I need advice from art administrators and project coordinators to better fashion a more cohesive outline and to prioritize and structure initial actionables.

Any help would be appreciated.